Realtime Messaging Gets Down to Business

REALTIME messaging began with bulletin board system (BBS) chat rooms, which let a user send text messages to communicate instantly with other users. Later, the AOL Instant Messenger and ICQ ("I Seek You") programs added the notions of presence and awareness to realtime messaging: Whenever you log on to one of these messaging systems, you can instantly see whether anyone from your buddy list is online.

The corporate world has also begun to use realtime messaging. As enterprises are starting to realize, geographically dispersed workforces value the ability of two or more employees to be in one another's electronic presence and communicate instantly.

Developing Applications with REALTIME Capability
The two major platforms for realtime messaging are Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server, which uses the MSN Messenger Service instant messaging (IM) client, and Lotus Sametime 1.5, which uses the Sametime Connect IM client. These applications add such functions as the ability to share applications over a Web browser. We examine and compare these two platforms' capabilities, manageability, and ease of use. (For a more in-depth look at Exchange 2000 IM, see Tony Redmond, "Exchange 2000 Server's Instant Messaging," November 2000.) We also look at the two main aspects of realtime messaging: traditional chat-style IM and realtime conferencing.

Setting Up Shop
Exchange 2000 is a substantial update to Exchange Server 5.5 that improves Exchange Server's realtime messaging capability. You need to run Exchange 2000 on Windows 2000 Server. The Microsoft client package for realtime messaging consists of MSN Messenger Service, Microsoft NetMeeting, and Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE).

Lotus Sametime 1.5 is an add-on to Lotus Domino, Lotus' premier messaging platform, and includes Sametime Server and the Sametime Connect client. Because Lotus hasn't yet made Sametime 1.5 compatible with Win2K Server, we ran Sametime Server on Windows NT Server 4.0. Lotus plans to release Win2K-compatibility patches. Sametime comes with a single-installation client package that works with Netscape Navigator and IE. The Sametime license allows one installation of Sametime Server and unlimited installs of Sametime Connect. Sametime functionality doesn't require Lotus Notes, although if you have that product, you can use custom development features to extensively integrate it with Sametime.

Both products have optional toolkits that you can use to include realtime messaging and other realtime functions in your applications. For more information about the products' development potential, see the sidebar "Developing Applications with Realtime Capability."

Configuring Exchange 2000 for realtime messaging requires several steps. You need to install the client components and a Registry editor on the client desktop. You also need to enable each Exchange mailbox for IM.

The Sametime installation program's extensive autodetection and autoconfiguration capabilities made configuring Sametime's basic functionality easier than configuring Exchange 2000. (However, we needed to manually reset passwords in the Sametime user directory.) Sametime installation is simple if you're running Domino locally. However, Sametime Server depends extensively on the Web service the OS uses. Although Lotus claims that Sametime can use Microsoft IIS and offers directions for adapting IIS to function with Lotus products, we were unable to successfully run Sametime with IIS.

If you install Sametime Server on a computer that is running Domino, Sametime borrows Domino's HTTP service. If you install Sametime Server on a server that isn't running Domino, the Sametime installation disk lays down a service called Domino DNA, which is a stripped-down version of Domino Server that has the HTTP services necessary to run Sametime. Installing Sametime Server on a machine that runs IIS can lead to problems because the Sametime installer detects IIS and doesn't install Domino DNA. But you can't simply shut down IIS, because Sametime's autodetection confuses port settings. To install Sametime Server on a Win2K or NT server, go to Services, open IIS Properties, set Startup to Disable, then reboot your system before you install Sametime.

If the installation fails, you need to perform a thorough uninstallation. Uninstall the Sametime software, manually delete the configuration files, then delete notes.ini and lotus.ini from the Winnt directory. These steps are necessary because when you install Sametime Server, it lays down substantial Lotus Notes components on the server.

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