A new real-time online collaboration service lets you set up password-protected web-based chat rooms with up to 60 participants and instantly share documents, pictures and other types of files.

Such web-based chat environments are called Campfires, as they allow easy and comfortable interaction of distant participants anytime they need to.

Every Campfire site has its unique web address (in the form 'yourcompany.campfirenow.com') and once you sign up, you automatically get your own.

Campfire, as the service is called, also provides a simple way to search and browse transcripts and live image preview in a fully functional virtual environment, making easy to communicate in real-time over the web with your clients and collaborators.

You don't need to download, install, or configure anything to use Campfire: all you need is a compatible web browser and an internet connection.

Here the details:

Campfire displays a plain screen showing all the main commands at the top of the page. The default page is called "Room 1", as it represents the main chat room, whose commands are located in the right column.

By clicking on the "Settings" label, it is possible to rename the chat rooms and also to choose and set different header colors and time zone.

The sidebar on the right allows the admin to set the topic of the chat room and manage the status of the attendees and guests with few simple clicks. Moreover, it is possible to upload files and get a live preview of images.

The presenter can easily create new rooms by clicking on the "Lobby" tab, through which you can see who's in which room and when each room was last active. The "Members" tab enables the chat owner to create new chat administrators and delete members, whereas necessary.

Each conversation can be automatically saved and stored online; the owners and the official members can access the archive by clicking on the "File & Transcripts" tab, which displays an handy search engine and the list of the transcripts that members can browse by room, person and day.

Members have permanent accounts and have access to all chat rooms and transcripts. Guests, on the other hand, are only permitted in the room to which they were invited and don't have access to transcripts. If you want to have a confidential chat that isn't logged in the transcripts simply click the "Lock room" link in the "Who's here?" header and no one else will be able to enter the room until it's unlocked.

Plus and Premium level accounts include 128-bit SSL encryption to keep your chats completely secure. All chat accounts are protected by usernames and passwords and it's not possible to host Campfire on another server.

System requirements
Campfire requires Internet Explorer 6.x, Safari, or Firefox. Campfire doesn't work with Internet Explorer 5.x. Other browsers may or may not work, but only the three listed are guaranteed compatible.

Pricing
Campfire starts with a free plan that allows users to organize chat rooms with up to five attendees and it offers a 10 MB of storage, enabling access from whatever computer connected to the Internet.

Campfire offers a wide range of subscription plans, starting from a free plan to $12/month, $24/month, or $49/month depending on how many people/clients you want to chat with and how many rooms you want to create .Take a look at the complete pricing chart. You can use the free plan for as long as you want.

Capacity
You can add unlimited people to your account, but depending on your plan they may not all be able to chat simultaneously. For instance, the Plus plan allows up to 20 people to be in a chat room at one time. So you may have set up 100 accounts for people, but only 20 of them can be chatting in a room at one time.

Learn more
You can take a tour of Campfire and discover how it works by looking at the clear screenshots provided on the website.

Great uses for Campfire.

Try
Sign-up for free to Campfire.

Editor's comments
Campfire is indeed a valuable solution for groups of people who need to have a common point of presence they can join independently of software and hardware.

Alternatively to instant messengers, which are the typical tool for real-time text messaging today and are not optimized for group chats of three or more people and are software dependent, Campfire allows users to connect and share files without relying on a specific network or chat client, such as MSN, Yahoo! Messenger or Skype.

Campfire key strength lays in its extreme ease of use thanks to a clean and functional user interface that does not "frighten" non technical users. It provides a suitable platform for online interaction, as it offers some of the basic features (text chat, file sharing, images preview) which every work group needs when collaborating at distance.

A definite plus is also Campfire own documentation and introductory info which allow the novice user to rapidly learn, see and understand Campfire through a simple step-by-step guide.