I wrote this quite some time ago, with the Whidbey Beta, I believe. I was gonna make it nice, but never got around to it, but somehow it came up today and I remembered it. So, I decided to post the code and the link.

Basically, it's an HTML Chat client using a ASP.NET in-process server. It's very, very lightweight -- it wouldn't work for tons of users (it uses a ReaderWriter lock!). I use web services to poll for new messages (or translate received messages, although that seems broken right now).

Now, since it relies on the soap client, it doesn't work on all browers. A easy way around this is to replace the web services with IFRAMEs. Also, if you wanted to scale this solution up (say, you're building a chat client for MSDN :)), I believe you should leave the HTTP connection that receives messages open for say, 60 seconds (or more). This reduces the hit of polling drastically, and works quite well (I tested it in a few browsers). The server only has to authenticate the client ONCE, and then it can just pump new content down the pipe as it seems fit. At any rate, it's a simple chat system that could give someone a head start if they lack a head.

Anyways, get the code (ASP.NET 2 required): SimpleChat.zip (25.33 KB) It's running here: http://www.atrevido.net/SimpleChat/

If there's enough interest, and if a 19th level wizard visits me and gives me a Wand of Time Stop, perhaps I'll write a production level version of this (that DOESN'T use SOAP).