Helping you evolve from Email

Ever wonder if you can use your Zimbra email address to chat with others externally, outside of the built-in Instant Messaging (IM, aka “chat”) client in Zimbra webmail?  We’ll show you how using a hosted Zimbra mailbox at 01.com.

By configuring Adium (for Mac clients) and Pidgin (for Windows, Linux and other Unix operating systems), setting up your Zimbra email address for instant messaging only takes a few steps to configure and is an easy way to use your Zimbra account as a chat screenname, allowing you to keep your personal and work instant messaging accounts separate and chat with others throughout the day.

Zimbra’s instant messaging protocol uses the XMPP (Jabber) protocol, which is supported by both the Adium and Pidgin chat clients. No configuration is necessary in Zimbra (other than having a Zimbra email address).

To setup your account in the chat clients, follow these instructions:

Adium Configuration (for Mac)

1. Download and install Adium at: http://www.adiumx.com/

2. Once installed, open Adium

3. The Adium Welcome screen will appear. Select Continue

4. In the Add an Instant Messaging Account screen, select Jabber as the service type

5. Enter your Zimbra email address & password in the Jabber fields. Select Continue when done making changes

6. Once the account is setup, select Done

7. Next, navigate to Adium > Preferences > Accounts tab. Select your Zimbra account and click Edit

8. Next, navigate to the Options tab

9. In the Connect Server field you will need to enter the specific mail server your Zimbra account is located on. To locate your specific mail server, open a web browser and navigate to https://mail.01.com/ and login to your Zimbra account:

10.Once logged in, note that the URL address has changed from https://mail.01.com/ to the specific mail server your account is located on. In this example, my mail server is: mail-1.01.com:

11. Enter the Zimbra mail server your account is located on (example: mail-1.01.com) in the Connect Server field.

12. Select Require SSL/TLS (recommended) and click OK when finished.

The Accounts pane should now show your account status as Online. Close the Preferences pane to begin using Adium.

Pidgin Configuration (Windows, Linux, Unix)

1. Download and install Pidgin at: http://www.pidgin.im/

2. Open Pidgin

3. In the Accounts setup screen click Add

4. In the Modify Account screen, click the Basic tab and enter ‘XMPP’ as the Protocol type:

Username: Enter your Zimbra email address before the @ symbol.
Domain: Your Zimbra domain, example: 01.com
Resource: Pre-filled with your computer name, you may modify this field if desired. This field identifies your unique endpoint
Password: Your Zimbra account password
Local Alias: Account nickname

5. When finished setting your account preferences, click the Advanced tab.

6. Under XMPP Options check ‘Require SSL/TLS’

7. In the Connect Port field, enter: 5222

8. For the ‘Connect Server’ field you will need to enter the specific mail server your Zimbra account is located on. To locate your specific mail server, open a web browser and navigate to https://mail.01.com/ and login to your Zimbra account:

9. Once logged in, note that the URL address has changed from https://mail.01.com/ to the specific mail server your account is located on. In this example, my mail server is: mail-1.01.com:

10. Enter your mail server into the ‘Connect Server’ field in Pidgin.

11. Proxy Type: If you connect to your Zimbra server through a proxy, enter the proxy address. Otherwise, please leave as is.

12. Uncheck ‘Create New Account on This Server’

Click Save to begin using your Zimbra account in Pidgin.

        

Tags: adium, aim, configuration, im, instant messaging, pidgin, xmpp, Zimbra

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 19th, 2009 at 12:21 am and is filed under How to, Zimbra, Zimbra hosting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.