In my previous life, I used MSN Messenger quite heavily. In fact, I had over 250 contacts in my list. On the odd occasion that I still use it, Microsoft has a Mac version of the client, called Microsoft Messenger. If you have ever used it, you will understand very quickly that it's an old client, and not really maintained well by Microsoft. I would much rather use a great IM client like iChat for my MSN buddies. Historically, this hasn't been possible, but with the release of version 3 (and the inclusion of Jabber connectivity), this is now possible.

In my research to find out how this can be done, I found several articles (most in non-English languages) that explained how it was done, but none were very easy to understand, and made it out to be complex for the average user. Here, I will make the process easy for you. Simply follow the steps outlines below:

Step 1: Clean Up Your List
The first thing I would (highly) recommend is to log into your existing MSN Messenger account, and delete any users that you no longer need. If you don't already have the Microsoft Messenger client for Mac, click here.

Step 2: Download a Jabber Client
The only reason you need to download a 3rd-party Jabber client is to create a Jabber account. The Jabber client that I used is Psi. It's easy to use, and non-intrusive to your system. Once you have used Jabber for the initial setup process, you no longer need to use it (although I recommend keeping it just in case). To download the free Psi Jabber client, click here (5.7 MB). For a more extensive list of other Jabber clients available, go to www.jabber.org. After the Psi client has been downloaded, drag it to you Applications folder.

Step 3: Create a Jabber Account
Now that you have Psi, you need to create a Jabber account (this Jabber account will be your invisible gateway between you and your MSN Messenger account). To do this, open Psi/ You will be prompted to either log in, or create a new account. Your screen should look like the following:

Note that I have used "njs.netlab.cz" as my name. You will want to use the same. This is the server that you will be connecting to. Be sure to check the "Register new account" box, and then hit "Add".

The next window will ask for more detailed information for your account, as shown below:

Fill out the information that you would like to use for your account name and password (replace "kallg" with your preferred account name, but keep the rest). If the account you are requesting is already in use, Psi will tell you. Next, click "Register".

Step 4: Change Your Status to Online
Now that you have created your Jabber account, you need to take it online. To do this, Control-Click (or right-click) on your account, go to "Status", and choose "Online", as shown below:

Step 5: Configure your Jabber Account for MSN Messenger
Although this may be the most confusing part of the process, you will find that it isn't really that bad. We now need to tell your new Jabber account about your MSN account. To do this, Control-Click (or right-click) on your Jabber account, and choose "Service Discovery" (see below):

You will see a long list of services. Scroll down until you see "MSN Transport", Control-click on it, and choose "Register" (see below):

From here, all you need to do is enter your MSN account name and password (as I have done below):

Click "Register", and this part of the process is done.

Step 6: Quit Psi
Quit out of the Jabber application. We no longer need to use it.

Step 7: Configure Your Jabber Account in iChat
Once iChat is open, go to iChat | Preferences, and click on the "Accounts" button. Click on the [+] button at the bottom to add a new account. Change the account type to "Jabber Account", and fill in the information appropriate for your Jabber account. Mine looks like this:

After you are done, click on "Add", and you are done!!

Step 8: Adding New MSN Buddies
Adding a new MSN buddy to your Jabber account is easy. First, you need to add their account to an Address Book entry. The format that this needs to be in is critical. Below is a sample entry:

Pay particular attention to the address format. This user's MSN account is "jshmoe@hotmail.com", but is entered here as "jshmoe%hotmail.com@msn.netlab.cz". Also be sure to change the type to "Jabber".

After you have entered the user's account into Address Book, go to the Jabber window in iChat, and click o the [+] button. Search for the person you wish to add and hit "Select Buddy". Your new buddy will now appear in your list.

Step 9: IM with Your MSN Buddies
Using iChat to chat with your MSN buddies is done exactly like it is with your iChat (AIM) buddies.

If you happen to close your Jabber window, you can open it again by going to Window | Jabber, or by hitting Command+3.

Note for Yahoo! users: you can also use this process to connect to your Yahoo! account. Follow the same steps as outlined above, but in step 5, scroll until you see the Yahoo! Transport, instead of the MSN Transport.