What is the best peer to peer lan office messaging application

NVIDIA_x64 · 3 Apr 2010 at 11:44

Within a small office we want to be able to send instant local messages between up to 8 different pc's within the building.

Any help would be appreciated

Paul11 · 3 Apr 2010 at 15:34

why not just any of the current messaging apps ?

msn messenger ? or similar

IAmATeaf · 3 Apr 2010 at 15:59

For work we use MS Office Communicator but I've no ides what's involved in the setup.

DJDaz · 3 Apr 2010 at 16:48

openfire/spark is a good IM setup imo

we used to use google talk (with google apps) at my old job which worked well

K.C. Leblanc · 3 Apr 2010 at 16:52

DJDaz said:
openfire/spark is a good IM setup imo

It does however require a server, although it's fairly light so could probably run in the background on someone's PC. Or just have it running on a spare box.

NVIDIA_x64 · 3 Apr 2010 at 18:55

Spark looks like the thing I need thanks guys

tntcoder · 3 Apr 2010 at 19:33

An internal IRC server might be worth considering to. (Not peer-to-peer, but still a decent choice for internal comms)

paradigm · 3 Apr 2010 at 20:23

IAmATeaf said:
For work we use MS Office Communicator but I've no ides what's involved in the setup.

Lots.

Office Communications Server is a ballache to configure, and not cheap.

MacRS4 · 3 Apr 2010 at 21:08

Ha ha - yes, it can be if you want everything such as IM, presence, remote access, federation, LiveMeeting, MSN/Yahoo/AOL integration as well as telephony.

If all you want is IM & Presence it's a doddle. You can virtualise it too.

OCS is my bread & butter - you're right full suite is complex, but it's incredibly flexible.

OCS Std Edition is about 400 quid. You then need client access licenses - standards are about 20 quid, enterprise about 120 (at retail - far cheaper for EA/Volume). Also, you need Communicator 2007R2 as well - it either comes as part of Office 2007 Pro Plus or above, or you can buy separately at about 17 quid/seat.

Or license per device.

Personally I think the licensing is more of a ballache then the product itself.

See here for building a standard edition set up, including video run throughs: http://www.markc.me.uk/MarkC/Blog/Entries/2009/6/19_Building_an_OCS_Test_System.html

You need quicktime to view the vids (sorry!) and the page takes a while to load cos I haven't optimised it very well*.

*At all.

SourChipmunk · 4 Apr 2010 at 01:50

Heard of this, but never tried it. Open Source and all, might be worth a go:

http://www.igniterealtime.org/projects/openfire/index.jsp

DJDaz · 4 Apr 2010 at 10:45

Raist said:
Heard of this, but never tried it. Open Source and all, might be worth a go:

http://www.igniterealtime.org/projects/openfire/index.jsp

thats what i mentioned above, it's mega easy to set up. got it installed on my home server at the mo

SourChipmunk · 4 Apr 2010 at 23:36

DJDaz said:
thats what i mentioned above, it's mega easy to set up. got it installed on my home server at the mo

Ahh, so you did. I didn't make the connection since I stumbled across it trying to find the Jabber engine.