I would like some kind of p2p program to communicate / chat over intRAnet LANs with NO INTERNET. If our internet goes down, it'd be nice to still be able to chat with each other within the same building. I mean, it's absurd to use the internet to talk to someone in the next room as most people recommend nowadays when you've got a router that's perfectly capable of sending the messages without any internet services being required.
There's a freeware program that will do this called realPopup http://www.matro.it/site/show/english/realpopup.aspx that is apparently some kind of winpopup replacement, but it's not open source and I don't think it's portable. Is there anything like this that's open source? (preferably GPL)
Please, no stupid suggestions about using regular internet IM clients or starting my own private IRC server. This must be for intranets, peer-to-peer, free, open source, Windows XP compatible and preferably portable and still being actively developed. This seems such an obvious and basic function that I can't understand why such programs are so rare and/or unheard of.
I have been using Windows's messenger service (not MSN messenger!!) for this so far (NET SEND) but it often fails for no readily apparent reason.
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I doubt there's really as much use for this as a portable. As a portable app, by its nature, you're moving around so your IP, etc all change. So there needs to be a centralized something to tie it together. So, from a portability standpoint, there wouldn't be much use (unless you're all in a computer lab and calling our your IP addresses to each other, in which case you could just talk to each other).
NET SEND is nearly always disabled these days by admins in nearly all scenarios. The last time I saw it enabled in a company, for instance, was about 10 years ago. It's an extremely old holdover from a different era in computer use.
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To tell you the truth John, about half way through 2008 at my school a handful of students got suspended for sending random things to every single computer on the network (using the messenger service).
but on another note, BORGChat might be an option if the messenger service is enabled.
http://borgchat.softnews.ro/
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It seems that the reasons John T. Hallier gives for this not being portable (your IP address changing) are the same reasons I'm thinking of for why it should be portable. Just because the Messenger service has been abused doesn't mean something like it isn't needed. It sure would be alot faster than sneakernet and alot more practical than using instant messaging or maintaining your own private IRC server. BORGchat looks interesting.
I've never used it myself in anger, but there is an instant messaging protocol that is part of Rendezvous/Bonjour, which is serverless and auto-discovering on local LANs, which should be ideal for what you want.
Pidgin supports it, Miranda has a protocol addon for it, Trillian supports it, Mac clients support it, so you should have a choice of clients, even portable ones
Interesting. I will try that sometime. If it works as you describe, there is indeed no need or a special program to do this.