Owning a Chat Server !

Setting Up Our Own Chat Service

You have been Chatting and using Instant Messaging applications for quite a time, right ?. So How about setting up your own chat server ? You will have full monopoly over the messaging. Or just for fun ?

We will be using Openfire, a multi-platform, open source XMPP(Extensive Messaging and Presence Protocol) server written in JAVA and Spark collaboration client. So here it goes.

Getting Openfire

Download Openfire from here. As most people use Windows, we will set it up on a Windows machine ,so get the Windows version and install it with a simple double click. Further steps are similar even on other platfroms.

Configuring Openfire

When you have installed Openfire, point your browser to 127.0.0.1:9090 and configure it as the wizard directs. It's almost a cake walk. For the database settings, you can use an external database if you have it. Let's use the embedded HSQLDB database provided by Openfire.
After the configuration, go and log in the admin console. Use 'admin' for username and the password that was set during the configuration for the password field.
Next we feed some users. Go to Users/Groups > Create a New User and fill the details in the fields.
Create another user and your server is good to go now.

Setting up Spark

Since we are done with the server side configs, now we need client side application for connecting users to the server. Enter Spark! Download Spark here and install it.
We are good to go now and to start chatting and messaging.

Adding Contacts

To add a contact , simply click on Contacts > Add Contact and to start a chat Actions > Start a chat.
As both softwares used are available for multi-platform usage, similar steps can be followed up on other OSes too to set a chat server.
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