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When I came to work on the first day, they showed me my workplace, gave me a computer, registered it in Zhira and Gitlab, and showed me the main means of communication between employees - iChat. You might think it's something about Apple, but it was a little worse.
To my oh, surprised face, my colleagues explained that it happened historically (some kind of link), and in general, everyone understands that this is a little strange, but no one plans to change anything. After all, iChat (it is fully called Intranet Chat - Wikipedia) has so many advantages:
- stands on our server and does not rustle
- everything is free (The author of the program released the latest version in 2002, free of charge)
- "has an aesthetic and uncomplicated interface" (thanks for the quote, Wikipedia)
- there are all the necessary functions - personal chats and a "message board"
- no history - restart your computer, and if your colleague Vasya sent you an e-mail yesterday, go read the logs in a text file
- files cannot be transferred - welcome to a corporate ftp exchanger, shared folders on a disk, or personal clouds (I personally drive my OneDrive account if necessary)
- it is impossible to chat normally from outside (it is normal to write to colleagues only after connecting via VPN or RDP)
- you can’t write to someone who is offline now - if a colleague is working from home today, or left early, or it’s non-working time now - remember your message until better times
- in pursuit, the client is only available under Windows since the 98th version - no iPhones for you and online 24 hours a day
- naturally, there is no normal highlighting of anything: code, links (okay, there is highlighting, but you can’t click on them), hypertext
So why not just use Skype/Whatsapp/Telegram/Viber/ICQ?
You can probably already tell what the problem is here. Firstly, all employees cluster around the messengers they have chosen. One needs to write there, the other here, for one of my colleagues I even kept ICQ constantly running, he did not use anything else (even iChat). And what is so characteristic is that no one wants to switch to another chat, and those who do not use them in principle (yes, there are many of them among programmers, mostly older employees, or paranoids, or both), do not want to and start off.And secondly, I have classmates on Telegram, acquaintances, and my entire contact list, and it’s impossible to properly separate colleagues from everyone else. And to find out that a colleague is in the telegram, I can only ask him himself. Sometimes I don't even know I have a new colleague until I see someone I don't know at a computer in another office. In short, chaos.
Then I asked our head of the department if it was possible to take a newer and still more technically advanced program from Apple, so that everyone would not suffer from garbage and could chat in one place. “There is no such program,” came the reply. How not, I thought, and said that there definitely is, it cannot be. "Then find it, and then we'll see." Ok, now the digital age, everything is googled, it’s easy to find something sane, I thought. I was a little wrong.
Organization Chat Requirements
- free or one-time payment of an amount below 5000 wooden ones (“now it’s free, so I don’t want to pay, and even 3k every month” - this is approximately the attitude towards paying for a chat in the organization, and the toad also presses me to pay at the rates that American companies offer other American and non-American companies)
- installation on your server, if not necessary, then at least highly desirable
- support for the Russian language (the English version is guaranteed to be used only by the development department, and even then with a stretch)
Chat requirements from me
- cross-platform. So that I can finally, sitting at lunch, or in transport, or on vacation, write something to someone from the phone, and even find out what someone wrote to me. And so that my colleague, who has Linux, does not make a sad face every time at the word “chat”.
- sharpened by communication in companies. So that I have a chat where there is All my colleagues and only My colleagues
- live active project. So that bugs, like insects frozen in amber, do not hang in the product until the end of time
- file transfer. Well, why should I upload this picture to the public folder, if I can just throw it through the chat!
- normal synchronization of notifications / unread. Not like in Skype - I caught a message, and then within 24 hours you find a notification about it on each of your devices.
In the footsteps of aichat
At first I tried to find something similar to aychat, small, local, free, under Windows, without any tricks. Russian offers in this market segment are often something incredible: a poor set of functionality, frozen somewhere in the mid-2000s, is combined with a clumsy user interface a la “my first project in Delphi” and a horse price that can only dream of marketers from JetBrains and Adobe. Often in the kit there is a complete or partial lack of support.One of the best options that I managed to find is the "Commfort" chat. The name intrigued me, but in reality everything turned out to be not so comfortable.
The cost of comfort for my organization of about 30-40 people: 16 thousand rubles.
The product has attractive features, but it scares away with its interface and does not inspire confidence in its quality. Yes, and at a price we will not climb with him.
Unfortunately, after several hours of googling, I could not find an option that met my criteria. If it still exists, I would be grateful for the link.
These are your hipster slacks
Several times lately, I've heard about slack in one place or another in another place (Slack in the languages of the Romance group). That this is some new, hitherto unseen something, either a chat on steroids, or a forum with a strange way of displaying topics. The Americans there are crazy about slack, and every self-respecting startup uses it (on their MacBooks, drinking smoothies and coffee from Starbucks). One of my colleagues recently went to a startup that is being created by a slack competitor.Well, slack means slack, there can't be so much hype out of nothing. A cursory examination of the patient showed the presence of new lotions, some channels with hashtags and an unusual interface. And the desire to be at the forefront of technology was, of course, strong, but the interface of our overseas friend does not have any translations into other languages, and only Apple can put it on its server (which, as you know, can do everything, but not everything wants). Well, a little fail.
Oh, and then there's hipchat. It's like slack, only hipchat. And also there is no translation, and also not put to yourself. But for hipsters. And for robots.
But we would like our
Having already managed to get pretty upset from hopelessness, after a couple of weeks I almost accidentally stumbled upon Zulip - an OpenSource slack competitor (or maybe not a competitor, who will sort them out there), very similar to what I need. It is free, and anyone can install it on their server, even if this person is a company of 50 people.Although it quickly became clear that this option was not suitable due to its complexity (there are sections, there are topics in the sections, and only in the topics there are chats in which you can write something) and, how can I say this without anglicisms ... okay, where without them, the User Experience in it is generally sad. And yes, only in English.
This is what a patient with an incomprehensible name looks like
But it's getting closer, and there really might be something suitable in the world of OpenSource! I ran the search bar a little more, and found Mattermost and Rocket chat. The latter eventually won the People's Choice Award named after me, and entered our house as a new member of the software ecosystem. And all why, because he has translations, translations!
This is how it all looks like
Briefly, the goodies and minuses of rocket chat
First, of course, the pros:- There is a translation into Russian. Yes, it is not complete, but almost, and in which case it is possible to translate the necessary things into your own language. Translations are hosted on the lingohub.com portal, specially made for this purpose. The author of this post, to his credit (and modesty), has translated 60% of what has not yet been translated, and is not going to stop.
- You can put it on your server under Linux with one line (really, one, and it works).
- There are clients for all platforms except Windows Phone: (poor, poor WP! (I myself am a former owner of Lumia)
- There is a web version, you can quickly log in from any device and, for example, transfer the log file from the client’s computer, send a stack trace or just write to a colleague
- Separately, you can configure all notifications: from which chats you show notifications, and from which not; separate notification settings for mobile and desktop devices
- There is a file server, you can throw files
- Free
- Actively developed, new features are being sawn, bugs are being fixed
- Bugs. Where are relatives without them. They are. In some places, when you click somewhere, nothing happens, in some places, on the contrary, something happens that you don’t expect at all. But I must say that there are not many of them, and in general the situation is approximately the same as that of Xiaomi: cheap and with bugs, but in general it will do.
- The desktop client is on the electron, which in itself may not be a minus, but still not quite cool.
- The mobile client is practically a copy of the desktop one, connected via WebView (probably). On a smartphone, it does not work quickly and is not responsive.
- There is no list of all users anywhere in the interface. I don’t know about you, but I want to see a list of all my colleagues in a corporate chat. Because I don’t know the names of some of my colleagues, and I don’t even know about the existence of some.
- Mmm, what else. Yes, there is no "On vacation" status. So I went on vacation, put the status "on vacation" and everything is in chocolate.
Is your company experiencing difficulties with communication within the team? Tired of calling every colleague to a meeting? Tired of walking around the office to solve the simplest issue? If you answered “yes” to at least one of these questions, then it's time to implement a corporate local messenger.
Key features of the Corporate Messenger:
- Messaging with chat capability
Create virtual chats within your network with any number of users. - Secure network communication
Messages do not travel outside the local network. - Group messages on the local network
Use bulk messaging to inform employees about upcoming events. - Quick Messages
Set up up to 10 predefined template messages with the ability to instantly send a hotkey, for quick responses with typical phrases or sentences. - Huge set of emoji emoticons
Add mood to your messages with the built-in set of emoji emoticons (about 830 emoticons) - File transfer within the network, including bulk file sharing
It has become much easier to exchange documents with colleagues. - User grouping
Assign your colleagues to departments or positions for ease of communication. - Remote Desktop Sharing
Request remote assistance from your colleague or network administrator directly from the Messenger, giving him access to your desktop remotely. Ask your administrator to help you set up any programs or Windows on your computer, ask a colleague to help you with work issues. - Remote Desktop Administration
Administrators authorized in the domain as domain administrators, or on a remote computer as local administrators, can connect to user desktops directly, bypassing connection permissions from the user. - User rights management
The administrator can disable the use of any function if necessary. - Message history
You will never lose a single message as they are all stored in the history files. - Serverless messenger architecture
LAN Chat does not require the installation of a dedicated server. - No need for an Internet connection
The LAN messenger works only within your company network and saves your subordinates from wasting time in ICQ, saving your traffic and minimizing the possibility of attacks. - Terminal Server Support
LAN Messenger runs successfully on a terminal server from Microsoft or Citrix, and also supports multiple user sessions at the same time. (After installing Softros TS Engine.) - Easy to install
You don't need any administrative skills to start using our program. Just install the internal messenger on every computer in your local network and it's ready to go. - Ease of Distribution
After configuring network settings, as well as settings for user groups on one computer, you can export them to a file so that you can then use them on all computers within the company's network. This simplifies the setup of the program in complex networks.
Our programs for system administrators will help you keep abreast of everything that happens in the computer park and the company's network, respond in time to hardware failures and software problems, and minimize costs and downtime. This page provides tools for monitoring the network, servers and hosts, for inventorying PCs, accounting for installed programs and licenses, creating reports on computer hardware, for accounting traffic, for studying the topology of the LAN and creating graphical diagrams.
The system administrator can also find useful utilities for searching files in local networks and auditing user access to server file resources. All these tools will help the system administrator to improve the performance of network devices and servers and ensure the proper level of security in the enterprise network.
10-Strike software is included in the unified register of Russian computer programs of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications and can participate in public procurement.
Programs for administrators, network utilities
Program for inventory and accounting of installed software and hardware on the enterprise PC. "Computer Inventory" allows system administrators to keep track of computers, view configurations of remote computers and lists of installed software, monitor configuration changes (hardware and software). The program contains a powerful report generator. For example, you can create reports on the presence of certain software on computers and its quantity. At upgrade planning you can create report containing computers with insufficient disk or RAM. Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008/7/8.1/2012/10/2016 are supported.
- program for administration and visual monitoring of servers and computers in the network, which allows you to view the current state of devices in a graphical form at any time. LANState monitors devices and signals various events. LANState contains many functions useful for system administrators: sending messages, shutting down remote computers, scanning hosts and ports, obtaining various information from remote computers (access to the registry, event log, etc.). Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008/7/8.1/2012/10/2016 are supported.
- program for monitoring servers and other network devices, monitors the health of hosts / servers and notifies the administrator about problems. Find out in time about the failure (disconnection, running out of server disk space, service stop, etc.) and fix the problem with minimal loss of time. The software signals problems using sound, screen messages, e-mail, can run external programs, scripts and services, as well as restart computers and services. Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008/7/8.1/2012/10/2016 are supported.
- program for searching files and documents on local network computers(via NetBios and FTP protocols). Enter a phrase or file masks and find the information you need. When viewing search results, the found files can be immediately opened, saved to disk, or generated a report. When searching, multi-threaded technology is used, which significantly speeds up the work. You can set filters by file size and modification date. Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008/7/8.1/2012/10/2016 are supported.
- program for monitoring user access to a shared folder and files, allows you to find out in time about connections to the computer of LAN users. The program beeps, displays notifications on the screen, and maintains a detailed connection log, which records information about who and when connected to the network folders of the computer, what files were opened, etc. Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008/7/8.1/2012/10/2016 are supported.
3.0 FREE!
- scanner of local networks, IP addresses and hosts. This free program allows you to scan the local network and detect active hosts, computers and servers, as well as find open TCP ports. It supports IP address range scanning and many protocols for discovering network devices (ICMP ping, port lookup, NetBios, SNMP, UPnP, ...). If you have administrator rights, you can read a lot of useful information from Windows computers. Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008/7/8.1/2012/10/2016 are supported.
Sets of network programs for system administrators
Sets of programs for system administrators allow you to save money when buying several of our products or all at once. Get three products for the price of two and so on. For example, when buying Full set of administrator programs in the option " per organization" (no seat limit), which consists of our seven programs for system administrators, you can save up to 85,000 rubles or 30%!
Other utilities
- CD cataloger (CD, DVD). With it, you can quickly find the files you need on CDs and DVDs in your collection. SearchMyDiscs helps you organize your CD and DVD collections, allowing you to find the right disc in seconds. If you are tired of looking for the right disk every time for a long time - this tool is for you! Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008/7/8.1/2012/10/2016 are supported.
- program for analyzing Raw log files of the Apache web server. Creates various reports and histograms on the statistics of user access to the website, considers direct file orders. The analyzer has many settings and filters, which will allow you to get accurate information about your site, downloaded files, and who comes to you from where. Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008/7/8.1/2012/10/2016 are supported.
Payment and delivery
When ordering software by legal entities, payment by bank transfer is accepted. Invoices are issued electronically, a contract is concluded. Electronic delivery: the distribution kit is downloaded from our website, registration keys are sent after payment by e-mail. After payment, the original contract and accounting documents are sent to the buyer by mail.
Issue an invoice (indicate the required names of programs and types of licenses, your details and the name of the director for the contract)
All our products and licenses are also available in the Softkey and AllSoft online stores (follow the "buy" links from our site).
Our clients: small and medium businesses, state and budgetary institutions, hospitals, schools, colleges and institutes, banks, oil industry, telecoms.
Programs for easy communication on the network with their software.
↓ New in category "Internet communication":
Free
Net Speakerphone 4.8 build 090508 is a client that allows you to exchange messages on the local network. The Net Speakerphone application allows you not only to send messages to users, but to use your computer as a network phone.
Free 
Network Assistant 4.5 build 2668 is an application for communication, as well as effective interaction using a local network, which does not require a dedicated server.
Free 
BORGChat 1.0.0 build 438 is a free LAN chat client.
Free 
LAN: Looking Any Network 2.75 is an application that, despite its ease of use, is quite functional. The LAN: Looking Any Network application will be useful for any type and category of users to be able to control and check the local or Internet network.
Free 
CommFort 5.40 is a multifunctional and quite convenient client-server chat, which is designed to work in a local network and combines not only text and voice chat, but also a tool for the ability to quickly transfer individual files or folders with files.
Free 
LanSend 1.3.0.27 is a handy application that will help you send messages to other computers on your network. The LanSend application can send messages using a specific user or an arbitrary group of recipients as a recipient.
Free 
Intranet Chat 1.21b6 is a high-quality and quite easy to communicate program. The Intranet Chat program will allow you to communicate using correspondence not only on the local network, but also on the Internet.
Free 
Vypress Chat 2.1.9 is an application that acts as a text chat running on a local network. The Vypress Chat application can work between two computers, and support more than a dozen.
Free 
VideoPort VideoPhone 5.5.6 is an application for video communication using the Internet or local area network. The VideoPort VideoPhone application also has the ability to use noise reduction, face detection, automatic channel width detection and other features that will ensure high quality video even with a weak channel.
Free 
Mixero 0.57 is a convenient, functional and powerful Twitter client. The Mixero app comes with tools such as Contexts, Activity Sheet and Filters that allow you to organize and filter your Twitter feed by filtering out unnecessary information.
free
Mibew Messenger 1.6.4 is a free-source application that provides convenient and fast online consultation. Using the application, it is possible to add a button to the site with a direct connection with your operator, and all communication will take place directly in the browser. The application allows you to keep in touch with a large number of operators at the same time and the choice of an operator for communication occurs with manual switching.
Winsent Messenger is a program designed for quick messaging and communication in a local network (messenger for a local network). It allows you to organize a convenient and quick exchange of short text messages between individual network users and send messages and alerts to groups of users. The program is designed for use in small and medium-sized local networks of enterprises, offices and homes.
Simple and user friendly interface
Search and import from Active Directory
The ability to import user accounts from the directory service will help you quickly populate user groups in your contact list.
Compatible with NET SEND and WinPopup
Support for terminal server and the latest versions of Windows
The unique internal architecture allows multiple users to use Winsent Messenger on the terminal server at the same time. The program works in all versions of Windows (2000/XP/Vista/7/8), including Windows 7/8, where the messaging service and the net send command are missing. These and the above features allow you to use Winsent as a full-fledged replacement for the messaging service (net send) and WinPopup.
Does not require a dedicated server and Internet connection
Winsent Messenger sends and receives messages in real time, without the use of intermediate servers. Messages are sent directly between users. No dedicated server, third party services or Internet access required. Since Winsent Messenger does not use public unsecured networks (Internet), your data is safe. Messages are transmitted only within your local network.
Economical use of computer resources
The economical use of computer resources is the result of careful optimization. Winsent Messenger is an extremely compact program - its installation package is about 600 kilobytes in size. The program runs quietly in the background without interfering with your main work.
Free program
Winsent Messenger is a completely free program. Therefore, to verify the above, just download and install Winsent. Given the small size of the program, you will not spend much time on this.
