🚀 Private On-Premise TCP Chat System

An ultra-lightweight, high-performance, on-premise chat solution designed for secure communication within local networks. This system ensures data privacy by keeping traffic internal to the local network.

🌟 Key Features

• Massive Scalability: Engineered to handle over 6,000 concurrent connections using optimized multithreading.
• Zero-Internet Dependency: Works entirely within your LAN, preventing external data interception.
• Dockerized Deployment: Includes a Docker configuration to make the server easily runnable everywher.
• Strict JSON Protocol: A standardized messaging format used to communicate between all architecture components.
• Interactive Endpoints: Built-in server commands for listing users, broadcasting, and server-time synchronization.

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🏗️ Architecture

The project implements a Client-Server architecture, also known as a Star Topology.

• Server: A multithreaded TCP engine that manages a client registry and routes JSON packets.
• Client: Utilizes two independent threads to handle simultaneous message sending and receiving.

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🛠️ Tech Stack

• Language: Python for rapid development and extensive library support.
• Core Libraries: socket for networking, threading for concurrency, and json for data management.
• DevOps: Docker for containerization and GitHub Actions for CI/CD.

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🚀 Quick Start

Running with Docker

1. Clone the repo:

   git clone https://github.com/gizano/multithreaded-python-chat.git
   cd multithreaded-python-chat

2. Launch the server:

   docker-compose up -d

Manual Execution

1. Start the Server:

   python server/server_main.py

2. Launch the Client:

   python client/client_main.py

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📊 Performance & Testing

Stability is our priority. We utilized AI-generated testing suites to push the server to its limits.

• Stress Test: Simulates 50 bots performing handshake and random messaging.
• Breakpoint Test: Confirmed hardware-bound stability at 6,000+ active users.

Technical Note: The "TCP Coalescing" issue was addressed using the time library to prevent packet merging during registration.

📡 Protocol Standard

All communication must adhere to the following JSON schema:

{
  "from": { "name": "...", "ip": "..." },
  "to": "...",
  "msg": "..."
}