LAN Chat

Chady has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Here is the thing:
I'm using a Windows 98SE system, and recently installed a network card and connected my computer to my cousin's, who uses the same operating system.

I've been playing around and wanted to make a chatting program between me and him, but not using the internet, I wanted to create a chatting system through the network. But I'm lost here..

I've looked at the NET::... modules that come with my distribution of ActiveState's Perl but can't seem to understand which one to use, that's cause I'm not so familiar with networking..

My question is; Where should I start looking, and what modules should I be looking for??

As for the program itself, I have some ideas; if I managed to fork correctly (since I've never done that before) I will try to build a mini-server _, if not, I will try to use a text file to temporarly store the text.

Any ideas??

He who asks will be a fool for five minutes, but he who doesn't ask will remain a fool for life.

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Re: LAN Chat by jepri (Parson) on Apr 20, 2001 at 10:40 UTC
I've been playing around and wanted to make a chatting program between me and him, but not using the internet, I wanted to create a chatting system through the network. But I'm lost here.. It sounds like you may need to learn a little networking first. You need to install some kind of network stack on your computer. You may choose from TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, SMB (LanMan) or any more esoteric one you can find. Once you have set up this stack on both computers you can download the corresponding modules from CPAN and begin work. The internet is stuffed full of networking guides, a netsearch should give you plenty to go on. From memory, all the NET::... modules are designed to work with TCP/IP, so you may wish to search for a TCP/IP guide. SMB also comes with some (very limited) support for what you want, but I don't think there are many modules around for it. Try writing your own using sockets. Searching on SAMBA will be very helpful for that. A final note: the internet is just a contraction of internetworking - the art of joining up many small networks. Good luck with your project, you may wish to search the archives here for programs that do similar to what you want. ____________________ Jeremy I didn't believe in evil until I dated it.	[reply]
Re: LAN Chat by lachoy (Parson) on Apr 20, 2001 at 17:32 UTC
You might want to take a look at Network Programming with Perl by Lincoln Stein. I've skimmed it a few times and it seemed great -- it's got quite a bit of sample code and provides multiple ways of doing the same thing so you can really see what's going on. And IMO Lincoln writes and organizes quite clearly. I wish it covered POE, but we can't have everything, right? Chris M-x auto-bs-mode	[reply]
Re: LAN Chat by Beatnik (Parson) on Apr 20, 2001 at 12:39 UTC
If you were on UNX boxen, and you wanted to use SMB's Net Send, you could use Filesys::SmbClientParser's `sendWinpopupMessage` func... I'm not sure if Filesys::SmbClientParser works on Windows too, Samba appears to... Altho a plain shell call to net send* would probably do the trick Greetz Beatnik ... Quidquid perl dictum sit, altum viditur.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: LAN Chat by locked_user Matro (Initiate) on Mar 24, 2017 at 18:14 UTC
Nowadays anybody can download and install any LAN chat app, they supports Win 98SE till Win 10, without an Internet or dedicated server. It's a lightweight network messaging solution, like old-styled Winpopup or net send.
Re: LAN Chat by busunsl (Vicar) on Apr 20, 2001 at 09:57 UTC
I'd start reading the books: There is a bit in the Camel about networking There is more in the Panther (Advanced Perl Programming), and for some working examples the is the Ram (Perl Cookbook).	[reply]