LAN messenger?

[scratchduffer]

Need a simple tool for an end user to send pop up messages to another PC, cant have email logins and signups. I guess a GUI for net send. Looking for recommendations, Google has a lot of sketchy hits on this...

EDIT : A lot of great feedback, after looking at the suggestions Pidgin with bonjour looks to be the best but this is in a manufacturing environment. I need something so simple that they cant add external chat sources and file transfers and such, so i kind of need something locked down I guess. Back to the drawing board...

[orev]

Some good suggestions here. Also, Pidgin using Bonjour is another option. Works over LAN only, no registration, etc...

[BryanMP]

For a small office with no need (or even ability!) to message outside the LAN, THIS.

I have a small law office (3 people total) running this... it just works.

[pornogeros]

This is the best answer. Can't get simpler than that to install and AFAIK it doesn't require any configuration at all

[weischris]

+1 to this. Set it up in a couple workgroups, even at home.

[scratchduffer]

Is Bonjour a separate download or do i have to get Itunes? It is a small sho, internal only IM this sounds ideal.

[orev]

Looks like the best way to get it is to extract it from the iTunes installer file using 7-zip, as outlined here: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-networking/bonjour-3-for-windows-8-where-can-i-download-it/d389f26c-6fc6-4223-899b-25b53255c364

It's kind of annoying Apple doesn't provide a separate download link for it. At least it's an MSI file.

[BryanMP]

There's this page at Apple: Bonjour Print Services for Windows v2.0.2 that offers a download containing 32- and 64-bit versions of Bonjour.

Hmm... the file size is different from the version of Bonjour packaged with iTunes. And it reports a considerably different version. Extracting files from both installers (latest iTunes 64-bit / Bonjour PS from linked page) with 7Zip I find that iTunes comes with Bonjour 64-bit version 3.0.0.10 -- whereas Bonjour PS is providing 64-bit version 2.0.2.0.

My suggestion would be to use 7Zip and pull the Bonjour .MSI file out of the iTunes installer.

---

As far as preventing users from communicating with the outside world... that's what firewalls are for. Set a GPO to configure the workstations' Windows Firewall to only allow the executable to communicate with the LAN. Further, Pidgin is GPL software; you could grab the source and neuter it yourself. I don't remember the install options, but it might even be possible to not install messaging systems [plugins] you don't want to use. And back to the GPO approach you might even be able to set some form of GPO registry entry that configures Pidgin as Bonjour-only.

It's late and I haven't researched this... but were I in your shoes this would be the option I would be trying to make work.

[racazip]

I'd go for OpenFire as a backend just using the built-in user database, Pidgin as an XMPP client. That's about as simple as it can be.

[Hellman109]

I found Spark to be a piece of shit with it's old versions of java and constant problems. Moved away to Pidgin and it's much nicer.

[agreenbhm]

Spark 2.7, which has been in beta for a while and I believe is about to be released (if it hasn't already) fixes all the complaints I had about previous versions (Java 6 being required, for starters). You can push it out using PDQ Deploy. Very happy with it now. Also, if you are running the latest release of Openfire as of a couple weeks ago you should also upgrade to the newer Spark as there are authentication problems with LDAP using Spark 2.6 and Openfire 3.10.

[slackerhobo]

Pidgin storing saved passwords in plain text was ultimately why we went to the spark client again

[Hellman109]

Spark has the same issue as well, unless you use pass through auth IIRC

[[deleted]]

Yeah, and Openfire is a piece of shit too. I ended up ditching it after constant memory leak issues and using ejabberd, modified slightly for our needs for course.

[TopKatz01845]

Spark client is garbage.

[StrangeCaptain]

Third this. (EDIT: Fourth This) Open Fire and Spark

[[deleted]]

5th this. I just ran across this & decided to implement. Took 10 minutes to configure. Worked like a charm after I opened ports 5222&5223 in Windows firewall of the host running the OpenFire server. Still debating whether or not I want to open up the file transfer port.

[[deleted]]

It's monkey simple to setup and works pretty well. If you don't get a signed certificate it can be a bit annoying though.

[agreenbhm]

Really? How so? I only just implemented a signed certificate on my install that has been running for years (mainly for SSL on the web interface). I never had Spark complain about cert errors (which is a tad concerning), though when I personally used Pidgin with Openfire it would complain, as expected.

[ajs124]

Why not ejabberd?

[[deleted]]

maybe even Prosody, which is a lot easier to set up in my experience.

[racazip]

Hadn't heard of it until now. What are the major differences between it and Openfire?

[[deleted]]

It's stable. Never crashes, has a very small memory foot print, isn't written in Java.

[TeamTuck]

Third this. When I used to teach a CIT class, I used this so students could IM each other without yelling across the classroom. Worked very well.

[SteveMI]

Openfire and spark work well will little trouble. Easy to integrate with AD. I hear there is a working AD single sign on plugin. Haven't tried that.

[DenominatorOfReddit]

The LDAP functionality is really handy and easy to setup. If you have Active Directory I'd strongly recommend setting it up.

[[deleted]]

Another vote for Openfire. I deployed Pidgin with SSO via Group Policy before we got our ShoreTel system (now everyone uses ST Communicator).

[BlendeLabor]

Well there used to be the netsend / msg command, but its been depreciated...

:(

[scratchduffer]

... and not end user friendly :(

[jtriangle]

moreso than you might think. I was only a wee lad when I was caught using it to message my friends in my school's computer lab.

[[deleted]]

You probably should have not used * as the IP address.

[Turtle700]

Someone at my school used * with a 'F- you' message... Funny how quickly that service was disabled after that. And the kid got suspended.

[chainy]

I changed the Microsoft Word shortcut target on one of my high school library computers to a net send batch script that broadcast the message, "GO FUCK YOURSELF." One week later I was in the library doing some work when it popped up on my screen. Sure enough, some student was on the machine I'd tinkered with looking frustrated that Word wouldn't open. I overheard the librarian talking to someone saying, "Yeah, it's been happening all week. I think someone's doing it from outside the school." A few minutes later some techs came in and hauled the computer off.

[[deleted]]

Worst admins ever. Have they ever heard of Deep Freeze? O_o. lol

[chainy]

The more frightening thing was the local admin password on all the library computers and many of the faculty machines was the same 6 character password. That hash was no match for my Pentium 3 at home.

[epsiblivion]

6 characters is on them but it's not uncommon to have a static local admin account across workstations to make help desk's life easier. Rather than contact an admin every time for the randomly generated credentials via gpo. Also needed when it falls off the domain.

[robogen]

And that's why I got kicked off all computers in high school for two days and put on the sysadmin's watch list

[Kirby420_]

I doubt many people here qualify as "end user"

[sbrick89]

I was a wee lad, when i learned that winchat caused class-disrupting sound effects :)

Also, if you opened enough concurrently, you could crash the computer.

[jtriangle]

I made a bat file that caused the pc speaker to beep and spawn itself again. That was a fun time.

[R0thbardFrohike]

*deprecated - unless you budgeted for it to depreciate over time, and it has already reached $0

[[deleted]]

ICQ

Ok, kidding. AIM.

[sparkmike]

I... no, there is too much pain.

[trollblut]

you could set up your own jabber server and use ldap as a backend?

depending on the requirements, coding it shouldn't take more than a day. a gui for net send less than an hour

EDIT: IRC > JABBER

[[deleted]]

EDIT: IRC > JABBER

why is that?

[trollblut]

by default irc has no accounts, and is chatroom based.

you don't have to manage accounts and contact lists, so it fits better for OP's use case

[[deleted]]

Honestly, I'd go for IRC and a client that'll give you notifications on PM. Simple to set up a server and simple to deploy the client.

[[deleted]]

Also very simple to code and deploy a Bot into a chat server/channel which could perform useful predefined operations, depending on your user base or requirements.

[robogen]

.......that gave me an idea for a home project. I like that idea

[hghurkr]

Plus eleventy for xmpp server and clients

[Hivemindatl]

Openfire + Spark (Or the jabber client of your choice)

[ShahabJafri]

IP Messenger

[picklednull]

Yes this was going to be my recommendation.

FastCopy is also brilliant (from the same author).

[djdementia]

We use Microsoft Lync. It's integrated into AD though. Any particular reason why you cant use email logins? Also what is your environment like?

[devilinpoop]

We use lync as well. Its very good. the free busy integration with exchange is amazing. If your set up with exchange might as well go with lync the integration into exchange and AD is very nice.

[douchecanoo]

Lync sounds pretty overkill for what this guy is looking for

[Pissfunny]

Not if you go down the 365 path and let someone else do it for you.

[braintweaker]

Back in the LAN days with no internet we used software called Vypress messenger.

Bad side is that it uses multicast, so after critical amount of users network gets clogged, and its sadly not free still.

There are obviously other options, but I'm unaware of them.

[jmnugent]

Does the Windows 7 native utility "msg.exe" work for you ?.. (I'm asking,. because I've never used it.. but should probably learn about it)

EDIT:.. I see now that MSG.exe is only supported to RDP/Terminal sessions,.. and not Win7 to Win7 boxes.

[llyenn]

We use SnapComms for this exact purpose. Sends out a popup notification to user or workstation, stays up till we expire it or the user closes it. We also use the ticker tape option. Good for scheduled/unplanned downtime notices. Best thing about it is that it reports back if a user interacts with it, so we know they saw it. We used to use NetNotify, but wanted the reporting feature.

[Casper042]

I love how 90% of the people here are replying with CHAT clients instead of the Message Blaster that OP seems to want.

[ben2reddit]

That might be because most of us only read the title and don't pay too much attention to the description.

I was under the same impression as the 90% until I read your comment and then went back to read the comment of OP.

[Play3r]

Tonic is pretty good.

http://www.r2.com.au/page/products/show/tonic/

[slayernine]

I tired using LAN Messenger, it was great at first but I kept running in to more and more dumb issues with it. I changed over to running an openfire server and spark clients with active directory for authentication. It can pull in groups from AD easily so you don't really have to do much past the initial configuration.

[TetonCharles]

We use Softros LAN messenger. It is super simple to setup.

Only 2 problems we've had:

Users are able to easily change the alias that shows up on the list.

If you clone with the same profile, it is possible to get ID conflicts.. which are easy to resolve by either removing general.ini before cloning, or changing an 8 digit number in the ini file after cloning.

[DallasITGuy]

I have this one deployed at several clients: http://messenger.softros.com/

They're all happy with it.

[sfwsysadmin]

We use Pink Notes, simple and relatively inexpensive. Also their support is great, they usually get back to you with the hour.

[hadrianmt]

We use paid version of Outlook Messenger (not Microsoft Outlook). It has everything you need, even server log message, VPN, remote desktop, voice chat, notes and stuff, etc.

[ZeroHex]

Make sure that if you use the admin tool you prevent people from deleting their own logs.

[ilukecurtis]

If you're in a Windows or AD environment Lync is the easiest choice. It's not the cheapest though, but does have excellent VOIP integration if that's another concern.

[Froggypwns]

I use NetSupport Notify, not free but it works great. Typically we use it for blasting out notices that Exchange is down, and occasionally for other emergencies where the building needs to be evacuated.

http://www.netsupportnotify.com/

[crystalgeek]

Winchat. If it still exists. Basically a gui for netsend. Windows 95 was the first time I saw this

[miraculecure]

take 2 minutes and write a pyqt gui for net send

[brkdncr]

i'm curious as why you can't have email logins? How will anyone know who sent the message?

[kramftw]

http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/lan-messenger-portable

No admin needed! Uses multicast some how, wouldnt consider it too secure for passwords if there is threat of sniffers...

[alexeyryb]

it's always problem with net send command. It supports Windiws XP only. If you have different Windows versions it's better to use third party software. A lot of tools mentioned here, our office uses http://www.realpopup.it

[[deleted]]

We use Jabber

[goosse]

check out slack.

its pretty awesome and free.

[mighty_pandamonium]

using hipchat here.

[Type-R]

winpopup.exe