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5. KXicq Configuration

5.1 Registration Wizard

When you start KXicq for the first time, it will automatically start the registration wizard. First it will ask you whether you are already an ICQ users, or whether you are starting with ICQ for the first time.

On the next screen you'll be asked to enter an ICQ password and your UIN (=ICQ number) if you already have one.

Then select your connection (LAN/Dial up) and the ICQ server - the default for this is icq.mirabilis.com at port 4000. If you are behind a firewall you will need to enter the proxy settings, too. (In the current version proxy support is not implemented yet.)

If you already had an ICQ number, the registration wizard will retrieve your information from the server. If you didn't have an ICQ number yet it will also get you an ICQ number.

5.2 Setup KXicq

Appearance

"Show icons only left"

"Show 'Server/unknown Message'"

If "Show help arrow" is selected

Start/Stop Settings

If "Auto Connect" is selected, KXicq will automatically connect to the ICQ server on startup.

If "Save Geometry" is selected, KXicq will keep the same window layout between sessions.

"Show Startup Logo" will briefly display the KXicq logo when the program is started.

Colors

In this section, you can define the color scheme for the two "contact" windows. Per default the "Use custom colors" button is deactivated, this means the color settings will be controlled by the KDE theme manager. If you want to override these settings you need to activate this button first.

The window in this section has a button for each configurable item (Text, Background, Selected Text and Selected Background, for both contact windows) and displays the currently selected color, left of the button.

To change any of the colors click on the associated button and the color selection window will pop up.

You can then choose one of the system colors by clicking on it, then press "OK".

If you don't like any of the system colors you can pick a color from the color chart on the right, just by dragging the mouse cursor inside the color chart - the selected color will be shown in the square just below the chart. You can also select a color by entering the RGB value (RGB=Red, Green, Blue), or by entering HSV numbers (Hue, Saturation, Value). Then pick one of the empty fields in "custom colors" and click "Add to Custom Colors" and your color will appear in that field.

You can now choose one of the custom colors by clicking on it and pressing "OK".

Font Settings

In this section you can define the font for each of the two contact windows. Normally these settings will be controlled by the KDE theme manager, you can override them by selecting "Use custom fonts".

Click on the button next to the example "Nick" and window pops up which will let you can change the font, font size, style etc.

Status Change Settings

If the option "Turn on Auto Away" is active then KXicq will automatically change the status mode after a certain period of inactivity.

"Auto Away after" with this setting you can control the period of inactivity after which the status automatically changes to "Away". The time is specified in minutes.

"Auto N/A after" with this setting you can control after which period of inactivity the status automatically changes to "N/A". The time is specified in minutes.

"Auto Available on keystroke/mouse": When KXicq goes automatically in Away mode or N/A mode and this option is selected, then KXicq changes your status automatically to "Available" as soon as you press a key or move the mouse.

"Ask for message on status change" if this is selected and you change your status to Away, N/A or DND, KXicq will prompt for an individual message which other users can read.

Docking Settings

If "KDE Docking" is enabled, the current ICQ status will be displayed in the KDE control panel. You can then also change your status settings right in the panel.

If "WindowMaker Dock.app" is enabled, it can be used as a WindowMaker docking application. It can also be used under Gnome, E and other Windowmanagers.

If "Blink Icon on new Message" is active, then the docked icon in the panel blinks when a new message has been received.

Chat Settings

If "Auto raise Chat window" is selected, the chat window will always stay in the foreground.

Sound

Here you can define the sounds KXicq generates at various events.

"Make sound on receiving event" will generate a sound when a message, URL or other data is received.

"Play WAV instead of Beep" will play a WAV file instead of generating a system beep when such an event occurs.

"Make sound when user comes online" will generate a sound when another user on your contact list goes online.

Sound Files

"Use Default KXicq sounds" this will use the WAV files which come with KXicq - alternatively you can select different WAV files which will be played on the events "Message", "Chat", "User online". Just click on the "..." button next to the file name field and select the location for the WAV file you want to play for that event.

Network Settings

This allows you to select an ICQ server, the pull-down menu provides further options. Default is "icq.mirabilis.com". You can also choose a server port, the default port is 4000.

"Auto reconnect" will automatically reconnect to the ICQ server when the connection was lost and is re-established again.

TCP ports

Security

"Bypass authorization request" - ICQ uses a client based authorization system. This setting allows you to bypass that, so it will not ask for authorization, let the contact know that you added him etc.

Anti Spam

Sometimes you'll meet annoying people on the net. Some might want to annoy you personally, others might think of the net as means to force unwanted advertisements on you. This is known as "Spam". The settings in this section give you a means to deal with these unpleasant people.

"Reject messages" - If this is set KXicq will only accept messages from people who are on your contact list. This is good protection from spam, but then people who don't know you yet can't contact you and you might miss a chance to make new friends.

"Reject URL" - If this is set KXicq will only accept URLs from people who are on your contact list. Lot's of people who send you spam will want you to visit their website. You can weed out those by selecting this option.

"Reject chat" - This will prevent people who are not on your contact list from sending you chat requests. They'll need to send you a message first to get onto your contact list.

5.3 Setup Keys

KXicq has hotkeys for various actions so that you can operate the program efficiently via keyboard. This menu menu allows you to change the key bindings e.g. to enable you to emulate the usage of a ICQ client, which you are already familiar with.

You can select an action from the scroll list and then change the binding for it. There are three basic modes: "No key" - the action is not bound to any hotkey, "Default key" - the action is bound to the KXicq default, "Custom key" - the action is bound to a user defined key combination.

To bind an action to a user defined key, first select the action, then click on "Custom key", then select the key combination. You can choose a single letter, and one or all of the SHIFT, CTRL and ALT keys. To choose the letter click on the key symbol (the current letter's background will change to white) and then simply type the letter you desire.

If you want to return all keys to the KXicq default you can just press the "Default" button.

You can also define global keys, these are hotkeys which work from within other applications but control events in KXicq. Currently there is only one global key, it's used to read a new incomming message. Per default it's bound to SHIFT+CTRL+R, so if you "Message for you Sir" and you press this key-combination from within another program, KXicq will come to the foreground and will display the new message. The binding can be changed in the same way as described for the other hot keys.

5.4 Privacy Settings

Ignore list

This is a list of ICQ users who you wish to ignore. Any chat requests, messages etc from an user in this list will not be shown to you. This might be used to filter out spammers or other people which whom you don't want to communicate.

The "Add Contact" button brings up a search dialog which allows you to select an ICQ user whom you want to ignore. With "Remove Contact" you remove the selected ICQ user from the ignore list - this means that you now accept messages from that user again.

Password/Security

Change password: To change the password you first need to provide the current (old) password then enter the new password below and confirm it (to avoid typos).

The "Update Password" button will change your password on the ICQ server.

Web aware: this will allow your status to be visible on the Web.

My authorization is required: This prevent other users from adding you to their contact list unless you authorize that first.

Hide my IP: this will prevent other ICQ users from seeing the IP number which you use to connect to the Internet.

The "Update Security" button will transfer your modified security settings to the ICQ server.

Random Chat

If the "Random chat" button is pressed in, you indicate to other users that you are available for random chat. At the "Category" field you can indicate the chat topic you are interested in. You can also enter text in the "Interests" section, to further specify what you want to talk about. Making yourself available for random chat means that other ICQ users can query the ICQ server for people who want to chat about a certain topic and potentially receive your ICQ number.

The "Update random chat" button will transfer your modified settings to the ICQ server. If this works correctly the Status field will indicate "OK".

5.5 Update own info

Here you can modify personal information about you, which you want to be visible to other ICQ users.

Information you put here is available to basically anyone, so you should decide carefully what you want to make known about yourself. On the other hand if you don't provide any information to identify you, it's difficult for other user to locate your ICQ number. The "Save" button will transfer your modified personal info to the ICQ server.


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