Using Google as Your Jabber Server

Although my experience with Google Apps didn’t start off all that spectacular , I’m still using it after two months. As an independent product in the Google line I’d say it would be a great product, but it’s synergy with the rest of the Google domain is still sorely lacking at this time. Google Apps still only offers Email, Calendar, Talk, Docs, Start Page and Web Pages- – meaning that if you want to use Google Reader, Analytics, Picasa, Groups or anything else you need to a Google Account and a Google Apps account — and the two are completely separate. Talk is one service that doesn’t matter much where it is though. Dreamhost offers Jabber service as part of their setup, but delegating that service to Google for free seems like a more reliable solution. Luckily Google Apps offers an easy solution for this . Also, with Dreamhost you have the ability to edit any DNS settings you want, giving you both the ability to screw yourself over, and try out services without having to contact support. For Dreamhost, it’s just a matter of adding 10 Service (SRV) record DNS entries. One gotcha is that you must enter the full text of the entry into the Dreamhost Control Panel — 5 0 5269 xmpp-server.l.google.com. (including the period). It’s the same concept for all the entries. Within 10 minutes of getting the DNS entries added, I was online adding other Jabber users. Although Google Apps may have it’s problems, as a free email server it’s hard to beat. With Google Talk, and the great logging ability for outgoing emails it may just be time to look into it.