Intranet Chat

[MatiasZ]

Hi everybody, I need to setup an intranet chat for about 10 people to use inside the office. I would like it to be easy to setup and use, not too many features, and would like it (duh) to be free.

People inside the intranet have blocked the internet access, so it should be host-based instead of server-based, but I could eventually setup a server for the program inside the intranet, if needed. It should run under XP/Vista 32b.

Any suggestions?

Regards,
Matias

 

[Davros]

netmeeting ?

 

[MatiasZ]

netmeeting ?

Thanks! It could work, but if I happen to install any Vista clients (which now there is none) I will not be able to use it (is XP only). I'll try it out though. Any more ideas?

 

[Arwin]

MS Communication Server is actually quite nice, despite being MS software. I like how you can see advanced status on someone's availability including links to Exchange, Calendar etc. features, basically combined with all the stuff you're used to from Live Messenger. It's probably overkill for you though, and there should be plenty linux/php free stuff out there.

 

[Scott_Arm]

What about trying a client like Miranda or GAIM? They should have plugins for all kinds of different protocols.

 

[the maddman]

Use internal only Jabber server. My favorite is Openfire (http://igniterealtime.org) which is written in Java and can be run on Windows, Linux or a Mac.

It's got a pretty simple web management interface, supports LDAP authentication and server side groups in people's contact lists. And you have a large selection of Jabber clients you can use.

If you don't want to setup a server, chatting via Rendezvous is an option. (http://xurble.org/projects/iChatMiranda)

I can't stand Miranda's interface though, but it's free.

 

[MatiasZ]

Thank you all for the input I'll take a look at those options and let you know how it goes.

 

[MatiasZ]

Use internal only Jabber server. My favorite is Openfire (http://igniterealtime.org) which is written in Java and can be run on Windows, Linux or a Mac.

It's got a pretty simple web management interface, supports LDAP authentication and server side groups in people's contact lists. And you have a large selection of Jabber clients you can use.

If you don't want to setup a server, chatting via Rendezvous is an option. (http://xurble.org/projects/iChatMiranda)

I can't stand Miranda's interface though, but it's free.

Wow, what a GREAT tool!! Thank you for the advice! I'm using OpenFire + Spark and it works like a charm. Is a little overpowered for my needs, but since setup is very simple, I'll take the extra features. I recommend it to anyone needing a solution like this. Thank again!

 

[the maddman]

Wow, what a GREAT tool!! Thank you for the advice! I'm using OpenFire + Spark and it works like a charm. Is a little overpowered for my needs, but since setup is very simple, I'll take the extra features. I recommend it to anyone needing a solution like this. Thank again!

Glad I could help. Openfire is pretty easy to setup, and will give you a ton of options. And you can scale to hundreds of users without any problems.