> Do you guys know which of the Instant messengers can be limited to 
> only LAN (besides Trillian)?

We use Jabber as the IM server running on Solaris and Exodus as
the client running on Windows.  I'm sure Linux or any other similar
platform could be used for the server.  Both Jabber and Exodus are
opensource projects (see www.jabber.org).

There are public Jabber servers and I don't know if you could prevent
a clever employee from connecting to one.  Probably blocking the port
used at your firewall would stop all but the most determined employee
(see below).

> How can you manage/control Instant messaging to professional/work 
> related use to prevent abusing it by having employees sending jokes
> to each other all day?

I'd say by establishing a policy that says Instant Messaging is to be
used for professional/work related use only.  I'm sure you already have
a similar policy for email and a similar policy for browsing.

Enforcement of all three policies is the hard part. If you have employees
who are spending too much time sending jokes, trying to work around 
company firewalls, etc. then you you have a bigger problem
than just installing and locking down an internal use only IM system.

The reason we installed a company private IM system was to allow company 
confidential conversations.  With a public server, you don't know who might
be listening or logging all of your IM conversations.  We use SSL to allow
our off site employees secure access to our IM server.

Regards,

Brad Morgan
IT Manager
Horizon Interactive Inc.




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