Forums General Discussion questions about an inherited chatroom/website

Howdy folks, This is my first post here and don't know if it's even in the right forum. If I posted in the wrong place maybe a mod can move it for me.

A little background, My father started a website about 12 years ago, a peer support chat for bipolar folks, it has been running happily all this time with folks able to access the chat via java as well as mirc. It seems to work out pretty well like that, as some like java, and some like mirc.
(I hope I didn't say a bad word when I said java...If I did, it is not intentional)
In November of last year, he passed away, and the folks who cometo the site for support were very distraught, not knowing if it would go on. I straightened out the domain registration, and inherited the ownership of the domain, and at that time, got the folks who were hosting the website to agree to keep hosting and maintaining it. ( It's a lady who hosts the site on a 12 year old computer in her house)
Now she does not want to host the site anymore,(she has health and other issues) and I am going to try to keep it up for the people who depend on the site, in honor of my father.

I am not a computer whiz by any stretch of imagination, I am a fabricator of automobiles. So from what I understand, I need to find a way to get the chat hosted ,(I've already contacted my local ISP, and they can do it, but need software and setup), and I need to find out what new software I need to host this chat. The old chatroom ran on a program that was written by a computer whiz kid, back in 98. I understand that it was or is based on some software called conference room, from a company called web master. I have sent them an email, but heard nothing back. I also understand that there is Mirc software that needs to be obtained as well, for the webhosting service.

Can anyone help us get this all together? The organization does not have alot of funds, and exists on donations, which have been slipping due to concerns about things continuing.

Like I said, I am not a computer whiz, so If anyone can help me with this and keep it in language I can understand, (abbreviations are a mystery to me) I'd really appreciate it.

Thank you for reading this.


Mikey

edited for the a better title smiley

Hi Mikey, do you want to run this on your home computer or have it hosted by a company?
There are also a ton of alternatives. Take a look here CLICK ME
May give you some ideas.

Thank you Constantine, this website /chat would be hosted by a company like godaddy or one of the local internet service providers. One of the ongoing problems with hosting it at a home is power outages, and equipment failures, which has been a regular occurance in the past.It freaks out the people who use the site when they assume that their support has vanished....

I clicked the hyperlink you provided for me, but I got a "no matches" message. (if you did a search as a member on that site and put up the search results for me to look at, the search results either expired, or I can't view them as a non member)

I do thank you for the link to the webhosting talk forum, I can wander around in there and look at things.



I'm still looking for a way to set up the chat room section of our website so that users can use both mIRC and java.

The reason behind this is that first time users, people who may have just been DXed as bipolar, and are scared and emotional and may be totally new to chatting can get in the room easily (the new folks who need help at that moment, usually have java to get in the chat easily, but the long time members,(those people who are bipolar as well, who are there to offer help), prefer mIRC.


I know when I first went on the support website, to join in the memorial chat after my Dad died, all I had to do was click the chat button, and enter a nick, and I was in using java. A few months later after finding java was so basic that I wanted more control over what I could do in the chat, and it was reccommended that I download mIRC, , It took me 4 tries to set up mIRC and I still needed help from another member to actually get in.

Thank you for reading this.

Mikey

Who ever you decide to go with for hosting the website, should have technical experts that will ensure that the chat can be accessed via java, mIRC, Pirch, or any one of a number of IRC clients.
If they don't, then don't go with them.
It is the responsibility of the technical experts to ensure that the access to the chats meets or exceeds what you request.

Thank you RusselB, that is a good point, and one of the people I who is involved with this changeover has already set up an account with GoDaddy, So far there is nothing to move there, other than the old stuff, which is now over 10 years old. And I am not even sure the chat addon could be moved, the registration key is buried in a 12 year old machine with no monitor, no keyboard and the lady who is running it all is not motivated to find the keycode again... i have access to my late father's computer and backup files, and can't find it in any of that either....
So that brings me back to my original question, does anyone know of java platform chat that will work concurrently with mIRC?

I have contacted several suppliers of chat software, and all have said that their platforms will not work with mIRC.

Also, where do I get the mIRC software to put on the server?
I looked at the homepage here and saw nothing that could direct me to that source.

Sorry if I'm showing my ignorance in all this, I am a member of several forums, I am even a member/moderator/wiki contributor on a large automotive related technical forum, but I have no clue what's under the hood of a chatroom. I am a good learner though, and appreciate any help.
Possibly if any of you folks using mIRC chat with folks in the same room who are on java, ( I understand that experienced folks can tell), they could find out what software that room uses.

Thank you again for reading this.
Mikey

Hi Mikey, ok if you are hosting it on a commercial hosting service ask if they can supply conferenceroom (usually can licence for you as well). I am sure godaddy will not allow any irc on their servers but it costs nothing to ask. as for java you can usually use a prog called pjirc. If godaddy will not host any IRCD for you then feel free to ask and I can supply a few decent shell hosts names for you, or use google. Most shell hosters would help you out.
Best regards.

mIRC is not designed to be run for server access. It is designed to be installed and run on a client by client (single system) basis.
This is why you can't find a server based mIRC.

Constantine has already stated, what is, your probable course of action.
In regards to the registration key, even if you were able to find it, normally it is encoded to keep it from being read easily and used on more than one system.

If the lady is completely unmotivated to try to help you with the process of moving the information from her system to another, then, realistically, you are starting from scratch.
The one good thing that you do have going for you, is the fact that you already have a base user group, so you aren't trying to compete with the other IRC networks that are available for the same clients.

I wish you the best of luck, and if I can supply you with more information either in response to other posts or as further information comes to my knowledge, I will relay it.

Thank you. We were looking for the registration key only because we were told that as a non profit, (we are), if we found the regkey, we'd be able to get a discount on an upgraded chat software from Web Master that will accept logins on both java and mIRC and let those folks chat together. I wold have thought that my father would written or saved the reg key code somewhere.





The lady who hosts the site now is not totally unmotivated to help, but the less we need to ask of her the better. She has said she would help move the pages with content to the new host. That was 2 days ago, she may change her mind tomorrow. (I'm not being facetious when I say that some of the people involved in the administration of this website are bipolar themselves...one of the rules to be involved is that you must be diagnosed as bipolar..or a family member. I'm not bipolar, just off center a little..getting further off every day)

You are probably right about the server based mirc, I know it runs on the home computer the chat is currently on, but no commercial webhosting company so far wants to host anything with mIRC, I was told the dcc files are unpopular with them, but I am still somewhat unclear on all of it, so I'll keep trying. Tomorrow I'm making some calls to a few.

If it would help, I can PM you a link to the website, to the page that has directions on how to enter the site's chatrooms using java or an IRC platform. mIRC is the recommended one though, and there is a link to the mirc download website on that page. Maybe you could see something going on that I can't.

Constantine-What is a shellhost? I believe that the lady said our site and chat were cohosted by a company called gotnet.net (??)

I will also look at the pj irc you mentioned. I did find their website, and it looks very promising, I will contact them tomorrow.

I guess that for now, what we may do is move the website pages to a new webhosting service, Godaddy, or whoever can provide the technical support, and tell the people that use mirc to access the chat that they will have to use java until we can afford the new software from Web Master that allows both..

We do want to upgrade anyway, and if I am correct in my understanding of all this internet magic, a new webhost and new software and all that may make it easier to keep our current userbase, and attract some new ones if we can get a little search engine optimization going with the new host. Currently we are on page 25 or 26 of a google search....hardly stellar ratings for a site that's been around since 97. I think the addition of a bipolar forum for these folks would help as well, as that kind of stuff shows up in searches while chats do not.

Thanks again for reading this, and your help.

Mikey

Thank you Constantine and RusselB..:)
I did spend some time on the pjirc forum, poking around,seeing that it was way above my head, and may have had an intelligent thought pop up, I may be asking about this the wrong way all together....I went on our website and saw that the chat we use is not on the server, like RusselB had already said, but it's on IRC in the first place..duh.....we have an irc.(our domain name here) room set up on the irc network, and we use some kind of java software on our website to allow folks to access the irc from a browser when they come in...
So I did a search for "connect to an irc chat using java"

and I found this cool page.
http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/misc/webchat.html

And in it, it has a link to the company I was talking about, webmaster...I may actually have found something...

I feel a little sunshine coming in.

Later,

Mikey

Also check out http://www.chattacomb.net/. and follow the links to "services" where you can request a room be set up.

Cheers,

DK

Ethics etc, forbid me from advertising my own company, plus I have no experience with conferenceroom. However I can supply you a few companies to look at, I have had personal dealings with some of them, http://shellxnet.com/
http://thehostbusters.com/
OR http://www.egghelp.org/shells.htm

It may be a lot easier/cheaper to run your own IRCD (server) on one of the shell companies and allow private connections only or with a mixture of mIRC and Java (plus a few others) you could expand your userbase. As I said earlier the options are pretty limitless.
Please note since I have already mentioned I cannot advertise, I could not host you.
I do wish you all the very best in this adventure and please feel free to ask any questions you may have.
I apologise to the moderators if I have broken any kind of protocol, however I think the OP has a decent cause going on.
Regards
Constantine

Well I got pretty far, thanks to you folks.

I opened an account with a shellhost company, they provided us with a static ip, and a shared server. For a minimal fee they loaded Unreal IRCD, and for services they provided and loaded Anope, which gave us all of the nickserve,chanserve,botserv,operserv kind of stuff.

I got the website moved, it is hosted at an ISP with their offices and tech people about 10 minutes from where I live, and they told me to come in a sit down with the tech guys any time I needed to. I can use their services to do any website updates, (for a fee, which is ok by me), and the main tech guy moved our site with absolutely no problems at all.
It still runs the javascript which I have no idea where it came from, but it still works for a gateway to the IRC.

We are currently still running the main chat on the old server, until we get the new server configured. Once we get the new server all set up with greetings, rooms with topics set, and a bot for each room to hold the fort down when there are no ops present, then we will change the dns pointers to direct everyone to the new chat.
We will probably add pjirc or some other IRC gateway to the ebsite, as the java does not like to work with Vista.

I am now the admin of all of the new stuff. Not that I really want to be the admin, but in honor of my father's work, I took it upon myself to do it.

So yesterday I could not spell adminstrator, now I are one.hahahah

So I have read through a good part of the Unreal documentation, and the Anope documentation, and even read through a good part of the stuff I found on www.irchelp.org

I have a few questions about setting up my channels, and bots though.

The order in which I need to do this is unclear to me.
I created a room for testing, and called it #mikey
I registered my nick in it using the nickserv
I registered the channel and topic in chanserv
I registered myself as founder
When I tried to build a bot it refused access to botserv.
Did I do this in the right order?
what did I miss?
Am I supposed to do all of this in my status window? Or in the channel window?

In reading the info from Anope, it gave no order of which to do things, or clear place for me to do it from.

I know, I'm a total newb, but sometimes I can miss the simple things that make the biggest difference.
again, thank you for reading this,
Mikey

you can do the commands form any window on an ircd like unreal -
just avoid doing them in a chat channel in case your entering your oper pass or ident pass so that others can not try abusing it

if you need further assistance send me a pm - i am an admin on over 15 networks and i own 2 networks

Ryu
NetAdmin/ServicesAdmin/Network Owner

Mikey, it sounds like you've got this pretty much under control, and that's great. I just wanted to drop in here that I've got experience with ConferenceRoom from Webmaster.com -- OLD experience, like from the time frame your old Windows 98 box was put together. If your techheads need any help, feel free to have them send me a private message here on the forum and I'd be glad to help out, no charge. (Attempting to NOT solicit here...)

I love our hosted solution for chat. Plus nothing to have to worry about, all turn key