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A LAN messenger is an instant messaging program designed for use within a single local area network (LAN).
There are advantages using a LAN messenger over a normal instant messenger. The LAN messenger runs inside a company or private LAN, so only people who are inside the firewall will have access to the system. Communication data does not leave the LAN and the system can also not be spammed from the outside.
History
On Unix there is the command talk which enables users to directly talk with each other, first versions were available on a DEC PDP-11 computer system in the 1970s. The used NTALK-protocol 1 has also been used by programs on other operating systems, for example TalkR und WinTalk on Windows. With the spreading of Samba it became possible to send text message in heterogeneous networks (smbclient), nearly all Linux distribution offer a samba package.
The first LAN messenger for Windows is WinPopup, a small utility included since Windows 3.11. WinPopup uses SMB/NetBIOS protocol and was intended to receive and send short text messages. Windows NT/2000/XP improves upon this with Messenger service, a Windows service compatible to WinPopup.2 On systems where this service is running, the received messages "pop up" as simple message boxes. Any software compatible with WinPopup, like the console utility NET SEND, can send such messages. By default, messenger service is off in Windows XP SP2 and blocked by Windows XP's firewall.
Windows NT-line of products also provide their own chatting application Microsoft Chat aka Windows Chat.
See also
References
- ^ http://members.aol.com/chinyu/chitchat/faq-04.html NTALK Talk Daemon
- ^ http://support.microsoft.com/kb/137143 WinPopup Utility Not Supported In Windows NT
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 5 January 2009, at 04:17.
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