Do not go with v3chat right now.
I found a serious exploit which can allow anyone to compromise your site.
Also searched Google for users and see alot of Index of/ links so someone
else apparently has found the same exploit who isnt as friendly as I.

For v3chat owners, I would advise disabling it until the exploit is resolved.
Please dont PM me for the exploit. I have already notified v3chat.

We've used the Addonchat free version for a couple years and it's worked good. Not much control in the free version though. Their customer support was quick to answer when we had an issue. We are about to integrate a paid chat into our new vb forum.

As for the question about a chat the allows sharing of images. 123Flashchat has that option module for $99 more.

How is the customer service with 123Flashchat? So 123Flashchat is run on our server? We have a dedicated server with 28,000 members and maybe 15 to 20 in chat at one time now. The load issue is important to us.

i had flashchat but kept on getting hacked !! and yes it got laggy after 15 chatters..

vbchat looks good but not supported in 3.8.1 yet so i'm still looking for something what is very low or resources for around 50 chatters at a time but don't want to get kicked off shared hosting is it possible? im using pjirc atm its very good but am getting lots of people moaning about the java to run many not getting in

I just paid around £70 for blab! chat software and think it is amazing. Integrated perfectly and they have guides to help you along the way, and to integrate it with your forum properly.

Thanks to their guides, i now have a chatroom that opens inside my forums design, shows how many people is online inside it, has passworded rooms and non passworded rooms, a VERY clean and easy to use Admin CP, and members can upload photos/videos etc whilst chatting. Very happy customer!

http://hot-things.net/?q=blab
Not cheap at $100, but I'd like to hear more. Their website just goes in circles but never actually tells us how to integrate blab! with vb. Where are the instructions?

<a href="http://hot-things.net/index.php?q=3rds" target="_blank">http://hot-things.net/index.php?q=3rds</a>

In that blue box it says

Mine doesn't. And I don't even see a "blue box" on that page. I've even tried disabling AdBlock. There's a link to a screenshot, a blue screenshot, and a link to vbulletin.com.

hrm...weird...thats what it says. I've seen this running on a board and it was really cool...can't for the life of me remember the board though! haha

Okay, clearly you've misunderstood my question. I was wondering HOW it installs into vbulletin. The installation instructions. The quote you just gave is a teaser, but says nothing about how to install.

ahhh hahah

this is a little more complete ;)

Those sound like the instructions for their free Lite version. With no vbulletin integration, it's just a standalone app.

Unless their installer is smart enough to actually edit vbulletin files itself, which seems unlikely.

Well it pretty much is a stand alone app. It just reads off your database...

edit..then I'm sure they have your forum wrap around it..

The instructions are in a members only area which you get access too once you have brought the software. The integration is very very simple and the guides are very helpful.

addonchat was just installed on my forum, cost me $120 but only took about 3 minutes to install, very impressed so far, best thing is its hosted elsewhere so not eating my bandwidth either!

Let's not mislead. That's a yearly charge, not a one time charge.

i agree with the folks who are suggesting "Blab Chat"... in my opinion, it's the best PHP chat script out there... i've been using this script for the last 3 years.

They just released "Blab IM" and it's simply amazing script! i'm seriously thinking of upgrading to Blab IM Pro... it's just a nice piece of script!

You guys should try it! There's a demo and +

http://hot-things.net/blab-im-ajax-php-messenger

blabim seems interesting, but can it cope with 300 concurrent chatters?

i don't think any PHP/MYSQL script can cope with 300 concurrent users on a shared host...it's just too much.

If you have 300 users, then i suggest you go with either a JAVA chat application or ,even better, a hosting company that is managing all the server load for you, something like http://www.123flashchat.com/ ... be prepared to spend some money... this stuff is expensive.

Im not willing to use hosted chat. I would like to host it myself. Suggestions are more than welcome.

I posted a more elaborate comparison on Wayne Luke's vbcodex: A comparison of Dedicated Chat Solutions

I didnrt see Cybschatbox in the list, did I miss why?

Because that's not full chat software, but a chat box. See the link to that poll in my signature.

I would love to vote for BlaB! 4.7. I'm a big fan of this nice clean piece of software. Too bad it isn't in the poll list.

Do NOT use 123flashchat. I spent almost 2 grand with them trying to upgrade, sidegrade, or just plain get support for what they offered...

The coding is buggy, you can't get a response, and they delete any post off their forum if it's not 100% supportive - good luck finding out what other customers had problems with.

Buyer BEWARE when it comes to 123flashchat!!!!!

I agree with Wolfyman, I spent $1,200 with them and the support was not good at all, the software was extremely buggy and over half the people that came in chat couldnt access it anymore and they even had all the latest flash updates and etc. I am going for AddonChat!

AVchat 3 is excellent, spendy but the nicest video integration ive seen yet.

q 3rd to 'do not use 123flashchat'. I found a significant security hole in their VB/other forum integration, then my chat was hacked (they may not be at fault there) so I looked up exploits and found this:

http://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/14658/

Given the weak coding of the plugins, the hack and the severity of those exploits I have stopped using 123FC and will be trying parachat instead.

Since vbcodex is gone, I have posted my comparison of chat applications to vb-commercial:
http://www.vb-commercial.com/index.p...laycat&catid=9

I'd appreciate feedback!

cometchat ~

Yep by far the best is CometChat v2x

What do you think about the coding quality of cometchat? Has it improved since many people reported issues with it last year?

I have been using Cometchat on my sites for about a year now. It allows me to tech support my members in real time.

CONS:

• The main coding issue I have seen in pre 2x versions of the chat will break and show a white box if a user has as in their member name special characters accent marks such as a tilda above a letter. The chat will break!
• The second issue is the chat log is stored inside the vb database and not in its own database. So those with a limited database size need to use a cron to delete the chat logs to prevent their database from being maxed out if your site has many users.
• The chatroom plugin was a bug altogether in previous versions which is fixed in 2x. (I use Flashchat for a chatroom and Cometchat for individual members only chat).

PROS:

• By far the best chat that matches exactly the system on Facebook. No matter where you are on your site the chat is always right there with you!
• Can set the chat to show all online users.
• Great admin panel with ajax spy and logs of all activity.
• new version 2x is a vast improvement over previous versions.
• The site translation plugin is awesome! Does make mistakes but not bad.

This style of chat system that follows users no matter what page you are on your site is the best system for my needs. It runs in the footer of your site so no matter where your footer shows so will the chat.

The chat has never given my site any problems running vb 3.7x or 3.8x. The only main problem I have come across is again the use of special characters accent marks above letters in members names. Examples: ũ or δ

Accent Marks and Diacriticals
http://www.starr.net/is/type/altnum.htm
(These are used in many foreign languages. So as mods grow to be used in other countries coders need to make sure their mods work with these accent marks.)

I am not sure if the current version has corrected this issue...

Thanks for your explanation. Its very useful. I have checked out their site again and see that the price and the feature set have both gone up substantially. The price is up to $499 now. The features look good.

The Facebook like footer bar is offered by several other chat software as well, with the same or more functionality. Im wondering about the chat room application. Do you know what the login to the demo is?

Parachat so far:

OK, but uses a java applet. Why is this a problem? Because they are a +++++ in page design and you can't lay anything over the top - eg pull down menus.

Second you have VB4 you need to convert the integration from VB3 to 4. OK, but time consuming.

Then two real negative points - it has the same security hole as 123FlashChat had - the authorization file for their system to check user logins is a lightweight and totally unprotected username/password pair testing tool. Want the passwords of any user of a VB site using Parachat? Yours easily and quickly with brute force / dictionary attacks on the chat_auth file. Worse than 123Flashchat because I am not hosting the chat server, I can;t protect this file to a single (my own) IP address.

Second I have had a support ticket in for this now for 5 days and still no response.

Despite another expense I am tempted to try cometchat and then write a blog on my VB chat system experiences.

If I get a satisfactory response from Parachat and a fix for the gaping security hole I will post it here. In the mean time, I would not recommend the VB integration of parachat, and if you are using it, then stop until they sort the problem.

Eventually got this.

use qwebirc simply: http://www.qwebirc.org/

tutorial there: http://thomasfischer.biz/?p=441

IRC chatroom... okay.... but a popup chat like Facebooks that follows you no matter where you are on the site. Hmmm I still say Cometchat!

You forgot about one chat software. First off its free, the source code is free and there is no limitation to how many users can chat at same time (server hardware would limit this). It's called Visual Chat and it uses a java server. The graphics are really bad (it looks like that 3D maze screensaver from Windows 95). On top of it, it hasnt been updated in years so its probably full of security holes. Still, there's a site that hosts it and you can remotely display it.

http://visualchat.weirdoz.org/

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2010/12/17.gif

Addonchat, support staff is fantastic.