Jabbering Up a Storm Page 3

SoapBox Server for Windows and (Someday) Linux

Windows admins, on the other hand, should bypass their experimental version Jabberd in favor of SoapBox Server. It comes with a raft of administration and management features, like integration with Active Directory and the Microsoft Management Console. User management, contact lists, and other administration tasks are point-and-click. SoapBox Server supports extensive reporting for keeping tabs on server health and user activities, and reports are exportable to either HTML or PDF. Multiuser chats and conferencing are easy to set up and monitor.

SoapBox Server is highly customizable and there are several software developer kits available, including the SoapBox Framework Mobile Edition for PDAs and smart phones. Of course all these goodies cost money for both server and client access licenses. The Standard Edition server costs $495, plus $9.95 per client.

Other Jabber-Based Servers

A list of Jabber-based servers, both open-source and commercial, is posted at jabber.org/software/servers.shtml. Whatever messaging platform you elect to deploy, keep in mind the importance of sticking to the open, freely-available XMPP protocols. The whole idea of messaging is to communicate, and not to become ensnared in sticky, incompatible, proprietary traps.

Pros: Free; Wide variety of server options; Great scalability (both upward and downward); robust and easy-to-administer; Highly customizable .
Cons: No production-ready version of Windows; Support for text messaging only; No native message logging support.

Reviewed by: Carla Schroder
Original Review Date: 03/30/2005
Original Review Version: 2.0