Discreet & Private MSN Chatting from an Untrusted PC through a Unix Server with msnlib

Who doesn't like keeping in touch with his friends? Who doesn't like not being fired because your boss saw you launching Windows Live Messenger? Who doesn't like having a little privacy?

Your dreams aren't that far fetched! All you need is a UNIX (or Linux) server and a decent SSH client (PuTTY is a good candidate if you're on Windows). You don't need root privileges on either the server or your workstation.

The Server Setup

First, connect to your server. Download the latest version of msnlib on this website, for example with

wget http://blitiri.com.ar/p/msnlib/files/3.7/msnlib-3.7.tar.gz

Then extract the archive à la

tar xvzf msnlib-3.7.tar.gz
cd msnlib-3.7

There's no need to install, you just execute

bash msnsetup

and enter your Windows Live Passport email address and password when asked for.

Chatting Away

Connect to your server with SSH, cd your way to the directory in which you extracted msnlib and enter python msn.

You'll be greeted with a basic but functional TUI (Text User Interface). Type help to see what commands you can enter. You can press ee and hit ENTER to see who's online and m someone@something.com text to say "text" to someone@something.com. Reply to the last message your received with r text and send another message to the last person you sent one to with a text. To exit, just press CTRL+C.

FAQ

Why go through SSH? You can run <program> on your own computer!
If you run it on your own computer, all messages will be sent unencrypted over the company network.

Why aren't you using msncp/<other python based TUI msn client>?
There's nothing wrong with these, but they're mostly too graphical. Even though they run in a terminal, they still look like IM clients. People who see me using the msnlib msn client just back away slowly without blinking.