Implement Chat Systems on an Intranet - Tutorial

It used to be that businesses had a major influence on what types of products and services were available to the general public. In the early days of the Internet, networking LAN technologies and needs were the driving force behind the creation of many software applications and tools that users accessed. The growing popularity of the World Wide Web with casual computer users led to a paradigm shift in how to approach usable software solutions for these users. Simple to install and use software applications such as file sharing, e-mail and instant chat programs were instantly popular.
Businesses began to take notice of how these tools could be useful in everyday work settings. As such, organizations began to look into how to utilize collaborative tools such as sending IMs on LANs, social network portals and productivity applications to support their objectives. Initial tools required either using obscure and hard to understand command line utilities such as net send in order to communicate on a networking LAN environment. While this method was effective in keeping communications internal and secure within the company network system, unless users were skilled computer technicians, it wasn’t a practical solution. It soon became apparent that more user friendly resolutions needed to be implemented for the corporate world.
The growing popularity of the Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk and MSN Messenger programs were a driving force into the development of effective networking LAN IM solutions. While all of these tools can be used to communicate with virtually anyone that is connected to the Internet, they can also allow business users to communicate with one another. For the business, this solution does present some risks. It meant that to accommodate the ability for users to work together by sending IMs on LAN equipment, they would be able to contact people outside of the organization.
The solution to preventing a security risk from allowing sending IMs on LAN networks was easy to implement. Each of these popular messaging programs has been updated to allow specific configuration on networking LAN topologies to only allow people to see other users on the same intranet. For a company that wished to keep their software solutions in-house, the creation of custom chat programs helped to overcome the possible risk of outside intrusion. The end result was that the casual user caused businesses to take notice and influenced the solution for a common organizational need.