Ramblings

So you are a blabber mouth? Or, at least, you like to stay in touch with friends and family using instant messaging? Follow this guide to see how you can make Opera your IM client

The fine guys over at Bitlbee.org has made an IM proxy. That is, they have made an IRC server that allows you to add various IM protocols when you log on to it. IRC chat is supported by Opera and hence you can log on to a Bitlbee server, restore your account details and be online with Yahoo,ICQ/AOL,MSN and Jabber, at the same time. -- Everything in a simple chat window in Opera.

After starting Opera (I bet you are already using it ;) Go to the following url: irc://im.bitlbee.org

You should now be in the root channel, which is your control channel. You type in commands here, but don't worry, you don't need to use them that much.

For a more permanent access to Bitlbee, go into Tools -> Mail and chat accounts select the im.bitlbee.org (temporary) account and add some info to it.

In the Outgoing tab you might add a default action to be performed when connecting, this is useful for automatically "logging in" so that you get the accounts and contacts you have added the next time you log in. I'll explain later.

Adding accounts

Bitlbee uses as mentioned a root channel window where you can type in various commands. You can start by typing help commands followed by [Return] to get a list of commands. help quickstart is also useful to get to know Bitlbee better.

Anyway, let's cut the chase and start adding an account. If you have an ICQ account you want to add, you type in the following: account add oscar 12345678 p455w0rd icq.mirabilis.com (*). Naturally you need to provide your own UID and password. The server name at the end is not necessary for most protocols, but ICQ needs it. For MSN you'd do: account add msn cyberBoy@hotmail.com p455w0rd.

Now you should have at least one account added, you can view your accounts with account list. To let the accounts go into online mode type account on.

(*) OSCAR is the name of the protocol that ICQ uses.

Adding users

If you don't get all your previous contacts automatically added you can add more contacts from within Bitlbee. Adding contacts is done by the add command, but Bitlbee needs to know which account you want a user to be added to. So, you need to do a account list to find out the number of the account you want a new contact to be added to. When you've done this you can smply do: add account_number nick/uid. For instance: add 0 16639703 (If your 0th account is ICQ, you will add me to your list.)

If you don't like your buddies' names or they clash with eachother you can rename them with rename old_nick new_nick

Chatting

There are two ways to chat:

• 1. The simplest one is to open a query window by clicking on the users in the userlist like you do normally for private chat.
• 2. If you are lazy or just want to send a quick message, you can use the nick of the user followed with a colon (:) and then the message. Only that user will see the message even if all the users are listed in your control channel. Example: grrrl24: See you later, need to go!

Remembering settings

Finally you probably don't want to do this everytime you want to use IM with Opera. Luckily there is a simple solution to this. What you need to do is to register yourself within Bitlbee with a password. Next time you log on you log in and voila! all your contacts and accounts are there.

To register use the following: register p455w0rd (Choose your own password). To log in next time: identify p455w0rd.

As I mentioned previosuly you might want to let this be done automatically when logging into Bitlbee. Go to the Perform command when connected text field in the Tools -> Mail and chat accounts -> im.bitlbee.org -> Outgoing then add /msg &bitlbee identify p455w0rd.

More info

• You can also set up your own Bitlbee server if you don't trust the official one, or just like to experiment.
• Bitlbee of course also works with any other IRC client.
• For more info about Bitblee check out their website
• Get latest stable Opera at http://opera.com/download