Bypass unrecognized XMPP/Jabber certificates with this guide

Dec 27, 2012 15:30 GMT  ·  By

The following tutorial will teach all Thunderbird users how to force the chat client to connect to an existing XMPP or Jabber account.

Starting with Thunderbird 15.0, Mozilla introduced a new function to the already powerful email and RSS feed reader client, the chat.

By default, Thunderbird Chat works with the following chat services: Facebook Chat, Google Talk, IRC, Twitter and XMPP.

Support for more popular chat services can also be added with a handy add-on, called Additional Chat Protocols for Thunderbird, which allows users to connect to the AIM, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, GroupWise, ICQ, MSN, MySpaceIM, Netsoul, SIMPLE, Sametime and Yahoo! instant messaging protocols.

However, it appears that Mozilla provides minimal support for some of these chat services, and because we're using the XMPP protocol, we have decided to teach users how to connect to a server that has an unrecognized certificate.

What you need? Of course, you'll need to have Mozilla Thunderbird 15.0 or later installed, and know the XMPP server and port you want to connect to.

Let's get started, shall we? Go to Edit -> Preferences and click the 'Advanced' tab. Next, you will need to go to the 'Certificates' tab under the 'Advanced' section and click the 'View Certificates' button.

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Click the 'Servers' tab if it's not already selected, and click on the 'Add Exception' button...
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In the 'Location' field, delete the https:// entry and type in the server name, followed by the :5222 port. E.g. xmpp.softpedia.com:5222 ...
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Click on the 'Get Certificate' button and wait for Thunderbird to find the certificate. In a few seconds you will be notified that the certificate has been found and you will be able to click on the 'Confirm Security Exception' button. IMPORTANT: Make sure that you check the 'Permanently store this exception' box!

That's it, click the OK button on the 'Certificate Manager' window and close the Thunderbird preferences dialog.

Now, try to connect again to your local XMPP account. Eureka, it works! If you have problems with the tutorial, do not hesitate to comment below!