Forum

http://www.whisher.com/en/index.php

Has anyone seen this before?

Devinator

I wonder how they intend to deal with the legal ramifications of any illegal activity from another user whilst on your connection...

and of course

The risk of opening the API so others can tune it... asking for trouble

I haven't seen it till now. Seems interesting but I wonder what benefit it really brings. I do see that it supposedly allows local chat. Have you tried that yet... if so, did it work?

I might be interested enough to check it out if local chat works -- been in a few situations where that could have been a huge help (i.e. cellphones couldn't connect, no Internet, no FRS radios, but still needed a way to communicate to somone on the other side of the facility).

Joel

This looks like a fun tool when used properly. Over all though, it looks like Wigle with the "owners" telling you where they are. This is a huge security threat. However, I live in a security world and could be jaded.

Yeah, after some additional research I determined Whisher to be too much of a security threat because someone could potentially have access to your WEP or WPA key without even being local to your WLAN. I just don't trust that the developers are honest enough or smart enough to protect that.

On the flip side, I did get enough interest in local chat capabilities to investigate that further. Local chat could be a real value when you're onsite with no way to communicate other than the LAN or WLAN. Plus, some of these programs have group chat, encryption, and voice capabilities. Here are some of the ones I am investigating:

Vypress Chat (highly rated on CNET, multi-chat, bulletin board)
Akeni Chat
CommuniCrypt (offers encryption)
EasyChat (encryption)
Fomine Net Send GUI
LANcet Chat
Messenger Pro
NetChat
Outlook Messenger
RaptiComm
Softros LAN Messenger (encryption)
Voice Connector (voice)

These programs are under $20 after a free trial. The ones listed are just a few of the local chat programs out there... If you have a favorite, please tell me about it and tell me how you've used it.

Joel

Ok, just to follow-up on my side-tracked conversation (sorry Devin)... I checked out several of the local chat clients. If you want a free local chat client that works and just does chat between another user or with a group, check out LANcet Chat:

http://www.download.com/LANcet-Chat/3000-2150_4-10382015.html?tag=lst-0-5

If you want an inexpensive one ($7.80 per client) that does one-on-one and group chat, voice (pretty cool), file sharing, remote desktop sharing, offline messaging, and can span multiple subnets, check out Outlook Messenger:

http://www.download.com/Outlook-Messenger/3000-2150_4-10594429.html?tag=lst-0-3

Joel