Institut Teknologi Bandung

BANDUNG, itb.ac.id- AI3 internet accounts, one of the internet network access in ITB now can be used as username for chatting among ITB students. The Jabber based server if compared to other types of public instant messengers (yahoo, msn, Google talk) is faster and smoother when used among ITB users. The XMPP protocol based chatting service uses the Internet Network Account (INA) usernames almost owned by all ITB students until the users don’t have to register prior to chatting. The user only requires a network connection and a messenger that supports XMPP protocol (Jabber) on his or her computer. For the messenger, open sourced software like Pidgin or Spark can be used. For Pidgin users, the first step is to make an XMPP account in Pidgin in the computer. Selected XMPP protocol with INA as username and im.itb.ac.id as the domain and then click Save. If it works, server im.itb.ac.it automatically sends a welcome message to the new user. While for Spark users, one only has to enter his or her INA username and password as well as placing im.itb.ac.id as the server. This chatting service is exclusively set up in campus (im.itb.ac.id) and only for ITB community. Those who have an ITB internet account can communicate between one another. In the future the service will be developed to be able to connect with YM users. According to one of the service creators Wisnu (IF’04), the application already has the feature making it possible to connect to connect to YM users, but it has not been implemented yet. Wisnu, contacted via email stated that the service can be made an alternative when there is a problem with YM like what happened some time ago. Because it also uses a local network, the server is more bandwidth thrifty. ”VoiP is being developed. Right now research about VoiP is done in the ComLabs Assistant Corps Division. We hope you enjoy the new service”, Wisnu said, ending his explanation.