Pidgin for dummies, an update

I once wrote how to setup your Google Talk account on Pidgin, but that was on Windows.There are a few differences how to go about the same in Linux, and this post covers it.

If you have any doubts, please refer to the previous discussion here or leave a query in the comments section.

The only change is in the Advanced tab. You do not need to check the "Require SSL/TLS" but you need to check the "Allow plaintext auth over unencrypted streams"

Leave the connect port and connect server as they are.

Set the "Proxy Options" if you connect to the net through a proxy and want to specify a particular proxy, or leave it to "Use Gnome Proxy Settings" or "Use Environmental Settings".

Here is a screenshot.



Don't forget to click on Save!

[24/01/2009] Edit: You still have to check the "Require SSL/TLS" in case you are running Windows

Google Talk formatting/effects : Bold and Italics

This is yet another one of those short posts for the sake of posting.

Before you cry out that these are very well known, I can promise you that I discovered these in my experiments. Well, proceed.

Are you bored with the plain text in GTalk? Try these, you can add bold and italics effects to your text.

To give a word/phrase a bold effect, just enclose it within asterisks (Example: *me* would produce me ).
To give a word/phrase a italics effect, enclose it within underscores (Example: _me_ would produce me ).

Google Talk on Pidgin for Dummies ,on Windows

To use the clichéd sentence, it's been a long break.

Well, it is nice to be back and thanks to some good friends who were bent on asking me how to set up Pidgin ,and too lazy to find out themselves, herez a "for Dummies" post.

Straight to work.

And oh, I'm setting this up for Google Talk.

Start Pidgin and this is what appears (assuming this is the first time).



1. Choose "Add" on the "Accounts" window.
2. And in the resulting window ,choose Google Talk as the protocol from the drop-down menu (You might as well choose XMPP) under Login Options.
3. Give your Google Account user name as Screen name and enter the password in the appropriate field.
4. Choose "Remember password" if needed, and choose your User Options.
5. Now goto Advanced tab and check "Require SSL/TLS". This is required
6. Fix the proxy settings (if you use your University/Institute connection ,like I do, proxies exist by default, ubiquitous ? ;) )

At the end of it all, it will look like the pic below.



7. Click "Save".
8. Done . :P

Oh well, this post is dedicated to all those who bugged me and made me write this, phew.

Update: The same on Linux, using Pidgin 2.5.3