NA-network messaging

I've finally gotten all the pc's hooked up to the network.(except for the macs) We need some kind of messaging tool, preferably free and preferably something that is not internet dependant. (if the internet connection is down, we still need to talk) I have win 98, 2000 and XP systems so it needs to be flexible. Anybody have any suggestions?

 

Do a Google search for peer-to-peer instant messaging. I'm not familiar with any of the products but there are a number of them listed.

 

If you're using Novell, it comes with a messaging program. I believe Windows network does as well, but I've never used it.

 

Well, there's messaging through the DOS prompt but that's rather cumbersome and doesn't work well without NetBios enabled (which he'll need for Win98 anyway). There is no instant messaging server component, however, without a separate license (which are rather pricey considering what it's for).

Peer-to-peer isn't bad on pricing overall. There are third party server platforms available, too.

 

net send {pcname} {message}

from dos. Should work.

 

That is dependent upon the Microsoft messaging service but non NT versions of windows don't have that. There is a separate Microsoft app called Winpopup that works with the messaging service on Win98 but as someone previously stated it is cumbersome. Besides, more and more security bulletins are telling people to the MS messaging service off unless it's absolutely necessary for something. Some of the malware in the wild uses the MS messaging service for popups and such. I have it disabled on our network.

What about Netmeeting? I've never used it myself but I believe it's a free download?

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/netmeeting/

In our office we just use MS Exchange and Outlook, no real need for instant messaging.

Jeannie

 

Personally, I'd dump the Win98s and get rid of NetBios altogether. Too chatty and has security issues in itself. But you're right, if nothing else, disable Windows Messaging.

I've never used Netmeeting for direct instant messaging but have used it in sharing desktops and such. It could work.

 

Me too !!!

I found a really neat tool for remote admin including desktop sharing, looking at services running and all sorts of really cool things. It's called "Dameware NT Utilities" from Dameware Development. It's great admin tool and what I really like about it that it's licensed on a per administrator basis. An administrator can install it on as many machines as they want. It's also pretty inexpensive.

It's not an instant messaging tool but it can do that too.

Jeannie

 

Who's going to remember a bunch of IP addresses for workstations outside the IT guy?

 

you can use computer names too

Code:

net send NicksFastOne Hi!

 

Or, you could set names for the IP on the host file....

 

Well, this needs to be able to carry on a "conversation" a la IM or yahoo messenger. I'll hit the old google and see what I can find. Unfortunatly the 98's are production machines (running engravers) whose drivers do not like win2k and XP so we are stuck with them.

I've also disable windows messaging on the net due to the vunerablilty of the pop up exploits.

 

Whose going know the ip addresses since they are handed out autmatically by the server?

 

Not everyone uses DHCP, I don't. But most users have no idea what a command line anything is. If you can't click on it most of the users I deal with can't figure it out. Even then it's often a challenge.

Jeannie

 

Take a look at this:

http://www.cezeo.com/products/lantalk-xp/

Its not free, but might be the ticket.

 

Thanks Scott, that looks good.

Besides doing the google thing I took a trip to tucows. Looks like most of the good stuff is going to be about 9 to 15 bucks per user. That's not too bad. We could probably do with 4 or 5 users.

 

99---

 

100

Sorry, had to get to 100 messages :dance:

 

Gotta keep track of these things. Heck, I'm working on MAC hardware address limits @ present.....

 

This isn't a home network. It's a business environment and it uses DHCP so things may change depending on lease times.

All too often IT folks seem to think that the world has to bend to THEM when dealing with technology. I approach it the other way around: how can I set up a system that will work with how the customer (my users in this case) wants to do his/her job? Find a product that fits how they do business without requiring them to learn a whole new set of commands, instructions, whatever. Otherwise the solution will fail in the long run.

And I've been doing this since I was 13...24 years.

 

I wrote a program in VB6 a while back that did just this. It would gather everyone on a network that was running the program, and list them like an AOL chat room. Everyone could communicate, and you could click on an individiual and have a private chat. I did it when I was trying to learn programming with both winsock and directplay. I don't know if I have the source for it anymore, but if you're programmically inclined, you could probably write the program in less than a day.

 

I've never programmed in VBanything. I do most of my coding in BBx, a "business" basic and unix shell script.


Guess I could learn though.....(ok wheres the manual)