Use FACEBOOK CHAT from the desktop

These days more and more people are into facebook chat. Instead of msn or yahoo or gtalk people are using the facebook chat because most of the people are online on the facebook instead of the other im clients. Though many of you may already have known this I would write it anyway.

Facebook chat can be boring sometimes if you have one too many friends in your chat list. You might use the facebook pop out chat to open the separate window of the facebook chat. But I tell you nothing is better than using a facebook chat from your desktop. You don?t have to go all the way to your browser to open facebook and then use the facebook chat. You can minimize the program and stay online without opening the browser.

I am using PIDGIN for the facebook chat these days. But you can use any other messenger program that support xmpp(Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol). I like the pidgin as it is simple, free and easy to use.

STEP 1

All you need is the program at first. You can download the program from the pidgin site http://www.pidgin.im/

If you download normally than Pidgin downloads an appropriate version of GTK+ at the time of installation if you don?t have GTK+ installed previously.

But I rather you prefer downloading the offline installation for the link below.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/pidgin/files/Pidgin/pidgin-2.7.3-offline.exe

STEP 2

After you installed the program you need to configure the PIDGIN in order to be able to chat on facebook. Strictly follow the instruction below. This information is provided by the facebook itself.

Open the PIDGIN.

  1. Go to "Accounts" and select "Manage Account."
  2. Create a new account with the following settings:

     Under Basic:
     Protocol: XMPP
     Username: your Facebook username
     Domain: "chat.facebook.com"
     Resource: "pidgin"
     Password: your facebook password
     Local alias: "Facebook Chat"

     Under Advanced:
     Uncheck Require SSL/TLS
     Connect port: 5222
     Connect server: chat.facebook.com
     File transfer Proxies: proxy.eu.jabber.org

To give you the idea this is what it looks like when filled.

UNDER BASIC

UNDER ADVANCED

If you don?t know what is your username then log on to your facebook. Go to http://www.facebook.com/sitetour/chat.php

Click on the PIDGIN and it will show you all the settings needed.

STEP 3

Now click on account and enable account, the one you newly created. Now you can use this program to chat with the facebook friends. If you like one messenger for all then you can add account for all other services like msn, yahoo, gtalk etc.

If you like to use other programs like ichat or Adium then here are the settings.

iChat

   1. Go to the iChat menu and select "Preferences."
   2. From the "Accounts" tab, click the "+" and select the following settings:
      ? Account Type: Jabber
      ? Account Name: your Facebook [email protected]
      ? Password: your Facebook password
   3. Click down to server options and select the following settings:
      ? Server: chat.facebook.com
      ? Port: 5222
      ? Uncheck "Use SSL"

Adium

   1. Go to the Adium menu and select "Preferences."
   2. From the "Accounts" tab, click the "+" and select "Jabber" from the drop-down menu. Fill in the following information:
      ? Jabber ID: your Facebook [email protected]
      ? Password: your Facebook password