User's Guide for chat software

Chat Anywhere User's Guide

<<<Back

CHAPTER 2: GETTING STARTED

Where to install Chat Anywhere?

    If you are a beginner, the answer is - your computer.
    If you have a website and you are wondering where to install it, your host or your desktop. The answer is - you should install it on your desktop first. After you know how to use this software, then install it on your host.
    If you need more flexibility, I recommend that you install it on you computer. So you can manage your chat room directly. But I don't know whether your computer have a static IP. Mostly the IP address will change when you connect to internet via a modem or ADSL. So you can only get a dynamic IP, that is, the URL of your chat room might be http://111.222.111.222:90 today but tomorrow it might be http://101.221.212.29:90 (you can find the URL by clicking "Info" button on the toolbar of Chat Anywhere). It's not convenient to tell your friends different URL every time. But don't worry about it, there are many software can resolve this problem, such as DNS2Go. DNS2Go is a free Domain Name System that can associate a domain name (e.g. chat.dns2go.com) to your dynamic IP address, so you can just inform your friends, family, and colleagues of your the domain name, instead of your IP address. You can get more information and download it here.
    If you have a website, you can also install it on your host. But first please make sure that the operating system of your server is Windows, not Linux or Unix, because Chat Anywhere can only run on windows system.
    If it is Windows then you can integrate Chat Anywhere into your website easily if you have the rights to install software on your host. You can even install it as NT service so the chat service can start automatically when the the host restart. Then your friends can visit your chat room by http://YourWebsite:90 (if you've changed the port number of chat room to 90), so you needn't know the IP address, and the URL won't change any longer. But if the host is not yours, I am afraid the administrator of the host will not help you install third-party software (Chat Anywhere) on their computer for security reasons.

How can I determine my chat room's URL?

If you installed Chat Anywhere on your desktop and the IP address of your chat room is '111.222.111.222'. then the URL should be:
http://111.222.111.222
If you changed the port number to 90 (default is 80), then the URL should be:
http://111.222.111.222:90

If you installed Chat Anywhere on you host and changed the port number to 90, the domain name of your website is 'http://www.mywebsite.com', then your chat room's URL should be:
http://www.mywebsite.com:90

If Chat Anywhere can be installed behind a gateway router?

Then the IP address is your-router's-IP address, not your computer's. You can still use it locally, but those people not connected to the internet will be unable to visit your chat room.

How can my friends chat with me? Do they need to install Chat Anywhere also?

    Just tell your friends your chat room's URL, e.g. http://111.222.111.222
    Then they can visit this URL via browser, such as IE, Netscape or Opera. After they log in to your chat room, you can chat together.
    So your friends will not be required to install Chat Anywhere on their computer.

Can anyone enter my room at any time if they have the chat room's URL?

Not exactly, you can set forbidden IP and password to protect your chat room. If you've set someone's IP address as 'forbidden', he can not visit the URL of your chat room at all. If you've set passwords for your chat room, no one can enter your chat room if he doesn't know user name and password.