The FChat is one of the famous in past peer-to-peer (p2p) chat programs for local networks. Original FChat had a support of IRC protocol and itself FChat protocol which is lightweight and based on UDP datagrams. This easily allowed to have a chat with more than 500 peoples in the LAN network on my ISP and without any dedicated server! While the FChat is not developed anymore and the last version was released in 2004 it still rocks and can be customized in any aspect.

But it can't work quite stable in Linux so I created this plugin for the Pidgin:

In fact this is a plugin for libpurple i.e. a core library for several messengers: Pidgin, Finch, Adium, Instantbird and Telepathy with haze.

• No needs for any dedicated server: just run it and start a conversation. Nobody can't ban you, nobody can't read your messages.
• One Main Chat Room.
• Private messages.
• You can send a beep signal to urgently ask for attention.
• There is no any roaster with contacts but you can ask a buddy to give its own contact list.
• Message Board - you can pin a message for everyone like "I'm selling notebook".
• Rich user info
• Custom statuses are partially supported.

Currently, it's supported only Linux and tested on Ubuntu Mate. Since this is a plugin then you need to install IM client. For example to install Pidgin:

sudo apt install pidgin

The plugin can be installed in Ubuntu via PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:stokito/pidgin-fchat
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install pidgin-fchat

For other distros you can try to install from sources:

git clone https://github.com/stokito/pidgin-fchat.git
cd pidgin-fchat
sudo apt install libpurple-dev
make
sudo make install

• Open Pidgin, main menu Accounts / Add.
• Select protocol: FChat
• Username: 0.0.0.0
• Local Alias: Your Name - it will be shown to your contacts.

FChat is p2p chat program for local networks based on UDP protocol. Your IP will be used as Username. If you have several network interfaces you can use different IP for them. But most probably you just want use FChat for all networks so enter IP 0.0.0.0.

This plugin uses UTF-8 encoding but if you are going to talk with original FChat users then you also have to select an encoding of your country. For example, for Russian/Ukrainian users you have to use the charset CP1251. To configure encoding Account settings and Advanced tab.

After login FChat will send a broadcast message to connect to all users in LAN. But sometimes this may not work. If so you can manually add a buddy by its IP address: in the main menu click on Buddies then Add buddy...:

• Buddy's username - input here IP address of the buddy.
• Alias - input here a name or nickname of the buddy.

The FChat naturally supports a chat room for all users but in the Pidgin you have to "join" it yourself. To do that in the main menu click Buddies then Join a Chat... and Chat Room will be Main so just press Join.

In case of any problems or propositions please leave a ticket on issues but this plugin is not widely used so the ticket may be never fixed :(

Hope you'll enjoy it :) Happy chatting!