Filed under: How-tos, Internet Tools
How to set up Google Talk on your Mac
So Google Talk is real. Check out Jordan's review of it over at DownloadSquad. You all know, I have a few problems with Google failing to release Mac compatible software, and I had doubts very similar to Jay's upon hearing about Google Talk tonight. There is no Mac client, but it does work in both iChat and Adium. I've had several convos with my Mac friends, but unfortunately, there seems to be some bugginess in the iChat / Adium to Windows client department. I want this to be cool and work really well. I hope Mac and Google come together to make this really shine and soon.In any case, if you have a Gmail account and want to give it a shot, head on over to this post for the how to. The basic setup is: server: talk.google.com, username: youremail@gmail.com, and password: yourgmailpassword. The connection port should be 5222, but with SSL on, iChat only wants to allow 5223. To fix this, I went into my Airport Admin utility and then forwarded all private requests for 5223 through public 5222. Check it out.
UPDATE: You can audio chat over Google Talk with iChat too. Cool.

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Laurie said 9:48PM on 8-23-2005
"Could not connect to server: talk.gmail.com"
If I switch it to just gmail.com, I appear to connect (albeit very slowly), but my buddy list is empty and the add button is grayed out. Think we're overloading them a bit tonight? :)
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C.K. Sample, III said 10:15PM on 8-23-2005
talk.GOOGLE.com
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Steven Andrew Miller said 10:24PM on 8-23-2005
I've been trying to get this to work with iChat for nearly an hour. No dice. I don't know what I am doing wrong....
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Thomas said 10:25PM on 8-23-2005
I got it to work in iChat no problem, but I can't get it in Adium. Anyone know how?
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LD said 10:34PM on 8-23-2005
It seems to connect for me on Adium. I had to check TLS encryption.
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C.K. Sample, III said 10:37PM on 8-23-2005
Thomas, follow the Adium specific instructions in this post: http://www.smashsworld.com/2005/08/im-on-google-talk-right-now.php
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rafa said 10:44PM on 8-23-2005
connects just fine on ichat...
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lgc90 said 10:49PM on 8-23-2005
iChat setup: [url=http://209.172.55.14/img.php?loc=loc168&image=0f2_Picture_1.JPG][img=http://209.172.55.14/loc168/th_0f2_Picture_1.JPG][/url]
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Laurie said 10:52PM on 8-23-2005
It's a bit scary that i was staring at talk.gmail.com and swearing it said talk.google.com for a good half hour before i realized what i was doing. The power of google's brad? or just me going insanem blind - or all of the above?
Anyway, we're all chatting away using iChat/Google Talk and C.K. and I tested the audio chat too. All works swell. Life is good.
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Bill Bradford said 10:54PM on 8-23-2005
Works just fine for me with SSL enabled and iChat.. I'm mrbill@gmail.com
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ALD said 10:58PM on 8-23-2005
Steven, I'm having the same problem. No matter what I try, iChat won't work for me.
Thomas, can you tell us if there's ANYTHING unusual you have to do to set up the account in iChat?
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DeflatorMouse said 11:02PM on 8-23-2005
I THINK I"m online now. I'd appreciate it if someone could try to IM me at DeflatorMouse.Online . Thanks!
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Thomas said 11:27PM on 8-23-2005
The site is live now. I have connecting in Adium only it doesn't seem to send/recieve messages. :(
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ejr said 11:28PM on 8-23-2005
Another one that fell for the talk.GMAIL.com error even after configuring Adium to work
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Thomas said 11:30PM on 8-23-2005
Are there any firewall issues? Since these are new ports? I'm troubleshooting as it seems that I can connect but can't send or receive an IMs.
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ALD said 11:39PM on 8-23-2005
Steven, I'm having the same problem. No matter what I try, iChat won't work for me.
Thomas, can you tell us if there's ANYTHING unusual you have to do to set up the account in iChat?
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Ted said 11:50PM on 8-23-2005
Can anyone tell me how to set this up using iChat version 2.1?
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Patrick Haney said 11:52PM on 8-23-2005
I've been chatting with an Admium user using Trillian Pro for Windows on my side with no problems.
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Ryan Green said 11:54PM on 8-23-2005
quick question: do we know if it can go from google talk -> iChat? I know it can do iChat - iChat over jabber, but the google talk is the question.
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Ted said 12:01AM on 8-24-2005
drop a line to ebgarvin@gmail.com if you want to try out your new gTalk
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