<p>Instant messaging provides the instantaneous communication of a telephone call, while avoiding the feelings of directness and confrontation of a tete-a-tete with the detachment of written correspondence, making instant messaging a popular and flexible form of communication. It allows two or more users to exchange text information in real time. </p>
<p>There are a number of IM protocols. The most widely used is the ICQ protocol. However we have decided on the Jabber protocol in eM client because Jabber has several significant advantages over the ICQ protocol.</p>
<p>The Jabber protocol is particularly popular in the corporate environment. It's hosted on distributed servers which provides uninterruptible service, and it's an open source protocol, so it can be adapted to work with many other protocols.</p>
<h2>Jabber protocol</h2>
<p>Jabber is a extensible Instant Messaging protocol and it has accumulated various features over time such as Voice over IP and file transfer signaling.
Unlike most instant messaging protocols, it is an open standard, which makes it more reliable. Like e-mail, Jabber is an open system, meaning anyone who has a domain name and a suitable Internet connection can run their own Jabber server and talk to users on other servers. The standard server implementations and many Jabber clients are also freeware or open source software.</p>
<h3>Advantages of Jabber protocol</h3>
<ul>
<li value="1">The architecture of the Jabber network is similar to email anyone can run their own Jabber server and there is no central master server. </li>
<li value="2">No royalties are required to implement support of these specifications and their development is not tied to a single vendor.
</li>
<li value="3">Jabber servers may be isolated from the public Jabber network (e.g. on a company intranet), and robust security (via SASL and TLS) has been built into the core specifications.
</li>
</ul>
<h2>ICQ support</h2>
<p>The support of ICQ protocol is done through the use of a transport, small computer program that sits on the server and translates and Jabber messages into other IM formats. In order to communicate with ICQ and other IM users, you have to register the transport. eM client will help you setup your account and customize your account details.</p>
