Communication software is used to provide remote access to systems and exchange files and messages in text, audio and/or video formats between different computers or users. This includes

terminal emulator A terminal emulator, or terminal application, is a computer program that emulates a video terminal within some other display architecture. Though typically synonymous with a shell or text terminal, the term ''terminal'' covers all remote term ...

file transfer File transfer is the transmission of a computer file through a communication channel from one computer system to another. Typically, file transfer is mediated by a communications protocol. In the history of computing, numerous file transfer protoc ...

programs, chat and instant messaging programs, as well as similar functionality integrated within MUDs. The term is also applied to software operating a

bulletin board system A bulletin board system (BBS), also called a computer bulletin board service (CBBS), is a computer server running list of BBS software, software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user perfor ...

, but seldom to that operating a

computer network A computer network is a collection of communicating computers and other devices, such as printers and smart phones. In order to communicate, the computers and devices must be connected by wired media like copper cables, optical fibers, or b ...

or Stored Program Control exchange.

History

E-mail was introduced in the early 1960's as a way for multiple users of a

time-sharing In computing, time-sharing is the Concurrency (computer science), concurrent sharing of a computing resource among many tasks or users by giving each Process (computing), task or User (computing), user a small slice of CPU time, processing time. ...

mainframe computer A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise ...

to communicate. Basic text chat functionality has existed on

multi-user Multi-user software is computer software that allows access by multiple users of a computer. Time-sharing systems are multi-user systems. Most batch processing systems for mainframe computers may also be considered "multi-user", to avoid leavi ...

computer systems and

s since the early 1970s. In the 1980s, a

was a piece of software necessary to log into mainframes and thus access e-mail. Prior to the rise of the Internet, computer files were exchanged over dialup lines, requiring ways to send binary files over communication systems that were primarily intended for

plain text In computing, plain text is a loose term for data (e.g. file contents) that represent only characters of readable material but not its graphical representation nor other objects ( floating-point numbers, images, etc.). It may also include a lim ...

; programs implementing special transfer modes were implemented using various de facto standards, most notably Kermit.

Chat

In 1985 the first decentralized chat system was created called Bitnet Relay, whereas Minitel probably provided the largest chat system at the same time. In August 1988 the

Internet Relay Chat IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is a text-based chat system for instant messaging. IRC is designed for Many-to-many, group communication in discussion forums, called ''#Channels, channels'', but also allows one-on-one communication via instant mess ...

followed. CU-SeeMe was the first chat system to be equipped with a video camera. Instant messaging featuring a ''buddy list'' and the notion of online presence was introduced by ICQ in 1996. In the days of the Internet boom, web chats were very popular, too. Chatting is a real-time conversation or message exchange that takes place in public or in private groupings called chat rooms. Some chatrooms have moderators who will trace and block offensive comments and other kinds of abuse. Based on visual representation chats are divided into text based chat room just as were IRC and Bitnet Relay Chat, 2D – supporting graphic smilies; and 3D the conversation in which takes place in 2D graphic surrounding.

References

{{Computer-mediated communication Internet New media Multimedia