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Business
Messenger service for office Intranet
SERVICES THAT let co-workers share resources and communicate in real time are some of the essential requirements of a business organisation to sail smooth. Here the author discusses a few programs that allow one to implement an effective messaging service in his/her business Intranet.
Intranet
It would be difficult to find an organisation without a computer network and a private network connecting the nodes using Internet technologies is called an Intranet. If you have an Intranet you can implement all the Internet services such as e-mail and FTP without any extra effort. One of the major requirements of an Intranet user is to communicate with other fellow members in real time. If you are on a network, sometimes you may want to send some messages across all or a few users who are currently logged in to your office network. If you are a Windows user, you can use the program `winpopup.exe' that comes along with Windows to send messages to users/machines, or to an entire workgroup on the network.
Though WinPopup is a useful and simple communication tool, it has many shortcomings. If you want to send a message to a specific user, you need to type-in his/her log-in name or computer name and to get this information you need to scan the Network Neighborhood, certainly a little laborious task. If you want to send a message to a group of people, you need to know the name of the workgroup to which they belong to. Another disadvantage of the WinPopup is that in order to receive messages from other users, you need to keep the program live throughout your session and this implies you should allow the taskbar to get cluttered by WinPopup's icon.
To get around these difficulties the best solution would be to locate a better messenger program that has all the features of WinPopup but does not have any of the shortcomings discussed above. Now, we will examine a few messenger programs of this kind.
Network Assistant
This is an excellent communication tool that lets you send instant messages with other members of your network without unnecessary struggles. The program, once loaded, automatically scans your network, identifies the workgroups configured in the network and displays the names of the nodes/users who have logged in currently in a small window at the left side of the program's interface.
Now, if you want to send a message to a particular user/machine, just move your mouse to the entry where the user's log-in name is displayed, right-click and access the option `send message'. If your colleague with whom you intend to communicate also has installed this program and kept it loaded in his/her machine, the message will get displayed in the program's interface or else it will fall on his/her WinPopup window. If you ever had used WinPopup, you would definitely be able to appreciate the features of this program. Apart from facilitating the messaging process this way, Network Assistant has many other valuable features. One such feature is the shared whiteboard facility.
This tool allows you and your friends in the network to share a whiteboard where all of you can type text, draw pictures and the like — when you type something in this shared whiteboard it gets automatically displayed in the screen of co-workers with whom you share the whiteboard. If you want to experiment with this adware — advertisement supported — program access the link: http://www.gracebyte.com/ nassi/index.html
WinSent
WinSent is an extremely simple and easy to use messenger program that enables you send messages from one node to the other like WinPopup. The program, which is fully compatible with WinPopup, has an interface quite similar to that of it. As the addresses of the machines/user-names that are currently logged-in to the network is displayed in the interface, sending a message to a specific user or a set of users becomes an easy task when compared to WinPopup. If interested, you may download this completely free software, from the link: http://winpopup2000.narod.ru/eng/index.html
IP messenger
IP messenger is another utility that can be used as replacement for the Windows messenger software WinPopup. The program, after installation, plants an icon in the system tray and the software can be made active by clicking on this tray icon. In the program's interface window, you will find the list of users in the network who have got it loaded in their machines. To send a message you just have to move to the entry related to your client, select it, then type and send the message. One drawback of this software is that you will not be able to communicate through it to a machine that does not have this software loaded.
This free software can be downloaded from the link: http://www. asahi-net.or.jp/VZ4H-SRUZ/ipmsg -eng.html
Vypress Messenger
Vypress Messenger is another messenger program worth trying. The software allows you not only send messages across various users of local network, but also lets you send file attachments.
The software has an automatic confirmation feature that informs you of the message's successful delivery. The program can also be set-up to generate confirmation message that tells you that the addressee has seen the message. Apart from sending instant messages to your network members, you can use this program to send e-mails. Another feature of this utility is that it can be set-up to automatically monitor your e-mail box. Once the program is set-up for this purpose, it will periodically scan your e-mail box and display the new mails as and when they arrive.For more details and to download an evaluation version, visit the site at: http://www.vypress.com /messenger.asp
Google programming
contest
Google is one of the most popular search engines now available and a good chunk of the Netizens have already gravitated to this search service for most of their searching tasks. Now, the service is celebrating this spectacular success achieved within a short span of time by sponsoring the first annual Google Programming contest, which might fetch you rich dividends if you win — $10,000 in cash, a visit to Google Inc. and the like. If you are a programmer with necessary skills and want to know more about the contest, check out the link at: http://google.com/programming-contest/.
J. Murali
(The author can be contacted at: murali27@satyam.net.in)
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