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Installing Sametime Connect on Windows

Installing Sametime Connect on a Windows desktop is similar to installing any other Windows software. In order to run Sametime your workstation will need to meet the minimum hardware and operating system requirements. If you’re unsure about your hardware or operating system, be sure to check with your system administrator.

You’ll need a copy of the installation software, which is typically a file that ends in .EXE. Locate the file via Windows Explorer, and begin the installation by double-clicking on the setup.exe file. After a language option screen, you will see the Sametime Connect client installation welcome screen to start your install process.

Click on Next to proceed. After a License screen (in which you select the I Accept option and click on Next), you will have the choice of where your install of Sametime Connect should be placed:

You will see one final screen to confirm you are ready to start your install:

If everything seems correct, click on the Install button to start the process. The Windows installer will run for a few minutes, and will successfully install the software in the location you have specified. Once it has installed, you will see a message telling you the installation was successful, and also offering to launch the Sametime Connect software for you:

Assuming you leave the Launch option selected, Sametime Connect will start and take you to the Sametime sign on screen.

Installing Sametime Connect on a Macintosh

Mac users can also install Sametime Connect. That’s one really nice feature of the Sametime Connect client—you have options as to which operating system you can use. So if you use Windows at work, but have a Mac at home, you can still stay connected to your Sametime buddies. And as with the Windows environment, your Macintosh will need to meet the minimum hardware and operating system requirements in order to run Sametime. We’ve listed them here.

The following versions of the Macintosh operating system can run the Sametime Connect client: OSX 10.4.x and OSX 10.5. To install the Mac Sametime Connect client, you will need the sametime-connect.pkg file or the file specific to the version of Sametime supported in your environment. You begin by clicking on the .pkg file which will launch the Sametime installer.

Click on Continue to proceed through the license and language agreements until you reach the screen to choose the install directory. You can choose to install Sametime in a directory other than the default, but the default is usually a good choice.

Once you’ve decided on the install location, click on Install to proceed. If your install is successful, you’ll see the following screen. You’ll also see a Sametime icon in your applications folder on the Mac.

Installing Sametime Connect on Linux

Installing Sametime Connect on a Linux desktop is just as easy as installing Sametime Connect on any other desktop. We’ve included the minimum hardware and operating system requirements as follows:

You’ll need a copy of the installation software, typically a file that ends with an .RPM suffix. Here is an example of what it looks like on a SuSE Linux desktop:

Double-click on the sametime-connect-8.0.2-1.i586.rpm file to start the installation. A dialog box appears listing the name of the software that will be installed, along with a checkmark next to it to specify that it’s the correct item. When you’re ready, click on the Install button to start the process:

The installer will run for a few minutes and come back with a message saying the installation was successful.

Once that is done, all that’s left to do is to launch Sametime Connect from your desktop application menu:

When Sametime launches for the very first time, you’ll see the Sametime splash screen and you’ll be required to respond to the licensing agreement dialog box. Type 1 to accept the agreement or press Enter to read the license agreement. Once you have agreed to the licensing agreement, the sign-on screen for the Sametime Connect client will be displayed. At that point, you will have the sign-on screen for the Connect client, and it will work just like any other version of Sametime Connect.

Setting up the connection to the Sametime server

Now that you have Sametime installed, you’ll need to log into it. You will have the Sametime icon on your desktop or in your start menu, depending on the operating system you are using. Launching Sametime will open up the logon dialog box:

A few essential pieces of information are needed to complete this dialog box, which they should be provided to you by your technical department, namely Host server, User name, and Password. The Host server field is the Sametime server name. As your contacts connect to this server, you can see when they are available for chatting by the status icons that appear by their names. Your username is normally the same name or user id you use to sign on to your Lotus Notes client, but you may have a separate user id for Sametime depending on the type of authentication Sametime is using. Your password is most likely the same as your Notes client id password, but your technical department should provide you with this information.

If you want to automatically logon when you start up Sametime, select the Remember Password and Automatically log in checkboxes. This combination ensures that you will automatically sign into Sametime whenever you start up the application. And while this says “automatically”, it’s important to remember to keep your password up-to-date. The password in the dialog box will require an update for your login to Sametime to be successful.

Once you have completed the dialog box, click on Log In, and if your login information is correct, your Sametime client will show you connected to the server: