Unable to authenticate subscriptions

I’ve installed Openfire 3.4.2, and can connect to the server with a chat client. Have used pidgin, spark, ichat, and trillian. Can search users, etc. but when adding to a contact list, it is always status pending: unauthorized. An authorization request never arrives at target user for auth. I’ve installed the subscription plugin, set it to approve all users, but it does nothing. Not sure if the problem is there. My desired functionality is for no authentication, so if the subscription plugin can be made to work, it would be the favored option. Short of that, I need an understanding of how subscriptions are supposed to authorize.

Oh, and I’m also connected to Active Directory via ldap