MeshChat is a peer-to-peer encrypted LAN messenger with file transfer, automatic peer discovery, and a simple GUI. It uses mDNS (Zeroconf) for service discovery, TLS (self-signed certificates) for secure communication, and supports both broadcast and direct messages.
✨ Features
🔒 Encrypted Communication using SSL/TLS with self-signed certificates.
🌐 Peer Discovery via mDNS (Zeroconf) – automatically finds other MeshChat users on the network.
💬 Chat Messaging
Broadcast messages to all peers
Direct messages to selected peers
📂 File Transfer
Send files to connected peers
Files are saved in a received_files/ folder with timestamped filenames
🗂️ Chat History Logging stored in chat_history.log
💻 Cross-platform GUI built with Tkinter
⚡ Resilient Connections with retries, heartbeats, and peer status updates
📦 Requirements
Install dependencies with:
pip install cryptography zeroconf
(Tkinter is included with most Python distributions.)
🚀 Usage
Run MeshChat with:
python meshchatv5.py
On first run, you’ll be prompted to set up a username, port, and timeout.
Your config will be saved in config.json.
Known peers are stored in peers.json.
📁 Project Structure meshchatv5.py # Main program config.json # Saved user configuration peers.json # Known peers list meshchat.log # Application logs chat_history.log # Chat message & file transfer history received_files/ # Folder for received files server.crt / .key # Self-signed TLS certificate and key
MeshChat is designed for local network communication.
Since it uses self-signed certificates, connections are trusted without validation.
Use only in trusted LAN environments.
🛠️ Future Improvements
Multi-language support
Encrypted chat history
Improved file transfer progress bar
Mobile app integration