The biggest problem usually isn't the messaging client itself, secure or insecure. The biggest problem is the users who don't understand the technology under it. Inside of Stratus we've done a lot of education to get users to understand that IM is a completely insecure medium and that no business information is to be transmitted over it. Once you explain to Suzy accountant that when she pasts the financials into the IM window and send it to her coworker that they shoot out the door, zip half way across the country and then come back and anybody in between can read them, it suddenly hits home... I only wish that Trillian supported Jabber. I deployed a Jabber server and it worked, but the clients for windows were so crummy that nobody used it. Tim. -----Original Message----- From: Bob George [mailto:mailings02@ttlexceeded.com] Sent: Friday, March 19, 2004 2:30 PM To: wlug@mail.wlug.org Subject: [Wlug] Re: Instant Messaging Software Simoncini, Matthew wrote:

[...] I work at a large company in Natick that has recently decided to disallow instant messaging clients from being used on corporate PC's.

If the policy is "no instant messaging clients", I don't think I'd load jabber, then argue the finer points. Especially if disciplinary action is noted for violations. If nothing else, make the case for an INTERNAL server, but GET APPROVAL before using it. Jabber has much to recommend it for such a server.

They sight a concern that it is an insecure network link to the outside world that could allow hackers, worms, trojans, viruses, etc ... into the otherwise protected network.

That's a commonly cited concern, and not unwarranted.

[...] What does affect my team is the ability to easily communicate with each other on a "live" or instant platform within the company firewall (we have no interest really to communicate outside the firewall yet). I was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of an Open Source alternative to an instant messaging platform? For starters I'm just looking for software to run on a server (either Linux or Doze) and the associated clients to use on primarily XP or 2000 desktops.

Again, I'd get approval first, but IRC can do much of what you want. There are plenty of Win clients and servers for it. - Bob _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug@mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug