Sending text messages on a LAN
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From: Sandstone on 26 Feb 2010 18:31 G4 Powerbook aluminum, Mac OS 10.4.11 G4 Desktop, Mac OS 10.3.9 I noticed that when one Mac shuts down its end of a File Sharing "connection", you are offered the option to send a short text message to the other end. I exercised the option and sure enough the other end sees the message. I thought it was neat that a text message could be sent to another computer on a wired/wireless LAN without using the internet at all. Does anyone know of a cheap app that allows Macs on a LAN to send simple text strings back and forth without using the internet (e.g., entirely intra-LAN)? TIA Eric
From: Richard Maine on 26 Feb 2010 20:27 Sandstone <spambucket(a)infowest.com> wrote: > I noticed that when one Mac shuts down its end of a File Sharing > "connection", you are offered the option to send a short text message to > the other end. I exercised the option and sure enough the other end sees > the message. I thought it was neat that a text message could be sent to > another computer on a wired/wireless LAN without using the internet at all. > > Does anyone know of a cheap app that allows Macs on a LAN to send simple > text strings back and forth without using the internet (e.g., entirely > intra-LAN)? Pretty much anything that involves message sending works fine on a LAN. There is nothing particularly special about "the internet" versus a LAN; anything that works on the internet will work within your LAN. If anything, stuff is more likely to work within the LAN because you aren't likely to have tio traverse firewalls or routers (or at least as many of them, depending). The only things special about the internet is that servers that you are likely to want to use are likely to be outside of your LAN. But that's just a matter of where the servers happen to be - not something special about the protocols. For example, you could perfectly well set up an email server on your LAN and use email between your machines even when not connected to the internet as a whole. You probably wouldn't want to for home use, but you could and there are probably home users who do; it is pretty common for companies (their central mail server handles all the outside communication; the local mail clients just talk to it). So you probably want to mostly forget about the "on a LAN" part of your search; that isn't likely to be helpful as most apps you find aren't likely to emphasize the LAN part. You are just looking for messaging apps in general. I suspect that iChat would meet your needs. I think it can work locally without needing a server set up (using Bonjour). I haven't experimented much with that because I'm pretty much always connected to the net, but I suspect it would work for you. Of course, both sides have to be running iChat for that to work. What you are *NOT* going to find is something that allows you to pop up messages on someone else's screen when they aren't already running an app that listens for such messages. That would require that the systems have pretty much zero security; ain't gonna happen. Your file sharing example involved something running the file sharing "app" at both ends, and it new to listen for messages like that. -- Richard Maine | Good judgment comes from experience; email: last name at domain . net | experience comes from bad judgment. domain: summertriangle | -- Mark Twain
From: Jolly Roger on 27 Feb 2010 15:55 In article <7ur3ugFseuU1(a)mid.individual.net>, Sandstone <spambucket(a)infowest.com> wrote: > G4 Powerbook aluminum, Mac OS 10.4.11 > G4 Desktop, Mac OS 10.3.9 > > I noticed that when one Mac shuts down its end of a File Sharing > "connection", you are offered the option to send a short text message to > the other end. I exercised the option and sure enough the other end sees > the message. I thought it was neat that a text message could be sent to > another computer on a wired/wireless LAN without using the internet at all. > > Does anyone know of a cheap app that allows Macs on a LAN to send simple > text strings back and forth without using the internet (e.g., entirely > intra-LAN)? If you just want to display a message on the screen of another Mac on your network, try this: 1. Open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal. 2. Connect to the remote Mac with SSH. 3. Issue a command similar to this: osascript -e 'tell app "System Events" to display dialog "This is a test."' Examine the "Standard Additions" Applescript dictionary in Script Editor (File > Open Dictionary) for details about the "display dialog" and "display alert" commands. -- Send responses to the relevant news group rather than email to me. E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my very hungry SPAM filter. Due to Google's refusal to prevent spammers from posting messages through their servers, I often ignore posts from Google Groups. Use a real news client if you want me to see your posts. JR
From: Sandstone on 27 Feb 2010 19:52 Jolly Roger wrote: > In article <7ur3ugFseuU1(a)mid.individual.net>, > Sandstone <spambucket(a)infowest.com> wrote: > > >>G4 Powerbook aluminum, Mac OS 10.4.11 >>G4 Desktop, Mac OS 10.3.9 >> >>I noticed that when one Mac shuts down its end of a File Sharing >>"connection", you are offered the option to send a short text message to >>the other end. I exercised the option and sure enough the other end sees >>the message. I thought it was neat that a text message could be sent to >>another computer on a wired/wireless LAN without using the internet at all. >> >>Does anyone know of a cheap app that allows Macs on a LAN to send simple >>text strings back and forth without using the internet (e.g., entirely >>intra-LAN)? The reason I mentioned "without using the internet" was to weed out apps that would introduce overkill or bloat to solve a very local problem. Didn't want to kill a gnat with a sledgehammer. I had hoped that someone might have cobbled together a bare bones application or approach based on Apple Remote Events, Terminal commands, etc. JR's sugggestion below is a step in this direction. > > > If you just want to display a message on the screen of another Mac on > your network, try this: Yes, display a message on the screen of another Mac and beep to attract attention. > > 1. Open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal. I'm not well-versed with Terminal but I'm game to learn enough to solve the problem. > 2. Connect to the remote Mac with SSH. Do I do this with a Terminal command - if so which one? Also, is this a one way connection or can messages be sent in both directions between the two Macs with this connection? > 3. Issue a command similar to this: > > osascript -e 'tell app "System Events" to display dialog "This is a > test."' To cause a beep can I simply embed an ASCII "bell" character in the text of the displayed message? Or do I have to add a "display alert" command somewhere? > > Examine the "Standard Additions" Applescript dictionary in Script Editor > (File > Open Dictionary) for details about the "display dialog" and > "display alert" commands. > I will check this out. My wife will need to do this as well so I need to hide all the ugliness of the details from her. I envision her pressing a key or launching an app or script and then supplying the text to be sent. I'd like her to be able to do this without explicitly launching Terminal. This is why I was looking for an app. Can all this be wrapped up in an Applescript? If so, could someone give a few hints about invoking a Terminal command from within the script? Also would like any Terminal window to be hidden or at least closed by the script after the mesage is sent. Possible? TIA Eric
From: Warren Oates on 28 Feb 2010 08:05
In article <jollyroger-BDF7CD.14554727022010(a)news.individual.net>, Jolly Roger <jollyroger(a)pobox.com> wrote: > If you just want to display a message on the screen of another Mac on > your network, try this: > > 1. Open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal. > 2. Connect to the remote Mac with SSH. > 3. Issue a command similar to this: > > osascript -e 'tell app "System Events" to display dialog "This is a > test."' Good gawd. man wall man write man talk (man mesg) -- Very old woody beets will never cook tender. -- Fannie Farmer |