[thelist] Secure Instant Messaging

[Hershel Robinson]

One corporation I work with uses e/pop for secure instant messaging and 
chats:

http://www.wiredred.com/index_skip.html

This product works, but has a lot of features I don't like, or rather a 
lack of many features that would be useful (like a drafts folder, 
user-defined folders, full RTF support). So while I don't think it's 
great, it does do what it's advertised to do.

A different organization with which I am now associated may also be 
interested in such a product. We presently do not have a dedicated 
server, however. We have a shared Linux server hosted by HostRocket and 
I have a Windows 2K test server in my office. I suppose we might be able 
to arrange for a dedicated server from HostRocket if that would allow us 
to install messaging software.

It is also conceivable that I could put it on my local test server, but 
I am a bit hesitant about that because my current firewall setup seems 
to work very well as far as I know and I myself do NOT know much about 
servers and server security (on a serious level) and to open my firewall 
for messaging connections makes me a bit nervous. I know just enough to 
know that once you open yourself to outside connections, unless you 
really know what you're doing, you may be asking for trouble down the line.

Anyhow, anyone have any suggestions? Everyone on the team uses Windows 
on their desktop and I would of course ideally like a windows app (as 
opposed to some sort of browser-based thing) for the client end.

Thanks,
Hershel