Google Talking

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Google Talking

™

Brian Baskin Joshua Brashars Johnny Long Technical Editor

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Syngress Publishing, Inc., the author(s), and any person or firm involved in the writing, editing, or production (collectively “Makers”) of this book (“the Work”) do not guarantee or warrant the results to be obtained from the Work. There is no guarantee of any kind, expressed or implied, regarding the Work or its contents.The Work is sold AS IS and WITHOUT WARRANTY.You may have other legal rights, which vary from state to state. In no event will Makers be liable to you for damages, including any loss of profits, lost savings, or other incidental or consequential damages arising out from the Work or its contents. Because some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, the above limitation may not apply to you. You should always use reasonable care, including backup and other appropriate precautions, when working with computers, networks, data, and files. Syngress Media®, Syngress®, “Career Advancement Through Skill Enhancement®,” “Ask the Author UPDATE®,” and “Hack Proofing®,” are registered trademarks of Syngress Publishing, Inc. “Syngress:The Definition of a Serious Security Library”™, “Mission Critical™,” and “The Only Way to Stop a Hacker is to Think Like One™” are trademarks of Syngress Publishing, Inc. Brands and product names mentioned in this book are trademarks or service marks of their respective companies. KEY

SERIAL NUMBER

001 002 003 004 005 006 007 008 009 010

HJIRTCV764 PO9873D5FG 829KM8NJH2 38K9G6DF67 CVPLQ6WQ23 VBP965T5T5 HJJJ863WD3E 2987GVTWMK 629MP5SDJT IMWQ295T6T

PUBLISHED BY Syngress Publishing, Inc. 800 Hingham Street Rockland, MA 02370 Google Talking

Copyright © 2007 by Syngress Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher, with the exception that the program listings may be entered, stored, and executed in a computer system, but they may not be reproduced for publication. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 ISBN-10: 1-59749-055-5 ISBN-13: 978-1-59749-055-9 Publisher: Andrew Williams Acquisitions Editor: Erin Heffernan Technical Editor: Johnny Long

Page Layout and Art: Patricia Lupien Copy Editor: Darlene Bordwell Cover Designer: Michael Kavish

Distributed by O’Reilly Media, Inc. in the United States and Canada. For information on rights, translations, and bulk sales, contact Matt Pedersen, Director of Sales and Rights, at Syngress Publishing; email [email protected] or fax to 781-681-3585.

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Acknowledgments Syngress would like to acknowledge the following people for their kindness and support in making this book possible. Syngress books are now distributed in the United States and Canada by O’Reilly Media, Inc.The enthusiasm and work ethic at O’Reilly are incredible, and we would like to thank everyone there for their time and efforts to bring Syngress books to market:Tim O’Reilly, Laura Baldwin, Mark Brokering, Mike Leonard, Donna Selenko, Bonnie Sheehan, Cindy Davis, Grant Kikkert, Opol Matsutaro, Steve Hazelwood, Mark Wilson, Rick Brown,Tim Hinton, Kyle Hart, Sara Winge, C. J. Rayhill, Peter Pardo, Leslie Crandell, Regina Aggio, Pascal Honscher, Preston Paull, Susan Thompson, Bruce Stewart, Laura Schmier, Sue Willing, Mark Jacobsen, Betsy Waliszewski, Kathryn Barrett, John Chodacki, Rob Bullington, Aileen Berg, and Wendy Patterson. The incredibly hardworking team at Elsevier Science, including Jonathan Bunkell, Ian Seager, Duncan Enright, David Burton, Rosanna Ramacciotti, Robert Fairbrother, Miguel Sanchez, Klaus Beran, Emma Wyatt, Chris Hossack, Krista Leppiko, Marcel Koppes, Judy Chappell, Radek Janousek, and Chris Reinders for making certain that our vision remains worldwide in scope. David Buckland, Marie Chieng, Lucy Chong, Leslie Lim, Audrey Gan, Pang Ai Hua, Joseph Chan, and Siti Zuraidah Ahmad of STP Distributors for the enthusiasm with which they receive our books. David Scott, Tricia Wilden, Marilla Burgess, Annette Scott, Andrew Swaffer, Stephen O’Donoghue, Bec Lowe, Mark Langley, and Anyo Geddes of Woodslane for distributing our books throughout Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji,Tonga, Solomon Islands, and the Cook Islands.

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Lead Author Brian Baskin [MCP, CTT+] is a researcher and developer for Computer Sciences Corporation. In his work, he researches, develops, and instructs computer forensic techniques for members of the government, military, and law enforcement. Brian currently specializes in Linux/Solaris intrusion investigations, as well as in-depth analysis of various network protocols. He also has a penchant for penetration testing and is currently developing and teaching basic exploitation techniques for clients. Brian has been developing and instructing computer security courses since 2000, including presentations and training courses at the annual Department of Defense Cyber Crime Conference. He is an avid amateur programmer in many languages, beginning when his father purchased QuickC for him when he was 11, and has geared much of his life around the implementations of technology. Brian has written a handful of Mozilla Firefox extensions; some, like Passive Cache, are publicly available. He currently spends most of his time writing insecure PHP/MySQL web-based apps. Brian has been a Linux fanatic since 1994, and is slowly being drawn to the dark side of Apples and Macs. Brian would like to thank his wife and family for their continued support and motivation, as well as his friends and others who have helped him along the way: j0hnny, Grumpy Andy, En”Ron,” Thane, “Pappy,” “M,” Steve O., Chris pwnbbq, Koko, Rissa, Mailman, and others who he may have forgotten. Most importantly, Brian would like to thank his parents for their continuous faith and sacrifice to help him achieve his dreams.

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Technical Editor Johnny Long has presented at SANS and other computer security conferences nationwide, including the Black Hat Briefings. In addition, he has presented before several government entities. His is the author of the best-selling Google Hacking for Penetration Testers (Syngress, ISBN: 1931836361). During his career as an attack and penetration specialist, he performed active network and physical security assessments (one in the cube is worth twenty on the net) for hundreds of government and commercial clients. He is a Black Hat featured speaker, and his website can be found at http://johnny.ihackstuff.com. Johnny is a Christian by grace, a family guy by choice, a professional hacker by trade, a pirate by blood, a ninja in training, a security researcher, and an author. Johnny is thankful for much. He thanks Christ first. He gives thanks to Jen, Makenna,Trevor, and Declan.These guys pay the price when deadlines hit. Johnny thanks them for understanding and supporting him.They have his love, always. He also thanks Andrew and the rest of his Syngress family. He thanks Brian and Josh. He appreciates their time and commitment to this project. Great work! Johnny gives thanks to the johnny.ihackstuff.com mods (Murf, Jimmy Neutron, JBrashars, CP Klouw, Sanguis,ThePsyko, Wolveso) and members for their help and support. Shouts: Nathan B, Sujay S, Stephen S, James Foster, Jenny Yang, SecurityTribe, the Shmoo Group, Sensepost, Blackhat, Defcon, Neal Stephenson (Baroque), Stephen King (on Writing),Ted Dekker (Thr3e), P.O.D., Pillar, Project86, Shadowvex,Yoshinori Sunahara, Pat C.To Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey and Laren Poole for the Invisible Children movement (http://www.invisiblechildren.com). He’s behind you guys all the way!

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Contributing Authors Joshua Brashars is a telecommunications and security specialist in San Diego. He spends his time working with Secure Science Corporation’s External Threat Assessment Team, breaking things apart and taping them back together. Joshua has contributed to several books with Syngress Publishing and has presented at conferences and universities across the United States. Josh wrote Chapter 2, Installation. Michael Gough is host and webmaster of www.VideoCallTips. com, which was launched in January 2005 and receives more than 81,000 hits per month. He is also the author of Skype Me! From Single User to Small Enterprise and Beyond (Syngress Publishing, ISBN, 1-59749-032-6) and webmaster of www.SkypeTips.com, which receives more than 140,000 hits per month. Michael writes articles on personal videoconferencing and related issues and contributes to the Networking Pipeline section of Skype.com. He also explains personal videoconferencing options and instructions to users so that they can practically apply video calls at home and while out of town on business to stay in touch with family and friends. Michael also evaluates products for vendors and posts ratings on his Web sites. He evaluates products used with video calls and provides feedback to the vendors on features and improvements to help drive the direction of video call-related products. Michael is also the host and webmaster for www.InternetVisitation.org, a Web site focused on helping people understand how to make video calls to family and friends after divorce, and maintains ratings of the many video call solutions available. Michael gives presentations on this subject at several conferences around the country to educate attorneys on the use of video calls in divorce—a practice known as virtual visitation, and www.InternetVisitation.org currently receives 100,000 hits per month.

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Michael’s full-time employment is as a Computer Security Consultant with 18 years’ experience in the computer technology field. He works for a Fortune 500 where he delivers security consulting services to their clients. He also presents for his company at many trade shows and conferences and works with associations and groups, advising agencies like the FBI on Skype security and the Center for Internet Security on wireless security. Michael wrote Appendix A, Introduction to Video Calling and Appendix B, Free Video Software.

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Contents Chapter 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 How Did We Get Here? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 The Rise of Google . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 The Instant Messaging World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 America Online Instant Messenger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 ICQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Microsoft Windows Live Messenger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Yahoo! Messenger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 QQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 What’s Wrong With This Picture? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 Introducing Google Talk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 Google Talking Without a Client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Google Talking On the Go . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Solutions Fast Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Frequently Asked Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Chapter 2 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 Minimum System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 Connection Speed—Broadband vs. Dial-Up . . . . . . . . . .20 Upload and Download Speeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 Testing Your Bandwidth Speeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Microphone and Speakers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Headsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Microphone and Headphones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 Bluetooth Headsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 USB Phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 Personal Computer (PC) Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 Installing Google Talk on Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 Troubleshooting Windows Audio Recording . . . . . . .27 Installing the Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 Solutions for Fast Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 Frequently Asked Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 xi

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Chapter 3 Google Talk for Non-Windows Users . . . . . . 39 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 Gaim for Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41 Setting Up Your Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41 Using Gaim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 iChat for OS X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 Setting Up Your Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 Using iChat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48 iChat Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50 Adium X for OS X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50 Setting Up Your Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 Using Adium X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55 Solutions Fast Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56 Frequently Asked Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57 Chapter 4 Google Talk Usage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Using Google Talk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60 Your Contact List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60 Adding Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61 Changing Your Contact List View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64 Interacting With Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66 Setting Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68 Google Music Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70 Chatting With Google Talk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71 Emoticons and Text Formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72 Reviewing Old Chats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73 Chatting “Off the Record” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74 Speaking Your Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75 Voice Chat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76 Voicemail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77 Sharing Files and Tunes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77 Personalizing Your Google Talk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78 Avatars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79 Themes and Skins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80 Configuration Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81

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Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88 Solutions Fast Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89 Frequently Asked Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91 Chapter 5 Google Talk Add-ons and Modifications . . . 93 Making Google Talk Yours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94 GT-Plug . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94 Extended Talk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100 Creating Your Own Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104 Creating the Necessary Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104 Altering Message Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .106 Primary CSS Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .112 Reach Out and Touch Someone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113 Surprise Mom With a Call From Google Talk . . . . . . .114 VoIP Over Talqer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .114 VoIP Using GTalk-To-VoIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .118 Can You See Me Now? Good! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122 Fun and Games with Festoon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .128 Using Festoon as a Business Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .129 Sex Change in a Download . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .130 Become A Google Talk DJ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .132 Quick and Dirty Broadcasting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133 DJ’ing Through Mercora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .135 Google Talk Chat Rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .137 Pushing the Envelope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .142 Google Talk to Go . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .142 Sleeping With The Enemy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .146 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .154 Solutions Fast Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .156 Frequently Asked Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .159 Links to Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .159 Chapter 6 Proxy Use. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .162 What Are Proxies? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .162 Why Use Proxies? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .163 Configuring Google Talk to Use Proxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165

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Onion Router Proxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .166 How Onion Routing Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .167 Configuring Google Talk to Use Onion Routing Proxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .169 Using an SSH Tunnel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .170 Creating an SSH Tunnel in Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . .171 Creating an SSH Tunnel in Linux and OS X . . . . . . . .173 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .174 Solutions Fast Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .175 Frequently Asked Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .176 Chapter 7 Google Talk in the Enterprise . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .180 Implementing Google Talk in Your Network . . . . . . . . . . .180 Configuring for Google Talk: Standalone Client . . . . . .180 Deploying Google Talk Client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .181 Deploying Google Talk: Client Registry Changes . . .181 Allowing Google Talk Client Network Traffic . . . . .183 Configuring for Google Talk: Google Mail . . . . . . . . . .183 Blocking Google Talk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .184 Blocking Google Talk Traffic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .184 Blocking Google Talk from Executing . . . . . . . . . . . . .185 Enterprise Security and Control of Google Talk . . . . . . . . .188 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .190 Solutions Fast Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .192 Frequently Asked Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .193 Appendix A Introduction to Video Calling . . . . . . . . . 195 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .196 Personal Videoconferencing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .196 Business Videoconferencing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .196 Web Videoconferencing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .197 What Is a Video Call? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .197 Where Can You Perform Video Calls? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .200 Appendix B Free Video Call Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .204 One-on-One Video Call Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .205

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AOL Instant Messenger (AIM 5.9) and AOL Triton (BETA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .206 Apple iChat AV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .207 Festoon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .208 IVisit Lite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .211 Microsoft MSN Messenger 7.5 (Windows Live Messenger 8.0 BETA) . . . . . . . . . . . . .211 SightSpeed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .214 Skype 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .218 Spontania Video4IM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .223 WigiWigi—Vwho . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .226 Yahoo Messenger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .227 ZoomCall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .227 Multiuser Video Call Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .228 Apple iChat AV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .228 Festoon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .229 WigiWigi—Vwho . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .230 Multi-IM Video Call Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .231 EyeBall Chat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .232 Festoon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .233 FWD.Communicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .233 PalTalk Basic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .234 QNext . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .234 Trillian Basic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .235 TryFast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .235 WigiWigi Vwho . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .235 SIP Video Call Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .236 FWD.Communicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .237 INEEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .238 Lycos Phone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .238 Sony/GlowPoint IVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .239 Yak Virtual Videophone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .240 H.323 Video Call Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .241 EnvisionSL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .241 Microsoft NetMeeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .242 Chat-Room-Based Video Call Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . .242

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CamFrog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .243 Chatablanca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .243 CUWorld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .244 DKMessenger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .244 EyeBall Chat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .245 LIvVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .245 PalTalk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .245 Other Video Call Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .246 Microsoft Portrait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .246 Obsolete, End-of-Life, or Discontinued Solutions . . .247 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .248 Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

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Chapter 1

Introduction

Solutions in this chapter: ■

Where Did Instant Messaging Come From?

■

Other Popular IM Clients and How Google Talk Stacks Up

■

How You Can Implement Google Talk in Your Life

Summary Solutions Fast Track Frequently Asked Questions 1


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Chapter 1 • Introduction

How Did We Get Here? We live in a grand age in which information flows at the speed of light and regional boundaries collapse under the weight of the Internet. Once upon a time, our parents were penpals to others living in foreign nations, scratching out long messages on paper to be mailed off. Weeks would pass without notice or confirmation, until suddenly a heavily stamped envelope would arrive from a friend overseas. Now we enjoy instantaneous communication to nearly every country in the world.The world of penpals and business has become one of instant global communication. But the struggle to get to this point has been long and filled with peril. We are at a stage where the world of communications is being turned upside down, and many users and businesses are forced to make a choice: to adopt new technology or to confine themselves to the relics of ancient devices. Personally, I have been lucky to follow the advent of the instant-messaging world from the beginning. It all started with the days of bulletin board systems (BBSs) running Renegade and PCBoard, which had very basic chat components to allow you to “talk” with the handful of others who could be on the same BBS at the same time. It was the introduction of FidoNet, an old-school mail-relaying system, that whetted my appetite for international communication. I quickly established my own bulletin board as a FidoNet node, allowing myself and my users to send messages to the vast reaches of the world.The fall of the BBS world led to my time in Internet Relay Chat (IRC), which after 12 years I’m still in the habit of visiting. Back when the BBSs crumbled, the world wasn’t ready for instant messaging. Everyone was accustomed to their chat rooms on AOL, IRC, CompuServe, and Prodigy, where they could join a channel of other random “thirty-somethings” and discuss the latest Seinfeld episode. When ICQ, the first IM service, hit the market in 1996, there was a general feeling of “Why would anyone want this?”The chat rooms were more than proficient at allowing us to talk to our friends, and there seemed little to be gained from an IM client. Still, many of us quickly signed up for accounts to play with the new idea. Over time, IM began to play a more central part in my life and in the lives of others around me. When I wanted to hop online for a few minutes to check my e-mail, minutes turned into hours as my friends could immediately see that I had logged in and initiate chats.The www.syngress.com


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Introduction • Chapter 1

world of chat rooms felt too confining at this point; it was too much protocol to join a server, find a chat room, see who was awake and around, and get caught up in channel politics just to talk to a friend. Instant messaging allowed me to quickly “ping” a friend and share information. As AOL released its Instant Messenger application (AIM), followed by Yahoo! and Microsoft Messenger, I registered on each to explore the new features and worlds opened to me. I can at least say that I’m happy not to have any screen names that end with a number. After using just about every client for long periods of time, I remained comfortable with ICQ and AIM.That was until August 2005, when Google Talk was released. After a rocky start, I began using Google Talk exclusively as my chat client. It provided all the main features that I wanted, without all the fluff that the other clients offered.

The Rise of Google Google Inc. has recently joined the instant-messaging foray with the release of Google Talk. Everyone seems to know Google. Well known for creating the most advanced search engine of its time, Google has become synonymous with information gathering and research—so much so that in the summer of 2006, Merriam-Webster and the Oxford English Dictionary included the word Google as a verb meaning to search for information on a person using the Google search engine. Google’s search engine and its related advertising services have turned Google Inc. into an overnight success, with over 10,000 employees scattered throughout central California and even in Microsoft’s backyard of Redmond, Washington. The Google machine has been working overtime in recent years, producing a large number of free applications to help the common computer user and to change people’s perspective of Internet technology.The most well known of these is Google Mail, a free Web-based mail service provided by Google. Known affectionately as Gmail, it launched on April 1, 2004, with the promise of 1 Gigabyte of information storage to any invited member.The invite-only structure still exists, as Gmail is still technically in the Beta stage, but with an abundance of invitations granted to each user and numerous invitations ending up on eBay for sale, just about any user who wants an account is allowed one. As of early 2006, Gmail served 6.7 million users, vastly fewer than its competitors, but for a new service it is gaining ground. Not only does www.syngress.com

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Google store the accounts for millions of users, but it also maintains an invisible social network, tying various accounts together. Google knows who invited you to join their Google Mail service, as well as whom your friends are in Google Talk, creating an interesting network of your friends and family. Other Google services, such as Orkut (www.orkut.com), make this social network visible by allowing you to invite new friends to join your social circle. Google has also started work on its line of Web-based office applications. It currently offers the ability to create and store documents and spreadsheets (http://docs.google.com), maintain your calendar schedules (www.google. com/calendar/), and store your favorite photos (http://picasaweb.google. com). We’ll take a look at many of these applications and see how Google Talk plays a vital role in then.

Notes From the Underground… Google Beta? Anyone who follows Google’s products will notice that a large majority of them are in Beta, a term describing the overall status of the software as not quite complete but good enough for mass testing. You might be familiar with the term Beta test, whereby a product is considered complete enough to warrant scrutiny and stress testing. Well, Google Talk is a Beta product, under Beta testing by millions of users. It joins the large Google family of Beta products, such as Google Mail. What this ultimately means is that the product has not been finalized into a releasable product and could undergo changes at any time. It is important to note that this book covers the Beta version of Google Talk. That means that new features might be implemented by the time you’ve installed it, and other features might be altered and removed.

The Instant-Messaging World Chances are that you are already using an instant-messaging client of some sort, and would like to know what Google Talk can offer you. Google Talk provides quite a few unique features, but what it is really known for is what it does not offer you: advertisements, spyware, information overload, and other www.syngress.com


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useless junk that other IM clients are known for. In this section, we’ll take a brief look at Google’s competition in the IM market.

America Online Instant Messenger Currently, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) is the most popular instant-messaging service in use in the United States. Precise numbers are hard to determine, but comScore judged that AIM has 54 million users as of July 2005, giving it a significant market presence. AIM is the big name in the IM world, there is no doubt about that. Although not the first IM service, AIM has the largest number of users with its existing America Online user base and the millions of others who registered just to use its chat client. AIM gave users the ability to log into any computer across the world that had the AIM client and immediately receive their full contact lists, showing which of their buddies were online at the time. It was the perfect product for the busy traveler and student, who might use hundreds of machines during the course of a year. Chat was effortless, as was the transfer of files from one machine to another. However, over time, a disease crept into AOL Instant Messenger. A disease called creeping featuritis, which often proves fatal.

Notes From the Underground Hide Your Daughters, It’s Creeping Featuritis! Creeping featuritis occurred when an application loses “its roots” and begins to throw in as many new features as they can possibly fit, even if it proves detrimental to the original concept of the tool. I wish I could say that AIM was the sole sufferer of this wasting sickness, but it proved to take hold of most IM services. As a prior software developer, I know the temptation of it all too well. I remember thinking, “I’ll just add one more feature that the users will love and everyone will adore me” But, the implementation of that one feature leads to two more, then three more, and soon your old ideas are becoming ugly and bug ridden while you focus on the next new idea. Continued

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The unfortunate side effect is that more focus and development goes into the creation of new ideas and add-ons, instead of making the already existing features pristine and bullet-proof. Typical features creeps in IM clients include themes, enhanced smiley faces, games, greeting cards and avatars.

AOL Instant Messenger was also used as a vehicle to push advertisements and other AOL features to users who really couldn’t care less, as shown in Figure 1.1. AOL also touts its AIM Today portal to all users, insisting that they really do want a one-stop shop for all their e-mail and personal settings as well as all the latest celebrity gossip. Figure 1.1 AOL Instant Messenger 5.9

ICQ ICQ is known as the first true instant-messaging client, released in late 1996, and has long been known for its outlandish sound effects. ICQ was www.syngress.com


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designed with a peculiar name, an acoronym for “I Seek You,” by a team of Israeli programmers. ICQ itself hosts over 20 million active users from all across the world, as stated by one of AOL’s press statements (www.corp.aol.com/products/brands_icq.shtml).This user base is contested, though; since ICQ and AIM share the same protocol, there is a chance that the number is dramatically lower. Some market analysts put the ICQ user base at a meager 1.8 million. Life for ICQ changed quite a bit, though, in 2000, when it was acquired by America Online. ICQ was left alone to continue to prosper, but its backend protocol design was altered to become compatible with AIM, allowing AIM and ICQ users to communicate with each other. Although ICQ doesn’t commandeer the great number of users that other services do, it has an established presence in many foreign markets. It also touts itself as a medium for online dating and relationships through its complex homepage that attempts to find compatible chat partners. Unfortunately, like many other IM clients, it relies on many advertisements for its own features and for other service providers, as shown in Figure 1.2. Figure 1.2 ICQ 2003b Pro

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Microsoft Windows Live Messenger The up and coming challenger in the instant messaging world comes from Microsoft, the behemoth from Redmond, Washington that likes its fingers in all of the pies.Their Microsoft Network (MSN) service was an attempt to dominate the ISP world and compete with AOL, but the only real by-product seems to be MSN Messenger. MSN Messenger ended up being one of the cleanest and produced more efficient IM clients for its time. With the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft is moving forward with its MSN replacement, Windows Live Messenger (WLM), as shown in Figure 1.3. WLM is proving to be quite a capable IM client, with a much cleaner interface than most of its competition. Figure 1.3 Microsoft Live Messenger

Although it does have a hefty 17 different menu icons for services such as MSN Video, MSN Shopping, MSN Dating, MSN Games, Rhapsody music, and eBay, these are all mostly hidden away from the user. And just like every other prominent client, it urges you to use its portal system, in this case MSN Today, to catch up on your daily gossip. WLM does capture the second largest user base in the IM community, though, with approximately 23 active million users, as reported by comScore in July 2005. However, Microsoft is still

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aiming for the top of the food chain with a recent deal with Yahoo! that will allow the two clients to share user communications.

Yahoo! Messenger With the arrival of Google,Yahoo! has been fighting for its identity in the online world. Its second-rate search engine was recently updated to match the power of Google’s search engine, but a lot of its attention has been placed on Yahoo! Messenger. If you are looking for flash-bang graphical overload, Yahoo! will probably be your client of choice. Not only can you force gaudy commercialized themes, called IMVironments, onto your friends, but you can also play a game of checkers with them. In Figure 1.4, you will notice that you are pushed into a variety of advertisements for Pop-Tarts,Yahoo! Movies Trailer plug-in,Yahoo! Voice Chat,Yahoo! Music LAUNCHcast,Yahoo! 360*, Yahoo! Weather, and the Yahoo! Search engine. However,Yahoo! Messenger has found its niche, since it holds the third largest user base of IM clients, with approximately 21 million users (www.thestreet.com/_googlen/markets/jamesaltucher/10242834.html). Its numbers are sure to fluctuate as it finally has merged its protocol with Microsoft Live Messenger in summer 2005, allowing Yahoo! and Microsoft Live users to communicate with each other. Figure 1.4 Yahoo! Messenger

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QQ Ever heard of QQ? You probably haven’t, although it is the most popular IM chat client in the world. It has over 220 million active users on its service; that’s more active users than all the other clients discussed here combined! However, its user base is predominantly Asian, with large usage in China, Korea, and Japan, along with significant usage in South Africa. So why do I mention it? Well, 220 million users can’t be wrong! However, much of this success is because QQ operates very anonymously, without even requiring an e-mail address for registration. QQ features a very clean and simple interface, as shown in Figure 1.5, with no advertisements and no pushy pop-up windows.There are no additional frill packages, just honest-to-goodness chat.This is what the people want, and they have been waiting for it here in the United States! Their wishes have finally been answered with Google Talk. Figure 1.5 QQ Main Screen

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What’s Wrong With This Picture? Now that you’ve briefly looked through what the market has to offer, what do you see wrong? There is plenty to complain about: advertisements, popup windows, portal home pages, dozens of icons and buttons, and a lack of concise design. Much of these products are tailored towards the young teenage crowd, with an emphasis on games and playing “dress up” with your own avatar. What about the practical user in all of us? Our inner adult wants to get down to brass tacks, bypass all of the graphical fluff, and just chat with friends. We don’t care what dress Tiffany’s fictional avatar is wearing. What we want is a simple to use program that makes it easy to find our friends and talk to them, as shown in Figure 1.6. The answer for this type of user is Google Talk. Figure 1.6 Google Talk Client

Introducing Google Talk The Google Talk client was a huge step forward for Google as a means of tying in communications with its wide suite of applications. For one, Google Talk is one of the few open-standard chat services around, using the widely www.syngress.com

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popular Jabber protocol. It is ubiquitous in your world, allowing you to connect through a standalone client, Google Mail, or many of Google’s other Web-based applications. When Google Talk was envisioned, the planners decided to take advantage of the Jabber protocol, an open-standard protocol based upon XML that’s used in a large variety of networks. Its design makes it easy for third-party developers to create modifications and extensions to Google Talk or create their own clients that can converse with Google Talk users.This is vastly different from all the other prominent IM services, which use their own closed-source protocols and spend countless hours blocking access from outside clients.

Google Talking Without a Client Throughout this book we will become intimately familiar with the Google Talk standalone client, shown in Figure 1.6. However, that is not the only means of communication. Google turned a lot of heads when it decided to implement Google Talk capabilities within Google Mail, as shown in Figure 1.7. Using any Internet-accessible computer in the world, you can now jump in to check your Gmail and chat with all your friends. Although there is a bit of difference in how the standalone and the Web-based clients work, they share the same protocol and basic functionality. Many of these differences will be discussed later in this book, and we’ll discuss how you can setup and use each of these implementations. Figure 1.7 Google Mail Chat

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Obviously, the sky is the limit for an application like Google Talk, with the full resources of Google, Inc. behind it. Google Talk has already been implemented into other Google apps, such as their Google Desktop (http://desktop. google.com), with the potential for it to be included in numerous other applications, such as Google’s Documents and Spreadsheets applications. Google’s interoperability is often the butt of many jokes, though, after the recent press that they have received over their ad-based Google Mail system. Pretty soon, we may see Google Talk monitoring our conversations, as demonstrated in the UserFriendly.org comic strip in Figure 1.8. Figure 1.8 Google Talk Helping With Bad English (http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20050828)

Notes From the Underground… Docs and Spreadsheets Aren’t There Yet Many people who use Google’s Web-based applications will notice some of the many advanced features that they provide, such as a discussion capability. In Google Spreadsheets, you can open a shared spreadsheet Continued

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document with your friends, family, or coworkers and send messages about the content while simultaneously editing the document. Such a chat feature might seem right up Google Talk’s alley, but it’s actually using a standard Web-based chat format. However, keep your eyes on it; there is great hope for what Google Docs and Spreadsheets can become. Think of creating a new spreadsheet and picking names off your Google Talk contact list to share the contents with, then tying in the discussion with your Talk buddies.

Google Talking On the Go Along with its Web-based interface for communicating with others, Google Talk is also available on a number of portable communication devices, such as the RIM BlackBerry, as shown in Figure 1.9, and the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet.There is strong potential for an even greater market presence with Google Talk for Palm devices and cell phones. How about Google Talk on your wrist watch? Figure 1.9 Google Talk for the RIM BlackBerry (Courtesy of Google Inc.)

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Solutions Fast-Track How Did We Get Here? The instant-messaging world that we currently enjoy has been in

development for well over a decade as dozens of IM clients battled for market dominance. The use of IM marks a significant departure in the way modern

Internet users view their online friends and their time online.Today we don’t want to commit ourselves to a chat application and invest the time in sitting in chat rooms. We want instantaneous communication with friends and family, no matter what we are doing at the time.

The Rise of Google Google Inc., starting from the development of an ingenious search

engine design, has grown into a multibillion-dollar corporation that seeks to revolutionize the way people operate on the Internet. Google Talk is just one small side project of the greater Google good

and symbolizes Google’s attitudes toward allowing its employees to work on fun pet projects that could grow up to change the world.

The Instant-Messaging World Although ICQ might have been the first recognized instant-

messaging service, it has definitely fallen behind the times, holding significantly fewer devoted users than any other prominent IM service. AIM has been able to leverage its large established America Online

user base into the largest IM market in North America and still retains that title through numerous client enhancements.

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Yahoo! Messenger and Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger have

been vying for the lead position, and now that both clients intermingle, their combined user base could spell trouble for AIM. One of the greatest disadvantages to most IM clients is their creeping

features, where numerous insignificant modifications are favored over the core chat experience. QQ leads the world in active users through its established market in

Asia and with its simplified and to-the-point interface.

Introducing Google Talk Google Talk might be the newest IM service to emerge, but with a

strong brand name and loyal following, it could become one of the most popular clients in upcoming years. Google Talk not only operates with its standalone client, it is also tied

into a number of Google services, such as Google Mail. For chatters on the move, Google Talk is also fully supported on

numerous mobile devices, such as the RIM BlackBerry and Nokia 770 tablet.

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Frequently Asked Questions The following Frequently Asked Questions, answered by the authors of this book, are designed to both measure your understanding of the concepts presented in this chapter and to assist you with real-life implementation of these concepts. To have your questions about this chapter answered by the author, browse to www.syngress.com/solutions and click on the “Ask the Author” form.

Q: I use Trillian for all of my instant messaging. Does Google Talk integrate into it? A: Trillian is an excellent client that features a simplified interface that appeals to many users.Trillian is also a free product that allows you to communicate with a wide variety of instant-messaging services. However, the free version of Trillian does not support Google Talk; you will have to purchase Trillian Pro. If Google Talk is going to be your client of choice, and you don’t use accounts on many other services, it is much easier and cheaper just to use the Google Talk client. Q: When will Google Talk be taken out of Beta? A: That’s impossible to say. Many Google products stay in the Beta stage for months, if not years, because they are constantly being fine-tuned and updated. Many developers are hesitant to put the final stamp of approval on their product until they are sure that it is completely bug free and has all the features users want. However, as any software program manager can tell you, sometimes products have to ship with bugs. It is advantageous for Google to have its product sit in Beta mode, where millions of adventurous users can test and abuse it, without having to commit the company to Google Talk being a final product.

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Q: I like my instant-messaging clients with lots of colors and video. Can I modify Google Talk for this? A: Absolutely.There are currently many plug-ins to Google Talk as well as modifications made by advanced users. In Chapter 4 of this book we’ll go into some of these modifications and how you can do some really cool stuff with a very basic client.You can even use Google Talk to talk to your friends on AIM and Yahoo!

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Chapter 2

Installation


Installing Google Talk on Windows


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Chapter 2 • Installation

Introduction In this chapter, we’ll look at what’s required to begin making and taking calls in Google Talk. Depending on your platform, the installation requirements and steps are slightly different, so feel free to skip down to the section that covers your particular platform.

Minimum System Requirements So you’ve heard all about this Internet telephone thing that the world is buzzing about, and you’ve decided you want to get on board. Good for you! Let’s look at the steps you’ll need to take to get Google Talk properly installed and configured so you can begin to reach out and touch someone. First things first: We need to ensure that your computer system meets Google Talk’s minimum requirements.

Connection Speed: Broadband vs. Dial-Up First you need an Internet connection. I know, I know … an Internet connection? For an Internet phone call? Stop the presses! Although this might seem blindingly obvious, it is important that your connection have enough bandwidth to accommodate Internet telephone traffic. What is bandwidth? Bandwidth is a measure of the capacity of a communications channel.The higher a channel’s bandwidth, the more information it can carry. So what does this mean to you, the Google Talk user? Basically, there are two types of bandwidth: broadband and dial-up.This is of course a dangerous over-generalization, but for consumer-level Internet connections, this definition will suffice. Broadband is generally considered to be anything at the Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) level and faster, such as the common cable modem Internet connection. Normal dial-up Internet, also referred to as narrowband, is any Internet connection over the plain old telephone system (POTS) network.These connections require a user to dial the Internet service provider (ISP) over the phone and are considerably slower than cable or DSL. In contrast, cable/DSL connections are “always on”—that is, as long as your computer or a device directly connected to the modem is powered on, you will have Internet connectivity. www.syngress.com

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Installation • Chapter 2

So why does all this matter? So glad you asked! Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) requires a lot of bandwidth to send voice traffic at acceptable speeds. Without a sufficient connection, the quality of the audio will decrease, echo, jitter, and become otherwise unusable.Typical dial-up connections simply don’t have the room or the speed to make telephone calls; ironic, considering that this traffic is over telephone lines in the first place. If you happen to live in an area where broadband Internet connectivity is not available, that doesn’t mean that you will be unable to use Google Talk, but it does exclude you from taking advantage of Google Talk’s voice chat capabilities. However, if you are fortunate enough to have access to a broadband connection, you will be able to take advantage of all Google Talk’s features.

Upload and Download Speeds An important thing to keep in mind in regard to bandwidth speed is that not all connection speeds are created equal.This matters most when it comes to upload speed, which affects your ability to send audio. Upload speed is how fast you can send data. Conversely, download is the speed at which you receive data. Most cable modems and DSL lines have asynchronous speeds, which means that the download speed is generally much faster than the upload speed.This is especially important over shared Internet connections, such as at a Wi-Fi hotspot or on a local area network (LAN). Although download speeds are often plentiful, the same numbers of people are sharing the minimal upload bandwidth, which might result in choppy or unusable call audio. As a guideline, the following are average speeds associated with their respective Internet connection types: ■

Cable modem 4Mbps download, 250kps upload

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Standard DSL 1.5 Mbps download, 128kbps upload

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Satellite 500kbps download, 56kps upload

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Testing Your Bandwidth Speeds Many places on the Internet, such as www.bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/, will give you a measurement of your connection’s bandwidth speeds. However, these sites will typically measure only your download speed, and Google Talk is more dependent on upload speed. For an accurate measure of upload speed, check out the speed test at www.dslreports.com/stest/. Please note also that although this site supports most geographic locations, not all places are supported, so your mileage may vary.

Microphone and Speakers Now that you’ve made sure you’ve got the download and upload speeds necessary to make a Google Talk call, you need some equipment to actually send and receive audio. Specifically, you’ll need a microphone and speakers. In this section, we’ll look at some considerations for these required accessories.

Headsets Google recommends using a headset (which integrates both a microphone and a headphone speaker), such as the ones made by Logitech. For optimal sound quality, get a headset with full duplex. Full duplex means that the headset can receive and send audio simultaneously. You’ll also want a headset that offers noise cancellation.This ensures that you will not have any echo or feedback in the audio (high-pitched shrills that sound not unlike a dying narwhal) and will eliminate most of the ambient background noise in the area.

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Microphone and Headphones If you don’t have access to a headset such as those made by Logitech, you can use regular headphones like the ones that come with any iPod or CD player and a generic microphone. Both can be obtained at most stores with an electronics department, such as Best Buy or even Wal-Mart. It is important to prevent the sound from the headphones reaching the microphone or you will experience the dreaded audio assault of feedback. You will probably need to fiddle with the audio settings for both the microphone and the headphones. Ideally you want the headphones no louder than what is required to clearly hear the person on the call, and you want the microphone no more sensitive than is needed to be heard clearly by your caller.

A Word About Laptops The majority of laptops manufactured today come from the factory with built-in speakers and a built-in microphone. Although it is still advisable to use a set of headphones with this configuration, you can have a perfectly good experience without one.You will still need to configure your microphone’s sensitivity to avoid undesirable audio.

Bluetooth Headsets Most modern mobile phones and many laptop computers come equipped with Bluetooth. Bluetooth, the common name for devices complying with the IEEE 802.15.1 standard, is a wireless technology for personal area networks (PANs) that allows wireless data exchange. Bluetooth works especially well for headsets, allowing hands-free communication within a range of 1 to 10 meters, depending on the class of Bluetooth radio in the device.The ranges for the respective radios are as follows: ■

Class 1 100 mW, 20 dBm, ~100 meters

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Class 2 2.5 mW, 4 dBm, ~10 meters

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Class 3 1 mW, 0 dBm, ~1 meter

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You can use these Bluetooth headsets with Google Talk if you configure your computer to send audio through the headset.To use a headset with a computer, you must first “pair” the devices.This is done by setting both the computer and the headset in “discoverable” mode. Once the devices “see” each other, you can connect them, usually requiring you to enter a password or PIN in the setup software on your computer.The specifics of this operation vary greatly by manufacturer and model and so are beyond the scope of this book. Consult the manuals that came with your headset and computer to successfully pair the devices. If your computer did not ship equipped with a Bluetooth device, you’re not quite out of luck. Most consumer electronics and computer stores offer USB dongles, which will augment your computer with Bluetooth capabilities. Again, consult the manual that shipped with the dongle to properly configure it.

Notes from the Underground Avoid Getting Bluejacked! Remember not to keep your Bluetooth devices in “discoverable” mode when they are not in the process of being paired. Some Bluetooth devices have a weakness in the way the handshake between devices is implemented, making it possible (however unlikely) for an attacker to pair to your computer without your permission. This could enable all sorts of hacker hijinks. Of course, it would require the attacker to be within physical proximity to you, but it is still an important thing to keep in mind.

USB Phones With the rise in popularity of VoIP, manufacturers are starting to answer the public outcry for devices that mimic a traditional telephone.These phones further erase the line between standard POTS telephone calls and VoIP calls such as those made by Google Talk. By recreating a familiar experience, these phones bring VoIP to a broader market.

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The prices of these phones vary greatly depending on feature set, such as Google Talk integration (allowing you to log into Google Talk and place calls directly from the handset) or wireless capabilities that allow you to roam your living room as you take and make calls.The average price range for a USB phone is between $20 and $200. Most USB phones are still very early in the software development stage and tend to be geared toward Skype, a competitive product to Google Talk. However, as Google Talk gains popularity, more phones are being shipped with compatibility for both VoIP clients. Also, many manufacturers provide an update to the firmware (the software that controls the phone) to include support for Google Talk and other clients. At the time of writing, the only phone completely compatible with Google Talk is the Yealink P1K USB phone.This phone retails for about US$50 and is compatible with Google Talk, Skype,Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, and VoIP Buster.This phone can be used on all major platforms, including Microsoft Windows, Apple’s Mac OS X, and Linux Fedora Core 3. More information on this phone can be found at www.amperordirect.com/pc/b-yealink/Internet-phone-yealink-usbp1k.html.

Personal Computer (PC) Requirements At the time of this printing, Google Talk is only officially available for computers running Microsoft Windows, although third-party applications will allow you to connect to the Google Talk network. We’ll discuss third-party applications in Chapter 5, but let’s take a quick look at the system requirements for Google Talk now: ■

Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP (Home and Pro), or Windows Server 2003; you may use Linux if you have a client that supports the XMPP Protocol

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A 56k dial-up connection or a faster broadband connection such as DSL, cable modem, or satellite

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At least 10 megabytes of hard drive space; Google Talk will work with less but could have undesired effects

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256k or more of RAM memory; Google Talk will work with less but may have undesired effects www.syngress.com

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Chapter 2 • Installation ■

1GHz or faster processor; Google Talk will run on a computer with less but may have undesired effects

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A full-duplex sound card with a microphone and headphone jack (for voice calls); a single-duplex sound card will work, but the audio will be choppy, and you will not be able to hear someone talk if you are already talking, and vice versa

Installing Google Talk on Windows Before we get to actually installing and running Google Talk on our Windows system, we need to first ensure that our sound card is correctly configured and fully functional. Ensure that your headset or microphone/headphone combination are properly connected to the computer. If you are using a USB device, simply plug the device into an available USB port and, if necessary, follow any on-screen instructions to install the device. If you are using a more traditional microphone or headset with standard headphone jacks, make sure the speakers or earphones are plugged into the audio-out port (typically colored green) and the microphone is plugged into the microphone jack (usually pink). More often than not, there will be a symbol in the shape of a microphone or headphones to guide you. Windows comes with a program called Sound Recorder that we will use to run a test to make sure our equipment is set up properly.To do this, we will record and then play back an audio clip using our recording and playback devices. Sound Recorder is available by clicking Start | Programs | Accessories | Entertainment | Sound Recorder, as shown in Figure 2.1. Figure 2.1 Launching Windows Sound Recorder

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Open Sound Recorder, as shown in Figure 2.2, then click the red button on the far right of the application to begin recording. Now speak into the microphone. Figure 2.2 Windows Sound Recorder

You should notice some activity on the green line that runs through the center of the program window, which represents the audio wave form the program is recording (in this case, your voice). Click the Stop button next to the Record button and then play back the audio. If you hear your voice played back to you, congratulations! Your sound card is functional and your microphone is correctly connected. If you did not hear yourself, something went wrong and we have to troubleshoot.

Troubleshooting Windows Audio Recording The first thing to check if the recording did not play back is whether or not the microphone or the sound card has been muted. In Figure 2.3, the computer’s sound card is set to mute, noted by the icon of a speaker with the slashed red circle over it. If you see this symbol, singleclick the icon with the left mouse button to bring up the mute dialog box, as shown in Figure 2.4. Uncheck the mute button and replay the audio file. Do you hear yourself? If so, move on to installing the application. If not, we need to investigate further. Don’t despair! Help is on the way!

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Figure 2.3 Muted Sound Card

Figure 2.4 Mute Dialog Box

So you are certain your computer’s sound card is not muted, but you still aren’t getting any audio.The next thing we need to check is whether or not the microphone has been muted.To bring up the Volume Control window (shown in Figure 2.5), double-click the speaker icon in the system tray. Ensure that the Mute check box remains unchecked in the Microphone settings. If it is checked, uncheck it and rerecord your test audio. If you can hear yourself, continue to the section on installing the application.

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Figure 2.5 Volume Control Panel

If you have made it this far and are positive that your connections are correct but your audio still does not work, it is possible that you do not have a sound card, or you could be experiencing problems with that device’s drivers. To check that you have a sound card, first open Control Panel from the Start menu, as shown in Figure 2.6. Figure 2.6 Windows Control Panel

Now double-click the Sound and Audio Devices icon, as shown in Figure 2.7. www.syngress.com

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Figure 2.7 Sound and Audio Options

Next, select the Audio tab, as shown in Figure 2.8. Figure 2.8 The Audio Tab

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The device listed should be your sound card. If your card is not listed at all or is listed incorrectly, you might have a problem with your sound card and should consult your PC’s manufacturer for support.

Installing the Application Now that you’ve made it this far, you are very close to making your first Google Talk call. Continue down the home stretch by visiting http://talk.google.com/ to sign up for an account and download the client. If you already have a Google account (created by signing up for Google Groups, Gmail, or another Google service), you can simply skip this section.Your existing account will work just fine for Google Talk. Click the Sign up here link on the Google Talk main page to begin the process of creating an account.The accounts setup page (shown in Figure 2.9) requires that you have an existing e-mail account.You’ll also need to choose a strong password of six characters or longer. When checked, the Remember me option will automatically log you in when you launch Google Talk.This is not recommended if you are using a shared computer.The Enable Personalized Search option is discussed in Chapter 4.You can opt to enable or disable this feature at a later time. Figure 2.9 Google Account Sign-Up Main Page

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Notes From the Underground… Weak Passwords Mean Weak Security! Google Talk and Google Accounts require you to create only a six-digit password, but it is recommended that you create one much longer and stronger than that. Your Google Accounts password protects more than just your Google Talk account; it could also protect your Gmail and other Google applications. Short passwords with no “special characters” (characters other than a–z and 0–9) in them are cracked much easier than those of eight characters or more. Avoid using words found in the dictionary as passwords or you can consider your accounts compromised. The longer the password, the safer your account will be.

Next you are prompted for your desired username and, optionally, your first and last names. If you include your first and last names, they will be displayed when users query your profile for information about you. Lastly, you’ll need to fill out the Google Word Verification form with the word pictured in the box. You might notice that the displayed word looks odd, often in a random color and displayed in a zigzag or wavy line.This is to prevent automated tools from signing up for accounts that can be used to send IM or telephonic spam, the digital equivalent of junk mail and telemarketing messages.The idea is that only a sentient human should be able to read the word displayed in the image. Automating Google processes without using their programmer API (a means of interacting with Google legally for programmers) is explicitly prohibited and a big no-no. Doing so could get you in big trouble with Google and should be avoided. Lastly, read the terms of service and the privacy policy, and check the box indicating that you have done so. After downloading the client, you might see a yellow shield icon like the one pictured in Figure 2.10.This is to warn you that the application may be a security risk if you did not intend to download it and/or do not know and

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trust the source of this application. Since we trust Google, feel free to save the installer to someplace convenient, such as your Desktop. Figure 2.10 Windows Download Security Warning

Now that we’ve downloaded the application and signed up for an account, we need to run the application. Locate where you saved the installer (such as the Desktop) and double-click the file.You are first presented with a license agreement, as shown in Figure 2.11. Scroll through and read the agreement to understand the rules for using Google Talk, then click I agree. The application will then install itself on your computer. Figure 2.11 Google Talk License Agreement

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Once the installation has completed, click the Finish button, as shown in Figure 2.12. Figure 2.12 Completing the Google Talk Installer

You are now ready to run the program and log in with your account information. Run Google Talk from the Start menu.You will be prompted for your username and password, as shown in Figure 2.13. Figure 2.13 The Google Talk Login Page

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Fill out the Username and Password fields with the information from your Google or Gmail account. If you are using your Gmail account, your Gmail contacts will automatically be populated into your Buddy list.You will also see the number of e-mails you have in your Gmail account and might be greeted by a pop-up window in the lower-right corner of your screen (shown in Figure 2.14), which could contain the subject and first few lines of any messages you might have. Figure 2.14 Google Talk’s Gmail Notifier

The main Google Talk interface (shown in Figure 2.15) is very simple and very efficient. It very much mimics the ease of use that Gmail and the Google search engine are known for. Figure 2.15 The Google Talk Interface

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You’ve done it! You have successfully completed signing up for and installing Google Talk on your Windows machine. Now you can begin chatting with your online contacts by double-clicking a name in the list and selecting an option, as shown in Figure 2.16. Figure 2.16 Contact Options

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Solutions Fast Track What Type of Operating System Should I Use? All modern operating systems have clients which will allow you to

connect to the Google Talk network. For maximum compatibility with Google Talk and its users, it is

recommended to use Windows.

Audio Hardware Requirements Use a full-duplex sound card if you can.This will allow you to send

and receive audio simultaneously, much like a real telephone. Ideally you’ll have a headset with noise-cancellation features to filter

out unwanted background noise, although a standard headphone/microphone combination should suffice.

Bandwidth Considerations Public WiFi hotspots are not good for Google Talk use, since the

upload bandwidth stream is limited and is shared among all patrons of the access point. Dial-up Internet connections of 56k or higher are usable, but the

audio will sound poor. Dial-up is really only suitable for text chatting with another user. Whenever possible, use a wired Ethernet connection to a LAN with

broadband or faster speeds.

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Frequently Asked Questions The following Frequently Asked Questions, answered by the authors of this book, are designed to both measure your understanding of the concepts presented in this chapter and to assist you with real-life implementation of these concepts. To have your questions about this chapter answered by the author, browse to www.syngress.com/solutions and click on the “Ask the Author” form.

Q: Do I need to install a program to use Google Talk? A: No, you can use the text chat features of Google Talk through Gmail. Q: Will Google Talk cost me anything? A: Maybe. Google Talk is itself a free service, and calling other people with Google Talk over the Internet does not cost extra in and of itself.You will need an Internet connection, which might cost you money. Also, some ISPs might charge you by how much bandwidth you use, and therefore you might incur cost from the additional traffic. Q: I use an instant-messaging client you did not talk about. Can I still connect to Google Talk? A: As long as the client you use supports the Jabber protocol, you will be able to peer with Google Talking. Consult the documentation for your client to connect to Google’s Jabber network. We’ll discuss non-Windows applications in the next chapter.

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Chapter 3

Google Talk for Non-Windows Users


Gaim for Linux

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iChat for OS X

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Adium for OS X


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Chapter 3 • Google Talk for Non-Windows Users

Introduction It might seem to some that the world revolves around Microsoft Windows, but some of us know better. Millions of Linux and Macintosh users out there make up a very vocal minority. Well, guess what? You guys aren’t completely left out of Google Talk. Even though the official Google Talk client is only available for Windows, it is possible to use third-party applications in both Linux and OS X to chat with your Google Talk friends. This is all made possible because Google has taken advantage of the Jabber protocol, an open-source network design that anyone can tap into and start using.This is completely the opposite philosophy of other IM clients, such as AOL Instant Messenger,Yahoo! Messenger, and Microsoft Messenger, which have fought to keep third-party clients from connecting to their networks. Google runs an open Google Talk server at talk.google.com that allows connections from any client using the Jabber protocol. All a client has to do is connect to the correct listening port on talk.google.com and they can immediately start chatting with their friends.

Tools & Traps… Google Talk’s Listening Port Google Talk’s server, talk.google.com, uses a number of TCP port numbers that listen for connections from clients. The two ports that it uses most commonly for Google Talk connections are 5222 and 5223. A port is just a unique number that allows one specific type of data to connect. This is like visiting a huge corporate building with thousands of doors leading to various offices. Depending on who you want to talk to, you have to enter a particular door. Door 80 takes you to the Web content, door 25 to the mailroom. Some clients might only work on one port and not the other. If you are receiving unusual error messages when you attempt to log in, such as “Read Error,” you might want to change the port that your client is connecting to from 5222 to 5223, or vice versa.

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Google Talk for Non-Windows Users • Chapter 3

Gaim for Linux Gaim, an open-source, instant-messaging client, is one of the most popular clients in use today. It can be downloaded from http://gaim.sourceforge.net and installed on a variety of operating systems, such as Windows, Linux, and OS X. Gaim allows you to connect to a very wide variety of IM networks, including AIM, ICQ, MSN,Yahoo! Messenger, IRC, QQ, and Jabber. In addition, Gaim’s support of Jabber allows it to connect directly to Google’s Talk server. The Gaim download page (http://gaim.sourceforge.net/downloads.php) lists a number of RPM package management archives available for many of the newest and most popular Linux distributions, though many popular distributions are still not supported. If you aren’t interested in one of the mainline RPM distributions, you can download the Autopackage version of Gaim or the full source code. Autopackage is a new style of installer similar to the Windows install “wizards.” Autopackage installation is simple: Download the package, give it execute permission, and run it. If you are unable to install the RPM or Autopackage versions of Gaim, you might be forced to compile it straight from the source code. Although many users prefer this method, it’s not for the faint of heart, and neither is it for new Linux users.The INSTALL file inside the distribution contains the exact installation procedure. Since the instructions are subject to change, we will not outline them here, but suffice it to say that the typical ./configure ; make ; make install commands work well for most installations. Automake is designed to facilitate these simplified installation instructions. Be sure that GnuTLS (www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/) is installed before compiling from source, because Gaim requires it to be able to log into the Google Talk network. Without it, your client will display “ERROR: Server does not use any supported authentication method” when trying to connect to Google Talk.

Setting Up Your Account Once you’ve installed Gaim, go ahead and fire it up. From the command line, simply type gaim.The first time that Gaim loads, it will display the basic login screen, as shown in Figure 3.1. From here, you will need to set up your Google Talk account. Do this by clicking Accounts. www.syngress.com

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Figure 3.1 Gaim Login Screen

This will open the Gaim Account Manager, as shown in Figure 3.2. From this window you can add, delete, or edit any of your instant-messaging accounts. Click the button labeled +Add to add a new account to Gaim. Figure 3.2 Gaim Account Manager

This will open a window, similar to the one shown in Figure 3.3, that allows you to enter the account details.

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Figure 3.3 Gaim Account Settings

Since Google Talk uses Jabber for communication, first set Protocol to Jabber. Doing so will automatically update the fields that apply to this protocol. Figure 3.3 shows the result of this selection. In this example, Show more options has been clicked; this displays the Jabber Options and Proxy Options.You should type your Google Talk username in the Screen Name field. Specify gmail.com as the server.This server field only specifies where your account is stored. Since all Google Talk accounts are Gmail accounts, gmail.com is the option to specify here. Ensure that Use TLS if available is checked. Set the Connect Server to talk.google.com and the Port to 5222. Gaim allows you to configure a proxy for communications between your computer and Google Talk.This can be done by changing the Proxy Type from Use Global Proxy Settings to SOCKS 4 or SOCKS 5, depending on the type of proxy you use. Most users will leave this setting as it is.

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Once the account is configured, click the Save button to return to the main login screen, where you should see your account information displayed. Type in your account’s password, click Sign On, and away you go.

Using Gaim Gaim’s Buddy List (see Figure 3.4) is very straightforward, like most other IM clients. All your online friends will be shown with a glowing light bulb next to their names. Simply double-clicking any name will launch a chat window between you and your friend. Figure 3.4 Gaim Buddy List

The chat window within Gaim, shown in Figure 3.5, is very similar to those of most other Google Talk clients. From here you can see the name of the person you’re chatting with and all the chat traffic. Gaim will also automatically timestamp each message so that you know exactly when it was sent or received.

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Figure 3.5 Gaim Chat Window

iChat for OS X For the many Macintosh users in the world, iChat is one of the most used instant-messaging clients.This could be simply because it’s built into the operating system and most users are too lazy to replace something that already exists, but it’s also a very simple and easy-to-use program that’s already right there in your dock. iChat allows most users to immediately get up and chatting on a variety of networks, including AIM, .Mac, and Jabber.You can even be logged into multiple networks at the same time, chatting with Windows and Mac friends simultaneously.

Tools & Traps Using the Correct Version of iChat Because OS X has changed quite a bit between its versions, so did its internal applications such as iChat. iChat did not add support for the Jabber network and Google Talk until its release in Tiger (version 10.4). So, all you Panther users, and even those who still use Jaguar and Puma, need to step up and buy the latest version. www.syngress.com

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Setting Up Your Account The first time that you run iChat, you are prompted to configure your accounts. From here, you can enter in information for your AIM, .Mac, or Jabber accounts. However, if you want to use iChat to connect to Google Talk, the setup screen, shown in Figure 3.6, does not give you all the options you need to really set it up. Simply click Continue. We’ll set up the account afterward. Figure 3.6 iChat Initial Setup

Once iChat is up and running, we need to go into its preferences to set up our Google Talk account.To do so, just select iChat | Preferences from the top of your screen, or press the Command key. Once in the preferences screen, you should see an icon labeled Accounts, wherein you can manage all your supported chat accounts. Now we just need to add Google Talk to iChat as a Jabber account. Do this by clicking the + button in the bottom left of the window to bring up the account creation screen, shown in Figure 3.7. From here, pull down the list of items for Account Type and choose Jabber Account. Under Jabber ID, type your full Gmail address, such as [email protected]. (My apologies to readers named Your Name.) If you are not using a Google Mail account, type the username that you registered for Google Talk, followed by @gmail.com. Punch in your password, and specify Google Talk’s server, talk.google.com. Now you’ve got it almost all www.syngress.com

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set up. Go ahead and click Add, and we’ll make a few small changes to make sure you can connect. Figure 3.7 iChat Account Setup

After you’ve added your Jabber account, details will be shown in the right-hand portion of the Preferences window.These details are broken into two sections: Account Information, shown in Figure 3.8, and Server Settings, shown in Figure 3.9.The Account Information section allows you to specify your e-mail address and password and whether or not you’d like to automatically log into this account when iChat is launched.The information you typed into iChat’s setup dialogs is populated into these fields. Figure 3.8 iChat Account Information

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In the Server Settings section (see Figure 3.9), verify that the server is set to talk.google.com and that the port is set to 5223. Because Google Talk encrypts its authentication traffic, you need to ensure that the options Connect using SSL and Allow self-signed certificates are checked. Make sure that you have a location value set so that others know where you’re chatting from.The easiest option is just to check Use my machine name so that you don’t have to worry about it. Figure 3.9 iChat Server Settings

Using iChat Once iChat is up and running, its usage is very straightforward. After connecting to Google Talk, you will be presented with your familiar buddy list, as shown in Figure 3.10. From here, you can monitor which of your contacts are online and initiate chats with them. Double-clicking any (online) name will open a chat window, like the one shown in Figure 3.11.

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Figure 3.10 iChat Buddy List

Adding new friends to your contact list is as easy as clicking the + button in the lower-left of the buddy list window, as shown in Figure 3.10. From there, you can select to add a new contact and specify his or her Google Talk username.To remove a friend from your list, simply click the friend’s name and select Buddies | Remove Buddy…. Figure 3.11 iChat Chat Window

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iChat Limitations The implementation of Jabber and Google Talk into Tiger’s version of iChat does have some great limitations. It can only perform some very basic functions, such as being able to add and remove friends from your contact list or chat with them. It does not have the capability to send files or voicemails to other users. As shown in Figure 3.12, the only options to perform under the Buddies menu are Get Info and Change My Picture. Obviously, iChat is great as a very basic chat client because it is already built into OS X, but it lacks the advanced features that some users enjoy. Figure 3.12 iChat Menu

Adium X for OS X OS X’s iChat can provide basic chatting abilities, but it is severely lacking in some of the more advanced features. Some users might also want to use a single client to access even more networks than iChat allows. For these users, there is Adium X, downloadable from www.adiumx.com, which is possibly the greatest IM client for OS X machines. Adium X, which we’ll shorten to just Adium, is a free program that is easily installed and configured by visiting its Web site and downloading the application as a DMG (disk image) file. Once downloaded, the file will automatically open and you will be given the opportunity to install it, as shown in Figure 3.13. www.syngress.com

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Figure 3.13 Adium Install

Setting Up Your Account The first time that you run Adium it will automatically open the Preferences screen, where you can add new accounts, as shown in Figure 3.14. If you’re already an Adium user, simply select the Adium | Preferences menu from the top of your screen to open this window. Similar to iChat, if you want to add a new account, click the + button located in the lower-left portion of the screen.This will drop down a menu of all the various networks that Adium supports, in which you will notice Google Talk, along with a wide variety of other popular IM networks. Figure 3.14 Adium Account Manager

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After you select Google Talk from this menu, a new window will appear, allowing you to configure your account information.This window is divided into five sections, allowing you to fully customize your account and its connection.The first section is the Account screen, shown in Figure 3.15. From this screen, enter your Google Talk e-mail address as the Jabber ID and your Google Talk password.You can also select whether or not to automatically log into this account when Adium starts. The Personal screen allows you to give yourself an alias name that will be shown to your friends in their contact lists.You can also specify an avatar image for your account that will be displayed to all your friends. Figure 3.15 Adium Account Settings

The Options screen, shown in Figure 3.16, allows you to configure the server to connect to and the way the connection should be made. From here, just type talk.google.com as the Connect Server and specify 5222 as the connection port.To connect to Google Talk, you must check the box labeled Use TLS encryption. Figure 3.16 Adium Server Settings

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The Privacy screen gives you the option of encrypting your messages to your friends. However, this is performed automatically by Google Talk through the TLS encryption specified in Figure 3.16, so there’s no need to change the settings here.You can also specify whether you want to send notifications to your friends that you are in the middle of typing a message to them. You also have the ability to configure Adium to connect to Google Talk through a proxy server by viewing the Proxy screen, shown in Figure 3.17. By using a proxy, you can hide your computer’s IP address from Google and you can hide the fact that you’re using Google Talk from your local network monitors. Proxy usage is discussed in depth later in this book. When you’ve configured everything for your account, click the OK button to save the details and log in. Figure 3.17 Adium Proxy Settings

Using Adium X When you first log into your account, you’ll be presented with a normal contact list window that’ll show all your friends who are currently online.To view your offline friends, simply select View | Show Offline Contacts, as shown in Figure 3.18. From this same menu, you can also change how your contacts should be sorted and displayed on your list.

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Figure 3.18 Adium Menu

Chatting with Adium is very straightforward. Simply click your friend’s name to open a chat window, as shown in Figure 3.19. From here, simply type your messages and chat back and forth. Adium is also much more compatible with Google Talk than iChat is, allowing you to perform extra functions, such as transferring files to and receiving files from your friends. To add a new friend to your contact list, choose Contact | Add Contact… from the top of your screen, where you can simply type in the Google Talk username of your new friend. Removing a friend is just as easily done by selecting the name in your list and choosing Contact | Remove username. Figure 3.19 Adium Chat Window

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Summary While Google has created their own official Google Talk client, they do allow connection from other clients for other operating systems. This allows for users of both Linux and OS X to also share into the Google Talk experience. Much of this is possible because Google has decided to embrace Jabber - an open protocol, one in which its entire layout and structure is publicly documented, unlike the protocols used by most other IM services, so alternative clients can be used instead of the official client. Gaim is one of the most popular of these alternative clients, being an open-source application available for a large number of operating systems. It can either be downloaded as the full source code, which you must configure and compile, or as a pre-compiled binary, similar to Windows installations. You simply need to add a new Jabber account and complete it with Google Talk information, as shown throughout this chapter. For Macintosh users, you already have one Google Talk compatible client built into the operating system, iChat. The version in Tiger (OS X 10.4) is the first that supports logging into Google Talk through its Jabber setup. Using iChat you can communicate easily with your friends, but there are also a large number of features that you will not be able to access. A more robust solution for Mac users is Adium X, a client that allows you to connect to multiple IM networks simultaneously. By creating a Jabber account in Adium, you can easily connect to the Google Talk network, and have access to more features than iChat.

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Solutions Fast Track Gaim for Linux Gaim is a free, open-source application that connects to the Google

Talk network. Gaim also allows you to be logged onto multiple IM networks

simultaneously.

iChat for OS X iChat is a free IM application built into Macintosh OS X that

supports AIM, .Mac, and Jabber networks. iChat only allows you to perform basic chat functions on Google

Talk and is unable to give you the power to send files or voicemails to other users.

Adium for OS X Adium X is a free, open-source, instant-messenger application for OS

X. Adium X allows you to connect to a very wide variety of IM

networks simultaneously.

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Frequently Asked Questions The following Frequently Asked Questions, answered by the authors of this book, are designed to both measure your understanding of the concepts presented in this chapter and to assist you with real-life implementation of these concepts. To have your questions about this chapter answered by the author, browse to www.syngress.com/solutions and click on the “Ask the Author” form. You will also gain access to thousands of other FAQs at ITFAQnet.com.

Q: Why am I unable to have Gaim connect to Google Talk? It’s always complaining that the server “doesn’t use any supported authentication method,” A: This is a common problem with the Gaim client and is normally caused by Gaim being unable to find the TLS libraries to support encrypted communications. Normally this can be fixed by installing the gnutls and gnutls-devel packages and compiling Gaim from source with ./configure —enable-gnutls=yes. Q: I don’t really like any of the clients discussed here. What other client options do I have for Google Talk? A: There is actually a wide variety of clients that you can use to connect to Google Talk. Any client that supports the Jabber protocol and TLS encryption will have you up and running. Clients that Google recommends include Miranda (www.miranda-im.org), Psi (http://psi.affinix.com), and Trillian Pro (www.ceruleanstudios.com). Of these,Trillian Pro is the only one that is a commercial product.

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Chapter 4

Google Talk Usage


Basic Use of the Google Talk Client

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Chat Functionality

■

Voice Communications

■

Data Sharing

■

Client Personalization


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Chapter 4 • Google Talk Usage

Using Google Talk So you’ve just installed Google Talk. Good for you! Now let’s spend a few moments getting your client all set up and ready for you to be able to chat with your friends and family. One of Google Talk’s greatest features is its simplicity. As is the case with nearly every product that Google has created or endorsed, Google Talk was designed to be very straightforward and easy to use, and it features an extremely clean interface, as shown in Figure 4.1. We’ll begin with how to add your friends to your contact list and how to remove your friends who have turned into enemies.This section will also touch on how to change your Google Talk status to let others know if you’re away or just jamming to music. Figure 4.1 Google Talk Main Screen

Your Contact List Now that Google Talk is installed, let’s chat. Oh, but you can’t chat with yourself (much to the chagrin of the neurotic); you first have to add contacts to chat with. Luckily, Google Talk’s contact list is closely related to your Google Mail (Gmail) address book, which will likely reduce the number of www.syngress.com

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Google Talk Usage • Chapter 4

contacts you might otherwise have to add. Normally, you would need to add each individual friend who you communicate with to your contact list and have them add you in return. However, Google Talk will automatically parse through contacts from your Gmail account and add them to your contact list. In situations where you have hundreds of contacts in your Gmail account, only the ones that you’ve most recently spoken with will be displayed. The contacts within your contact list are broken into two styles. Contact names that have a colored dot next to them, as shown in Figure 4.1, are people who are also running Google Talk.The contacts that have a simple, one-line name are contacts that have been added from your Gmail account. These are contacts who have not installed Google Talk.

Adding Contacts Even though a list of contacts can be added by default, you will not be able to fully interact with many of them if they are not also running Google Talk. This situation can be resolved by simply inviting these people to Google Talk. You’re a special person; they respect and adore you. If you suggest using Google Talk, they will inevitably agree. If you highlight a non-Google Talk name (the one-liners in your list), a button labeled Invite will appear. When you click this button, an invitation will be mailed to the recipient’s e-mail address. Since I’m sure you don’t want your name associated with a cheesy advertising e-mail that reeks of spam, check out Figure 4.2 to see the actual e-mail contents showing exactly what your friends will receive. (Your name and e-mail address will replace the author’s in the From and Subject fields and the body of the message.) Figure 4.2 Google Talk’s Invite E-Mail Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 17:35:02 -0700 From: "Brian Baskin" To: [email protected] Subject: Brian Baskin wants to chat I’ve been using Google Talk and thought you might like to try it out. We can use it to call each other for free over the internet. Here’s an invitation to download Google Talk. Give it a try! ---------------------------------------

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Chapter 4 • Google Talk Usage Brian Baskin wants to stay in better touch using some of Google’s coolest new products. If you already have Gmail or Google Talk, visit: http://mail.google.com/mail/b-1a73d6774b-<edited> You’ll need to click this link to be able to chat with Brian Baskin. To get Gmail - a free email account from Google with over 2,600 megabytes of storage - and chat with Brian Baskin, visit: http://mail.google.com/mail/a-1a73d6774b-<edited> Gmail offers: - Powerful spam protection - Built-in search for finding your messages and a helpful way of organizing emails into "conversations" - No pop-up ads or untargeted banners - just text ads and related information that are relevant to the content of your messages - Instant messaging capabilities right inside Gmail All this, and its yours for free. But wait, there’s more! You can also get Google Talk: http://www.google.com/talk/ Its a small Windows* download that lets you make free calls to your friends through your computer. It’s simple and clutter-free, and it works with any computer speaker and microphone. Gmail and Google Talk are still in beta. We’re working hard to add new features and make improvements, so we might also ask for your comments and suggestions periodically. We appreciate your help in making our products even better! Thanks, The Google Team To learn more about Gmail and Google Talk, visit: http://mail.google.com/mail/help/about.html http://www.google.com/talk/about.html (If clicking the URLs in this message does not work, copy and paste them into the address bar of your browser).

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Google Talk Usage • Chapter 4 * Not a Windows user? No problem. You can also connect to the Google Talk service from any platform using third-party clients (http://www.google.com/talk/otherclients.html).

But what can you do when you want to invite someone who is not already on your contact list? Thankfully there’s a painfully obvious button labeled +Add on the bottom left of the Google Talk screen. When you pres this button, a window will appear, as shown in Figure 4.3, allowing you to manually enter the e-mail addresses of all your friends, family, coworkers, and failed blind dates. Figure 4.3 Inviting a Friend

Once you have sent the invite, your friend will receive a notification of it. If you did not specify the friend’s Gmail account, a generic e-mail invite will be sent to them, along with one of your available Gmail invites inviting them to sign up for Gmail. If the friend already uses Google Talk, he or she will receive a notice within their Google Talk client, as shown in Figure 4.4.This notice gives the friend the option to appear on your contact list as a friend. If the friend accepts your invitation, you will automatically be added to the friend’s list at the same time.

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Figure 4.4 Inviting a Friend

Changing Your Contact List View When you start out on Google Talk, your contact list might be very small, depressing to those who thought they had many friends. Fear not—you might have more friends than those being shown! The default options limit the number of contacts shown at one time on the screen, but you can easily change this option by clicking the button labeled View at the bottom of the Google Talk screen, as shown in Figure 4.5.

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Figure 4.5 Contact List View Options

A variety of options are shown to you after you click the View button: ■

Show one page Limits your entire contact list to one page full of contacts.This page will show the people you’ve most recently communicated with via either Google Talk or Google Mail. By deselecting this option, you will be able to view every single user in your contact list.

■

Sort by name Displays all your contacts, in alphabetical order. By default, your contact list will display first the contacts who also use Google Talk in alphabetical order and then the contacts who do not. When you turn this feature on, the “haves” and the “have nots” will both be mixed together and placed in alphabetical order.

■

Show pictures Displays the avatar of each Google Talk user next to his or her name. Disabling these avatars will shrink the display size of your contact list, allowing more users to fit on a single page. www.syngress.com

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Chapter 4 • Google Talk Usage ■

Show offline friends Displays all your friends, whether they are online or not. When this option is deselected, your contact list will be limited to those who are online at the current moment. Select this option if you not knowing your contacts’ whereabouts gives you anxiety attacks.

■

Also show Gmail contacts Displays friends who do not use Google Talk.Though the name of this option is misleading, when it’s selected Google Talk will show all e-mail addresses of your friends, whether they use Gmail or not. When it’s deselected, your contact list will be limited to friends who also use Google Talk or those you have invited to join.

Interacting With Contacts Now that you have an established contact list, let’s explore some of the various options you can perform with your contact information. By moving your mouse over a particular contact and hovering for one short second, you will be rewarded with an additional window showing detailed information about the selected person, as shown in Figure 4.6.This window will display to you the contact’s name, e-mail address, and a larger picture of his or her avatar, which we’ll discuss in a bit.You will also be shown more distinct buttons for interacting with the contact, such as Chat, Call, and Send Files. Figure 4.6 Viewing Detailed Contact Information

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This functionality fits well with Apple-type users—you know, the “one mouse button” folks we laugh at. However, for advanced users with at least two mouse buttons, you also have the ability to right-click a friend’s name to receive even more options, as shown in Figure 4.7. Not only do you have the usual options of chatting and calling other users, but you can even view prior chat logs, rename users, block them, or remove them completely from your contact list. Figure 4.7 Right-Clicking a Friend’s Name

Renaming is a great way to give your friends names that you know them by, even if those names cannot be repeated around sensitive ears. Don’t worry; your friends can’t see what you’ve renamed them, so feel free to give them whatever name they deserve. Blocking a user gives you the ability to stop receiving messages altogether from a particular “friend,” though you can still send this person messages.This is a very useful feature that lets you finally tell your mother-in-law what you think of her and not have to worry about her responses. However, when you www.syngress.com

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block a contact, he or she will be removed from your list and will see you as being offline. If you continue to send that user messages, it will appear to the user as though he or she is receiving text from an offline friend. If the user attempts to respond, he or she will be presented with a message that reads “[email protected] is offline and can’t receive messages right now.” It’s a sad day when you have to remove a friend from your contact list, but such extenuating circumstances do happen. Don’t worry; your friends at Google have looked out for you. So you’re knee-deep in helping a poor Nigerian widow send millions of dollars to your bank account, and you finally get an inkling that things aren’t exactly on the up and up. Well, that’s okay. It is best to back out now before you lose even more money, and remove the widow’s name from your contact list forever. Right-click on her name, select Remove…, and start anew.There are plenty of new friends, and hare-brained schemes, out there waiting to be discovered; don’t dwell on the past.

Setting Status Setting a status in an instant-messenger application seems fairly straightforward: you’re either there, or you’re not. However, many people don’t appreciate the fine science, even art, that comes with proper status setting. Setting your status as “Available” gives the impression that you’re hard at work at the computer, cranking away on whatever project is due, when you’re actually sipping Mai Tais on the beach. Just make sure you get people used to the fact that you don’t answer their chat requests even when you are there, so they get used to it. Likewise, there’s equal fun in being the “man in the shadows” who lurks all day as “Busy” and unavailable.You spend every moment of the day, every day of the week, always set as busy.Your friends send you calls, and occasionally you respond.You’re away, even when you’re right there. It’s the perfect setup to decide whom you want to speak with and when, because no one ever knows whether you’re really around. However, if you want to set an actual, real status message, Google Talk provides many different options.Your status is displayed as both a colored ball icon to the left of your name as well as in text below your name. As you can see in Figure 4.8, the text below “Brian Baskin” is set to Available.

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Figure 4.8 Changing Status

By clicking the down arrow next to the status message, you will be presented with a list of available settings.You can set yourself as available for chat in three forms: a regular available status, available while displaying the song you’re currently listening to, or a custom message that you can display to others. Likewise, there are three identical options for setting yourself as Busy, or unavailable. Finally, there is the option to sign out of Google Talk, which will disconnect you from the network but leave the client running. The colored ball icon next to your name, as well as the names of each of your friends, allows you to easily identify status. Actually, since this book is printed in black and white, you probably can’t see the green color without (*ahem*) medicinal aids. Google must’ve thought ahead to a situation such as this, because the balls for available status are whole and intact, while the balls for being unavailable have an obvious small X drawn through them. The option to Show current music track is one we’ll discuss a bit later in this section. It will allow you to display the song that you’re currently liswww.syngress.com

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tening to as your status message so that all your friends will be able to see what you’re jamming to.You also have the ability to set a custom message that will be shown to all your friends. For example, you can set yourself to available with a custom text message to notify you’re friends that you’re available but working on a busy project, or that you’re available and logged in from your work computer instead of your home. Equal imagination can make use of the busy custom message by notifying others that you’ve stepped out for the evening, gone to visit the parents for the weekend, or gone to the oneday sale at the shoe store. There are additional status levels that a client might fall into automatically. When a client is set to available but the computer hasn’t been operated for five minutes, the client will be set to idle, and an orange ball icon will be placed next to the name.The idle status notifies you that someone has been away from their computer for an extended period of time. Google Talk is based on the Jabber protocol, so there are additional status levels that are supported but not implemented into Google Talk, such as “extended away” and “chatty.” At this time, Google Talk does not use these status levels, but it might in the future.

Google Music Trends Google Talk has implemented a variety of unique ideas to help foster society’s infatuation with music and song sharing. Not only does Google Talk allow you to display the song that you’re currently listening to your friends; it also allows you to submit the songs that you enjoy to Google Labs’ Music Trends site, www.google.com/trends/music.This option is enabled within the Google Talk configuration screens, covered later in this chapter.The music you play is submitted to Google whenever you set your status to show your current music track.This is the perfect chance to push the resurgence of Michael Bolton or bring Yuki Kajiura to the eyes and ears of the masses. The ability to display current music tracks and submit them to Google Trends is available for users who run Apple iTunes, Windows Media Player, Nullsoft Winamp, and Yahoo! Music Engine. Google anonymously collects the song’s title and artist and the country in which you live to store in its massive databases. On a nightly basis, Google updates the Music Trends site to show the most popular songs for the prior week, as shown in Figure 4.9. www.syngress.com

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Figure 4.9 Google Music Trends

Chatting With Google Talk Now that we have Google Talk all installed and some buddies added, it’s time to chat! Go ahead, tell your friends about your day and give them the scoop on the latest gossip.The chatting ability in Google Talk is straightforward and needs no explanation.You simply type your message into the bottom field of the chat window, as shown in Figure 4.10, and press Enter to send it to your friend. Figure 4.10 Google Talk Chat Window

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Emoticons and Text Formatting The use of emoticons, or “smilies” in layman’s terms, has increased 473 percent in the past two years. Or, at least it would seem that way based on their use by IM users. Graphical smilies have become a booming business in the past few years, enough so to make a few entrepreneurs smile themselves. At the present time, the Google Talk client does not support graphical emoticons, as other IM clients do. However, the use of emoticons is pretty much guaranteed for future versions of the client, since a tentative list has already been created and implemented into Gmail Chat. Many of the emoticons supported in Gmail Chat are shown in Figure 4.11; you type in the characters shown on the left in each column, and Google magically transforms them into the smiley shown on the right in the column. For the time being, Google Talk simply understands many common smiley faces and will display them in a bright blue color, which lacks a certain panache. Figure 4.11 Google Talk and Gmail Chat Emoticons

Along with the use of smiley faces, you are also able to perform basic text markups on your words, such as bolding or italicizing text. If you place text within underscores, it will be displayed to your friend in italics. For example, “Hi _j0hnny_!” would be displayed “Hi j0hnny!” Likewise, the asterisk is used to display words in bold. For example, “There’s a *fly* in my *soup*” would

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be displayed “There’s a fly in my soup.”The special characters to do so seem to pay homage to BBS and USENET users of old, because this was the style in which certain words could be emphasized in the pure-text world.That was before all these newfangled technologies like mice, and graphics, and rich-text formatting.

Reviewing Old Chats In a very decisive battle of “Big Brother” versus convenience, Google Talk stores all your chats on its servers, to be easily accessible by your client no matter where you are.The convenience is very much noticeable, since there are countless situations in which you work out a plan to meet up with friends at work and head home, only to forget what time you were supposed to meet. Well, by simply logging into your Google Talk client at home, you can review all chats you made, even if you were chatting on a completely different machine or machines.There are a variety of ways to review previous chats that you’ve had with friends; the easiest is to simply click the down arrow located in a friend’s chat window and select View past chats, as shown in Figure 4.12. Figure 4.12 Viewing the Chat Menu

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Once you’ve selected to view past chats, a Web browser window will open, taking you to your Gmail page. As we mentioned earlier in the book, Google Talk shares much of its capabilities with Google Mail. It is from within Gmail that you are able to review and even remove past chats between you and your friends. If you use the same machine, it’s even possible to view your spouse’s previous chats, though that’s usually not conducive to a solid marriage. But feel free to monitor your kids’ chats; they’re minors, they have no rights. To view past chats within Google Mail, a search is applied for in:chats from:([email protected]).This will notify Gmail to only show chat logs and to only show logs involving a particular e-mail address.This search item can be modified to show all chat logs, though, by searching for in:chats, as shown in Figure 4.13, or by clicking the link labeled Chats on Gmail’s menu. From within the chat listing, you can select individual chats to view their full contents, with timestamps.You also have the ability to select chats and delete them or even report them as spam. Figure 4.13 Viewing Previous Chat Logs With Gmail

Chatting “Off the Record” For those who love news-based sitcoms and dramas, the phrase “off the record” is heard quite frequently, sometimes right before a trusted advisor www.syngress.com

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confesses nefarious plans to an enthusiastic news journalist. Being “on the record” is good for accountability and for reviewing logs at a later time, but some chat situations are considered too sensitive to be saved to Google’s logs. Thankfully, the team at Google has given us the ability to temporarily stop logging chats, to prevent them from being saved and read at a later time. It’s a great idea as you send plans for world domination to your army of killer coding ninja monkeys.To go “off the record,” simply click the down arrow located in the upper portion of your chat window and select Go off the record, as shown in Figure 4.12.This does nothing to prevent your chat from being listened to by local administrators with network sniffers; it only prevents Google Talk from logging the chat.Your friend’s client will also respect your “off the record” request and not log the conversation.

Notes from the Underground… Subverting “Off the Record” Going “off the record” works only when two Google Talk clients are communicating with each other. If one client is using a nonstandard client such as Gaim or iChat, they can still log the conversation, even when “off the record” is turned on in Google Talk.

Speaking Your Mind Even through the advent of the Internet, voice communication still remains the principal way for people to talk to one another. Why else do we, as a society, give eight-year-olds cell phones? No, don’t answer that. Voice chat is also highly beneficial for many of life’s events, like having your child repeat their first nonprofane words to their grandparents or allowing you to chat with a friend while you’re cleaning out your desk. It also allows you to bypass telephone lines altogether to speak one on one with another person for free, even if they are located in another state or a foreign country. www.syngress.com

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Voice Chat One of Google Talk’s greatest features is its simplistic approach to voice communications.The voice chat function within the Google Talk client works by simply initiating a voice call to a friend that you are chatting with.This is accomplished by pressing the button labeled Call, which will produce a ring tone on the recipient’s computer. When you “call” another user, they will be presented with a window notifying them that you want to speak with them. They then have the option to answer the call or ignore it, as shown in Figure 4.14. If your friend is not available to answer the call or if she or he ignores the ringing, you will be automatically forwarded to Google Talk’s Voicemail feature. Once the friend has answered the call, the regular chat window will stay open but also allow for voice communications.The chat window will also be altered to display more information about the voice component of the chat, as shown in Figure 4.15.The call can continue for hours or be terminated at any time by pressing the button labeled End Call. Additionally, you can mute your voice while still being able to listen to your friend, useful for allowing you to make dramatic sighing noises as you listen to the details of their boring lives, by pressing the button labeled Mute. Figure 4.14 Incoming Call Notification

Figure 4.15 Voice Chat Window

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Voicemail Every Google Talk client has the ability to create and record voicemail for users, allowing you to leave short voice messages for a friend. Voicemails can be used to send messages to someone when they are not around to take your phone call or to send them a quick voice message when you don’t want to be drawn into a conversation.This is particularly useful if you happen to run across a famous literary superstar, like Neal Stephenson, and want to record a quick celebrity shout-out to tease a buddy. The voicemail message will be delivered immediately to your friend’s Gmail Inbox for them to review at their leisure. Gmail will allow the voicemail to be played internally from within the friend’s Web browser or downloaded as an MP3 file so that you can create a “best of ” collection. An example of a sent voicemail is shown in Figure 4.16. Figure 4.16 Voicemail in Gmail

Sharing Files and Tunes Although the emphasis of Google Talk is on talk (hence the name of the product), sharing data between friends is a high priority in the instant-messenger world. Google Talk follows this trend by allowing you to send and receive files between friends. www.syngress.com

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Sending and receiving files through Google Talk is as simple and straightforward as every other function. As you are chatting with a friend, simply press the button labeled Send Files in the chat window. A window will appear, allowing you to locate the files that you want to send. After you select the file to send, the recipient will receive a notice that you are transferring a file, as shown in Figure 4.17.The recipient then has the option of either declining the transfer or accepting the file and placing in you their full faith and trust that you are not sending them a virus-infested file or sheeprelated images. Figure 4.17 Sending Files in Google Talk

Personalizing Your Google Talk Some people seek to express themselves through words, actions, and interpretive dance, whereas others create their niche in the world through customizing their Google Talk clients. I think we all know which group this section is targeting. In keeping with Google Talk’s streamlined and simplified feel, there are not many options to adjust the look and feel of the client, as there are with other clients. Instead, the customization features are kept fairly basic and focus on core impact items, such as avatars and themes.

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Avatars Avatars have gained much popularity in the years since they were introduced into instant-messenger applications. Google Talk allows you to choose from a set of preselected images or introduce your own to share with friends.To access this feature, simply click the image located to the right of your screen name, as shown in Figure 4.18. From this menu, you may select the graphical image that best represents yourself. But don’t hold yourself to just this set of pictures.You are a unique and special individual, so use Google’s Image search at http://images.google.com to locate a great image for yourself to import into Google Talk.Through the avatar menu in Google Talk, select the option More pictures… to open your personal picture directory and load a custom image. Regardless of the size of the image you use, it will automatically be resized down to a suitable image for the chat client. Figure 4.18 Google Talk Avatars

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Themes and Skins As simplistic and elegant as the Google Talk appearance may be, it just might not fit the needs of all users. Some people like their IM clients to be as flamboyant as their lifestyles. Fortunately, there are multiple themes within Google Talk to choose from to change the overall look and style of the chatting experience. To select from available themes, click the link labeled Settings in the upper-right corner of Google Talk. Many of the individual screens and settings here are discussed later in this chapter, but for now you can click Appearance to view available themes, as shown in Figure 4.19. Select a theme from the pull-down menu to view an example of it. Once you’ve discovered a theme to fit your needs, press OK and it will be immediately applied to the client. Figure 4.19 Google Talk Appearance Settings

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Tools & Traps Advanced Theme Management If the default themes don’t fit the bill, it is easy to modify these themes or install new ones from the Internet. Themes are stored in C:\Documents and Settings\%USER%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Google Talk\themes\user\chat, where %USER% is your user account name. The final chat directory might not exist by default and could need to be created to store your themes. From within this directory, themes can be modified, added, or removed. Additional themes can be downloaded from the Internet and unzipped into this directory, to be immediately available from within Google Talk. To modify a theme, simply locate and edit the Cascading Style Sheet document, main.css, within the particular theme’s directory. More information on theme modification can be found in Chapter 5 of this book.

Configuration Settings Google Talk features basic configuration settings to configure the client for a particular computer in the instance that default settings are not desirable. These settings can be accessed by clicking the link labeled Settings in the upper-right corner of Google Talk. Once you’ve selected this link, the Settings window will appear, as displayed in Figure 4.20.The settings are broken into a number of main categories, displayed on the left side of the settings window.

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Figure 4.20 Google Talk General Settings

The General category displays basic configuration settings for the Google Talk client. From within this window you are given the option to automatically start Google Talk every time Windows loads.You also have the ability to configure how your Friends List should be initially displayed. One particularly useful feature on this screen is the check box for Open Gmail when I click on email links.This feature, when enabled, allows you to use Gmail as the default e-mail client on your computer, intercepting all mailto: links found within Web pages. Additionally, you can change the default font style and size by clicking the box labeled Change Font….The box labeled Google Account Settings will take you to your Google Account Manager, where you can change your Google information, such as your password and security settings.The box labeled Enable diagnostic logging places Google Talk into a troubleshooting mode for sending reports to Google’s support staff, which will include personal identifying information about you and your computer. As detailed within the application, this option should be selected only if prompted to by Google’s staff. Otherwise, you might find Google’s elite Ninja henchmen knocking on your door. Well, maybe not, but is it really worth tempting fate? www.syngress.com

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The Chat category provides a very simplified selection to allow you the option of saving your chat history in your Gmail account, as shown in Figure 4.21. By default, all your chat conversations will be logged to your Gmail chat for you to retrieve at a later time.This setting can be disabled on the fly by using the “off the record” option, as described earlier in this chapter, but the selection here allows you to permanently disable logging.This is only useful for the truly paranoid among us.You know who you are. Figure 4.21 Google Talk Chat Settings

The Blocked category allows you to view all the “friends” that you have blocked in your account, as shown in Figure 4.22.These contacts will not be able to send you messages or calls as long as they are on this block list. So, did you finally make up with your rich, Nigerian widow friend and work things out? Select her name here and click Unblock to remove her from the list.

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Figure 4.22 Google Talk Blocked Settings

The Notifications category allows you to enable particular events you want to be notified of, as shown in Figure 4.23. From within this window you can enable or disable the display of incoming calls and chats. For each, you can specify whether you want a distinct sound to be played and a window to appear notifying you. Google Talk also has the ability to monitor your Gmail account for new e-mails and will display a short segment of these messages in a popup window. Figure 4.23 Google Talk Notifications Settings

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The Connection category allows you to modify the way your machine connects to the Google server, as shown in Figure 4.24. From within this screen, you are able to configure Google Talk to use a proxy server to connect to Google. A proxy server is a third-party server on the Internet that takes your traffic and relays it to your intended target.This is useful if the target is blocked from within your network environment. We’ll look into this in more depth and show you how to route your traffic through various anonymous, even encrypted services, in a later chapter. Figure 4.24 Google Talk Connection Settings

The Audio category allows you to modify the audio settings for Google Talk, as shown in Figure 4.25. From this menu you can specify which device should handle audio input, if you have multiple microphones in your computer.You can also adjust the audio output settings, which includes setting the devices that should be used to signal notifications. By default, this feature will send output to all audio devices attached to your computer, but you can limit it to a particular device.You can also choose a particular device to which voice communications should be routed by selecting a device for Calls. A checkbox is also allocated to unmute your speaker when a voice call is incoming, allowing the ring to be temporarily played before the computer is again muted. Additional options allow you to unmute both the speaker and your microphone during the course of a phone call. When this option is www.syngress.com

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checked, your computer, if muted, will be unmated for the duration of the call. Once the communication has been ended, the computer will be muted once again. Figure 4.25 Google Talk Audio Settings

Additionally, in this window you can opt into Google’s Music Trends catalog. As discussed earlier in this chapter, Google Music Trends will record the name of every song that you listen to on your computer.This information will be cataloged anonymously to determine the most popular songs heard across the world by Google Talk users. However, by opting into Music Trends, you will also be choosing to enable Google’s Personalized Search, a function that concerns privacy advocates.

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Notes from the Underground The Hidden Dangers of Google Personalized Search Google’s Personalized Search (see Figure 4.26), when enabled with Music Trends, will log every song that you play and at the date and time you play it. It will also log every Google Web search you perform, as shown in Figure 4.26, as well all your Google Image and Froogle searches. Although these items can be removed at a later time, many users feel uncomfortable with Google storing this information and might want to opt out. Your searches will be transmitted from any computer in which you are logged into Google and will be stored permanently on Google’s servers until they are manually erased. As a user, you can log in to view your search history by visiting www.google.com/psearch, and you can select to remove selected entries or the entire collection. You are also given the option to pause the recording of data for a temporary period and resume logging information later. Advertised under the guise of allowing searches to be customized based on earlier searching attempts, this function is a feature that some folks might want to avoid, especially if they perform searches that they’d like to keep secret.

Figure 4.26 Google Personalized Search

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Summary While Google Talk was designed to be picked up and immediately familiar to most users, it is important to highlight the features that it provides. The client was designed to integrate seamlessly with Google Mail, and this is shown the first time you start up the client. Your contact list will immediately be populated with all of your friends and family that talk to you through Gmail. You can then easily click on each name and send invitations to them to join you on Google Talk. Your Gmail friends can immediately start using Google Talk to converse with you, while your non-Google friends will be sent a Gmail invitation. When communicating with your friends, you can fall back on normal text messages through the Google Talk service, or take advantage of their voice communication abilities. While in the middle of a chat just click the Call button to create a voice connection with your friend though your computer. If they’re not available, that’s OK. Google Talk gives you the ability to leave them a voice mail in their Gmail account. Like most other clients, you can also send files back and forth between your friends. Like other clients, you can also set various status messages for you account, with multiple options for being either “available” or “away”. Along with standard messages, you can choose a custom message or even have Google Talk display the current song that you’re listening to. The client can read from a large number of music software, including iTunes, Winamp, and Windows Media Player, to determine this. Additionally, Google Talk gives you the ability to anonymously submit your music listening habits to Google’s Music Trends site. All of your text chats with your friends will automatically be stored on Google’s server in your Gmail account, where you can access it from anywhere in the world at any time. If you in a situation where you wouldn’t like to have your chat logged, Google Talk gives you the option to go “off the record”, forcing both clients to not log the conversation. To help personalize your account and your client, the Google Talk client allows you to add a graphical avatar to represent yourself. This can be chosen from a selection of pre-set images, or you can upload your own.

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Solutions Fast Track Using Google Talk Google Talk will automatically populate your contact list with your

friends and associates who e-mail your Gmail account, but you can add more friends and invite others to Gmail. Google Talk features basic status messages to let others know if you’re

available for chatting, as well as the option to reveal to your contacts the music you’re listening to. When sharing music titles, you also submit your listening and Google

searching habits to Google for them to correlate in their Music Trends database.

Chatting with Google Talk Basic emoticons are supported, but they are displayed in a different

color. Gmail chatters have additional smilies at their disposal, though. All your previous chats will be automatically stored within your

Gmail account for you to retrieve at any time, from any computer. You can temporarily override automatic logging by choosing to go

“Off the Record.” However, this feature might be useless if your friend is using a client other than Google Talk.

Speaking Your Mind Google Talk features a straightforward voice communication system

for talking with your friends. You may leave voicemails for your friends that will be stored in their

Gmail accounts as MP3 audio files.

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Sharing Files and Tunes Google Talk allows for the transfer of files between friends while

giving the recipient the ability to accept or decline the transaction.

Personalizing Your Google Talk You can set an avatar image for yourself to be shown to all your

friends by either choosing a predefined image or importing your own. Additional themes are included in Google Talk to alter the look of

the chat windows, though many more are available for download from various sites on the Internet.

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Frequently Asked Questions The following Frequently Asked Questions, answered by the authors of this book, are designed to both measure your understanding of the concepts presented in this chapter and to assist you with real-life implementation of these concepts. To have your questions about this chapter answered by the author, browse to www.syngress.com/solutions and click on the “Ask the Author” form. You will also gain access to thousands of other FAQs at ITFAQnet.com.

Q: Where can I find additional themes for Google Talk? A: Themes can be customized or made from scratch by anyone with basic HTML and CSS programming experience. A few sites that contain additional themes for you to download include http://gtalk.anthonysottile.com and www.customizetalk.com/index.php?page=themes. Q: Does Gmail’s virus-scanning function engage in Talk’s file transfer mode? A: No! Files transferred between two computers with Google Talk are not scanned for viruses in any way, as they are with Gmail.You must make sure to check all files that you receive from anyone through Google Talk to ensure that they do not contain viruses. All files you download will be stored in a folder named Google Talk Received Files, which is located within your My Documents. Q: I opted into Google Music Trends and Google Personalized Search. Is there any way I can just opt myself out of Personalized Search? A: Absolutely. Once you have enabled Google Personalized Search, the only way to opt out is by visiting https://www.google.com/accounts/DeleteService?service=hist.That will remove your involvement from Personalized Search and remove all data stored from your searches.You will still be able to participate in Google Music Trends after performing this step.

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Chapter 5

Google Talk Addons and Modifications Solutions in this chapter: ■

Customizing Google Talk

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Creating Your Own Google Talk Themes

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Connecting Google Talk to Various VoIP Services

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Implementing Videoconferencing

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Sharing Your Music Collection

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Creating a Google Talk Chat Room

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Installing and Using Google Talk on Your Cell Phone

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Talking With Your Friends on Outside Networks


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Chapter 5 • Google Talk Add-ons and Modifications

Making Google Talk Yours By now, you’ve undoubtedly installed and had plenty of hands-on time with Google Talk. You’re probably busy finding new friends and contacting old ones to share in your new found happiness. But, wait; it doesn’t end there! The one problem with a client as sleek and beautiful as Google Talk is that it looks the same as everyone else’s. It’s like living in a town where everyone drives a red Corvette! But, if you’re the type of person who wants to be unique, we have the perfect solutions for you. In this chapter, we will be covering some very cool modifications that you can make to your Google Talk client, as well as some additional fun actions that you can perform.

GT-Plug Google Talk prides itself on its simplicity and basic interface, but one Brazilian programmer has given the client more flair with his creation of GT-Plug. GTPlug gives you the ability to display real, graphical emoticons (smiley faces) in your chat windows, apply transparency to Google Talk, save conversations to local text files, and toggle a Boss Key mode.The program can be downloaded from www.projetobms.net/GTPlug.php?pagina=pj&lang=en and installs through a basic setup executable. After it’s installed, you must launch Google Talk through the GT-Plug application. Run GT-Plug by selecting it from your Windows Start menu. GT-Plug operates by automatically running the normal Google Talk application and modifying its operations on the fly.Therefore, if you usually run Google Talk manually, GT-Plug will not be loaded.The downside to this is that as Google Talk is updated, portions of GT-Plug could stop functioning or cause instability issues, as shown in Figure 5.1. Currently, a number of these functions do not work at all until the GT-Plug is updated to adapt to the newer Google Talk versions. Figure 5.1 Google Talk Crash Caused by GT-Plug

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Google Talk Add-ons and Modifications • Chapter 5

Once you have installed GT-Plug and have launched it from the Start menu, you will see the usual Google Talk screen.To see the changes that accompany the application, click the Settings button to view the client settings. One unfortunate side effect with modern versions of Google Talk is that the actual GT-Plug configuration menu is hidden from view.You can still locate it by clicking the blank area immediately below the word Appearance.This will bring up the GT-Plug configuration menu, as shown in Figure 5.2. Here you have the ability to toggle each of the settings of the application and apply changes to the way the settings operate. Figure 5.2 GT-Plug Configuration Menu

One of the default options enabled in GT-Plug is the displaying of graphical emoticons in your chat windows.This effect is immediately noticed as soon as you open a chat window, where you’ll see a smiley face at the bottom left of your screen. Clicking this graphical face will drop down a list of the emoticons that GT-Plug will display on your screen, as shown in Figure 5.3. The chat windows from both sides of the conversation are shown, and you www.syngress.com

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can see how the normal emoticons with the standard Google Talk on the left are transformed into vibrant graphics with the GT-Plug client.The dropdown menu of smiley faces can also be accessed to input the appropriate smiley faces directly into your messages as you are typing them. Figure 5.3 Viewing Emoticons With GT-Plug

GT-Plug also gives you the ability to assign a “boss key” to Google Talk, allowing you to quickly hide the client from the screen at a moment’s notice. Boss keys have long been a part of the computing world, especially in games and other entertainment software, to give users the ability to hide their software use from their bosses, spouses, and children. While you might think that a quick Alt + Tab combination would hide Google Talk, it still leaves a telltale icon in your system tray. GT-Plug takes care of that problem by replacing the system tray icon with a new one, as shown in Figure 5.4.There are currently issues with GT-Plug and the most recent versions of Google Talk, though, where using the boss key could crash Google Talk, displaying the error message shown in Figure 5.1.

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Figure 5.4 Configuring GT-Plug’s Boss Key

In the previous chapter we discussed how all of your chat conversations are automatically stored on Google’s servers. This is an extremely useful feature for traveling absent-minded professor types, as your conversations can be brought up at any time from anywhere in the world. However, for those of you who like to store your chat logs locally, there is a feature within GT-Plug to allow this. From the GT-Plug configuration menu, you can enable the saving of conversation logs, and specify where you would like to save them to, as shown in Figure 5.5. By default, these logs will be stored in “C:\Program Files\GT-Plug\My conversations”, though you can change this setting to any directory you wish. Figure 5.5 Configuring GT-Plug’s Conversation Log Repository

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to view through their windows into background data, increasing your monitor real estate. From within the GT-Plug configuration menu, you can enable this feature and set the visibility level of the window transparency, as shown in Figure 5.6. Figure 5.6 Configuring GT-Plug’s Transparency Level

Finding the right amount of transparency can take practice and exercise, and it changes depending on the type of information shown on your screen. Unfortunately, many people who play with this feature end up disabling it because they initially set it at a value too low to be readable. In most situations, you shouldn’t set your visibility below 80 percent. An example of Google Talk at 80 percent visible is shown in Figure 5.7. Along with these numerous features, GT-Plug also gives you some additional features from the Windows system tray. One of these is the ability to change your account’s status on the fly by simply right-clicking the Google Talk icon. From here, you can choose from a preset list of status messages, as shown in Figure 5.8.

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Figure 5.7 Viewing Google Talk at 80 Percent Visibility

Figure 5.8 Viewing GT-Plug System Tray Status Settings

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Extended Talk Although GT-Plug offers additional features not found in the original client, there is another team that has decided to up the ante and make a very feature-rich addition, called Extended Talk. It is currently one of the most useful add-ons that you can download for Google Talk.This excellent addition can be downloaded from http://extendedtalk.meosoft.net as a simple setup executable. Extended Talk introduces a large number of modifications and additions, such as: ■

Active Status A dynamic, scriptable online status system.

■

Graphical Smiley Faces Replaces the drab text smilies with large graphical ones.

■

Desktop Friends Lets you dock your favorite friends on the desktop for quick chatting.

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Boss Key One set of keystrokes to instantly hide all your Google Talk windows when the boss walks by your office.

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Keyboard Lock Prevents text from being typed into your Google Talk windows, for when you need to step away for a bit.

■

Text Color Changer Changes the font colors of received messages.

■

Leet-speak Text Translation Changes all your text to L337 speak on the fly.

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Windows Transparency Makes your Google Talk windows transparent.

Once Extended Talk is installed and executed, you will be given the ability to change many of its general options, as shown in Figure 5.9. From here you can choose whether or not to enable some of the more prominent aesthetic features in the application.

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Figure 5.9 Extended Talk Settings

The rest of the features offered by Extended Talk are accessible from within the main Google Talk window and each of the individual chat windows. Simply clicking the icons marked with a biohazard signal will display the menu as shown in Figure 5.10. Figure 5.10 Extended Talk Settings Through the Google Talk Window

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Beginning with the menu inside the chat window, you’ll find a slew of items under the Chat Features menu that deal with how the chat window, and text within it, is displayed. From here you can change the transparency level of that particular chat window, change the background colors of both the typing field and the message window, change the color of the received text, and implement typing filters. The typing are letter translations features that turn your regular speech into elite “31337” speak or ©ØØ£ (“cool”) speak. To see how this affects what you type, consider the following popular phrase in all three forms: Normal: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog 1337: Th3 quick br0wn f0x jump5 0v3r 7h3 14zy d06 ©ØØ£: THË ¶µÎ©k ß®ØwÑ ƒØ? jµm?§ ØvË® tHË £Àz¥ ?ØG

Some of the more advanced features are found under (you guessed it) the Advanced menu. From here you can manage your Active Status scripts, create desktop friends, and reference custom graphic images that can be shared with other Extended Talk users. The Active Status manager is a unique feature found within Extended Talk that allows you to create dynamic status messages to be shown to all of your friends. Active status is similar to the current song display in Google Talk, but Active Status allows you to display a plethora of different items. To view an example of its capabilities, start the Active Status manager. Click the button labeled “Load” and select “C:\Program Files\Extended Talk\Plugins\SamplePlugin.et” to populate the fields, as shown in Figure 5.11. The upper portion of the screen shows the information and options stored within the script, with the bottom portion showing what will be placed within your Google Talk status. Once you’ve loaded an Active Status script, you should see individual items show up in the “Functions” box. These are the actual items that can be displayed within your status. Doubleclicking on an item from here will add it to the “Your Status” field at the bottom. When you have finished selecting your status items, click the button labeled “Set”. As you can see in Figure 5.11, setting the status to show the clock updates the status line to read the actual local time, “11:15 PM” (a wonderfully creative time for a die-hard author). To create your own scripts, it is best to use the existing SamplePlugin.et file as a template for modifica-

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tion. Refer to the Active Status Help item that exists within your Windows Start Menu for more help. Figure 5.11 The Active Status Manager

One other unique feature within Extended Talk is the ability to create “desktop friends.”These are icons that show up on your desktop that represent the friends you most often talk to. If you want to shoot off a quick message to a mate, instead of wading through your Google Talk contact list, you can just double-click your friend’s desktop icon, as shown in Figure 5.12. These icons can be stretched and moved around your screen, where they dock against the edges and each other.The color schemes can be modified and even replaced by your own graphic images, by simply right-clicking the icon you want to change and choosing the appropriate selections.

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Figure 5.12 Double-Clicking a Buddy Icon to Initiate a Chat

Besides the options built into the client, you can make additional changes by editing many of the files that come bundled with Extended Talk. For instance, if you want to change the graphical smilies, you can simply replace the appropriate files within C:\Program Files\Extended Talk\Images\Smileys, where each smiley image is stored in its own file.

Creating Your Own Theme As we discussed in Chapter 4, the Google Talk client includes a wide variety of colorful themes that can be applied to your individual chat windows.The process is fairly technical and requires that you have a basic understanding of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and cascading style sheets (CSS), two fundamental technologies used to create modern Web sites. The expected page-count of this book won’t support a discussion of HTML and CSS, but we will attempt to walk through the files and explain what the fields mean and how to edit them. Editing the themes inside Google Talk involve simply editing text documents, so there is no need for specialized tools or software. Windows notepad will prove capable enough for all of the work we’ll be doing.

Creating the Necessary Files To implement a new theme, there are a number of required files that control how the theme is laid out and applied. Although these files can be generated from scratch, it will be easier to use an existing theme as a template and copy over its files.The base files needed are shown in Figure 5.13.This branch of directories is located off your C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\

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Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Google Talk\themes\user\ directory. So, the Main.css file for a theme named PHP would be located at C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Google Talk\themes\user\chat\PHP\Contents\Resources\Main.css. Figure 5.13 Base Files for a New Theme

The expected page-count of this book won’t support a discussion of HTML and CSS, but we will attempt to walk through the files and explain what the fields mean and how to edit them. Editing the themes inside Google Talk involve simply editing text documents, so there is no need for specialized tools or software. Windows notepad will prove capable enough for all of the work we’ll be doing.

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Figure 5.14 Anthony Sottile’s PHP Theme

Altering Message Displays The actual information that appears within a text window is broken into three distinct categories: incoming messages, outgoing messages, and status messages. Each category has a pair of text files that output information to the screen. Each of these files is called on to handle the display of messages in particular situations.The first time that you receive an incoming message, the Incoming\Content.html file will be displayed. For every further uninterrupted incoming message, the Incoming\ContentNext.html will be processed. As soon as the message chain is broken by either a status change or an outgoing message, it starts over with Incoming\Content.html. Consider the string of messages shown in Table 5.1 to see what files are accessed during the chat session.

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Table 5.1 How Theme Files Are Accessed Chat Messages

Theme Files Accessed

Brian: Hey man, are you around?

Outgoing\Content.html

Brian: I have a question for you.

Outgoing\ContentNext.html

Brian: I have a favor to ask …

Outgoing\ContentNext.html

Roy: Yeah, what’s up?

Incoming\Content.html

Roy is now set to available.

Status.html

Roy: Need more money?

Incoming\Content.html

Roy: Cause you still owe me from yesterday!

Incoming\ContentNext.html

Brian: Yeah :(

Outgoing\Content.html

These files contain basic HTML text that outlines the display of information. Although most of the content stays static, it does utilize two variables: %sender% and %message%. The %sender% variable contains the screen name of the sender of the message, whereas %message% contains the message itself. Each file relies heavily on HTML DIV and SPAN tags and their respective CSS coding. For those of you not familiar with DIV and SPAN, they are simply methods to divide off a blocks of text separately from the rest of a page.The DIV tag is used to designate an entire block of information, whereas the SPAN tag normally refers to a string of in-line text within that block.These tags allow for certain areas of text, or certain words, to be modified apart from the rest of the data. In the world of Google Talk, each chat message is broken out as a DIV block. Within this block, you can specify multiple SPANs for individual words or lines. Whenever a DIV or SPAN is called, it is normally associated with a particular “class.” Classes are CSSdefined content that specifies how text should be marked, with different colors, font styles, or sizes.

Incoming\Content.html The Incoming\Content.html file details the information to be displayed when you first receive a block of messages from a friend.

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The following is an example of the Incoming\Content.html from the PHP theme: <span >

In this file there is a general for the incoming chat, which is defined by the “chat in” class. Within this is the first line of text, colored blue, that writes

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This message is constructed nearly identically to the Incoming\Content.html file, since it displays information in the exact same way.The only major difference is that the class referenced by the is “chat out.” When in use, this file will make messages appear as:

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