wiki:Protocol Specific Questions

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Version 4 (modified by John Bailey, 17 years ago) (diff)
XMPP and Yahoo! questions from old site done, but more need added.

Protocol Specific Questions

AIM (OSCAR) Protocol

Can I set my profile?

Yes, you can. Go to Accounts->account name->Set User Info.

Can I set a buddy icon?

Yes. There are two ways to do this:

Global - This will affect all of your accounts. On the Buddy List window, beside the status selector at the bottom, there is an area that will have a generic photo icon if you have no icon set. You can click that and select an icon from there. The icon will take effect for all accounts you have configured in Pidgin.
Per-account - This will affect only the account you modify. Go to Accounts->your AIM account->Edit Account. On that dialog, check the box labeled "Use this buddy icon for this account:", then click the leftmost button below that checkbox. Select your buddy icon.

In either case, the file must be smaller than 4KB. It can have any dimensions, and can be in any format. However, if you wish Windows users to see it, it must be in a format Windows understands, such as .bmp, .gif, and .jpg. Pidgin will attempt to scale icons to fit within these constraints, but it is not always possible to do so.

I just changed my buddy icon and I can't see the new one!

First, try IMing yourself a few times. Buddy icons are checked when you IM people, so that may work. If it still doesn't update, check the file size (buddy icons must be smaller than 4kb) and the image size (it should be 48x48 or 50x50 in most cases). Also, check the file type. GIF or JPEG images are best supported. If all of that checks out and it still doesn't work, try restarting Pidgin.

Why are some of my buddies are not showing up as online?

AOL has set a limit for the maximum number of people you can have in your buddy list. This number is currently 500. If you don't think you are anywhere near that limit, it is possible that your server-stored buddy list is corrupt. If you think this might be the case, you can try signing on with an official AIM program from AOL. This will usually correct any problems with the list.

Can I use AIM URI's such as "aim:goim?screenname=seanegn"?

Yes; you need to register purple-url-handler in your browser. This requires that Pidgin be built with dbus support, otherwise purple-url-handler will not be installed.

Does Pidgin support DirectIM and IM Image?

Yes, absolutely. Keep in mind that you must establish a DirectIM session before you're able to insert a picture into the conversation.

Can I send SMS messages?

Yep, just send an IM to the person's phone number. For example, if the phone number is (919) 555-1234, you would message +19195551234 We think this should work for countries with a country code of 1 (the United States and Canada).

Can I add SMS numbers to my buddy list?

Yes. You should be able to add phone numbers to your buddy list using the same format as explained in the previous question.

ICQ (OSCAR) Protocol

Important note about ICQ FAQs

The entire AIM section applies to ICQ as well. Information in this section is in addition to the AIM section above.

Can I send SMS messages?

You can using the AIM method as described above in the AIM section. The ICQ method for SMS messages is not yet supported.

Why do my buddies' messages display incorrectly?

ICQ has no comprehension of character sets or encodings. It simply sends (almost) any random chunk of data a user enters. Pidgin by default assumes everything is UTF-8. If this is not the case, you will need to edit your account (Accounts->your ICQ account->Edit Account) and change the Encoding setting on the Advanced tab. You will need to enter the correct encoding for your buddies' messages there. You can specify multiple encodings in a comma-delimited list, such as UTF-8,ISO-8859-15, to cause Pidgin to attempt multiple encodings. In this case, each encoding is tried in succession until a successful decode happens or all encodings listed are exhausted.

IRC Protocol

How do I join a channel?

Create an IRC account and then sign on. After you have signed on, you can use Buddies->Join A Chat on the buddy list to join a channel. In any window, either a conversation or a chat, in which your IRC user is the sender, you can also use /join to connect to a new channel.

Is there a way to make Pidgin automatically identify me on login?

Add NickServ to your buddy list and place buddy pounces on him/her/it. Do not include "/msg nickserv" as part of the message to send. If your IRC network uses a different services bot to authenticate, add that bot to your list and pounce it instead.

Can I automatically join channels on login?

On the buddy list, select Buddies->Add Chat. Use this dialog to add the chat to your buddy list. Once the chat appears in your list, right-click on it and select Auto-Join. The channel will auto-join whenever you sign onto your IRC account.

Is it possible to change the user name that appears in username@hostname?

Go to the Accounts menu. Select your IRC account and click Edit Account. Click the Advanced tab. Enter a name in the Username field.

How can I set/change my real name?

Go to the Accounts menu. Select your IRC account and click Edit Account. Click the Advanced tab. Enter a name in the Real Name field.

Why does text display incorrectly in channels?

IRC has no comprehension of character sets or encodings. It simply sends (almost) any random chunk of data a user enters. Pidgin by default assumes everything is UTF-8. If this is not the case, you will need to edit your account (Accounts->your IRC account->Edit Account) and change the Encoding setting on the Advanced tab. You will need to enter the correct encoding for your channels there. You can specify multiple encodings in a comma-delimited list, such as UTF-8,ISO-8859-15, to cause Pidgin to attempt multiple encodings. In this case, each encoding is tried in succession until a successful decode happens or all encodings listed are exhausted.

XMPP (Jabber) Protocol

How do I choose which XMPP server to use or configure an XMPP account?

The XMPP server is part of your XMPP ID. For example, the ID foo@bar.com, bar.com would be the server to use. When entering your XMPP account information into Pidgin, specify everything before the @ in the Screen name field and everything after the @ in the Domain field.

What is the "Resource" field for in the account editor?

The resource field specifies the XMPP resource you are using. The use of unique resources allows you to connect to your XMPP server from multiple locations simultaneously. Resources might have meaningful names, such as Home, Work, Mobile, etc., or something else entirely that you choose. Pidgin defaults to a resource of Home.

How do I change my resource string?

Go to Accounts->Add/Edit?. Find your XMPP account and uncheck the Enabled box. Select the account and click Modify. Change the string in the Resource field.

How can I configure resource priority?

Pidgin does not currently support this. You will need to configure resource priority with another XMPP client. Pidgin will, however, honor any resource priorities that have been configured.

What does "Cancel Presence Notification" do?

See the next question.

How can I deauthorize a buddy from seeing my status?

Right-click the buddy on the buddy list and select Cancel Presence Notification. Note that the buddy will have to request authorization again to be able to see your presence.

What does "Unsubscribe" do?

If you select "Unsubscribe" from the menu presented when right-clicking an XMPP buddy, you will no longer see that buddy's presence. You will need to re-request authorization to resume seeing the buddy's presence.

How do I remove a buddy from my roster?

Right-click the buddy and click Remove.

Yahoo!(Y!M) Protocol

How do I get blocking someone to work?

There is a known bug in the Yahoo! protocol code present in libpurple. We've been unable to determine the exact cause or a workable code solution to the problem, but the failure seems to be most prominent when the blocking code tries to automatically remove the buddy from your list (this is required for a block on Yahoo!). It will also always fail if libpurple thinks the buddy is already blocked.

We suggest manually removing Yahoo! buddies before attempting to block them. For buddies reported as already blocked who are not in fact blocked, unblock them (in Tools->Privacy) and block them again. This works often.

Why can't I connect to Yahoo! from behind a firewall or NAT?

Your firewall or NAT is not allowing YMSG packets (packets for the Yahoo! protocol) to pass through it. You can try changing the port Pidgin attempts to connect to. Go to Tools->Edit, find your Yahoo! account, uncheck the Enabled box, then select the account and click Modify. On the Advanced tab, change the value in the Pager port field. Ports known to work are 20, 23, 25, 80, 119, 5050, 8001, and 8002. This will not work for all users, but does help many.

Why doesn't Pidgin have the official client's "Firewall with no proxy" option?

The official client's Firewall with no proxy option wraps the Yahoo! YMSG protocol in HTTP, which enables it to pass through many firewalls and NATs that filter IM traffic but not HTTP traffic. Pidgin and libpurple currently do not support this.

Can I get a list of Yahoo! chatrooms? What about localized lists?

Tools->Room List will let you list available Yahoo! chat rooms. Yahoo! has currently disabled user-created rooms. The option to create rooms still exists in Pidgin but will be non-functional until Yahoo! re-enables user-created rooms.

By default the room list shows US-localized chat rooms. To get a localized room list for another locale, you'll need to change the Chat Room Locale setting in the account editor, on the Advanced tab. Enter a country code in this field. Certain country codes no longer seem to work (most notably de). The list of known-working country codes was at last check the following:

aa -> Asia
ar -> Argentina
au -> Australia
br -> Brazil
ca -> Canada
cf -> Central African Republic
cn -> China
dk -> Denmark
es -> Spain
fr -> France
hk -> Hong Kong
in -> India
it -> Italy
kr -> Korea, Republic of
mx -> Mexico
no -> Norway
se -> Sweden
sg -> Singapore
tw -> Taiwan
uk -> United Kingdom
us -> United States of America

If you discover any of these no longer work, or find other country codes that do work, please don't hesitate to contact the development team.

What protocol does Pidgin use to connect to Yahoo!?

Normally Pidgin uses the YMSG protocol, which is the same protocol that the official Yahoo! clients use, although Pidgin uses a slightly older version of the protocol than current official clients. If an attempt to login returns the "Invalid Password" error code, Pidgin automatically tries to log in using the "WebMessenger" method. This method still uses the YMSG protocol, but authenticates differently, and connects to a different server.

While in Web Messenger mode, several things work differently or not at all. Adding, moving, and removing buddies doesn't work, and the only available statuses are "Available" and "Invisible". In addition, the Yahoo! server seems to ignore all Yahoo! Chat related packets. For this reason, we use the YCHT protocol to join Yahoo! Chat rooms while connected using the Web Messenger method.

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