Chatinator really nothing special, just a funny name for a Jabber/XMPP chat channel. We set this up this chat room so that we can continue to have a place to hang out as we move onto other interests and games. Many folks have never used Jabber for chat but it is probably the most flexible and robust protocol out there. Best of all, the majority of clients, services and tools to use it are completely free.
Requirements
There are really only two main requirements to join the Chatinator:
Jabber/XMPP capable client.
An account, such as Gmail or Fourty.
Fortunately, these are both extremely simple to satisfy and you have many options for doing so. If you already have an account and Pidgin is setup, skip to the section below for on "Joining the Chatinator".
Client
The most common cross-service (including Jabber/XMPP) client is Pidgin. It is completely free and supports every chat service (AIM, Yahoo, Google, ICQ, etc) you can possibly imagine all in a single instance. Pidgin has clients for Windows, Linux and MacOS. Go ahead and install it now. If you have any problems, there is plenty of documentation on the the Pidgin website, so there is no sense covering the process here.
Account
Again, lots of options here but we will discuss two in particular. First, if you have a Gmail account from Google, you already have a Jabber/XMPP account. Most casual users are unaware, but Google's "Talk" service is based on the XMPP protocol. If you are not a Gmail user, no problem, we will get you setup on the Fourty chat server, which you can also use to talk to any of your friends with Google Chat accounts (or any Jabber user for that matter).
New Accounts
If you do not already have a Jabber or Gmail account, no problem. The instructions for configuring Pidgin (shown below) will also provide instructions on how to create an account on the Fourty jabber server.
Configuring Pidgin
Once Pidgin is running, click on "Accounts", "Manage Accounts", then click on "Add". Use the table below to guide you through filling out the text fields.
Click on the "Advanced" tab and use the table below to fill out the fields
Go ahead and hit the "Add" button. If you selected the "create user" check box, the following prompt will appear. Make sure the username and password entered here match the entries in the "Basic" configuration. Please provide a valid email address, as accounts with invalid email addresses will be deleted.
You should be connected to the Fourty or Gmail Jabber/XMPP servers at this point, now you are ready to join the Chatinator.
Joining the Chatinator Channel
Click "Buddies", then "Join a Chat".
Select your Fourty or Gmail account from the "Account" drop down.
Room: chatinator
Server: conference.fourty.net
Handle: Whatever you want to identify yourself as in the chatroom (bob, jimbob, king jimbob, etc).
Alias: Chatinator
Autojoin when account becomes online: Checked
Remain in chat after window is closed: Checked
Fields should basically be filled out as appear above (except "Handle", of course), then go ahead and hit "Add".
You are Done!
Just ask one of us for help if you have any problems with these instructions. If you do not know who to contact we probably do not want you in the channel anyway.