Best IM to use for my company

[richiedc]

Hi all.

I have a question about the best IM to use for my company. We are a team of 10 people around europe and want to have a IM chat window open all day.

Currently we use skype however this is constantly crashing with our cisco VPN. I am looking at some other tools.

we need the following

1) Chat ability and group chat ability
2) The group chat to be able to stay open even when inactive (this is why we cant use MSN)
3) File transfer
4) Ability to record chat.

Currently we have looked at MSN (closes when inactive) and office comunicator (no file transfer internally) and skype (bombs on our VPN)

Does anyone know any others I can try that might satisfy my criteria?

Cheers

[Nyco]

Use Jabber/XMPP, it is the open standard of Instant Messaging and Presence.
xmpp.org
jabber.org

On your computers (desktop/laptop), use either Psi or Gajim (or Adium on Mac OS X).

If you want to install, control and administer your own server, either use ejabberd, Openfire or Tigase.

Or else, you can register to open public servers.

1) Chat ability and group chat ability

You can chat one to one, and in a room (MUC = Multi-User Chat).

2) The group chat to be able to stay open even when inactive (this is why we cant use MSN)

Chat rooms can be either persistent or temporary. You can protect them with passwords.

3) File transfer

Use the same file transfer proxy for all your team.

4) Ability to record chat.

You can log your chats on you client or on the server if it is yours and you administer it.

Hope this helps.
Nÿco

[Jeff]

Great advice, Nyco!

And if you want to get started easily, you could try it out using a public server to start, then setup your own server when needs dictate. That lets you get started really quickly.

[Chris Bale]

Hi, richiedc
You can try out BigAnt IM. My company use BigAnt Messenger, it's amazing. Support VPN and has rich features.
Its general features will fullfill your needs:
1) Chat ability and group chat ability, both instant and offline messaging.
2) Active group chat regardless the users available or not
3) Quickly File transfer even folders. No size limit
4) Ability to store, explore and export history message
5) Support voice and video chat and more.
See BigAnt IM Demo for your quick reference or visit their website at: BigAnt Corporate Instant Messaging Server, Enterprise IM Server

You can get a 10 user license for totally free from the link below.
http://www.bigantsoft.com/products/register.html

Hope this helps.