Local Area Network (LAN) Based Chat Terminal

• Fun little project that allows you to communicate to any device with a sufficient enough Text-Based Command Line Interface (CLI) on the same Router. The system is based on the net Javscript Module (Pre-Installed) which utilises asynchronous TCP connections.

How to Use

Requirements

• Node.js installed on your system.

• blessed Javascript Module Installed.

  npm install blessed

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Starting the Server (as the Server Host)

1. Open a terminal or command prompt.

2. Navigate to the project folder.

3. Run the server:

   node index.js

   Output: The terminal should display the following messages:

   Server starting...
   Server listening on port 3000
   

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Connecting to the Server (as a User)

1. Open another terminal on the same network.

2. Use telnet or netcat to connect to the server:

   telnet <SERVER_IP> 3000
   # OR (if on the same machine)
   telnet localhost 3000

3. When prompted:

   Enter your username:

   Type your desired username and press Enter.

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All Set Up!

You can now type messages and press Enter to send them.

• User messages will appear in the server terminal as:

  <USERNAME> Hello everyone!
  

• Server messages will appear as:

  <SERVER> Welcome to the chat!
  

Scrolling Chat History

Use the Up and Down arrow keys while the input box is focused to scroll the chat history. (Note: This only works once the chat history has filled the current page.)

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Disconnecting

Press Ctrl+C in the server or client terminal to exit.

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Things to Note

• The Server Terminal (at this point in time) doesn't have any extra pivileges or configurations.
• It is just one standalone chat (at this point in time) so don't expect much :p
• I may plan to add more features in future (possibly connection to the outside world wowowow)

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License

This project is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. See the LICENSE file for details.