🖥️ Simple TCP Chat Application with UTF-8 Encryption

📌 Description

This project is a command-line chat application using TCP sockets. It enables real-time messaging between a client and a server over a network. It supports UTF-8 encrypted communication and includes hostname identification for a better chat experience.

✨ Features

✅ Simple and lightweight TCP-based chat system
✅ Supports remote messaging over a network
✅ Displays client hostname for better tracking
✅ Uses UTF-8 encoding for message transfer
✅ Multi-threaded server for handling multiple clients
✅ Color-coded output for better readability 🎨

📦 Requirements

• Python 3.x
• socket, threading, argparse (Built-in Python modules)
• colorama and pyfiglet (Install using pip if not available)

🚀 Installation & Usage

1️⃣ Start the Server

Run the following command on the machine acting as the server:

python server.py <host_ip> <port>

Example:

python server.py 127.0.0.1 8080

🔹 Replace <host_ip> with your local or public IP address.
🔹 Replace <port> with an available port (e.g., 8080).

2️⃣ Start the Client

Run the following command on another machine (or the same device) acting as the client:

python client.py <server_ip> <port>

Example:

python client.py 127.0.0.1 8080

🔹 <server_ip> should match the server's IP.
🔹 <port> should match the server’s listening port.

3️⃣ Sending & Receiving Messages

✅ Type a message and press Enter to send it.
✅ Messages from the other side will appear in the terminal.
✅ To exit, type:

exit

🛠️ Troubleshooting

• If running both server & client on the same device, use 127.0.0.1 (localhost) as the IP.
• To allow external devices to connect, use your actual network IP (ipconfig on Windows, ifconfig on Linux/macOS).
• Ensure the port is open in your firewall if running over a network.

⚠️ Disclaimer

This project is for educational and ethical use only. Unauthorized use of this script on systems without permission is illegal.

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🔹 Author: ARUVASAGA CHITHAN
📌 GitHub: AruvasagaChithan