I am currently researching chat scripts and servers and wanted to know if anyone has favorable experiences to recommend one flavor over another. I have looked at digichat (http://www.digichat.com) and volano (http://www.volano.com) along with some others but would like to get some "real" input from users/hosts.

Thanks.

If you want crappy, unhelpful support, choose digichat. It works most of the time, but they don't fix what doesn't work and seem to have stopped releasing updates. I wouldn't recommend the company (had I listened to someone else who told me they suck...) and know there is something out there that is better, better co., better support, better product, etc.

I like conferenceroom ( http://www.webmaster.com ) Last I remember CNN uses it.

Thanks for the heads up Chicken, that digichat was looking pretty good but support and product updates are important. I'll have to spend more time at the conferenceroom to see if this is an option I want to take, you could catch a shave while their demo room loaded :eek:

I found RealChat (http://www.rcsoft.net) by searching the web and kinda like their software; too bad they don't offer a dedicated chat server solution.

Anyone familiar with rcsoft and their products?:

I visit a site that uses volano, and it works good. I'm not real familiar with many others though. I don't visit many chat sites.

I like conference room because it is also an irc server.

We just set up phpMyChat (http://www.phpheaven.net) today.
It looks like it will work just fine.

And the price is sweet. ;) Free

Have they improved the admin functions at all? The problem with phpmychat, aside from it sucking the server dry, were that if a user was abusive, the ban functions didn't work, and the back-end in general was lacking quite a bit.

Originally posted by Chicken
Have they improved the admin functions at all? The problem with phpmychat, aside from it sucking the server dry, were that if a user was abusive, the ban functions didn't work, and the back-end in general was lacking quite a bit. We just installed it. I'll post back here after we kick the tires and drive it around the block a couple of times. ;)
But I like what I've seen so far. Of course, that doesn't mean that the problems you stated don't still exist.

It is really good, everyone liked it, but it did chew through a RaQ4 pretty quick (which may not be saying much but...). There was a guy on here ohhhh about 8 months ago who claimed to have tweaked it to run ok on a server with plenty of users (at 23 it was really pushing the envelope of the RaQ and I would have upgraded the server but I felt it was just a matter of time before it killed the next one as well).

Might try searching for him and contacting him (if info is still valid).

i like phpchat but it does stop once in a while aside from it's much slower than javachat

Chicken,

Just install Unreal IRCd (http://www.unrealircd.com) and jIRC (http://www.jpilot.com/java/irc/intro.html)......


I have it running, and the load is setting at 0.00 for the server with 14 channels and around 250 users....