Hello chaps,
If yer anything like me, yer often sat at the computerizor fiddling around with crap or tryin to get shiznit to work.
Additionally, recently, I wanted to be able to talk candidly to my fellow retro gaming enthusiasts without fear of my messages being intercepted by aliens or the Queen.
This led me to set up a chat server on my home server (on 24/7). It's done via a server called OpenFire, which uses XMPP/Jabber. This mean that all messages are encoded end to end and as it sits on my server, there's no data left 'knocking around' on any third party server in Buckingham Palace. I don't keep any logs of the chat.
It works just like the old Windows Messenger, thus there's the added bonus of even keeping our chat client strictly retro! (Read XP + 'the naughties')
Some features:
Offline messages
File transfers
Guest logins + members only rooms
Some pics of its retro goodness:
Setup:
Download Spark from:
https://igniterealtime.org/downloads/index.jsp
Then Click on "Advanced" and setup as below:
To Create an account:
To log into an account:
And that's it!
I actually prefer it to web-based chat as it just sits neatly on your desktop or in your tray, notifying you of messages etc...
Oh, or you can use a phone based app such as IM+:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.shapeservices.impluslite&hl=en_GB
Why not sign up? Even if just to loiter about! Send me a message just to check in!