Online Guide to Using

What is WinMesa?

WinMesa is a small tray utility for sending/receiving messages over a LAN (Local Area Network) or the Internet, using the TCP/IP protocol. WinMesa has been tested to work fine with Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows 2000 (NT 5.0) and Windows XP (NT 5.1). When running a non-NT Windows however, you will not have the ability to send (or receive) Windows NT Messenger Service messages (as this is a built-in functionality in NT-based OS) and is not supported in Win98. WinMesa now also works in Windows 95 - it has been tested and appears to work just fine. It does not even require WinSock v2. (this goes for WinMesa beta 6+, as some of the earlier versions did not work in Win95 even with WinSock 2)

It now also uses XP-style controls (beta 6+), which makes it look cooler.

WinMesa has *NOT* been tested for Windows NT 4 and below. It may or may not work on these.

How do I use WinMesa?

WinMesa uses a tray icon for user interface. When you run WinMesa.exe a small blue WinMesa tray icon will appear, usually next to the clock, in the taskbar at the bottom right corner of the screen. When right-clicked this icon will bring up a menu:

As you can see in the picture to the left, the "NTMS Client" option is disabled, because this picture was taken in Windows 98.

However, the Mesa Client is available, since it uses its own unique messaging system and does not depend on any special OS features. In order to receive Mesa Messages, the destination computer must have WinMesa running.

How do I send NTMS (NT Messenger Service) Messages?

If you are running an NT-based OS such as Windows 2000, XP, etc. you will have the ability to send NTMS messages from WinMesa. The receiving of NTMS messages is not part of WinMesa, but a Windows NT Service, so the destination computer will be able to receive such messages even without WinMesa.

** NTMS Messages can neither be SENT nor RECEIVED in any non-NT OS, with or without WinMesa **

To send an NTMS message using WinMesa, click the "Create NTMS Client" item in the tray menu. This will bring up a dialog box. There are only two fields that need to be filled in: The message, of course, and the "Server" field. The "Server" field will contain the network name of YOUR COMPUTER by default, but since you probably won't want to message yourself, fill in the name of the destination computer instead. If sending messages over the Internet, you must enter the destination computer's IP address instead of network name. You will notice a field called "Message Name" which is by default blank. Do *NOT* type anything in it. If you do, the destination computer will not receive the message.

How do I send Mesa Messages?

Click the "Create WinMesa Client" item in the traymenu. A dialog box similar to the NTMS Client will appear, asking you to type in the message and destination computer. As with the NTMS, you can type the computer's name or IP address in the "Server" field, and over the Internet you *MUST* use the IP address.

How do I get the IP address?

On a LAN, you can get a computer's IP by bringing up an MS-DOS console window ("command.com" in Windows 9x, and "cmd" in Win2000/XP) and type "ping" followed by a space and then the name of the destination computer. If there are any spaces in the computer name, you must place the entire name inside quotation marks, for example: ping "the computer". Note that you can also use this on your own computer name to get your own network IP. ** This is the NETWORK IP, and can *NOT* be used over the Internet! **

On the internet, you can easily get someone's IP by using the "/dns <nick>" command in mIRC. This will cause mIRC to resolve that person's IP. You can find your own IP by clicking Run in the start-menu and typing "winipcfg". Note that the IP address may change every time you log on to the Internet, depending on your ISP (Internet Service Provider) and connection type.