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weasel fierce
August 18th, 2011, 07:45 PM
I need some software recommendations:


I am looking for a piece of software to set up an internal real time chat room in a work situation.


The software must:

Be open source, or at least under a "free to use" license

It needs to be able to set up distinct chatrooms

Ideally, you can restrict a specific user to only access a specific, given chatroom.

Private messaging facility would be great, especially if it includes an option to enable or disable this feature for specific users.



Any suggestions?

sanderd17
August 18th, 2011, 07:48 PM
Setting up an IRC server will be the best thing.

That way you have complete control over the chatroom while the users can use interfaces they want (web interface or a separate client).

cgroza
August 18th, 2011, 07:54 PM
Setting up an IRC server will be the best thing.

That way you have complete control over the chatroom while the users can use interfaces they want (web interface or a separate client).
+1

You will have to learn a few IRC commands to control the chatroom, or get a client such as XChat that has that allows to send these commands via a GUI.

raja.genupula
August 18th, 2011, 07:59 PM
for IRC chat you can use
Xchat
pidgin
empathy

my choice is pidgin

weasel fierce
August 18th, 2011, 08:21 PM
oh, I forgot.. it needs to run on windows XP :0 Just in case that makes a difference.

LowSky
August 18th, 2011, 08:28 PM
Pidgin is a great choice. It can be used over different OSes including Windows so it will easily integrate into a business environment.

I would take a look at Jabber/XMPP too. Many server solutions are free and since they will all work with Pidgin set up for users is a breeze.

http://xmpp.org/xmpp-software/servers/

Thewhistlingwind
August 18th, 2011, 08:30 PM
oh, I forgot.. it needs to run on windows XP :0 Just in case that makes a difference.

http://serverfault.com/questions/9132/irc-server-for-windows

Have fun.

weasel fierce
August 18th, 2011, 09:36 PM
Could pidgin be configured to ONLY work on an intranet ?

FuturePilot
August 18th, 2011, 09:50 PM
Jabber (XMPP). There are a number of open source clients. IMO the best one is Gajim.

ve4cib
August 18th, 2011, 10:02 PM
Could pidgin be configured to ONLY work on an intranet ?

Probably not easily on the client-side. But you could set up a content filter to block access to external protocols that Pidgin might use.

johnnybgoode83
August 19th, 2011, 01:31 AM
Pidgin gets my vote. We use it at work for our chat solution

vehemoth
August 19th, 2011, 08:01 AM
You could try pidgin with bonjour (an intranet chat protocol), there are probably some other protocols that will work, pidgin is cross compatible.

Tibuda
August 19th, 2011, 11:33 AM
+1 for bonjour

zengrz
August 19th, 2011, 01:34 PM
Sounds like a fun project to work on :o

ki4jgt
August 19th, 2011, 02:33 PM
You could try pidgin with bonjour (an intranet chat protocol), there are probably some other protocols that will work, pidgin is cross compatible.

+ 1 though it's not a chatroom setting in it's original set (list of rooms which users can join) it is capable.

It works by listing user who are on the network. Those users talk directly to each other, or can group themselves with other users to make what is seemingly the same thing as a chat room. It's more like a conference setting though, where each user who wants a chatroom merely brings more people into the conversation. When the conversation is over, there is no room left.

graabein
August 19th, 2011, 05:10 PM
Something like jabber?

ugm6hr
August 19th, 2011, 09:37 PM
Bit confused - do you need an intranet server for work, or a software messaging client?
If the former, you can google "open source groupware" - a number of options are available. Citadel http://www.citadel.org/ has good reports, and is accessible from any web-browser (and has lots more functions than you require).
If the latter - it depends on what protocol you use.

jerenept
August 19th, 2011, 10:04 PM
Pidgin has local chat system.