Chat Features

Client Features

The VOLANO chat server includes three Java applets: VolanoChat, MyVolanoChat, and WebVolanoChat. These client applets are written in pure Java to run in any Web browser with Java support, and contain the following features:

Customizable interface: Change the default look and feel of the chat applets by modifying their text, fonts, colors, images, logos, advertisements, and sounds.
Translatable interface: Translate the chat applet interface into any language. Translations for Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish are already provided.
Color and font themes: Define user-selectable color and font themes for the chat applets.
Chat room advertisements: Rotate banner advertisements in the chat rooms using static images or delivered dynamically by a local or remote ad server.
Ability to ignore users: Users can ignore others in the chat room so that all messages from another user are blocked from display.

Server Features

The VOLANO chat server is written in pure Java so that it can run on any Java-compatible operating system such as Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, Apple Mac OS X, Sun Solaris, or FreeBSD. Every VOLANO chat server has the following features:

Unlimited chat users: There is no artificial limit on the number of people who can connect to the chat server at the same time.
Unlimited chat rooms: There is no artificial limit on the number of chat rooms that can be made available in the chat server at the same time.
Unlimited client Web sites: There is no restriction on the number of different Web pages, Web sites, or domain names through which users can connect to a single VOLANO chat server using its built-in Java applets.
Public chat rooms: Public chat rooms are available in a list for all users to enter using the VolanoChat applet.
Private chat rooms: Private chat rooms are one-on-one chat sessions launched by double-clicking another user's name from within a chat room.
Personal chat rooms: Personal chat rooms are hidden from the list of public rooms and can be entered only through the Web page on which they're defined.
Extensive access control: Restrict access to users by their IP address or by the referring Web page through which they are connecting, or use external DNS-based blacklists to restrict access by IP address.
External membership database: Restrict access by member names and passwords in any external database or directory through the use of simple CGI scripts or servlets written in any language, such as PHP, Python, Perl, or Java. Restrict access to the chat server by members only, or allow both members and non-members to chat.
Live moderated events: Host live events with moderators and guests where the moderators receive questions from the audience and select among them to pose questions to the guest.
Ability to remove, disconnect, or ban users: Monitors can remove users from a chat room, disconnect users from the chat server, or disconnect and ban users from the chat server by IP address.
Message flood control: Slow down attempts to flood chat rooms with messages using the built-in and tunable flood control.
Customizable access logs: Obtain the server access log information in any format so that it's available to external log analysis tools such as Analog, Webalizer, or even to spreadsheet programs.
Customizable message logs: Transcribe the chat message text of the chat rooms so that it's available for later use in either HTML or plain text.
Real-time status reporting: Receive real-time reports on connection counts, memory usage, and message throughput from the chat server.
Server-side event reporting: Write CGI scripts in any language that receive reports about events in a chat room, such as all chat messages and when users enter or leave the chat room.