Cross platform chatting

[tylertoo]

Help me make my daughter think I'm an internet expert:

1) My daughter (11) and her school friends all have gmail accounts provided by the school (for homework, calendar, emailing teachers etc), though the suffix of their email addresses is the school's domain, not gmail.com. (Not sure how the school managed that, but whatever).

2) My daughter regularly uses the chat function of gmail to chat with some of her friends after she's done homework in the afternoon.

3) Other friends, though, use iChat. So my daughter also wants iChat. Her machine is a 5-year old rig running Windows XP. Near as I can tell, there is no iChat for Windows XP, or 7 for that matter.

4) She told me that AIM can connect with iChat. I have an AIM account, but don't want her using it. I attempted to get my daughter her own AIM account. I spent an hour attempt to create a Kids AIM account to be 'attached' to my account, but the America Online geniuses made that process so fucking convoluted I gave up in frustration. (It involved entering credit card info, downloading special software and other hoop jumping).

5) I could lie about her age and get her an 'adult' AIM account but don't like the message that would send her regarding internet use.

So tell me I'm missing something. I can't figure out how to get talking to her iChatting friends on that old Windows rig at this point.

BUT WAIT: Word from Santa is that she's getting an iPod Touch for Christmas. Will this work for iChat?

[extarbags]

Is iChat a chat service? I thought it was just a program that connected to a bunch of different chat services, like Trillian or Pidgin.

Edit: also, I wouldn't necessarily be too concerned about the message you send by signing your daughter up for a full-blown AIM account. Respect for idiotic corporate bureaucracy isn't that important a value to impart, is it?

Another edit: doing a little more reading, it sounds like her friends are probably using iChat to connect to AIM, not the other way around. If so, there's no way around the need for an AIM account, unless your daughter can be a hero and convince all of her friends to use Gtalk.

[Athryn]

Gtalk connects to aim as well, at least it used to. You still need an aim account though.

[tylertoo]

Is iChat a chat service? I thought it was just a program that connected to a bunch of different chat services, like Trillian or Pidgin.

Edit: also, I wouldn't necessarily be too concerned about the message you send by signing your daughter up for a full-blown AIM account. Respect for idiotic corporate bureaucracy isn't that important a value to impart, is it?

Another edit: doing a little more reading, it sounds like her friends are probably using iChat to connect to AIM, not the other way around. If so, there's no way around the need for an AIM account, unless your daughter can be a hero and convince all of her friends to use Gtalk.

Thanks for looking into it. Not sure about whether iChat is a service or just a program to connect to services; I assumed it was the former.

Part of my concern of giving her a full-blown AIM account is that it automatically opens a browser tab to America Online, which we don't care for her to see, given its predilection for stories about sex and murder.

[Athryn]

AIM -> Settings -> Sign In / Sign Out: -> none

No more AOL page.

And, like I said, she can just use GTalk as her primary chat program and she won't have a need to have aim installed at all.

[extarbags]

AIM -> Settings -> Sign In / Sign Out: -> none

No more AOL page.

And, like I said, she can just use GTalk as her primary chat program and she won't have a need to have aim installed at all.

Also, even if the Gtalk client doesn't work for whatever reason (I know the Gtalk within Gmail can connect to AIM but I don't know if the client does), she can use Pidgin or Trillian or probably other similar things to connect to both networks without dealing with AOL's own software.

[tylertoo]

Also, even if the Gtalk client doesn't work for whatever reason (I know the Gtalk within Gmail can connect to AIM but I don't know if the client does), she can use Pidgin or Trillian or probably other similar things to connect to both networks without dealing with AOL's own software.

She uses gtalk within gmail, not a separate client.

So I'm clear, if she used Pidgin or Trillian, she would still need an AOL account, correct? That might be a palatable solution.

[extarbags]

She uses gtalk within gmail, not a separate client.

She can connect to AIM right from there then.

So I'm clear, if she used Pidgin or Trillian, she would still need an AOL account, correct? That might be a palatable solution.

Yeah, there's no way around that.

[tylertoo]

She can connect to AIM right from there then.



Yeah, there's no way around that.

Sorry to be dense, but the part I'm not getting is this: how does my daughter connecting to AIM help her chat with girls on iChat? They have email addresses ending in mac.com, not aol.com.

[rei]

They should be able to chat with your daughter who uses Google Talk?

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2515

[extarbags]

Sorry to be dense, but the part I'm not getting is this: how does my daughter connecting to AIM help her chat with girls on iChat? They have email addresses ending in mac.com, not aol.com.

Regardless of what kind of email addresses they have, iChat is not* a chat network. Rather, it's a program that connects to different chat networks, such as AIM, Yahoo, Gtalk, and so forth. Similar programs exist for Windows.

The fact that your daughter mentioned AIM is what leads me to believe that AIM is the network her friends are using via iChat. If that's the case, your daughter can connect to it any number of ways: through Gtalk, Gmail, Official AIM, Pidgin, Trillian, etc, just as her friends could connect to it via AIM for Mac or the Gmail website instead of iChat, if they wanted to. iChat is just one of many ways to access the network; as long as they're all on the same chat network (AIM), they'll be able to talk to each other.

I wish I didn't have to couch this in so many "I think"s and "it seems like"s, but such is the nature of relying on thrice-removed eleven-year-olds for technical details. ;)


*again, just based on what I'm reading, I haven't used it and have no firsthand knowledge and could be wrong.

[Murph]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure she can just go "Add friend" and type in their email address. iChat is just the client, as others have said, and AIM is the service, but you don't have to have an @aol or @aim account to use AIM anymore. Or GTalk, for that matter. And yes, those services are compatible.

[tylertoo]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure she can just go "Add friend" and type in their email address.

Wow. Such a simple solution. We will give it a try. Thank you all, especially extarbags, for the attention to this. Wish I'd posted here first, would have saved some aggravation.

[extarbags]

Wow. Such a simple solution. We will give it a try. Thank you all, especially extarbags, for the attention to this.

No problem! Good luck and all!

[EvilIdler]

Google's chat service is just Jabber. iChat can connect to any Jabber server.