Configuring KDE’s Kopete for Google Talk

Now that Google Talk is live and is a Jabber service the next question is – how do I connect to it using the KDE Instant Messaging client Kopete ?

It’s dead easy – it’s just another Jabber server with the only restriction that you *must* connect to it via SSL.

So, what you need to do is:

  • Go to the Settings -> Configure Kopete menu option;
  • Start the new account wizard with the New button there;
  • Click Next at the welcome screen to start creating a new account;
  • Select Jabber as your account type and press Next;
  • Enter your Google Mail email address as your Jabber ID;
  • Click on the Connection tab at the top;
  • Tick the Use Protocol Encryption (SSL) option;
  • Tick the Override the default server information option;
  • Enter talk.google.com as your server;
  • If you are behind a restrictive firewall you can set the port number to 443 (normally used for secure websites)
  • You should now have a screen that looks like the image at the end of this article.

At that point you should be ready to hit Next to create the Google Talk Jabber account in Kopete!

Kopete configured for Google Talk