Pidgin
Connecting to the University Jabber IM
View your groups in Account Manager
Create a group in Group Manager
Searching Jabber for University account holders 
Pidgin what is it? 
Pidgin is a popular Instant messenger (IM) program that enables real time communication between two or more people.
To find out more about the technical features of pidgin see their website at: http://www.pidgin.im/about/
Why would I want to use IM?
It is a different way of communicating that has different benefits not gained by email and telephone.
- Instant free and fast one to one communication
- Fast messaging for natural flowing conversation
- No cost of a phone call
- Reduces the email in your inbox
- Presence indicator makes it easy to see who is there
- Discrete way of communicating when in meetings or the library etc.
Do I have to use this IM?
No you are free to use other IM clients that support the Jabber protocol for Instant Messaging, but Pidgin is the one BUCS will support.
Why is pidgin popular?
Why Pidgin is becoming popular is its ability to connect too multiple chat networks at the same time so you can see all your IM services through this one client including the University Jabber IM.
Chat networks that pidgin can connect to:
| Jabber/XMPP | AIM | ICQ | Google Talk | MSN Messenger | Yahoo | Bonjour |
| Gadu-Gadu | IRC | Novell GroupWise Messenger | Lotus Sametime | SILC | SIMPLE | |
| MySpaceIM | Zephyr |
What is Jabber?
Jabber is the University's Instant messaging service much like MSN, ICQ and many other IM services, it can be accessed through the pidgin program.
See here for the instructions on downloading pidgin and connecting to the University Jabber
Connecting to the University Jabber
For a list of Jabber questions and answers see our wiki pages at http://wiki.bath.ac.uk/display/webservices/Jabber+questions+and+answers
Features of Pidgin
Pidgin supports many features of other chat networks:
- Buddy pounce (notification of people signing in or out)
- File transfers
- Away messages
- Buddy icons
- Custom smilies
- Typing notifications
Features Jabber make available
- Automatic availability of University groups you are a member of
- Ability to create new University groups and request them to be added to pidgin
- Search ability to find other University staff by name, username or email
Automatically defined groups
There will be some default groups setup by the University to display in your IM client for centrally managed and user managed groups. Centrally managed groups cannot be added to or removed from showing up automatically in the IM group listing, however, user managed groups can be. If you want to add or remove a user managed group contact the service desk. To find out what groups that you are part of you can log in to Account Manager.
Please note:
- User managed groups can be edited by the group administrator
- If a group is disabled by the service desk, it will be removed from the IM of every member of the Group. .
Creating new groups
New Groups can be created in the group manager tool.
New groups created will not automatically appear in your Instant messenger group listing. If you want your new group to be added to pidgin you will need to contact the service desk.
Service desk help request form
Please note: If a request is made for a group to appear in your Instant messaging tool, it will appear in the group listing of everyone in the group (if their IM client supports this feature).
How to search for users
You can easily search for anyone that has a university account:
- Select Account
- Hover over your University Jabber account details and then click on Search for users
- Make sure the text field says search.bath.ac.uk then click the button Search directory.
- Enter the name email or username of the person you want to search for
- Select from the list that appears the name of the person you were searching for and then click add
- Click on the arrow at the end of the 'Add buddy to group' list box select Buddies and Click Add
Download search instructions in a detailed PDF
Suggestions for best use
Using a IM service is only useful if there are enough users that log on to that service daily. To make the best of this tool we make these suggestions:
- Add it to the whole groups start-up menu.
- Encourage use and make it part of the groups work culture.