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    php Free Chat is a free, simple to install, fast, customizable and multi languages chat that uses a simple filesystem for message and nickname storage. It uses AJAX to smoothly refresh (no flicker) and display the chat zone and the nickname zone. It supports multi-rooms (/join), private messages, moderation (/kick, /ban), customized themes based on CSS and plugins systems that allows you to write your own storage routines (ex: Mysql, IRC backends …), and your own chat commands !

 Sample screenshots.

Simple

You only have to copy/paste few lines of code to have a nice working chat. It doesn’t require MySQL or any SQL database, messages and nicknames are simply stored in files. No problems with firewalls, this script is based on HTTP so you only need a web browser and an internet connection. (everyone can easily chat!) No problems with none-latin characteres ! Are you Russian, Japanese, Turk, Chinese, or Arabic? Whatever language you speak, phpfreechat will nicely display your characters because it uses XML with UTF-8 to encode characters.

Fast

AJAX technology is used to smoothly refresh (no flicker) and display the chat and nickname zone. Messages and nicknames are stored into a simple filesystem, so that server resources are saved as much as possible. Bandwidth is preserved because the server never transmits the same data twice, only new messages are transmitted.

Customizable

You can write your own customized CSS stylesheets, to completely change the appearance of your chat. All chat functionalities are customizable. For example, you can change the messages refresh time, you can ban users for changing their usernames, etc. The plugin system allows you to write your own storage routines. For example, you can write a plugin to store the conversations into your database.

Requirements

• A Web server (Apache, IIS, Xitami …)

  • Write access on the Web server (SSH, FTP, or other)

  • Doesn’t works with “suphp” apache module enabled for versions < 1.0-beta5

• PHP in your webserver

  • PHP ? 4.1.0 for pfc 0.x and pfc ? 1.0-beta8

  • PHP ? 4.2.0 for pfc ? 1.0-beta9 (because of “ctype” functions family)

  • In some cases “safe_mode=On” makes problems

  • “ctype_*” function family should be enable in your php for pfc ? 1.0-beta9

  • flock php function needs to be available

• By default, you don’t need a Mysql database. The chat uses files to store messages and nicknames.

• Host that doesn’t insert advertisement.

• Known good hosts .

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BlueHost and Hostmonster, the best web hosting listed on my site, has upgraded their 750 servers 2 weeks ago.

 They are forcing all their clients to run Php 5 as default interpreter while keeping Php 4 as an option when Cpanel forcing their user to upgrade to the newer version

 Apache has been upgraded to version 2.2.6 from Apache 1.3.x and MySQL upgraded to version 5.2.5.

 PHP 4 is being deprecated and I believe more and more host will do similar upgrade very soon.

 

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FastCGI for PHP makes all your PHP applications run through mod_fastcgi instead of mod_phpsusexec. FastCGI applications are fast because they’re persistent. There is no per-request startup and initialization overhead. This makes possible the development of applications which would otherwise be impractical within the CGI paradigm (e.g. a huge PHP script, or an application which requires a connection to one or more databases).

Advantages :

• PHP scripts will run faster. The PHP interpreter is loaded into memory rather than calling from storage for every hit, greatly improving performance of your scripted site.
• You will use less Server Resources. Since the server does not have load the PHP interpreter for each hit, you will be able to accommodate a higher traffic site without exceeding your CPU quota.
• NO modifications to your existing code are required. Everything you currently run will work with FastCGI for PHP.

Potential Problem / Limitation :

• You will only have one php.ini file available for all subdirectories (e.g. /home/USERNAME/public_html/php.ini). This is necessary to help optimize the website code as much as possible. If you need multiple php.ini files to accommodate different scripting needs, you can disable FastCGI for PHP on any of your subdirectories while leaving the rest of the account enabled for performance. You may have to contact support if you need to do this.
• There can be a few minute delay in any updates you make to your PHP environment (ie, php.ini changes). Since your php.ini is loaded into memory for greater speed, every hit does not re-read it from storage.

Not all PHP host offer this service, but BlueHost and Hostmonster does offer PHP 5 FastCGI feature.

Related :

Understanding FastCGI Application Performance.

About author : This original article is property of Top 10 Web Hosting (http://www.top10webhosting.com). List of best web hosting services company offering PHP and MySQL. Compare & save ! on web hosting fee.

Note : Please include author information if you wish to republish this article.