Update

How to update BeeBEEP to the new version with compressed package (zip or similar).

BeeBEEP is a portable application. The installation package of each new version contains only the application files. To update just unzip the files directly in the BeeBEEP folder by overwriting the old versions.
The files with preferences and messages will not be affected by the process. In fact they are saved in separate files called beebeep.ini and beebeep.dat which will not be overwritten during the update.

Update a Linux version with the Debian package

• Download the 64-bit package for Debian and debian-like systems (Ubuntu, Mint, ZorinOS, ...).
• Install the package:
  # sudo dpkg -i beebeep_5.8.2-1_amd64.deb
• If you receive an error due to unmet dependencies, run the command:
  # sudo apt install -f

Update a Linux version installed with snap (Ubuntu)

• Locate the path where the BeeBEEP executable is installed:
  # locate beebeep
  (for example /usr/bin/beebeep)
• Rename the executable of the old version:
  # sudo mv /usr/bin/beebeep /usr/bin/beebeep.old
• Follow the instructions to install BeeBEEP on Linux.
• Create a link to the executable beebeep in the path of the old version:
  # sudo ln -s /usr/local/share/beebeep-5.6.4-qt4-amd64/beebeep /usr/bin/beebeep

Configuration

How to best configure BeeBEEP to find other users in your network.

BeeBEEP is an application characterized above all by its simplicity of use. In most cases you don't have to configure anything at all: BeeBEEP will do it for you automatically adapting to your subnet.
So before manually intervening, verify that there is no network problem because of your firewall (or the firewall of the users you want to connect to) or because of your router that blocks UDP traffic on port 36475.

Here is a list of the default ports used by BeeBEEP:

• 36475 (protocol UDP): port used to search and be found by other users in the network.
• 6475 (protocol TCP): main port used by the BeeBEEP protocol for system communications and to send and receive messages.
• 6476 (protocol TCP): port used for file transfer.

How does BeeBEEP find other users on the network?

BeeBEEP uses different methods to find other users on the network.

• Broadcast address: a broadcast address is a network address at which all devices connected to a multiple-access communications network are enabled to receive datagrams. A message sent to a broadcast address may be received by all network-attached hosts.
  BeeBEEP BeeBEEP uses the broadcast addresses provided by your network interfaces and its default port 36475 to send and receive datagrams.
• Multicast address: a multicast address is a logical identifier for a group of hosts in a computer network that are available to process datagrams or frames intended to be multicast for a designated network service.
  BeeBEEP uses its default multicast address 239.255.64.75 and port 36475 to send and receive datagrams.
  If your router is correctly configured to forward traffic to the multicast address and port 36475, BeeBEEP will also be able to find those users not present in your subnet.
• Direct connection: this option is used when a user is manually added by specifying his IP address and the connection port.
  It is practically the resource to use when it is not possible to act on the network parameters specified above.

A network properly configured taking these parameters into account will allow the correct operations of BeeBEEP without manual configurations.

But as we all know and have experienced in our work, we are not always in a position to change things at will. For this reason I have included many configuration options in BeeBEEP capable of satisfying every type of network requirement.

Error in user recognition: you cannot see all the users in your network

Check the activity page in the BeeBEEP main window.

Connection closed to user X because it uses your account name: Y.
Connection closed to user X because it uses same account name of the already connected user Y: Z.

This error occurs when the option Settings - Users - Recognize users... is set to by account name or by account name and domain name and BeeBEEP is contacted by another on the network using the same name.
The connection is blocked and the user is shown in the list as not connected.

Connection closed to user X because it uses your nickname: Y.
Connection closed to user X because it uses your hash code.
Connection closed to user X because it uses same nickname of the already connected user Y: Z.
Connection closed to user X because it uses same hash code of the already connected user Y: Z.

This error occurs when the option Settings - Users - Recognize users... is set to by nickname and BeeBEEP is contacted by another on the network using the same nickname.
The connection is blocked and the user is shown in the list as not connected.

Messages very similar to these can also be found in the BeeBEEP log.

Example #1: my office configuration

• Create the beehosts.ini file to configure the network.
• Create of the beebeep.rc file for common options.
• Install BeeBEEP on every computer in the office.

The offices of my division are on two floors and on two different subnets:
10.184.15.0/24 and 10.184.16.0/24 both with a subnet mask 255.255.255.0.

The best way would be to configure the network routers to forward the multicasting traffic to the 239.255.64.75 address and the 36475 port.
In this way no manual configuration of BeeBEEP would be needed.
Unfortunately, this solution is not feasible due to a series of bureaucratic explanations that have little to do with information technology.

So to facilitate the configuration of BeeBEEP I decided to create the beehosts.ini configuration file.
It is a simple text file where I wrote the addresses on which BeeBEEP will broadcast to search users.

File content: beehosts.ini

Since in our office we use Active Directory to authenticate and enter computers, I decided that BeeBEEP should recognize users by using this feature.
I created the file beebeep.rc, another text file where you can enter the configuration options common to all the BeeBEEPs on the network.
I started from the example file downloadable from here.
I modified it.

File content: beebeep.rc

[IMPORTANT] If the value of an option in the beebeep.rc file is a string containing a period, comma or other type of punctuation, you must enclose the string in two quotation marks ".
For example:

The guide with an explanation of all the options can be found here.
I chose to use the "UserRecognitionMethod=2" option instead of "UserRecognitionMethod=1" because in our office we have only one domain for users and therefore it will never be possible to have equal accounts on different domains.
I forced the "SaveDataInUserApplicationFolder=true" option because I don't want users belonging to the "administrators" group to put their options in the BeeBEEP folder (it's always good to remember that BeeBEEP was born as a portable application and will always try to write its data in the folder where it runs).

I installed BeeBEEP on each computer and in the installation folder I inserted the file beebeep.rc and beehosts.ini.

Example #2: Windows Terminal Server

How to configure BeeBEEP to make it work with multiple user connections to a remote desktop server.

• Create the beebeep.rc file for common options.
• Install BeeBEEP.

File content: beebeep.rc

You need to enable the AllowMultipleInstances=true option if multiple instances of BeeBEEP will be launched on the server with the same account (in this case you can consider also to add AddNicknameToDataFolder=true to separate the users' settings).
Furthermore, since all users will use a single IP address, it is necessary to disable the PreventMultipleConnectionsFromSingleHostAddress option also in all BeeBEEP clients that connect from other computers to the server.

Remember that BeeBEEP must always know whether to command the nickname or the system account. If you prefer to prioritize nicknames the value of the UserRecognitionMethod option must be 3 instead of 2.

You can install BeeBEEP and in the installation folder (default resource folder) you have to insert the file beebeep.rc.

For more information about resource folder and beebeep.rc file please read the FAQ.

Menu "Main"

This is the main BeeBEEP menu and contains some useful and important elements.

• Connect / Disconnect: you can connect to or disconnect from BeeBEEP network.
• Search users: you can broadcast or multicast on your network to discover other BeeBEEP users. Normally you will never need to do it because BeeBEEP does it automatically for you.
• Edit your profile: change all the information, colors and photos of your profile.
• Open your resource folder: it is usually the folder where BeeBEEP is installed. It can contain the configuration file "beebeep.rc".
  If the resource folder and the data folder are the same, only the data one will be displayed in the menu.
• Open your data folder: contains BeeBEEP data such as the "beebeep.ini" preferences file, the "beebeep.dat" file where conversations are stored and the "beebeep.off" file where unsent messages are saved.
• Open your download folder: the folder where the files downloaded with BeeBEEP will be saved.
• Test your network: a very useful tool to check that other network users do not have the communication ports blocked (for example from the firewall).
• Show the BeeBEEP log: in the log you can find useful information to understand what is not working in your BeeBEEP installation.
• Plugins: here you can manage all installed BeeBEEP plugins.
• Quit: close and exit BeeBEEP.

Spell checking

How to enable spell checking in BeeBEEP chats.

Starting with version 3.0.3, you can enable spell checking on BeeBEEP.
It is necessary to have a dictionary compatible with the Hunspell library (for example those distributed with LibreOffice).
You can follow these steps to install a dictionary in BeeBEEP:

• Search your language dictionary and download it from LibreOffice extension website.
  For example you can click here to see English dictionary.
• Unzip the file.oxt in your preferred folder (yes the extension is oxt, but it is simply a zip package).
• Open BeeBEEP and click on menu Settings - Chat - Select dictionary...
• Search the file.dic in the .oxt unzipped folder and select it (Hunspell needs file.dic and file.aff in the same folder).

Please note that BeeBEEP enables the automatic correction option as default. If you also want to enable the suggestions, you must activate the dictionary icon next to the spell-checking icon in the chat window.