Very important: the content in this tutorial was merged in the official PyMSNt documentation and has not been updated since then. Hence, this tutorial may be outdated and is kept only for historical reasons. Please use the official PyMSNt documentation.

1. Install Python

   Make sure have installed Python 2.3 or newer (I have reports that some older versions work). Most distributions should handle this automatically for you.

   • Debian:

     apt-get install python2.3

   • Mandrake:

     urpmi python

   • MS Windows: Download and run the binary installer from http://www.python.org. When complete, add the directory that python.exe is in to your PATH (look in Windows help for details on doing this)
   • Others: Use your distribution's installation method, or download and compile the source from http://www.python.org

2. Install Twisted

   Install Twisted:

   • Debian:

     apt-get install python-twisted python-crypto python-pyopenssl

   • MS Windows: Download and run the binary installers for Twisted, PyCrypto and PyOpenSSL from www.twistedmatrix.com.
   • Others: Use your distribution's installation method, or download (and compile when necessary) Twisted, PyCrypto and PyOpenSSL from www.twistedmatrix.com.

3. Install PyMSNt

   Download and uncompress PyMSNt from PyMSNt Downloads page.

4. Configure PyMSNt

   Copy the file config-example.xml to config.xml and edit it to reflect your environment:

   • The 'jid' setting should be what ID you want PyMSNt to take on the network. Example: 'msn.example.com'. Remark: watch out with this option! This is a FAQ. You need the full domain to the transport. The string "msn" is not enough.
   • The 'mainServer' setting should be the IP address or DNS of the main Jabber server. Default: '127.0.0.1'.
   • The 'secret' setting should match the secret specified for component connections in your main Jabber server. It's a password that only the Jabber server and the transport must know.
   • The 'port' setting is the port that PyMSNt and the Jabber server agree to use to connect between them (more details on this below). Default: '5347'.
   • The 'name' setting should be what name you wish users to see in a service discovery request.
   • You can also turn on debugging options, and customise some of the text that is sent to the users in this file.

5. Spool directory

   PyMSNt stores login information (MS Passport account, password and nick) in the spool directory. This directory must match some conditions, it must:

   • be located in the same place as the README and TODO files.
   • be writeable by whatever system user will be running PyMSNt.
   • have the same name as the 'jid' value you specified above in config.py. (for example: 'msn.example.com').

   You must create the directory:

   • If you are starting a new installation, just create the directory.
   • If you are upgrading from the old C version of MSN-t then copy your existing spool directory. Do not forget to rename it to the 'jid' value you specified on config.py.

6. Configure Jabber/XMPP server

   Now you have to configure your Jabber server. This instructions assume you are running PyMSNt on the same machine as your main Jabber server

   • ejabberd

     To configure ejabberd for PyMSNt, as explained in the Ejabberd Installation and Operation Guide:

     1. Edit ejabberd.cfg.
     2. In the section that says: '{listen,' add those two lines:

            {5347, ejabberd_service, [{host, "msn.host.com",
                                       [{password, "secret"}]}]},

     3. Restart ejabberd and you are done.

   • jabberd 1.4.x

     If you are using jabberd 1.4.x then you need to add this to your jabber.xml file:

     <service id="msn.host.com">
               <host>msn.host.com</host>
               <accept>
     
                       <ip>127.0.0.1</ip>
                       <port>5347</port>
                       <secret>secret</secret>
               </accept>
     
       </service>

     Check that msn.host.com is the same as the 'jid' setting from config.py and that 5347 is the same as the 'port' setting. Also 'secret' must correspond, and the 'mainServer' setting should be pointing to the same interface as the <ip/> tag is (in this example the loopback interface is used. So 'mainServer' would be '127.0.0.1').

     You must also add this to the browse section of your jabber.xml file

     <service type="msn" jid="msn.host.com" name="MSN Transport">
     
        <ns>jabber:iq:register</ns>
        <ns>jabber:iq:gateway</ns>
      </service>

     Once again, msn.host.com must correspond to the 'jid' setting in config.py.

     Once you have made all these changes, restart your jabberd 1.4.x server, then start PyMSNt and it should all work.

   • jabberd2

     If you are using Jabberd2 then you should not have to do much configuration. Make sure the 'mainServer' setting is the IP or DNS of your Jabber server, and leave the 'port' setting alone. Double-check that the secret for legacy components in router.xml (for jabberd2) is the same as the secret setting in config.py. That should be all. You don't even need to restart jabberd2.

     If you are upgrading from the old C version of MSN-t then you need to remove the alias info in your router.xml and the item discovery info in your sm.xml for the old msn transport. These were needed because for the old MSN-transport, but jabberd2 can automatically add the new PyMSNt to the browse lists.

7. Start PyMSNt

   Now you are ready to start PyMSNt for the first time:

   ./PyMSNt &

   It will connect to the Jabber server and serve the Discovery JID you specified. Note: PyMSNt does not implement the old and deprecated 'Browse' capacity, only the newer 'Discovery'.

   On MS Windows you can run it by opening a DOS console in the PyMSNt/src directory and running "python main.py".

Troubleshooting

• On MS Windows, if you can't run PyMSNt, make sure you have Python installed correctly (as well as all of Twisted and PyCrypto/PyOpenSSL), and that python.exe is in your PATH (see above).
• See the User's Guide to PyMSNt for more details on using the transport.
• If you are upgrading from the CMSN-t and your Jabber server has been running prior to about November 2003 then some of your users contact lists may have msn.host.com/registered in them. These users should delete the transport from their list, and reregister it. There is no need to delete the transport users (so they will not have to reauthorise any contacts).