How-to: Get Facebook Chat in iChat

Many of us use Facebook, and have probably noticed that there is a chat function. Also, man of us use AIM in iChat. Personally, there are always more people on facebook than on AIM, so I can chat with a ot more people. Here’s how to integrate it with iChat so you don’t have to login to facebook every time you want to chat with someone or let someone else chat with you.

Luckily, Facebook recently launched their Jabber thingy, which has done well.

In iChat, click in the menubar iChat>Preferences. Then click accounts, where you should get a tab like this.

The Accounts preferences is shown here.

Now, just click the little + in the bottom left, and you are shown this screen.

For account type, select Jabber.

For the Account Name, you need to find some info.

Login to facebook.com and click on profile in the top right. It should go to your profile page with wall postings and your profile picture. Next, look in the URL bar of the browser. It should say http://facebook.com/user.

What is says where user should be is what you put in front of @chat.facebook.com. So for this example, the Account Name would be user@chat.facebook.com.

Your password is your password that you use to login to facebook all 5 times a day.

Now click done and wait. The new buddy window will appear, but it will say connecting. It may take a while for it to connect, and times may vary. for me it took about 45 seconds, others about 5. Whatever, but it still works!

After is connects, you will see all of your online facebook friends. Double-click a friend that has a green dot next to it and start chattin it up!



Skype

I have been using skype for a very long while, in fact almost two years. One of my friends Sergey recommended it to me before I got my mac. We only got to see each other at orchestra practice, which was only once a week. He lives 30 minutes away, which is too long to have to drive. And phone calls? come on. $$$$$! Anyway, we are both on our computers most of the time. so I decided to get skype to talk to him. He had a webcam, which in the beginning I didn’t. But for free over the internet, we could talk and I could see him. Then I got a webcam. It was a creative webcam, Live! chat, which wasn’t bad, but not great either. Then, I wanted to get a better one and take a step up, so over amazon, I ordered a Logitech QuickCam Chat (I think) so we could now see and hear each other over the internet. All for free! The only problem was, he was nocturnal. I had the normal hours of sleep. So the only times we could see each other was late at night and about 9 when he had just woken up and I was about to go to sleep. But at least we could leave chats for each other with text, another cool feature. Then, my PC got all v!$T@d up (even though it had xp ;-)) and there were numerous reinstalls, grub problems, and things like not loading that stupid dang explorer.exe file. COME ON! I mean, on a mac, you are unable to delete the finder, and it will force startup at login. it’s like that app itself is its own operating system! If the Mac turns on and it shows the logo and the throbber, it is an VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY small chance that it will not boot finder. What happened to me was after I logged in on windows, All I got was a gray screen and a mouse. Reinstallation came next. Then I got my MacBook. SO EASY! I installed skype on it as well, and with the built in microphone and webcam, calling sergey on skype was so easy! I could move my macbook around! with my PC, even though it was a laptop, I always plugged it into a monitor, which was where the webcam was. So it was a pain to try to mobilize with that thing. also, skype JUST WORKS. If you pay for it, you can even use it to call people over landlines and cellphones, just like a normal cell rate! even worldwide calls! and it REALLY cheap. If you want to go for free, it has to be computer to computer over the internet. video is free, chat is free, everything is free if over the internet. You can make worldwide calls over the internet as well for free. Internet=FREEEEEEEE!

I recommend you download it, get a Skype Name, and Start giving it to all your friends! I have alot of friends who travel alot, and go on cruises but and do have internet, and this is how I can call them and SEE them when they are on the other side of the world!
DOWNLOAD!!!!