chat over lan from linux to linux?

Question

As I recall there was something like netsend on windows that allowed simple messages to be sent over the local network. I especially like this because one doesn't need to install extra client soft (hello skype).

Is there something dead simple like this on Linux?

Just to clarify I'm looking for a bash command or simple CLI script/tool, not a GUI app.

score 98 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 19 '11 at 00:05

98

You actually can do this with netcat, I believe it is already installed in most cases on linux, and it's dead simple.

On PC 1, type: nc -l 55555

On PC 2, type: nc $IP 55555, where $IP equals the local IP address of PC 1 [e.x. 192.168.2.50]

Once you do this, in the same box, from PC 2, type something and press enter. Then go over and look at PC 1, and your message will be there! It works both ways.

You can also choose a different port than 55555, or if you opened your firewall, you can do this through the internet via your external IP.

answered Sep 19 '11 at 00:05

Matt

10,231

13

+1 for another creative use of netcat. You can use that tool for anything. – Nathan Osman Oct 10 '11 at 23:09
Any possibility to do it with more than 2 pc? – wair92 Sep 30 '15 at 07:59
1

@wair92 indeed. Use on the PC1: while true; do nc -l 5555; done and (the tricky part) is to echo something to the nc pipe instead of enter on it's interactive mode. On PC2 (or even another therminal in same machine) use: echo "i am PC2" | nc $IP 5555 and the message will be sent and connection will close, but will be reopened. So, you can still do in PC3: echo "i am PC3" | nc $IP 5555 and the PC1 will receive that message. – m3nda Feb 11 '17 at 00:31
On Debian 10, I needed to use nc -l -p 55555 on PC 1. – Rodrigo Apr 18 '20 at 01:16

score 32 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 17 '16 at 03:35

32

You can use iptux. It is a very convenient GUI-based program. You can even send files (and entire folder) to your colleague.

From a terminal,

sudo apt-get install iptux

will do the job.

Here is a screenshot of this tool.

iptux image (turn on image in your browser to see this)

edited Apr 17 '16 at 03:35

Serge Stroobandt

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1
54
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answered Oct 22 '13 at 06:55

Anwar

77,924

score 24 · Answer 3 · edited Oct 13 '20 at 16:15

24

No need for netcat hacks.

The talk (or ytalk - same protocol but newer, multi-user) is a visual communication program which copies lines from your terminal to that of another user. They are probably the closest UNIX equivalent to netsend. An advantage is that communications can be secured by running over ssh.

Packages are in the software repositories. Usage is simply:

talk user@host

More information here:

Edit: found a screenshot on wikipedia: Unix talk screenshot

Edit again (response to psusi's comment): I'm not sure about Gnome, but KDE will show a popup for a talk request:

KDE talk popup

edited Oct 13 '20 at 16:15

Matthias Braun

1,187

answered Sep 22 '11 at 01:23

scottl

2,588

I was thinking of answering this question like that, but decided against it because (y)talk operates tty to tty, not over the network, and people use gui desktops these days instead of logging in to a tty. A proper answer to this question would involve a network protocol that would pop up a gui chat client on the desktop, but unfortunately a modern network+gui replacement for ytalk was never developed. Windows NT used to have a proper chat program that did this ( not just one way one message net send ), but Microsoft dropped the program I think in win2k or xp, which is a shame. – psusi Sep 22 '11 at 01:54
@psusi: There is a desktop notification for talk requests; see my second edit. Also, talk certainly does work over the network and in a graphical desktop. – scottl Sep 22 '11 at 03:52
Could you expand on how to make this work over the network, or SSH? – CMCDragonkai Mar 24 '16 at 04:10
I'm having difficulties to make talk work. Netcat worked immediately though. – KeyC0de Sep 22 '17 at 18:57
@psusi the talk protocol operates tty to tty on the local system, but if you have a talk daemon running on both machines and DNS names assigned to them it will hunt down users on other machines over the network as well. – Perkins Oct 03 '18 at 22:11
@CMCDragonkai to make it work over the network, you install talkd on all desired machines and invoke via 'talk user@host' The only caveat is that it requires DNS names and won't work with raw IP addresses for some silly reason. Oh, and it's unencrypted (like most protocols this old) so only use it on trusted networks or for trivial conversations. – Perkins Oct 03 '18 at 22:13

score 9 · Answer 4 · edited Aug 30 '16 at 22:28

9

One option: if one server has a ssh client installed you could login using ssh and use write. http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/wily/man2/write.2.html

edited Aug 30 '16 at 22:28

ki9

545

answered Sep 18 '11 at 20:08

johanvdw

1,011

score 6 · Answer 5 · edited Mar 21 '17 at 13:46

6

You can do this with finch , the command-line equivalent to pidgin, by setting up local accounts (Bonjour/Avahi). I have not used finch myself, so I cannot guide you in the setup, but it should be fairly easy.

edited Mar 21 '17 at 13:46

Zanna

72,471

answered Sep 18 '11 at 20:08

RolandiXor

51,957

score 6 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 19 '11 at 00:31

6

Empathy supports this, but you need to activate it. It is called people nearby and is a special kind of account which does not require a server. Other than that, it's the same protocol as Facebook and Google uses. Everyone who has activated that will be visible to everyone else on the same network that has also activated it.

answered Sep 19 '11 at 00:31

Jo-Erlend Schinstad

29,687

couldnt find the option, could be the version? – Aquarius Power Jun 24 '14 at 00:33
It should be installed by default in any supported version of Ubuntu, but I think the package is called telepathy-salut. It should appear as account type "People Nearby" when you create a new account in Empathy. (Of course, "People Nearby" is also translated, so it might be different if you're not using English) – Jo-Erlend Schinstad Jun 27 '14 at 16:11
ppl nearby is actually named "salut" and my install is english o_O (at least on empathy 3.8.6), anyway users found each other! but... they cant send messages? despite green icon, it says user is offline... did you add some firewall rule to allow this? – Aquarius Power Jun 27 '14 at 19:41
ugh just saw this: "traps: empathy-chat[...] general protection ip:... sp:... error:0 in libc-2.19.so" but only shown on dmesg of one machine! – Aquarius Power Jun 27 '14 at 19:48

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 13 '20 at 04:58

0

You can use BeeBeep, BeeBEEP is a secure network chat. You can talk and send files with all your friends inside a local area network such of an office, home or internet cafe without a server. Download it from here: BeeBeep

answered Oct 13 '20 at 04:58

Yashraj Nigam

109

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Mar 01 '21 at 06:38

I made a project for this. A Node.js server that has basic chat functionality like /msg. You just run the server and connect with netcat. However, it's terrible in it's current form. I might rewrite it in the near future. You will only have to watch the repo and git pull when it's updated.

https://github.com/uAliFurkanY/simple-chat-server

chat over lan from linux to linux?

8 Answers8