David,
responding to the issues from your last post....
1) My fix for auto-scrolling to display the latest messages is to add a couple lines to the source files:
a) At the end of the receiveMessage method in the adChatApplet.java file, add the following (at line 372 in the original source):
// Auto-scroll to display the latest message
int height = text_area.getViewportSize().height;
text_area.setScrollPosition (0,height);
b) At the end of the receiveMessage method in the adPrivateChatFrame.java file, add the same lines (at line 120 in the original source).
c) Recompile (let me know if you need the details).
c) I also had to close existing sessions to get my browser to reload the recompiled applet.
2) I'm not too familiar with character set issues, so maybe someone else can help. However, I know that in Java you have to use the appropriate data types (or Classes) to handle international characters. I'm guessing that it wouldn't be too difficult to make the necessary changes. I'm pretty much of a Java newbie, but let me know if you have trouble figuring it out and I'll try to take a closer look.
3) Are you getting the connections lingering on your chat server port? It would help to know if anyone else is getting these stale connections, so I know whether to look at the OS or the chat server code. Interesting that you should point to that link. I've secured and optimized my machines by following those instructions to the letter (and I've been extremely happy with the resulting configuration). So I've already implemented the recommended network optimizations.
