Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Google Reinstates Federated Jabber/XMPP Instant Messaging

Posted by Soulskill on from the credit-where-credit-is-due dept.

jrepin writes "A few weeks ago the FSF reported that Google had started blocking invites sent from non-Google Jabber servers. This was done as a crude anti-spam measure. Google have since rolled out proper anti-spam filtering for its Jabber service, and has removed the invite block. This was announced a few days ago in a public mailing list post. This means that users of all Jabber servers will once again be able to fully communicate with Google users."

32 comments

  1. Glad to know federated IM will work again by Guruprasad+L · · Score: 1

    Been thinking of setting up my own jabber server, so this is definitely good news.

    1. Re:Glad to know federated IM will work again by ledow · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's not hard. Barely takes ten minutes. We use one in work, tied to our domain.

      Install Openfire on your servers (Windows/Linux). Set it up. Install Pidgin on your clients (or whatever you want to use). Set them up.
      Stick a SRV record in your DNS (optional, the above is fine for an internal system).
      Done.

    2. Re:Glad to know federated IM will work again by BitZtream · · Score: 3, Insightful

      ++OpenFire

      I stopped using it a few years back and switched to Google Apps because our company shrank down to a few employees, but my experience with OpenFire ranks it as THE BEST XMPP server, at least for companies under 200 employees (my experience level with it).

      Its reliable, works with multiple internal/existing auth systems including AcitveDirectory and plain LDAP. Supports a metric fuckton of plugins, some of which add really cool features, and if you've got a Java developer, you can use it for all sorts of silly things.

      Its also free (as in no cost) last I used it for the very base software, additional special stuff my cost more but I never needed them for normal XMPP functionality.

      If you want to 'try' XMPP for yourself and you're not 40k employees, try OpenFire. The time you save dicking with ejabberd or whatever the latest/shitty C implementation currently is.

      --
      Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
    3. Re:Glad to know federated IM will work again by el-tramo · · Score: 1

      Install Openfire on your servers

      Or Prosody if you don't want to waste lots of resources for a server that will only have you and your parents on it.

    4. Re:Glad to know federated IM will work again by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      What do you mean lots of resources?
      I have openfire running for hundreds of people, in a VM with 512MB of ram.

    5. Re:Glad to know federated IM will work again by el-tramo · · Score: 1

      in a VM with 512MB of ram.

      I only have a VPS at my disposal with about half that amount of RAM (which also has to do other things).

    6. Re:Glad to know federated IM will work again by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      For only a couple users you would be fine.

    7. Re:Glad to know federated IM will work again by el-tramo · · Score: 1

      For only a couple users you would be fine.

      I ran OpenFire for years with only one user. It was always extremely tight, and sometimes too tight (with crucial processes getting killed because they ran out of memory). Your mileage will most probably vary, but for me, I had no choice and had to switch.

    8. Re:Glad to know federated IM will work again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      in a VM with 512MB of ram.

      I only have a VPS at my disposal with about half that amount of RAM (which also has to do other things).

      Well, I only have a VPS at my disposal with about one-sixteenth of that RAM! And it's only available via dialup! From Madagascar!

    9. Re:Glad to know federated IM will work again by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      If prosody works for you, no reason not to use it.

      They have gotten a lot better about memory wastage.

    10. Re:Glad to know federated IM will work again by ron_ivi · · Score: 1

      definitely good news.

      How can we thank them in a way they'd notice?

      I'm very happy they did it - but hope they don't just undo it again.

    11. Re:Glad to know federated IM will work again by robateastridge · · Score: 1

      I'll be completely happy when they get presence to work too. No idea what that requires on their end...

    12. Re:Glad to know federated IM will work again by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      I've been using eJabberd for about a decade but I've heard a few people mention OpenFire recently. What advantage does it have?

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    13. Re:Glad to know federated IM will work again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      a metric fuckton

      I've often wondered why Americans choose to measure sexual opportunity in metric mass units.

  2. Why wait for Google? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Start using Jabber servers and clients anyway. Now that CISPA has blown through the house, it's bound to blow through the do nothing jack-off's in the senate as well. At that point, as other articles have put it, Google and other online services will essentially be forced into the role of secret police for the state...a role they'll happily accept, as Google is one of the companies pushing for CISPA to pass. As long as the money's rolling in they don't care where it comes from, the "do no evil" slogan is just that. Jabber servers work now, there are good clients that work now. Stop using crap from Google and start using the alternatives, even if they are a bit more difficult. I switched over to using Linux full time on my own PC despite not being very experienced with it, despite it not really living up to my expectations of a complete desktop at times...one because I can't stand Windows 8. and two, it's the best way to send a message to companies like Microsoft and Google, the only one they'll listen to. Stop paying them and they'll have less incentive to act like pricks.

    1. Re:Why wait for Google? by heypete · · Score: 2

      This has nothing to do with directly using Google, this has to do with non-Google users being blocked from sending presence invites to Google users.

      Even if you run your own server, there's a lot of people who use Google and it makes sense to be able to communicate properly with them if needed.

  3. It always worked the other direction by BitZtream · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Google users could always request a connection from you. Its not like this was an attempt to stop outside XMPP use. They would have stopped outbound invites as well.

    --
    Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
    1. Re:It always worked the other direction by ameen.ross · · Score: 1

      I though I remembered that outbound invites weren't fully working a few weeks ago either. And it still doesn't work at all with Google Apps accounts.

      --
      $(echo cm0gLXJmIC8= | base64 --decode)
  4. What about Google Apps? by ameen.ross · · Score: 2

    I can confirm that it works for regular Gmail users. It doesn't seem to work with Google Apps, however...

    --
    $(echo cm0gLXJmIC8= | base64 --decode)
  5. Re:Can you trust Google, when you are the product? by Chrisq · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Google has shown that they will take away the free services they offer at any time, or even increase the advertising in them to make them almost unusable to some (such as Google Maps).

    Really? Maybe its regional but I haven't noticed obtrusive advertising on google maps.

  6. Good move by Chrisq · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I thought the blocking of external clients was a bad move, setting up a walled garden chat. This has reassured me that they really were looking at the spam issue, bit blocking competition.

  7. Re:Can you trust Google, when you are the product? by jsrlepage · · Score: 1

    Nice to see you too, Stallman.

    --
    This is my opinion. Everyone has a right to my opinion.
  8. Great news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    for all 10 Jabber users!

  9. Re:Can you trust Google, when you are the product? by VortexCortex · · Score: 1

    Google has shown that they will take away the free services they offer at any time, or even increase the advertising in them to make them almost unusable to some (such as Google Maps).

    Really? Maybe its regional but I haven't noticed obtrusive advertising on google maps.

    You haven't been using the same maps then. Far as I can tell they're advertising the fuck out of Earth, but Mars would make just as good a destination for our mechanoid invasion fleet. I mean, yes, humans can be a bit annoying, but are detailed diagrams of every major infestation really necessary? It's like they're trying to get us to do their dirty work for them.

  10. S2S STARTTLS? by akanouras · · Score: 2

    Hope some Googler can answer this:

    Why is Google not enabling STARTTLS on S2S XMPP connections?

    It baffles me that emails I send to Gmail users are more safe from eavesdropping than IMs.

  11. That's cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thanks Google. Me and my family are on Linux and we like Pidgin.

  12. Re:Can you trust Google, when you are the product? by Lennie · · Score: 1

    Yes, this definitely seems regional, I'm in a country in Europe and I've never seen a lot of advertising on google maps.

    --
    New things are always on the horizon
  13. Re:Can you trust Google, when you are the product? by swillden · · Score: 1

    Yes, this definitely seems regional, I'm in a country in Europe and I've never seen a lot of advertising on google maps.

    I think it's mostly a reading comprehension issue.

    --
    Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.