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There are two different possibilities how to include Visual Chat on your own website.
<TABLE align="center" border="5" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <TR> <TD> <APPLET CODE="chat.ChatApplet" ARCHIVE="http://www.weirdoz.org/visualchat/chat.jar" CODEBASE="http://www.weirdoz.org/visualchat" WIDTH=480 HEIGHT=400> <PARAM NAME="CabBase" VALUE="http://www.weirdoz.org/visualchat/chat.cab"> <PARAM NAME="Port" VALUE="5555"> <PARAM NAME="Room" VALUE="Lobby"> <PARAM NAME="DemoMode" VALUE="FALSE"> </APPLET> </TD> </TR> </TABLE>
A Java runtime is a prerequisite for Chat Server installation. This runtime is either included in the Visual Chat Server Installer, resp. comes already shipped with most common operating system. Actual Java runtimes can also be downloaded from these sites:
Installation Instructions
The Visual Chat Server Installation Wizard comes with a graphical user interface. Install Visual Chat Server on your WebServer by running install.exe (resp. install.bin). If you only have Telnet or SSH access on your WebServer host (hence no possibility to start graphical applications), you might want to download the ZIP-Version. In this case, simply unzip the file VisualChat.zip.
In case you want to pass some commandline arguments, here is the exact syntax for running the ChatServer-executable:
ChatServer [ port [ Serverkey ] ]
e.g.
[~]$ cd VisualChat
[~/VisualChat]$ ChatServer.bin 5555 MyServerkey
The port must fit with the port provided to the Client applet over a HTML Applet-parameter (see chat.html). The Serverkey is used to protect the Administration applet from unauthorized access. If no Serverkey is provided, it is set to "Admin".
If you downloaded the ZIP-File Chat Server Version, you will have to enter the following command from your commandline shell: java -cp server.jar chat.ChatServer.
java -cp server.jar chat.ChatServer [ port [ Serverkey ] ]
This has to be done from the chatserver-subfolder (created during installation), e.g.
[~]$ cd VisualChat/chatserver
[~/VisualChat/chatserver]$ java -cp server.jar chat.ChatServer 5555 MyServerkey
8/1/98 11:01:13 PM: Listening on port 5555...
8/1/98 11:01:13 PM: Storage folder is users/...
8/1/98 11:01:13 PM: Image folder is images/...
8/1/98 11:01:13 PM: Room folder is rooms/...
8/1/98 11:01:13 PM: Room filename is rooms...
8/1/98 11:01:13 PM: Log level is 1...
8/1/98 11:01:13 PM: Nr of banned ip-addresses read from banned_ip: 1
8/1/98 11:01:13 PM: ChatServer up and running...
The ZIP-File Version also contains sample start scripts for Windows (startchat.bat) and Unix (startchat.bin).
Under Unix you should go sure that
Go sure that the Client applet is downloaded via HTTP - go sure that the browser's address field conatins something like
http://<your_server_name>/VisualChat/chat.html
Don't run it over a file-codebase like
file://c|/VisualChat/chat.html
otherwise some browsers won't allow to connect to the ChatServer (MSIE won't, Netscape will though). You should now be able to log in.
When starting up for the first time, the Chat Server will create a user named "Admin" with password "Admin" (unless a servkey was provided as a commandline argument when starting the Chat Server for the first time. In this case, the Servkey will also serve as the "Admin"-user's password). You should change this password as soon as possible by logging in as "Admin", clicking the User-tab, entering a new password and hiting the "Apply" button.
You can also delete the Admin user at any time by erasing the file users/Admin. A new Admin user will then be created when starting the Chat Server for the next time. The Administration applet located at admin/admin.html can be used for remote server administration.
Certain Clients can be prohibited to use Visual Chat. This is done by storing bannedip-addresses in a file named "banned_ip" within the chatserver-folder. A sample "banned_ip"-file comes with the Server Installation.