Question: how can i send messages across my home network ??

[welshTerrier2]

i have a few laptops hooked up to my wireless router ... two of them are running Windows 2000 Pro and one is running Windows XP Pro ...

is there a way to send a message from one node to another ??

I tried to use the "net send" command at a command prompt but couldn't get it to work ... i keep getting an error about an alias problem ... not sure if the machines are properly configured to use the "net send" command ...

is there any other way to do this without using the internet (e.g. AIM) or is there a place to configure Windows to enable "net send" ??

[bemildred]

1. You mean email?

Edit: or chat?
Or what?

[welshTerrier2]

3. nope ...

not email or chat ...

i think it's referred to as console messaging ...

i just got it working ... if you have multiple computers on your home network, i'd be glad to walk you through how to do this ... it lets you send a message from one node (i.e. computer) to another one that pops up the message in a little messagebox on the screen ... you could do this whether or not you are connected to the internet ... the message is sent over your home network ...

btw, i got it working by enabling the "messaging service" on my xp machine ... xp disables the service by default ...

[RoyGBiv]

2. LanTalk

The "alias problem" probably means you're trying to send it to an alias that doesn't exist. Each computer on a local network has a name/alias. Net Send routes the message to the alias you specify, which needs to be the alias of the computer you're trying to address.

You could consider LanTalk:

http://www.lantalk.net/lantalk_xp.php

This is commercial, and I don't know if it's worth it to you. I personally haven't used it except in a work environment, so I don't know how difficult it is to set up.

[welshTerrier2]

4. thanks, i got net send working ...

xp disables the messaging service by default ...

after i turned it on, the net send command worked great ...

to use it, do the following at a command prompt:

net send computername message

for example: net send myOtherComputer did you get this message ??

note: you can also send to the username the other computer is logged into ... for example:

net send otherNetworkUser did you get this message ??

[RoyGBiv]

5. Messenger Service

Really? I thought of that, but I didn't realize XP had it turned off by default.

Anyway, glad it was a simple fix.