Is there any free live support solution that would ease implementation of a basic online help-desk?

Question

I'm looking for a free or inexpensive solution to give live online support to web visitors. I would like something based on Jabber/XMPP because it's an open protocol.

This should work like this:

• The company would use 2-3 jabber accounts like Google Talk for providing support
• Online chat form that would connect to one of currently online jabber accounts
• Optionally give one proxy jabber account to the customers. This proxy would contact any of the currently online company accounts. Using this customers will see only one chat contact but they will speak with different people based on who is online at the moment.

Currently I found only some expensive solutions like J-livesupport, Akeni.

I would really appreciate if you will recommend something you successfully implemented.

Answer 1

Check out http://www.igniterealtime.org/. They have some really nice chat implementations you could use. A large number (if not all) of their products are open source!

One of their products is a web based IM client, and this is the description from thei web:

SparkWeb is an Open Source, web-based IM client optimized for businesses and organizations. It features built-in support for group chat and strong security. It also offers a great end-user experience with features like group chat room bookmarks, and tabbed conversations.

Answer 2

It look that chatblox.com could be what you are looking for. They have a hosted service based on a GPL open-source solution wrote in Python that is available for free.

Answer 3

We use http://jaconda.im for Imagevue support deck, but it's only for XMPP/Jabber.

Answer 4

Hi, I'd like to recommend a free live chat software to you. You can easily deploy it on your website by pasting several lines of code and create as many support accounts as you wish. Nothing need to be installed. Your clients can request a chat with you simply by clicking on a chat button on your site. They even don't need an account!