As DeWitt notes here, we were able to get GAIM’s encryption working on the Jabber based Google Talk network relatively easily. We had to flip a few preferences and such, [1] but it was maybe a minute before we were chatting away on an encrypted channel. While encryption might not seem like a must-have for IM, how many of you connect to email via a VPN? Same deal. For some people it could be argued that IM is even more critical because it’s a degree of formality below IM and lots of things can slip in there.
For those of you unfamiliar with GAIM, it’s a very nice cross-platform IM client that supports all of the major communications protocols (Jabber, AIM, MSN, Yahoo, etc). I’ve been using it quite happily for a while now, my usage predates my transition to desktop Linux. I’ve found it useful as an alternative to separate IM clients or Trillian, which I didn’t care for. If you’re interested in the encryption, you’ll need to download the encryption plugin, which at least in Gentoo is just an “emerge -a gaim-encryption” away.
[1] Under Tools:Preferences:Gaim-encryption, we finally settled on Accept key automatically, Automatically encrypt, Broadcast encryption, and Automatically encrypt if buddy has plugin needing to be checked.
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