Latest News CR 3.5 Release July 12, 2007 ConferenceRoom 3.5 has very few new chat server features but does introduce the new Flash client interface. We think our clients will be pleased with the speed and stability of this new client. CR 3.0 Release May 26, 2006 History... 10 years, it seems like such a long time but that is how old ConferenceRoom is. When CR was first released in August of 1996 it was the first written from scratch IRC compliant commercial chat server on the market, it was also the very first chat server on the windows platform. The only other commercial chat product was Global Stage (long since gone) and shortly after our release iChat was released. The first java client to connect to an IRC server was written by Dimension X in San Francisco (also long since gone), their chat client connected to one of the 2.8.21 ircd versions - ConferenceRoom was released maybe a month later. Why is all of this important? When a customer chooses a technology base that they rely on it's very nice to know that the company and the product have withstood the test of time. The product has changed but our drive toward innovation is what keeps ConferenceRoom one of the most popular chat products on the Internet. Queue - Channel queuing system 'Take-a-Ticket' now has estimated wait times. Virtual Hosting - Chat and Web Server Virtual hosting with tree based channel topography. DNSBL - Domain Name Service Black List TV Style Channel Ratings Personal Logs Enhanced server language support Java Client themes switch on the fly and have language options. Integrated Server Commands. And more...

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ConferenceRoom 3.0 brings many significant technical enhancements. This not only improves performance on all platforms in all configurations but also makes possible sophisticated features that would slow competing products to a crawl.

Support for Ultrasparc processors running Solaris 10 has been added in this release. This includes the SunFire T1000 and T2000 servers. ConferenceRoom runs extremely well on these platforms, and their advanced management features make them particularly worth consideration in unattended server rooms or where low power consumption and high reliability are important.

Support for Apple's OSX (Darwin) operating system on Pentium-class processors has been added as well. Now you will not need to use emulation to run ConferenceRoom on these platforms.

Significant improvements were made in the x86-specific core code. These improvements help Win32, Linux, FreeBSD, and Apple computers with Pentium processors. Support for hyper-threading has been improved. On Linux, support for the 'epoll' I/O mechanism has been added and synchronization primitives have been redesigned using futexes, significantly reducing the number of system calls on fast paths. On Win32, our locking synchronization primitives were redesigned to reduce register clobbers, a suprisingly significant micro optimization.

ConferenceRoom's best in class memory manager has been improved further. The memory manager in 3.0 increases the independence of its memory pools so that threads have a greater ability to access pools concurrently. A new locking design has reduced the amount of time threads hold memory-manager locks and a new system of lookaside pools allow threads to access memory from alternate pools when primary pools are in use. An asynchronous memory defragmenter ensures performance does not decrease over time for long-running servers without cluttering the fast paths in the allocator.

ConferenceRoom 3.0 now supports personal logging. This feature allows a user to have a log of his session made on the server. The log will be encrypted, signed, and mailed to the user, providing cryptographic proof of what transpired in his session. Excerpts are independently signed, sequenced, and timestamped. If you want to, you can now prove exactly what happened in your chat session.

ConferenceRoom 3.0 also includes a 'virtual server' functionality. You can change the channel view based on the host and port used to access your server. You can also create server operators or operators whose authority is restricted to a specific zone. The web server also supports virtual hosting now.

A new URL filtering scheme allows chat messages to be filtered for URLs that are spamvertized. Improved denial-of-service attack resistance and proxy checking is included as well.

A major change in ConferenceRoom 3.0 is the switch to a security model based on public key encryption. Instead of server keys, ConferenceRoom now uses server certificates which are signed by a master key. The certificate allows a server to cryptographically prove that it owns its serial number. This not only has security benefits but convenience benefits as well. For example, instead of having to carefully set matching passwords on both ends to establish a server-server link, now all you need to do is configure each end with the other end's serial number. All server-to-server traffic is encrypted and authenticated.

Networks can install their master network credentials on hubs and have signed authorization broadcast to leaves periodically. Disconnected leaves have their authorization to represent the network expire automatically. Just install your network certificate on your hub(s) and all connected servers will be identified as members of your network automatically.

Contact WebMaster for a trial certificate to allow you to test out these advanced features for yourself.