Cisco Jabber for Mac, possible without a Presence Server?

[Steffen Bruening]

Hi all,

is it possible to use the cisco jabber client for Mac without a presence server in the uc environment? A customer is looking for Voip Client/Softphone for their Apple Macs. Instant Messaging is no requirement.

Regards

Steffen

[William Bell]

Steffen,

It doesn't appear to work in that manner. At one point in time I recall seeing some chatter that CIPC was going to be ported to Mac when 8.0 came out. Well, 8.6 is still PC-only. In the past I have used Counter Path X-Lite on the Mac. It is a free soft phone. I did a write up on X-Lite and adding it to CUCM. It is somewhat dated (and on Windows) but I have ran a recent version of X-lite on Mac and the setup is the same. The main drawbacks to X-Lite is the limits on audio and video CODEC options and the latest version I test on Mac (X-Lite 4) had an advertisement window. That is annoying.

I just recently did some testing with CounterPath Bria on the Mac. Bria is like the enterprise version of the client. It is $49 USD. I bought it to do a full test and to get video working with my 9900 series phones. I am  working on a blog for that now. Probably will post it over the weekend  or some time next week.

Oh, if interested the config for X-Lite:

http://www.netcraftsmen.net/blogs/sip-endpoints-in-cisco-cucm-x-lite-as-an-example.html

In the mean time I will check some archived notes to see if Cisco is going to have a telephony-only soft client capability on Mac (like CIPC).

HTH.

Regards,

Bill

[rcarricato]

WIlliam,

I belive he could use a Webex Connect account, IPSec VPN, and a CSF device in CUCM to achieve what he is looking for. Though it is a shame that he would need to have Webex Connect to do this just to be able to login to Jabber...

FYI:

I just tried out the CUP integration with Jabber for Mac with my customer with CUCM 8.6.2(a), CUCXN 8.6.2(a), and CUP 8.6.1 HA. It seemed to work ok (I was using VPN as well). For some reason the directory service said it failed yet I could search for people in the directory and it worked fine (strange...). I think this may be because the XCP Directory Service on both CUP servers will not start (not sure why because I do not seem to need it).

My only complaint is that I originally had Jabber for Mac installed for Webex Connect integration. There appeared to me, that there was no way to re-run that original wizard (I looked all around in the package contents...) and select Cisco Presence instead of Webex Connect. To get around this I used AppCleaner to remove Jabber, re-download from Cisco, and re-install, this time selecting the Presence option. Once I tested I had to rinse-repeat to get my Webex Connect back because that is what we use internally. Hopefully they fix this because it makes it hard for us engineers to test Presence integration during installs.

Opinion on Jabber with Webex Connect:

I love it for creating Instant Meetings - It sends an email instantly to me that I can forward to attendee's right away (most of time not with contacts otherwise I would do it that way).

I love the new iPhone app that was just released as well. Very cool. (Do not like how you cannot be logged into both though, not a big deal, Archives of chats are my biggest concern). It is a pretty seemless login/logout from iPhone to Mac and Mac to iPhone though, which I appreciate.

I have no desire for Phone Services or Voicemail integration so it is annoying that it always says at the bottom of the buddy list "Server or port unreachable". I assume that you need to be connected to VPN in order to have connection to CUCM to use the CSF device... Jabber 8.6 Release Notes says that Jabber is not supported with NAT without VPN

Also the Chat History is weak on Mac, and none existent on iPhone . Would be cool if history was built in like CUPC or Lync, doesn't require going to Finder to view, and messages would archive on server.

Plus we use Exchange UM for our Voicemail so not sure how that would integrate with Webex Connect. I believe Exchange Voicemail in Jabber would work with Presence integration though (which is puzzling but I guess it is because you can do all of those XCP external integrations in CUP. However, don't get me started with CUP/Exchange calendar integration and CUP not supporting SAN certificates with multiple hostnames on Exchange...

Thanks for the info on X-Lite and Bria, I may try out these options. I have been using CIPC through VMWare Fusion and it worked quite well. I believe I needed to install Virtual Audio Cable for the sound to work correctly. I use it through Fusion's "Unity" function and it looks like it is native!

Just my 2 cents. Let me know what you think.

One more thing (SJ):

Check out this site for Mac Apps for Engineers:

http://ciscovoiceguru.com/2071/mac-app-cisco/comment-page-1/#comment-2760

Ryan

[Tommer Catlin]

Nice thread.  I did not realize for Macs it was such a pain in the arse.  I see 8.6.2 is out, but does not really resolve this issue.  Why they Jabber for iphone, jabber for android, but not just jabber alone for phone on Mac or PC is beyond me.