Austalia's local Jabber™ server launched

AUSTRALIA'S newest Jabber server has gone live, offering a local exchange point for users of the open source instant-messaging software. Jeremy Lunn, who set up the Jabber.org.au website in May, said web-hosting company Ilisys had approached him after reading about the site in newspapers and on Slashdot, and offered to host a Jabber server for free.

"They're giving us free access to one of their servers, and our website and the forums," he said. Mr Lunn said the company had not expressed any concerns about the possible bandwidth demands. "I think they're pretty prepared for it." Jabber can interface with proprietary IM systems such as MSN Messenger, but Mr Lunn said the Australian server would not offer these capabilities because of legal uncertainties around offering such a connection.

There have been few attempts to set up an Australian public Jabber server, with only one other local server, jabber.zim.net.au, listed on the Jabber.org website. A Polish public server has more than half a million users. "It's pretty popular across Europe particularly," Mr Lunn said. "A lot of people in Europe want to look at using alternatives that aren't based in the US."

There are more than 100 commercial customers of Jabber worldwide, and four million licenced users. The protocol it uses, Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), has been submitted to the IETF for ratification.

News source: Australian IT