Reliable IM service for use with N900?
 

I've tried using Skype as an IM service on my N900 for daily messaging, and find the phone frequently "believed" it was logged into Skype, but in actuality it had become disconnected. Messages would get "eaten" when I tried to send them. I'd get a "messaging not authorised" error and everything I typed would get lost - and I'd have to disconnect from Skype and reconnect again before I could send/receive, sometimes multiple times before I could successfully send. Or messages wouldn't be received for up to a week (or never) at the other end (which was usually my husband on another N900, and experiencing the same problems). Not terribly useful when I was trying to organise the timing for when I'd need picking up at the railway station coming home from work each night. :rolleyes:

We started using Ovi Contacts/chat instead - at least when that said you were online, you usually were. Unfortunately, Nokia are pulling support for that away from the N900, so we're losing that as an option.

Does anyone have any recommendations for what service to look at to provide IM that integrates nicely with the N900 contacts, and is more reliable in actually staying logged in/relogging in properly when the phone service drops out momentarily? Or any solutions to fixing Skype so that it actually works?

Each sms costs 25c to send (and can have a 20 minute delay if I send it during the normal segment of the train trip home), whereas mobile data is 1.5c per Mb - so IM is a much preferable method of communication...provided we can get it working reliably. We're not unwilling to sign up for a new IM service - I just don't want to have to sign up for 10 of them just to find one that works for us when other people have probably already been through similar reliability testing. ;)

Re: Reliable IM service for use with N900?
 

Jabber. And nothing else matters.

Re: Reliable IM service for use with N900?
 

I use telepathy-haze+account-plugin-haze for MSN and I've no lost message issues whatsoever (while I occasionally have that issue in PC, strange). I can even receive offline messages, which can hardly be done in other MSN client.

telepathy-msn-pecan is smaller and shared the same advantages as haze. However, pecan behaves strangely after Microsoft changed its policy to allow multiple logon this year.

I switch between pecan and haze when either one got problems. Hope this suggestion helps.

Re: Reliable IM service for use with N900?
 

+1 from me for jabber, I find it very nice, reliable, and very easy on battery

Re: Reliable IM service for use with N900?
 

well i had problems with many.

pecan/haze dont always allow to log in. pecan its better but it closes the other clients.
skype does,

Re: Reliable IM service for use with N900?
 

Good old AIM works well for me. Isn't it great how someone can say "hey I need a chat client that integrates with contacts" and there are so many different options available?

Re: Reliable IM service for use with N900?
 

skype seams outdated on the n900 though...

Re: Reliable IM service for use with N900?
 

You must have encountered the same problem as other faced after the protocol changes early this year.

Re: Reliable IM service for use with N900?
 

The second I read your comment, Lemmys (Motörhead) tribute to Metallicas "Nothing else matters" started playing on the radio! Gave me shivers!

And ye, jabber is gd.

Re: Reliable IM service for use with N900?
 

Just reflash device, and Skype will work again. I had also problems (message not delivered etc) but now it works.

Maybe Google Talk is also a good choice, at least video calls works much better.

Re: Reliable IM service for use with N900?
 

i think if one wants IM, N900 is the last device he/she should buy. This is a shiitty device for IM.

If you look around in forums, more than 95% of people find problems connecting. 5% are lucky purely by randomness.

Same for me, I extremely disappointed with Nokia conning me into buying this device for IM. I like it for many other reasons, but IM is really poor.

e.g. my gtalk doesnt connect.

I installed the jabber plugin, and also the pigdin plugin... Cannot connect to gtalk through either.

Cannot connect to meebo.org or even facebook....

Feel like banging the n900 on the floor given the many days i wasted on solving this....

waiting for liveprofile to be released (hope it is not another scam)

Re: Reliable IM service for use with N900?
 

IcyMoustache,
can I suggest you try an XMPP gateway? Look at the list on:

http://www.jabberes.org/servers/

I use hot-chilli.net but there are plenty others. Sign in to one account (one net connection = less battery drain) and you get ICQ, Yahoo, AOL, Google talk, MSN & a few others... heck I think some of them support facebook chat even though it's not listed on that website (I don't use facebook). Not skype though.

You have to sign in to your XMPP account on a desktop machine to add each additional protocol ("transport") because the N900 interface doesn't let you do that. I used a program called gajim. Takes 5 mins, do that once & you're set.

My N900 is now a beast of a messenger!

Re: Reliable IM service for use with N900?
 

For OP and others who may stumble upon this thread, it might be good to clear up a few things:

• For each protocol, there are often several implementations to choose from on the N900, esp. MSN (see 9000s post).
• Jabber, Google Talk, gtalk and XMPP are all the same thing. Jabber was developed as an open standard for IM, later renamed XMPP. Google adopted XMPP for their IM service.
• XMPP/Jabber also provides voice and video calls, much like Skype.
• Even facebook chat uses XMPP (a subset, I believe)
• I agree wholeheartedly with several other posters: N900's Jabber/XMPP implementation is very good and stable, uses less battery than e.g. Skype.
• When spanner speaks of "XMPP gateway", this is a service where you sign up, and at this service enter account info for all your IM accounts. You connect to the gateway with a single XMPP account/connection, but can "talk" to all your contacts on the various services.
• From your use case I guess all you need is an XMPP/Jabber Account for each of you.
• There are many, many free Jabber/XMPP services out there, but arguably the easiest you could do would be to sign up for Google accounts (gmail accounts) and set these up in the N900s (There is an account type "Google Talk" on the N900, and also "Jabber").
• Note: for "chatting" over XMPP/Jabber from the PC, there is a plethora of choices e.g. Google's own, and "Spark", and clients more geared towards voice/video. Just search. :-)

Re: Reliable IM service for use with N900?
 

Good info, but still Skype is Skype, so if you're forced to use that to chat and call, things can get b0rked. I don't think Skype is making updates to the n900 anymore :(

-s-

Re: Reliable IM service for use with N900?
 

But that's Skype fault.

[off-topic]Anyway, i would not recommend using Skype @ all, anywhere (google "silver needle in the skype", first result is an interesting pdf from blackhat conference).

i know that it may be hard, when Your family/friends use it, but it isn't so hard as it seems, to educate people. Personally, i just denied to use it long time ago. First, they just learned to reach me by other means`, including 100% time better SIP. To my surprise, with time, even most stubborn non-geeky non-tech-savy ones abandoned skype at all - my "boring" talk about how evil skype can be ;) resided somewhere in back of their heads, and they started to see some of it's day-to-day flaws (high network usage even on standby, high processing power needed) in other light.
[/off-topic]

Re: Reliable IM service for use with N900?
 

have you tried pidgin protocols with built in im client? that works perfect for me. i run multiple accounts simultaneously and it switches automatically from 3g to wifi when i am at work or home...and vice versa. skype works well too.

Re: Reliable IM service for use with N900?
 

leaving a +1 for gtalk. so far it has worked flawlessly for me.
tried jabber with facebook chat just to test it since i loathe facebook, but it worked fine.
nice info on xmpp/jabber. have to look further into it.
maybe the n900 IM success for some is not the best but for me it has been nothing short of impressive. being online on several IM services and talking to several people in parallel, all integrated, gives a nice sense of freedom. :-) yes, the n900 is great still today.