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.