• Pidgin: All Of Your Instant Messaging Networks In One

    by
    Andrey R
    Published on 08-12-2010 04:05 AM


    As a computer repair business, it is important to support as many methods of communications with your clients as possible. They can call you, email you, but can they instant message you? There are dozens of instant messaging networks online that have from millions of users to hundreds of millions of users. Some of the larger instant messaging networks are: AIM, Google Talk, MSN/Live, Skype, & Yahoo.

    Should you run 3, 10, or more instant messaging clients just to provide your clients with another way to reach you or meet their communication preference? Is it worth the hassle? Running many instant messaging clients isn't practical and it burdens your systems resources. BUT... There is a free solution to this dilemma: Pidgin!



    What is Pidgin?

    Pidgin is a chat program which lets you log in to accounts on multiple chat networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on MSN, talking to a friend on Google Talk, and sitting in a Yahoo chat room all at the same time.

    Pidgin is compatible with the following chat networks out of the box: AIM, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber/XMPP, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, QQ, Lotus Sametime, SILC, SIMPLE, MXit, MySpaceIM, and Zephyr. It can support many more with plugins.

    Pidgin supports many features of these chat networks, such as file transfers, away messages, buddy icons, custom smilies, and typing notifications. Numerous plugins also extend Pidgin's functionality above and beyond the standard features


    Pidgin is the solution to not having 10 instant messaging clients open and for giving your customers more ways to contact you. If this is your goal, you will love Pidgin! Of course, Pidgin can also be used for consolidating your personal instant messaging clients.



    Download URL:

    http://www.pidgin.im/download/



    Note:

    - Adding your different instant messaging accounts to Pidgin isn't hard, but might be confusing at first. Some instant messaging clients want just the username for the username, while others might use the full email address as the username. It's nothing to worry about, but you might have to play around with it.

    - Facebook has provided instructions on how to add facebook chat to Pidgit here: http://www.facebook.com/sitetour/chat.php

    - Skype setup help: http://eion.robbmob.com

    - For spell-checker help: http://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/Installing%20Pidgin


    If you get stuck, feel free to comment and I'll do my best to help you out.



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    This article was originally published in forum thread: Pidgin: All Of Your Instant Messaging Networks In One started by Andrey Rozmaity View original post