Chapter 27. iChat Services
IN THIS CHAPTER
Introduction to iChat Server
Planning iChat services
iChat Server setup and configuration
Managing and monitoring iChat services
Mac OS X Server's iChat Server debuted in Tiger Server as a standards-based instant messaging solution for workgroups.
Although Apple's original iChat client was designed primarily to be interoperable with AOL's proprietary Instant Messenger service and only offered limited support for open instant messaging over the local network by using Bonjour, iChat Server and the latest iChat client for the Mac OS X desktop have embraced Jabber, which uses the open, interoperable XMPP.
The use of XMPP has enabled Apple's Jabber-savvy iChat client to work with Google Talk and other chat services built by using XMPP as well as making iChat Server compatible with a variety of alternative chat clients supporting the protocol.
In contrast, the proprietary instant messaging protocols used by AIM, Yahoo IM, and Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger all require some type of an external gateway to interact with each other, just like the old days of email, where CompuServe, The Source, and GEnie each provided mail messaging services to their own users, but they were incompatible with each other.
Back then, mail services first opened Internet gateways and then began providing standard Internet email services. Jabber's XMPP was designed to do the same for instant messaging today, enabling organizations to set up Jabber IM servers that can federate ...
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