Since most of my work is done remotely (that is, out of my home office), staying in touch with co-workers is very important. I use a Tandberg T150 for video conferences (or iChat with an iSight as a last resort), and AIM, Google Talk, Yahoo IM and BlackBerry Messenger for most of my chat needs. Maintaining a secure and persistent location for group chat isn't really a viable option with any of the major IM networks so in addition to the IM clients, everyone idles in an IRC channel.
On Windows I'm able to use Trillian for everything, on a Mac I use Adium and irssi. All of my IRC connections go through a single server running a screen'd irssi with the very cool proxy module enabled. This allows me to have full logs on my individual clients as well as via ssh to the host server where irssi is running.
On my BlackBerry (Verizon 8703e) I've tried IM+, Ramble, VeriChat, Yak-On, WebMessenger and the official RIM IM clients. Many of the clients just didn't work, some of them have annual license fees, and RIM hasn't officially released AIM, MSN and ICQ clients yet.
Enter JiveTalk, an inexpensive multi-network client. JiveTalk has one of the nicest interfaces I've seen for a BB application. It also features file transfer, chat logging, nicknames, alerts and a hotkey (alt,alt,#) to switch between active chats. It uses your data plan, not SMS, and isn't too rough on the battery. I've found that setting Battery Save Mode When Idle helps conserve battery life.
IRC on the BB was a different story; there is really one client available – jmIrc – which is a J2ME MIDlet (any BB running OS 4.0+ supports MIDP 1 and MIDP 2). I installed the latest beta OTA, but even after making the appropriate changes on my BES' firewall I still was unable to connect to any servers. It turned out that I had "Use socket poll" selected under Advanced Config. I probably should have read the manual which states "Set this only if it doesn't work otherwise, ie. on Motorola V525, Nokia 6800, 6810, 7200 or Samsung C100". Once I changed that option jmIrc began working. A few tips:
- To send a message start typing and the text entry window will open.
- If you have multiple profiles you need to view your profiles, highlight the one to connect to and choose Select from the application menu. That will return you to the main screen, and you'll need to choose Connect.
- Hitting Escape will close the application and disconnect you – you'll need to use the task manager (
alt+escape) to switch to another application. - To switch between channels and windows hold
alt and scroll the wheel, or press 4 or 6 (alt+s,alt+fon a QWERTY BB).
July 12th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Check out vIRCa for BlackBerry IRC. It's still not the fance application you would hope but I found it easier to use than jmirc. vIRCa runs on java just like jmirc
November 27th, 2008 at 7:51 am
thank you so much for the tip on the socket poll, I had that ticked somehow while I was trying to get it to work the first time (I hadn't got my mobile internet settings set correctly which brought up some strange error which changed to something about tunnels after I had set them straight)
the dangers of fiddling folks ;)
June 2nd, 2009 at 6:11 am
Hi,
I am new to BlackBerry, just bought a Bold 9000. It works fantastic, however I tried jmIrc, but never get connected. I also tried the option disabling the socket poll. I checked, the firewall setting on my handheld is disabled.
When connecting to an irc server it says "connecting" but the nothing mor happens… no confirmation on connection, cannot enter or change channels etc.
If anyone could help me, it would be great!
Many thanks in advance ;-)
June 2nd, 2009 at 9:39 am
@BB Bold User – are you on a BES? One issue I had was that I'd configured IIS on my BES to filter outbound connections as well, and the BES (well, the BES server) was blocking the connection.
June 3rd, 2009 at 6:08 am
Hi Corey,
many thanks for your answer -you were really quick :-) As to my understanding I am not on a BES (unless BB Internet Service does not automatically use one), up to now I only use the mail-push service for my private mails.
Could there be another reason for this strange bevahiour? Many thanks for any idea.
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:47 am
The app might not be triggering a firewall prompt. It's not the cleanest solution, but you could manually set everything to Allow. Quit the app. From the Home screen go to Options > Advanced Options > Applications. Highlight the app and Edit Permissions. Open the menu again and Reset Firewall Prompts. That and/or setting Connections and Interactions to allow might do the trick. Let me know.
June 6th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Hi,
I just tried, but it had no effect. The behaviour is just the same as before. I found out that the firmware of my BB is outdated (v4.6.0.126). I know that an update is available. Do you think this could have an effect?
Thanks for any idea.