If you find chatting with multiple chat clients troublesome, then Pidgin is the tool for you. In today's article, we'll show you how to connect to popular chat networks, encrypt your conversations, and render mathematical formula in Pidgin.

Pidgin for Everyone

Pidgin is a chat program that lets you use multiple chat networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on MSN, talking to a friend on Google Talk, and sitting in a Yahoo chat room all at the same time. Pidgin runs on Windows, Linux, and other Unix operating systems. So no matter what platform you are on, you can use Pidgin as your chat client. Install Pidgin using the right installer from  their website. You will see the welcome screen when the installation finishes where you can add your first chat network by clicking the 'Add' button.

image

Pidgin supports quite a number of chat networks.

image

Select the messaging client that you want to add and specify your user name and password.

edit_account

If you're having any problems connecting to your chat networks, your Windows firewall is one of the places that you may want to look into. Note: this generally isn't necessary.

winsearch_firewall

Make sure that you allow Pidgin to communicate through the Firewall.

image

If not, add Pidgin into the Firewall 'Allowed programs and features' list by clicking the 'Allow another program' button.

image

Select Pidgin from the program list and click the 'Add' button.

image

Now you're all set to chat with your buddies.

image

Adding More Chat Networks to Pidgin

You can add multiple chat networks in Pidgin from the 'Manage Accounts' menu.

image

You can see the chat accounts that you have added in this screen.

Manage_Accounts

Click the 'Add' button to add more chat networks in Pidgin.

image

You should see all your existing chat groups in Pidgin.

image

You can rearrange these groups by adding new groups.

image

Give a suitable name for your chat group.

image

Make sure you have selected the 'Empty Groups' option to view your newly created group.

image

Select your buddies and move them to the suitable group to organize your buddy list.

image

Pidgin for Your Social Network

You can also keep in touch with your friends in Facebook or Twitter by installing Pidgin's Microblogging Plugin. If you are using Ubuntu, you can install the Twitter plugin through the Ubuntu Software Center.  If you're using Windows, you need to install the plugin by downloading the installer from their website. You can check that you have installed plugins successfully by checking that the plugin is listed under the Plugin screen.

image
plugin_list

You should be able to add your Twitter account after you installed the plugin from the 'Manage Accounts' menu.

image

Click the 'Add' button to add your Twitter account.

add_twitter

Choose 'Twitter' from the 'Protocol' list.

image

You will need to authorize Pidgin to connect to your Twitter account.

image

You need to key in the PIN that Twitter generates into your Pidgin.

pin_no

Now you are all set to Tweet from Pidgin.

image

Rendering Math Formula in Pidgin

If you are familiar with LaTex, you can use Pidgin to exchange math formula with your buddies by installing the Pidgintex plugin. Simply  write '$$latex expression$$' anywhere in a message and an image of the mathematical formula will appear in the message log.

image

Pidgin also requires Mimetex to render the mathematical formula. Just download the mimetex installer from Pidgintex website, and put it under your 'C:\Windows' folder.

mimetex_cwindows

Remember to put the mimetex.exe in your System Variable path. If you are not familiar with Windows' System Variable, you can read our tutorial on sysadmin geek about modifying System Variable.

image

Pidgin stores your conversation logs just in case you need to review what your buddies told you.

image

Enter your buddy name in the 'Name' field to view your chat log with him or her.

select_Chat_log

Pidgin will show you all the conversations that you have had with your buddy. Unfortunately, Pidgin only renders the math formula as a LaTex expression in the log.

conversation_log

Encrypting Your Conversations

You can even encrypt your conversations to secure your conversation with your buddies.

image

Pidgin has a number of encryption tools available, but we use 'Off-the-Record Messaging (OTR)' Plugin the most. After you installed the plugin, you need to enable it from the Plugin screen.

image

You will see the OTR button in your chat screen to initiate a secure chat channel.

otr_chatchannel

OTR uses a public-private key encryption to encrypt your conversation. You will need to generate a private key by clicking the 'Generate' button from the OTR screen before you can use OTR to encrypt your conversations.

otr_screen

The OTR Plugin creates four privacy levels, and we can enable a private chat by clicking the OTR button.

enable_private_Chat

Your private conversation will start in an 'unverified' mode until you authenticate your buddies.

unverified_Chat

You can authenticate your buddy by selecting 'Authenticate Buddy' from the OTR Menu.

image

There are 3 options to authenticate a buddy : by a question and answer, a shared secret, or by verifying your buddy OTR fingerprint.

image

To authenticate using a question, pick a question whose answer is known only to you and your buddy. Enter the question and the correct answer.

image

Wait for your buddy to enter the answer too. If the answers don't match, then either your buddy made a mistake typing in the answer, or you may be talking to an impostor.

image

If your buddy answers the question correctly, then the OTR status of your conversation will change to 'Private'. The next method of authentication is by setting up a shared secret key between you and your buddy.

image

Enter the shared secret into the field provided in the Authenticate Buddy dialog box. Once you enter the secret and hit OK, your buddy will be asked to do exactly the same thing. If you both enter the same text, then OTR will accept that you are really talking to your buddy. Otherwise, OTR reports that authentication has failed. This either means that your buddy made a mistake typing in the text, or it may mean that someone is intercepting your communication. The last method of authentication is by manually matching yours and your buddy OTR fingerprint.

image

You and your buddy will need another secure channel, for example speaking through the phone, to exchange the OTR fingerprints.

image

If the fingerprint matches with the fingerprint that your buddy told you, choose the 'I have' option from the drop down list, and then click the 'Authenticate' button. Once you do this, the OTR status will change to 'Private'. Note that you only need to do this once per buddy (or once per fingerprint, if your buddy has more than one fingerprint). OTR will remember which fingerprints you have marked as verified.


Pidgin has a lot more features that we didn't mention, because it is impossible to cover all these features in one short article. You can read these articles to learn other useful tips and tricks on Pidgin:

Please feel free to discuss any useful tips on Pidgin with the other fellow readers in the comments section. Download Pidgin from pidgin.im