Quote Originally Posted by alikapadia
Hi,

Im developing an avatar based chat system in an isometric style world. Now to have an end to end communication, Flash Media Server is just too expensive. The two other alternatives are Smartfox Server by gtoAndPlay() and Electroserver by Electrotank. The thing is I am beginning to like smartfox because of the excellent documentation and the highly responsive/supportive forum they have, however its new, Electro Server has been around from long. Now I dont know which one will turn out to be better for me, anyone got any idea, maybe a feature comparison or any good/bad experience with any of these servers?

Best Regards
Ali Kapadia
Couldn' resist to add my reply too

alikapadia: SmartFoxServer is definately younger than the other available socket servers. However is not as young as it may seem. The development started back in summer 2003 and we spent almost an entire year stress testing its engine on all kind of different hardwares and operating systems.
We obviously wanted to make sure that the first release (March 2005) was reliable at least as the other available alternatives. (stress tests results are publicly available in our website)

Now we're in version 1.3 and moving towards version 1.4 which will give the server side framework extreme flexibility and advanced security options. Together we'll add more "real-life" examples of usage with source code.

Quote Originally Posted by jobemjobem
Yes definately! Well, depending on when I break ground on it the book may be Flash 9. That's the publishers call really. But my point is that the book is going to be revised
Great! Nice to hear that. Can't wait to see what flash game gurus will do with the next player (or "virtual machine", to be correct)

Lapo