i would like at least 2 recommendations for web-based chatroom server
software which will work on a server with the following configuration:

Server: Apache/1.3.27 (Unix)  (Red-Hat/Linux) mod_jk/1.2.0
mod_perl/1.24_01 PHP/4.2.2 FrontPage/5.0.2 mod_ssl/2.8.12
OpenSSL/0.9.6b

i don't have root access.  for each one recommended, i need to know 

1.  why it is better than others
2.  its cost
3.  what client side technology is required
4.  a pointer to where i can try a demo before installing it myself.

thanks.

You need to go java-based to have a real-time chat.
The only chat I have seen that you don't need root access is java
tcount (http://www.javaside.com/u_tcount.html). It is runned off their
server'. From the Client-side you only need the java virtual machine.
The best would probly be to have root access to your server and run an
applet from your server but this could be a fix.
You can find more java based chats on www.hotscripts.com
Best Regards,
Jeff Oneil