PhpFreeChat description
PhpFreeChat is a free and nice working chat. You only have to copy/paste 3 lines of code to make it work

PhpFreeChat is a free and nice working chat. You only have to copy/paste 3 lines of code to make it work.
No need to configure a database (Mysql), messages and nicknames are stored in files.

No problems with firewall, this chat is based on HTTP so that you only need a web browser and an internet connection. (everybody can easily chat !)

AJAX technology is used to smoothly refresh (no flicker) and display the chat zone and the nickname zone.
Messages and nicknames are stored into a simple filesystem, so that server resources are saved to the uttermost.
Bandwidth is preserved because the server never transmits twice the same data : only new messages are transmitted.

You can write your own customized CSS stylesheets, to completely change the appearance of your chat.
All chat functionalities are customizable. For example, you can change the messages refresh time, you can ban users for changing their usernames...
The plugin system allows you to write your own storage routines. For example, you can write a plugin to store the conversations into your database.

All phpFreeChat commands are inspired by the irc protocol, and its interface is inspired by mIRC and XChat, so that users won't be disoriented.

Techonologies used by phpFreeChat are :

php : on the server side : conversations are simply stored in filesystems.
xajax : for the asynchronous communication between the client and the server
(phpFreeChat do NOT use mysql)

phpFreeChat is an opensource (LGPL) program, so that you can freely use it and modify it.

Here you can see how to install this chat:
http://www.phpfreechat.net/install.en.html

Requirements:

· A Web server (apache, IIS ...) with php (4 or 5)
· A write access on the Web server (ssh, FTP, or other)
· By default, you don't need Mysql database because the system uses files to store messages and nicknames