Chat Integration - Which is better Cometchat or Avchat?

[Dustin Mattison]

Hello
I have been considering purchasing Cometchat for use on Xenforo. But then today I found something called Avchat where they just came out with a Xenforo integration. Now I am not sure which one I should use. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions on how to choose between the two?

Here is the Avchat blog where they discuss the integration with Xenforo: http://nusofthq.com/blog/the-avchat-video-chat-add-on-for-xenforo-our-latest-avchat-integration-kit/

Dustin

 

[Martok]

There's also Arrowchat which is similar to Cometchat.

http://www.arrowchat.com/

 

[Dustin Mattison]

Avchat gave me this reply to my question: "Ours has more focus on group chat, rooms and audio + video features."

Dustin

 

[ibaker]

Have you seen 123 Flash Chat...I have licenses for both 123 Flash Chat and Arrow Chat and find 123 packed with features for a chat room but Arrow Chat has 1 To 1 instant chat but basic chat room.

ALL chat room software are resource hogs so you need to either use their services or have a powerful server. I no longer use my licenses as although I have a dedicated server with 16gig of ram there is still a performance hit on your site every time a page loads as it needs to run a script especially when having instant chat and on my main site it was used very little

 

[Dustin Mattison]

Ian, I have a separate red5 media server which is separate server from Xenforo. Will my site still slow down when using a chat program?

 

[ibaker]

Dustin, I tried using Red5 however found it to be unstable so I ended up using Influxis video streaming hosting for the video component of chat however there is always latency issues with video streaming from where the video is streaming from and to where the user is located. The performance issue comes from the script that has to run especially when using instant chat as it has to query the database every x seconds to see if anyone has started a chat with the user. Another problem I found with instant chat is a user may have left the site yet they are still showing as online to all other users.

Most problems come from instant chat rather than a chat room feature where users enter the chat room and chat with others. Simple text only chat in this configuration is usable with the least amount of issues. I had a red balloon showing the number of users in the chat room above the Chat menu item but found that users would leave the chat room and the number displayed was incorrect. I also had issues with my server's firewall blocking some IP addresses due to the chat room as in the case of 123 Flash Chat you had to open and use specific ports on your server which caused issues until I got it sorted out but still had the odd user from time to time unable to log in to the chat room. Arrow Chat caused the least issues but it is very very basic

 

[Dustin Mattison]

Dustin, I tried using Red5 however found it to be unstable so I ended up using Influxis video streaming hosting for the video component of chat however there is always latency issues with video streaming from where the video is streaming from and to where the user is located. The performance issue comes from the script that has to run especially when using instant chat as it has to query the database every x seconds to see if anyone has started a chat with the user. Another problem I found with instant chat is a user may have left the site yet they are still showing as online to all other users.

Most problems come from instant chat rather than a chat room feature where users enter the chat room and chat with others. Simple text only chat in this configuration is usable with the least amount of issues. I had a red balloon showing the number of users in the chat room above the Chat menu item but found that users would leave the chat room and the number displayed was incorrect. I also had issues with my server's firewall blocking some IP addresses due to the chat room as in the case of 123 Flash Chat you had to open and use specific ports on your server which caused issues until I got it sorted out but still had the odd user from time to time unable to log in to the chat room. Arrow Chat caused the least issues but it is very very basic

Ian, so I guess I should look into a software with good chatroom functionality versus instant chat. Basically, I want to use a chat software to enable quick communication with team members. I don't want video, just text.

I am a teacher in China and everyone here uses a chat program called QQ. I dont' like QQ and I want to use my own site for chatting because I have more control over creating groups.

I am still not sure if I really need chat or if I can simply use the social groups add on for Xenforo. That wouldn't enable immediate chat but might be good enough.

But sometimes I want to be able to quickly send announcements to students, for example I might want to find a group of students quickly. I assume with a chat program I can broadcast my message and get immediate feedback. I wonder if I can accomplish the same thing without using a chat program??

 

[Main Company]

Any additional recommendations here? I'm looking for a group chat add-on that will sit in the sidebar, similar to what www.ramsondemand.com has.

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[Luke F]

Any additional recommendations here? I'm looking for a group chat add-on that will sit in the sidebar, similar to what www.ramsondemand.com has.

View attachment 78307​

The addon in your screenshot is TaigaChat:

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/taigachat-pro-realtime-chat-shoutbox.1224/