Web-Based Chat

February 26, 2004 10:19 AM

Web-Based Chat

I have a friend who used to chat with me from IRC at work. The employer removed that program, saying that for security and virus reasons, the only browser, or anything internet would be MIE.

Since this makes Chatzilla a moot issue, are there any sites reachable from an ordinary browser that have some sort of reasonable-working chat that resembles IRC?
posted by Danf to computers & internet (13 comments total)

Did the employer remove the standard windows telnet utility? You should be able to type telnet://irc.whatever.net:6667 into the address bar of Internet Explorer and chat that way. No colors or anything fancy, but it'll do to have a conversation.
posted by Aaorn at 10:34 AM on February 26, 2004

If telnet is disabled, Googling for Java IRC Client should give you some browser-based things to try.
posted by Aaorn at 10:35 AM on February 26, 2004

can also go to ICQ's web-based chat program, but you'll have to register for an ICQ address. Note that the applet that it uses is kludgey, and sometimes requires a couple of attempts to get it to start and *work*, but other than that it's pretty robust.
posted by notsnot at 10:53 AM on February 26, 2004

Flickr is pretty good if you're just looking for chat and not really irc.
posted by rhyax at 10:57 AM on February 26, 2004

trilllian, the all-purpose IM tool includes an excellent IRC client. it manages to be "robust" without requiring "a couple of attempts to get it to start and *work*". :-)
posted by quonsar at 10:57 AM on February 26, 2004

er, but it doesn't operate within your browser.
posted by quonsar at 10:59 AM on February 26, 2004

Yeah, I second Flickr. It's completely Flash-based.
posted by vacapinta at 11:08 AM on February 26, 2004

Stay the heck away from AIMexpress if you happened to hear about it. While it does work sort of as a web based IM client, I have had non-stop trouble trying to have longish conversations with people using it. Messages just go missing, making context a bit baffling. If you just want to send weird jokes from time to time, it'll do you, but otherwise, yeah Flickr works well.
posted by jessamyn at 11:40 AM on February 26, 2004

It sounds to me like the employer is trying to send a hint. I know that probably doesn't seem fair, but your friend may want to consider cutting out the internet play.
posted by rocketman at 12:39 PM on February 26, 2004

rocketman - it's not always play. I work for a very large company that has also taken away the IRC. while I haven't used it personally, I know others that loved it to talk with others in their group but in another location. instead of constantly calling them up, or clogging up email, they'd just do a "chat" instead. I'm part of a new group that I wish we had something like this. I'm not in their office, and I'm constantly asking questions. email works, just the inbox gets bulky for quick little things.
posted by evening at 4:54 PM on February 26, 2004

Yahoo! Messenger has a web-based version (Java, I believe).
posted by staggernation at 7:06 PM on February 26, 2004

Aaorn: Are you sure that's standard behaviour? It's been a while since I wrote software that interfaced with IRC servers, but I seem to recall the protocol requiring non-printable ascii characters and stuff. Not to mention that you have to specifity the recipient channel/user for everything you want to say.

Perhaps your favourite IRC server just also provides a telnet interface if it detects you're not using an IRC client?
posted by fvw at 7:48 PM on February 26, 2004

Flickr worked well today. . .it is simple and to the point and friendly.

Thank you all for commenting on this.
posted by Danf at 9:16 PM on February 26, 2004