I have four laptop computers in my home network all of which have WiFI, and three have bluetooth. I am wondering if there is software to send messages over this network similar to sending text messages on your phone.

Thanks in advance for any help / guidance.

IOE

I am wondering if there is software to send messages over this network similar to sending text messages on your phone.

There is email and 3rd party instant messengers such as AOL Instant Messenger (http://dashboard.aim.com/aim) or ICQ (http://www.icq.com/). There is also a plethora of instant messaging products designed for LAN only use that do not require an outside server or service. Google "LAN instant messaging" (http://www.google.com/search?q=LAN+instant+messaging) or "Free LAN instant messaging" (http://www.google.com/search?q=free+LAN+instant+messaging).

Windows also natively includes a messenger service that when enabled (it is by default on all but recent Windows versions) allows messages to be sent from a command prompt via the NET SEND command. However, having the messenger service enabled without a firewall or router between the computers and the Internet could lead to nuisance SPAM messages, although SPAM would probably be the least of possible worries with such a configuration. See Wikipedia: Messenger service (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messenger_service) and University of Virginia: How to Disable Windows Messenger Service (http://itc.virginia.edu/helpdesk/softwaredocs/messagepopup/).

Addendum to Scleros's post: a simple gotcha is that without your own IM server, each of your machines will require Internet access to use the IM software.

In reading your post, it sounds like you were wanting to host the text messaging yourself? It would be easier with Sclero's suggestion.