DSChat

DSChat (Distributed Chat) is a simple UDP, Intranet chat program. Due to the limited nature of UDP, it was only designed to send small messages between people on the local network. While I'm sure the chat program can be used across the Internet too, the UDP protocol is not reliable enough for the chat program to work properly. The idea for this experiment was born when I needed to chat with one of my colleages without the additional overhead of email. Additionally, it was a fun challenge to see if I could develop such an application, and most of the application was developed off the framework of my CarWash experiment, which was a class project for Distributed Computing.

Features

• Lightweight, small, simple application.
• Simple UDP protocol, a connection is established on demand.
• Uses a paraphrase to encrypt the data between chatters. A passphrase can be a simple word, such as Cat that is then used as a key in the encryption scheme.
• The chat window supports translucency.
• Dynamic port modification. Ports can be modified simply and quickly for each session.