[JDEV] Jabber via proxy (Question, and possible answer)

[kadokev at msg.net]

>From what I have read here, and from sniffing connections on my LAN, all
communication from the client to the Jabber server, regardless of additional
transports (AIM, ICQ, etc), happens on a single TCP port 5222 connection
initiated from the client. Correct?
 
For Jabber users who are behind a firewall that does not allow users to
connect to arbitrary remote hosts on port 5222, I have been (successfully)
experimenting with abusing SSL-aware HTTP proxies to make the connection.

This does _not_ require a SSL-aware Jabber server to work. The biggest problem
I have right now is that the proxy server will close the connection, usually
based on inactivity, sometimes for no discernable reason.

For Jabber-via-web-proxy to work for the average user, it will require that
the client have an option to set the proxy configuration, similar to the HTTPS
option in AIM. Can anybody recommend a MS-Windows Jabber client that both
A) has free public source code and also
B) is easy to modify?

Perhaps if I add this functionality to the Java 'JabberApplet', somebody with
more MS-Windows programming experience can implement it for other clients?

Thanks,

Kevin