Is there a LAN chat app?

Posted by natar on Tuesday November 11, 2014 @11:56AM
from the self-post dept.

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?

( 12 comments | 3 points | on HN )

Re:Is there a LAN chat app? by opless on Tuesday November 11, 2014 @12:14PM (#8590908)

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

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Re:Is there a LAN chat app? by natar on Tuesday November 11, 2014 @12:19PM (#8590940)

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?).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Is there a LAN chat app? by opless on Wednesday November 12, 2014 @04:14PM (#8598217)

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

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Re:Is there a LAN chat app? by achinmay on Friday November 14, 2014 @01:15AM (#8606045)

IP Chat

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

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Re:Is there a LAN chat app? by natar on Saturday November 15, 2014 @09:13AM (#8611705)

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!

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Re:Is there a LAN chat app? by staunch on Tuesday November 11, 2014 @01:48PM (#8591457)

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

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Re:Is there a LAN chat app? by natar on Tuesday November 11, 2014 @02:07PM (#8591555)

Cool, thanks!

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Re:Is there a LAN chat app? by therzathegza on Tuesday November 11, 2014 @01:37PM (#8591383)

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

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Re:Is there a LAN chat app? by DanBC on Tuesday November 11, 2014 @12:11PM (#8590895)

NET SEND or MSG?

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Re:Is there a LAN chat app? by natar on Tuesday November 11, 2014 @12:14PM (#8590909)

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

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Re:Is there a LAN chat app? by diegohc on Tuesday November 11, 2014 @11:57AM (#8590818)

What about using a local jabber.org server?

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Re:Is there a LAN chat app? by natar on Tuesday November 11, 2014 @12:03PM (#8590854)

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?

[ Parent | on HN ]