In my opinion ichat is a great instant messaging application because it’s light, fast, easy to use, and comes with every mac.

iChat supports the basic account types like google talk and aim but also supports jabber. So, it doesn’t support msn (because it is M$...) but jabber is an account type that indirectly supports protocols like msn, icq, etc. So, iChat support msn...

As i said earlier, i like this app and i find it great so why not to use it as my default chatting app instead of downloading the msn messenger(which i don’t like at all) or any other alternative.

In this topic i will show you a trick to add your msn contacts into iChat.

Let’s start!

Step 1: you need an msn account (i think we all have one...if you don’t, go here and create one).

Step 2: download psi for Mac. It’s a jabber client application.

Step 3: create a jabber account

1. • Open psi and select to create a new account
   

2. • Enter njs.netlab.cz or jabber.belnet.be and click Next as shown bellow
   

1. • Enter a username and a password for your new account
   

2. • Now in the main psi window right click your username and set your status to online
   

Step 4: Register your IM service with your Jabber server

1. • Right click your username and select Service Discovery
   

       

1. • Right click at MSN Transport option and select Register
   

2. • Enter your msn passport and password as shown bellow
   

1. • Once complete quit psi and open iChat
   

Step 5: Set up iChat

Select Jabber from the account setup and enter your jabber account info

After a query will ask you to add you as a buddy. Accept and all your msn contacts will be added