Inter Office LAN Messenger

[Memo]

So, my boss is wanting me to install a local office network messenger so people can send each other messages. We could use AIM/ICQ/MSN/Jabber or whatever but the thing is he doesn't want the calltakers to be messing around on the job. Does anyone know or use a good LAN messenger at the office?

The best looking one I found was this: http://www.capesoft.com/utilities/Me.../Messenger.htm but I'm not sure on its reliability.

[Cubsfan]

Could you maybe set up a local Jabber server and then block any jabber ports to the outside?

[AlpineJay]

How big of a company do you work in? At my last job, I used Lotus Sametime which was great because you could teleconference too - a very powerful tool that actually gets you remote access to the user's desktop, etc for demonstrations.

[Memo]

Cubsfan:

Not sure how to do that exactly, but if so then that'd probably be a good choice.


AlpineJay:
Small Office and really the peolpe who would be using this would be only about 20-25 max and we don't want them teleconferencing. It's to get simple messages to each other without tying up their phone lines (They're calltakers).

[Cubsfan]

Here's some ideas:

http://linuxgazette.net/112/tomar.html
http://www.jabber.org/software/servers.shtml

Note: I haven't ever done this, although we run jabber internally at my company.

[AlpineJay]

AlpineJay:
Small Office and really the peolpe who would be using this would be only about 20-25 max and we don't want them teleconferencing. It's to get simple messages to each other without tying up their phone lines (They're calltakers).

Sametime still works pretty well with that application, but is probably overkill and is costly. So go with whatever is cheapest (free).

[Jeffbx]

Have a look at MS Live Communications Server -

It's like MSN Messenger on steroids - much nicer & more powerful than Lotus Sametime.

Costs $$ tho - I think about $1k for the license & 5 client access licenses, plus about $25 for each additional CAL.