Hi guys,

Anybody knows how to work with the currently opened IM chat sessions (both msn and yahoo)? I need to develop a windows application, most probably in C# or VC, in which the messages coming in and out from the IM sessions need to be grabbed and recorded. This is required to be done in the backend. Please help me if anybody has worked on such or similar thing before.

Reference to any article or site which helps in this connection will also be appreciated.

Thankyou,




BaburMan

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BaburMan

It is not really specific as to what you want. Are you trying to write an Instant Message client or are you trying to write an applcation that will run on a machine and just montior IM activity?

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Doesn't Office Live Communications Server do something like this?

/- Sam Judson : Wrox Technical Editor -/

I have to develop application that will control internet activities on the client machines. This is one of the requirements that it will allow/block IM (msn and yahoo) to run and montior IM activities (like when a chat session has started and ended and with which contacts etc.) and will record the chat from the chat sessions? Obviously i do not need to develop my own Instant Message app.

BaburMan

Hmm. Don't know that I would write an app for this. Personally I would setup a rule in my firewall and white list/black list internal IPs to use the ports required by MSN or Yahoo. (I am not sure about Yahoo and MSN but, last I knew, you could configure AIM to operate on different ports)

Secondly why couldn't you just use some sort of Traffic analyzer to capture the IM traffic moving over your network?

Thirdly, I believe what Sam said is ture and that that server software should provide you with the abilities that you are looking for.

Don't try and recreate the wheel if you don't have to! ;]

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Well that's not a trivial project. I would have thought using an internet proxy/firewall such as Windows ISA Server would be easier with access to various services blocked (using ports or the like) and traffic recorded. If you must do it as a client-side application then perhaps a proxy on the client's machine with use enforced via group policy. I think this a substantial development project.

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Joe (Microsoft MVP - XML)

In fact i must tell asap about if we are able to do this. So there's not much time in exploring Office Live Communications Server in much details at the moment. We are looking for any sdk or interfacing model available from OLCS or messenger application or a set of APIs so that we may be able to tell it is possible.

thankyou again.

BaburMan

If you want to know that, then you need to be looking into every IM application out there - not asking questions on a C# forum.

There are applications that will do what you want to do, just search google for "log IM traffic" will reveal a few, so the answer is obviously that it can be done, but I suspect that most are server based, not client based and involve firewall/proxy changes.

/- Sam Judson : Wrox Technical Editor -/

This is an effort vs. return secnario. Is it possible that you might be able to write a client application that will do what you want, ya sure. Is it probably going to take you 3 - 6 mos? At least.

Is it going to take a network admin about an hour or so to setup a simple access list? Yes. Far and away your best bet here is to, as Joe, Sam and myself have suggested, setup some rules in your firewall or explore a canned application.

hth.

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Well just say 'yes' then. Virtually any IT request is do-able, it's just a question of money and resources. The US government wanted to know where everyone of their soldiers were at anytime. They ended launching a dozen satellites and creating the GPS system.

Do they expect you to build the system as quickly as well?

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Joe (Microsoft MVP - XML)