Is there a LAN chat app?

3 points by natar 11 years ago | 12 comments

It has been bugging me (especially post-Snowden) that we use the internet for everything, even if the person we interact with is in the next room.

I recently found Dukto to send files from one computer to another in the local network.

I was wondering if there is a (OS independent) chat application for LAN. It would be so cool to have all people in the same network in a bar/cafe/uni to communicate with another (yes, you'd need a block function (based on MAC-address?)).

Does something like this exist?

opless 11 years ago |

Many places I've worked at end up having an internal irc server running on a random debian machine. Works well and there's plenty of clients available

natar 11 years ago | |

Yeah, that seems to be the way to go but I'd love a less geeky, n00b-friendly solution (pretty sure it doesn't exist but I can't figure out why. Is that so hard to code/achieve?).

opless 11 years ago | | |

Compared to setting up a jabber server and getting clients for it, and rooms etc. an irc server is simple. :-)

achinmay 11 years ago |

IP Chat

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Chat/LAN-Messaging-Cli...

natar 11 years ago | |

Wow, they have a whole category for Lan-Messaging clients (only for windows, though): http://www.softpedia.com/catList/37,1,3,0,1.html Cheers!

staunch 11 years ago |

IP Messenger http://ipmsg.org/index.html.en

natar 11 years ago | |

Cool, thanks!

therzathegza 11 years ago |

IRC with an HTTP portal hosted locally would be a bit more friendly to non-IRC expecting types.

DanBC 11 years ago |

NET SEND or MSG?

natar 11 years ago | |

Mh, looks like those are Windows only services/programs? I'll look into it, thanks!

diegohc 11 years ago |

What about using a local jabber.org server?

natar 11 years ago | |

I personally would be cool with that but nobody uses it, I haven't come accross this anywhere except maybe hackerspaces. Restaurant/bar owners would need to set it up, plus you need a computer(the router?) that is always online and tell the people how to enter the chatroom.

I just want a programm that I can fire up whenever I go somewhere with a (Wireless)LAN to see what's going on. Like Firechat for (W)LANs?