<para>To use &kopete; you need to set up one or more accounts for the instant messaging services you wish to use.</para>
<para>You've probably already chosen a messaging service, either because you already use &im;, or you need to use the same service as your friends. If you don't fit into either of these categories, please consider using a messaging service based on open standards, because these are designed for use by Free Software. Other messaging services are prone to changing the underlying technology without making the details freely available, making them harder for Free Software developers to support.</para>
<para>The messaging services that &kopete; supports that are based on open standards are Jabber and IRC.</para>
<para>The following section assumes you are registered with an &im; service already. If not, you can register with Gadu-Gadu, Jabber, and <trademark>MSN</trademark> from inside &kopete;; for other services, you'll have to register using their respective web site before creating an account in &kopete;.</para>
<para>The following section assumes you are registered with an &im; service already. If not, you can register with Gadu-Gadu and Jabber from inside &kopete;; for other services, you'll have to register using their respective web site before creating an account in &kopete;.</para>
<sect1 id="creating-accounts">
<title>Creating Accounts</title>
<para>To create an account, use <menuchoice><guimenu>Settings</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Configure &kopete;...</guimenuitem> </menuchoice> to display the Configure window.</para>
<para>ICQ has an Invisibility feature which allows you to hide from selected contacts. You may also search the ICQ user directory when adding a contact. A wide range of contact details can be set using the <guilabel>Properties</guilabel> option.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="protocols-msn">
<title>MSN</title>
<para>MSN supports the sending and receiving of webcams, if your camera is supported by the Video4Linux 2 (v4l2) standard. To view someone's webcam, right click on their MSN buttefly icon and select <menuchoice><guimenuitem>View Contact's Webcam</guimenuitem></menuchoice>. File transfer and multi user chats work. To transfer a file, drag the file from Konqueror or the desktop into the chat window. To invite someone else into a chat, drag them from the Contact List into the chat window. The <menuchoice><guimenu>File</guimenu></menuchoice> menu also contains these commands. In addition, MSN supports custom emoticons.</para>
<para>To use file transfer or a webcam, make sure port 6891 is forwarded to your computer.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="protocols-yahoo">
<title>Yahoo</title>
<para>Yahoo can send and receive webcam video. It also supports Yahoo mail and the Yahoo addressbook from the account menu. Conferencing is also possible.</para>
<question><para>I need to connect via a SOCKS proxy, but I can't find any proxy configuration options in &kopete;. How do I set up &kopete; to use SOCKS?</para>
</question>
<answer><itemizedlist>
<listitem><para><trademark>MSN</trademark>, <trademark>ICQ</trademark>, <trademark>AIM</trademark>, Jabber, and <trademark>Yahoo</trademark> use the &kde; network infrastructure. Their SOCKS proxy details are configured with the rest of &kde;, in <application>Control Center</application>, <menuchoice><guimenu>Internet & Network</guimenu><guimenuitem>Proxy</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para><trademark>ICQ</trademark>, <trademark>AIM</trademark>, Jabber, and <trademark>Yahoo</trademark> use the &kde; network infrastructure. Their SOCKS proxy details are configured with the rest of &kde;, in <application>Control Center</application>, <menuchoice><guimenu>Internet & Network</guimenu><guimenuitem>Proxy</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.</para></listitem>
