Most text-based Internet chat clients cost nothing, but you may want to spend $17.50 (per user, direct) for Claudin Lambert's PeerChat 2.0, a chat client with a unique combination of features that makes chatting secure and effortless. As its name implies, PeerChat communicates directly between two computers over the Internet or a network.
Unlike AOL Instant Messenger (see review) ICQ (see review) and similar chat programs, PeerChat doesn't compromise security by routing chat through a server. And unlike most peer-to-peer chat programs, it lets you initiate a chat session with a remote user simply by sending the other user an e-mail. You don't have to find out the remote user's current IP address, and you don't have to know whether the remote user is currently at his or her home or office machine. If the other user has PeerChat running and has set an option that lets PeerChat scan his or her e-mail at regular intervals, your chat request will automatically appear in the other user's PeerChat window.
Like most text chat clients, PeerChat consists of a session window that contains all text sent and received during the current chat and two smaller windows: One displays text typed by the remote user, and the other is the window in which you type the text you want to send. There's no option to delay sending text until you press the Enter key, so all your typing mistakes are visible in real time.
Most advanced chat conveniences are provided, including macros for sending boilerplate text, special sounds to alert the remote user, pop-up message boxes, and functions for saving and sending the full text of a chat session. Encryption is optional. Unfortunately, you can't block chat requests from specific users. Additional features are supported through plug-ins supplied with the program, including a file-transfer menu that supports drag-and-drop and a small drawing pad that's mostly a technological demonstration.
PeerChat's most spectacular feature is its ability to request chat sessions when you don't know the remote user's IP address--and you almost certainly won't know a remote user's IP address if you use an ISP to connect to the Internet. You simply click on a menu item that automatically sends an e-mail to the remote user's account with all the information needed to begin a chat session. The remote user's copy of PeerChat can be set to scan his or her e-mail account at regular intervals or on command, and if a request arrives, PeerChat automatically opens a session.
If you only chat with users whose IP addresses you already know, you can manage with Eric Lo's freeware xChat (download here), which also includes file-transfer and drawing features. But PeerChat offers more security and more features, and makes it uniquely easy to get in touch.
PeerChat 2.0. Direct price: $17.50 per user. Requires: Internet or network connection, Microsoft Windows 95 or NT 4.0 or later. Claudin Lambert, Montreal, Canada; Company Info.
