basic questions, how to get going using port 80

[iamdacian]

hi all, please excuse my dumb questions but i just got thrown into the xmpp/jabber world and i have to find my ways around.

firs of all, i am behind a firewall with port 80/443 opened and no proxy.

how can i manage to create an jid with an existing client :confused:? i downloaded jabbim and psi and both seem to hang in the "registration in progress" procedure step.

thanks,
O.

[zeller]

You can use JWChat (http://jwchat.org) which is a web based client for registration. That won't solve getting those clients to work, but it's a workaround for now.

[iamdacian]

you are correct, this will not solve my problem. thanks for you reply though, good to know about JWChat.

[iamdacian]

i found this on the FAQ section on jabber.org

"The standard port for Jabber communication is 5222, so you may need that port open to use Jabber. We have also defined a way to do Jabber over HTTP but it is not yet deployed everywhere. Some Jabber clients enable you to use a "proxy server" if port 5222 is not open. There is also a special IM service called jabber80.com if all else fails."

can anyone shed more light on this? like, what exactly "we have defined a way to do jabber over http means but is not yet deployed everywhere"? what that way is? and what "not everywhere" is? also, what what's up with the jabber80.com and why it is "special"? i assume it acts like a http port 80/443 proxy for the xmpp clients and servers?

thanks!
O.

[Jehan]

Hello,

a few answers about several means of using Jabber without the standardized ports (5222 or 5223) closed:

1/ as proposed above, you can use a web client as jwchat if you have web access. This is not as good as using your favorite Jabber client, but this is already a beginning.

2/ there is a jabber over http part of the protocol as proposed too, but I never used anything like this, so I don't know what implementations exist exactly.

3/ you can use Jabber servers using non-standards ports. I know such servers exist, I happened to use one once, but I don't remember its name. I had a look at this jabber80.com you were speaking about, it looks like this is one of them using port 80.
This kind of server is no special server with a special protocol. These are simply normal Jabber servers using ports other than the common ones, most often to enable people like you, under a router, to access the Jabber network.

4/ if you own your own Jabber server, you are able to do whatever you do, then you can use a port which you know is accessible through your firewall (of course if no communication at all is possible, then there is no miracle).

5/ other solutions exist, but they are complicated and often imply also to have a personal server running somewhere. For instance there is the common trick of the ssh tunnel. I used this for a while, but I don't think this is really worth explaining it because this is too complicated.

I have tried all of this at least once in my life (except the jabber over http). You always have solutions, but they are not often perfect. And most of them (all except the web client and the ssh tunnel) imply that you create a new jid, which can be annoying (so you have to transfer your contacts). In order to avoid this, I also tried once to look for a a jabber to jabber transport (this would enable to "include" your normal jid as a transport in your special-over-firewall jid), but I found only one very unfinished and buggy (I never really managed to have it work indeed).

[iamdacian]

thanks a lot for your answers.

in the end, what i am interested is to deploy a jabber server that will work with port 80/443 over http. because otherwise if i have to go through "private" ports i rather implement the messaging myself with sql server broker capabilities.

thanks guys for your answers!

[spike411]

Jabbim service* offers several methods to connect via port 80 or 443:

XMPP with StartTLS on port 443:
Host: conn443.netlab.cz
Port: 443
Note: Both Psi and Jabbim client can be configured to use this method.

XMPP over BOSH (HTTP Binding):
URL: http://bind.jabbim.cz/
Port: 80
Note: Neither Psi or Jabbim client can use this method yet.

HTTP Polling:
URL: http://poll.jabbim.cz/
Port: 80
Note: Psi can use this method.


*Jabbim service means following domains: jabbim.com, jabbim.cz, jabbim.pl, jabbim.sk, jabber.cz, njs.netlab.cz

Other services can have other settings for 80/443 connections.

If you have problems with Jabbim service, you can use the forum on http://www.jabbim.cz/unb/

[AJxn]

thanks a lot for your answers.

in the end, what i am interested is to deploy a jabber server that will work with port 80/443 over http. because otherwise if i have to go through "private" ports i rather implement the messaging myself with sql server broker capabilities.

thanks guys for your answers!

Hmm, what are you trying to do? What is your use case? I am not convinced that the answers you got actually is answer to your actualle asked for, as your questions is not that easy to understand with this comment of yours.

Are you trying to set up a chat service on a web server using Jabber to manage your users chat?
Or is you trying to connect to a Jabber server for your private use as a ordinary client?
The answers you got fit the second use case but not fully the first.