What is Reddit's opinion of Spark?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Spark with Openfire. You can get both of them from www.igniteraltime.org.

We're running Spark backed by Openfire here.

It's got SSL for your encryption needs, integrates nicely with Active Directory, has some good user/group control. And, ultimately, it's just Jabber so pretty much anything can talk to it if you don't like Spark.

Spark works nice on our domain though. We're pushing out the installation with a group policy, and then dropping a config file right into the user's profile. There's absolutely no configuration from an end-user standpoint. They just click the icon and put in the same password they use for Windows.

Very nice. Very simple.

I put together a test server using OpenFire and Spark a while ago, but for right now we're limiting it to just IT staff.

You can even integrate it with AD for authentication (if you want), have it completely disconnected from the outside world, and pre-populate your user's contact lists from either a locally-defined group or an imported AD security group.

Take a look at the documentation in those links though, because I can't really tell you if it will work for your needs.

I've used Openfire Server with some success. They've got their own client, Spark, but I think any jabber-compatible client (e.g. Pidgin) will work. They've got a web-based client if that's what you need. We used Spark and I believe it has inline image viewing.

It was fairly easy to set up and ran on a minimal VM for ~40 users.

I've used Openfire Server with some success. They've got their own client, Spark, but I think any jabber-compatible client (e.g. Pidgin) will work. They've got a web-based client if that's what you need. We used Spark and I believe it has chat group capability.

It was fairly easy to set up and ran on a minimal VM for ~40 users.

Do you use Spark?

Having used IRC for 10+ years in previous experience, I tried OpenFire+Spark as a test >>

I've found that OpenFire lacks features that modern IRCd's deploy (not knocking it.. I'm just used to a more full featured suite). Atheme + LDAP seems to take care of a portion of those problems.

Unfortunately Spark, which is a client that is potentially moldable\deployable client for the users.. looks bland & outdated. From my understanding, spark is there paired client. I wasn't impressed, and thought that other clients could deploy better in a MSI packaged file via GPO (which, I don't believe it's -easy- to do with Spark) -- maybe Pidgin? I don't know.

Regardless. I'm just happy that you're using the IRC protocol for communication. Thank you for that!

(Note: Our team.. including all of the system\net\dev engineers and all of management are using Google Hangouts. You REALLY can't beat that cross-platform compatibility now (see; Update for iOS :))

You might look into setting up OpenFire server and then run Spark clients (or other clients like Pidgin - anything that understands XMPP) for IM over SSL. It also allows for file transfer. I am currently running it with 25 users and it has been working nicely. I got it up and running in about an hour (including Ubuntu 10.10 server install), but that includes setting up users w/ LDAP.

Au taf si tu veux pas d'audio, un serveur jabber marche tres bien il y a pleins qui font le job. Quand j'étais en ssii les prestas n'avaient pas acces a l'IM corporate du client et on utilisait ca pour chater entre nous et avec les collègues internes. Je crois que le client était Spark

Well... They shot down Lync.... So how about you build it yourself using a Linux Box?

http://www.igniterealtime.org/projects/openfire/

LDAP

https://www.igniterealtime.org/builds/openfire/docs/latest/documentation/ldap-guide.html

Going to have to have employees use Spark for the client though as there is no integration in outlook...

http://www.igniterealtime.org/projects/spark/

Check out Openfire with the Asterisk plugin plus the Spark client.

http://www.igniterealtime.org/projects/openfire/

http://www.igniterealtime.org/projects/spark/index.jsp

It takes some work to set up, but you can do some cool stuff with it.

Download an interoffice instant message system that he could use. This could allow him to get the attention of someone around him without the need to flail arms around, since he is unable to.

Spark is a good choice, it's free and easy to setup. http://www.igniterealtime.org/projects/spark/

you may want to ask this over in r/sysadmin

but a couple quick points, if you have file servers, network shares etc you will need to provide users with a vpn connection to the main office to access that. what kind of firewall are you using? cisco has a clientless vpn that non-tech users can easily grasp.

check out spark for your IM.

for phones you may be able to implement a 'softphone' to run on a client machine instead of having to use physical phones. also, a lot of VOIP systems have 'find me follow me' features which will allow for calls to be transferred to home/cell/whatever phone.