Internal Network Email & Chat

Question

I would like a program that would allow me to use chat and email between network computers without internet access. Anyone have any suggestions? Of course I'd prefer freeware options, but I'd certainly consider shareware/professional options if they're worth it.

Answer 1

For chat, take a look at:

http://www.igniterealtime.org/projects/i...

IgniteRealtime use to be Jive which was an open source project that produced wildfire (jabber based) chat server.  They now call their jabber/xmpp based server openfire and now have a web version.

For email, look at Zimbra:

http://www.zimbra.com/community/download...

I've implemented home brew email services (w/ pop/imap/web) for ages on Linux but they are not easy to administer or install.  Zimbra provides a single package that provides all of the plus calendar.  Just download their open source version which is completely free and includes all major features.  You didn't mention what OS you're running but there aren't many real email servers for windows (other than IIS) so your server will have to be Linux or you'll have to run a Linux VM on top of Windows.

Not sure how big your site is but both of these are good for mid to small sites up to and even more than 100+ users.

Answer 2

I used this program at a previous employer of mine...

http://vnalex.tripod.com/en/downloadchat...

Its freeware and very light on the resources. The Server component can run on any desktop computer and doesn't log anything.  

What I liked about it is that it has "permanent" chat rooms.  That is, everyone who logs in, immediately is joined to a central chat room.

There is also some free software which uses "Jabra"

Intranet Email is a bit trickier. I haven't really looked into email between computers which don't have internet.  That seems a tag limited.  

I guess you could install and configure ANY email server which supports POP and SMTP and configure your DNS server to point to it..then computers could retrieve email from the POP server without internet.

Try googling  Workgroup Email server or Internal Email server or Free POP email server

NOTE: The 2 big programs for IM and E-mail of course are Microsoft Exchange 2003/2007  and Microsoft Communication Server.