guildschat.station.sony.com authentication broken

The Station forums have a post that indicates chat changes may be happening alongside the new data server. The post is regarding Station Launcher chat but DanKinney mentions "build[ing] a new bridge to each of the other chat systems".
http://forums.station.sony.com/stat..._id=11500017714

Uxian@Splitpaw wrote:

Thanks for the heads up - I never thought about looking at the Station forums for info before.

I might buy that except for two facts -
1) Professionals don't develop / migrate against a live system, and those brave souls who do, don't without announcing downtime.
2) The server is up and running - you can connect via the standard XMPP connection negotiation, you just can't authenticate.
It's broken.

Trepan wrote:

Agreed. More likely they are planning to replace the current system and are just leaving our broken one as is till they replace everything (which is looking more and more like a site revamp *sigh*).
DanKinney wrote:

This quote is what leads me to believe that this is all being parceled together with the new game data feeds they were talking about at Fan Faire. Pair this quote with the Fan Faire discussion with the complete silence and lack of even acknowledging the broken state of the website and it matches the previous pre-"revamp" states we've gone through before they release another overly flawed and poorly QA'd site.
Hopefully, I'm proved wrong about either a new site or its lack of quality.

Update: The server is up at the moment using userid/password authentication over SSL.

SSID token authentication (which the web based chat relies on) still seems buggered.

Trepan wrote:

I will admit I know just enough about computers to get myself into trouble lol Can someone explain how to get in please? /sad kitty eyes

Super. Switched from SSID authentication to username/password in my Android app and now chat is up and running again.
Edit: Correction, it seems to be up and down like a yo-yo at the moment. Getting authentication errors 3 times out of 4 at least.

Someone wanna share how to get SSL up and running?

I'd love info on how to switch to SSL also. Internet is out at home for the next few weeks, so the only way I can stay in touch with my guild is through chat with guild at work.

Sirrakuk@Antonia Bayle wrote:

If you're using the web based chat client, you're stuck until they get token based authentication up and running, that's the only authentication system implemented for that.

Is there another client i dont know about? Any info you can provide on where/how would be very much appreciated.

DISCLAIMER: I set this up rather sloppily myself, and since I'm not terribly familiar with using Miranda or XMPP outside of this one use, I'm not completely familiar with what the error messages, features, etc. are, nor how to enable/disable them, etc. Also, my values will be contained in single quotes (')... don't include those in the values you input.

Step 1) Download Miranda IM. http://www.miranda-im.org/ Any XMPP/Jabber client may work, but these instructions won't necessarily be well-suited to them.

Step 2) Install it. When I was installing it, I opted for the portable installation so it's easy to wipe out later (if and when they ever fix the web-based chat). The portable installation does not create shortcut icons, so you'll need to browse to the installation folder to start the program later (or create a shortcut to it on your desktop or elsewhere).

Step 3) Start Miranda (miranda32.exe). The first time it loads, it will ask you to create a Profile. I named mine 'EQ2Chat'. Click 'Create'.

Step 4) Add an Account. Click the green + under the empty accounts list. Enter an account name ('EQ2Chat'), select 'JABBER' as the protocol type, and click 'OK.'

Step 5) With the new account selected in the left pane, change Type to 'Secure XMPP Network (old style)', enter your Station ID as the User, enter 'guildschat.station.sony.com' as the Server, and your Station ID's password for password. You can leave Save Password checked if you wish.

Step 6) Go back to the main Miranda IM window (probably minimized into your system tray), And under the Status menu, and your new EQ2Chat account, click 'Online'. This is the part where things start to get flaky. If you get an error message that says you password is incorrect, etc., keep trying to connect. Eventually you won't receive an error message. This means you're successfully connected to the server, and can move on. You can ignore the other pop-up window about being online, or click its close button to dismiss it early.

Step 7) Back in the main Miranda IM window, click the Miranda icon in the menu (looks like an orange crown), click EQ2Chat, and click Bookmarks. Click the green +, select Transport at the top, and enter EQ2.ServerName.GuildName as the Room JID/URL. If your server name or guild name has spaces in it, you will need to replace the spaces with #20;. The same goes for other special characters, but I don't have a list of them handy right now (I can add them later). So if you're on Antonia Bayle with a guild name of "Guild Name", this would be entered as EQ2.Antonia#20;Bayle.Guild#20;Name. You can name the bookmark whatever you want (it won't be saved). Once added, double click it in the Conferences list. The server will ask you to select a character name, so do that and click Register. You should get a box that says registration successful. Click Close on the Bookmarks window.
Here are some of those special characters:
(space) becomes #20;
& becomes #26;
' becomes #27;
Step 8) Back in the main Miranda IM window, click the Miranda icon in the menu, click EQ2Chat, Serviecs..., Create/join groupchat. Conference server is 'guildschat.station.sony.com' Room is the same thing you entered as the JID in the previous step. You can change nickname to whatever you like, it doesn't matter (I use my character's name). Click OK. The guild chat should open up at this point.

Step 9) When you want to reconnect later, you will need to repeat Steps 6 through 8 after opening Miranda again. Yes, it's that sloppy and complicated it seems.

But it does work (most of the time)...

Or just download EQ2GC here and just use it.
A little clunky, but very simple setup and use and it just plain works.
To use it you do need to have .net 2.0 framework installed, but most everyone should have by now. If not, you can get it here.

You're welcome.

Phawiz does that work? I tried it and it just stays at connecting and never does

I use it every day. Even on with it right now. Just use your station username and password and it should go right in. I have had it hang at connecting a couple times on me, but usually I can just close it and restart it and it works just fine. Now, if the server is down for maintenance or something, it won't tell you that. I may just keep trying to connect.

Oh, and of course make sure you have set up your server and guild name in the settings.

Maybe someone can explain what I'm supposed to put into the various fields... I've tried 2 different XMPP/Jabber clients, and can't seem to get it to work.. the domain thing is kind of weird, since I would assume I put the server infor in the "Connect Server" area, but then the client won't work without a Domain:
Here are the settings offered to me in Pidgin:
Protocol: XMPP
Username: (obviously this should be my station name)
Domain
Resource:
Password: (obviously this is my PW)

XMPP Options:
Require SSL/TLS: Check/Uncheck
Force old (port 5223) SLL: Check/Uncheck
Allow Plaintext auth over unencrypted Streams: Check/Uncheck
Connect Port: 5222
Connect Server:
File Transfer Proxies: proxy.jabber.org

Proxy Options:
Proxy Type: Use Global Proxy Settings, No Proxy, HTTP, SOCKS4, SOCKS5, Use Environmental Settings

Yeah I'm running into that with Adium. Being on a mac I can't use some of the other options mentioned. Just a little confused!