Well, we've had nearly 30 in the Mudchat, and it ran without any real problems - but that was when there was no net slowdown, as there is at the moment.

"One major advantage of any (Java or otherwise) dedicated chat is that you only need to send out the text and you are not tying up your web server to do this as usually, it would be a separate server."

As programmer, I can assure you that to do the same task, you still have to do the same basic functions, no matter what programming language, or OS you use. Of course if you are using assembly, it will faster even than Java...

I found the Java chat apps - have tried several - a pain, and no more efficient or faster than Mudchat on a good day. The Java app itself is a large load on the system, and runs in the browser anyway.

Robin