Jabber Help

Accessing Jabber Through Firewalls

Please note that our Jabber server is currently in the trial stage. It might be unavailable at times, and connection details might change. We apologise for any inconviniences this will cause.

Connection Details

Direct Connection: Connections are made to tcdnetsoc.org on port 5222 (non-SSL or TLS) or port 5223 (SSL).
HTTP Connect: You can use HTTP Connect method with most web proxies and connect either on the ports given above or port 563 (SSL, port 563 is open in some web proxies by default).
HTTP Polling: You can penetrate almost any HTTP Proxy this way. Polling URL is http://tcdnetsoc.org/cgi-bin/jabberpoll. Please, only use this as a last resort.

Direct Connections

If you specify your Netsoc Jabber username in your Jabber client, it will attempt connecting to tcdnetsoc.org on ports 5222 (for unecrypted connections or TLS) or 5223 (for SSL connections). If you are unable to connect, your best bet is to ask your network administrator to open these ports.

Many Jabber clients will allow you to specify an alternative host or port to use. That can be used to set up tunelled connections. In Psi, the setting is available through "Connection" tab of "Account Properties".

Specifying an alternative host/port in Psi

SOCKS Proxy

If you have access to a SOCKS Proxy (again, ask your network administrator if you are not sure), you can use it to connect to Netsoc Jabber. Open "Account Setup" (available under the Psi button), pick your account and click "Modify". On the "Connection" tab, click "Edit" in the "Proxy" group. Click "New", pick "Type" to be "SOCKS Version 5" and fill out the rest of details accordingly. When finished, click "Save". Your proxy should then be available in the "Proxy" drop-down. Pick it and click "Save" again. Now your account Should use the SOCKS proxy.

Steps needed to set up a SOCKS Proxy in Psi

HTTP Connect

If the above two methods are unavailable to you, you can still try using an ordinary web proxy (this might fail if the proxy forbids particular functionality needed). This method is called an "HTTP Connect" because it uses a CONNECT method that's provided by most webproxies.

To set it up in Psi, open "Account Setup" (available under the Psi button), pick your account and click "Modify". On the "Connection" tab, click "Edit" in the "Proxy" group. Click "New", pick "Type" to be "HTTP Connect", and fill out the rest of details accordingly. ("Host" is your web proxy host and port, and you can specify your web access username and password there). When finished, click "Save". Your proxy should then be available in the "Proxy" drop-down. You also need to tick "Manually Specify Server Host/Port" and enter tcdnetsoc.org into the "Host" field and 563 into the "Port" field. Also, tick "Use SSL encryption" and then click "Save". Get out of the windows and try to connect. Hopefully, it will succeed.

Steps needed to set up a HTTP Connect proxy in Psi

HTTP Polling

If all else fails, we provide an HTTP Polling connect mechanism that should work flawlessly through almost any web proxy, provided it allows viewing webpages on tcdnetsoc.org. Your client makes regular HTTP POST and GET requests to a special script running on our site and that interfaces into our server. You will need a capable client for this (Psi does support this scheme). This is a last resort technique; it should only be used if nothing else works..

To set this up in Psi, open "Account Setup" (available under the Psi button), pick your account and click "Modify". On the "Connection" tab, click "Edit" in the "Proxy" group. Click "New", pick "Type" to be "HTTP Polling", and fill out the rest of details accordingly. ("Host" is your web proxy host and port, and you can specify your web access username and password there). Enter http://tcdnetsoc.org/cgi-bin/jabberpoll into the "Polling URL" field. When finished, click "Save". Your proxy should then be available in the "Proxy" drop-down. You can tick "Use SSL Encryption" for additional security. When finished, click "Save" again. Get out of the windows and try to connect. Hopefully, it will succeed.

Steps needed to set up a HTTP Polling proxy in Psi

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