Anyone know an EASY to use LAN Chatting program?

M

mikebrown

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Dec 19, 2005
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Basically, just need it for me and my brother. Just so we can chat (we have logitec headsets) while were playing LAN games like C&C Generals Zero Hour, Need for Speed Most Wanted, Quake and other FPS's, although the games are probably irrelevant :p

Weve tried Teamspeak2 but were not sure how to get it to work? Anyhow, any help is appreciated, thanks!
 
To put it bluntly, if you can't get TS to work you may want to reevaluate your goals. Its straightforward and one of the simplest progams to setup and use for voice.

The only popular alternativs to TS I can think of are Ventrillo and Xfire.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
I've done the RogerWilco, Teamspeak, and Ventrillo. Used Teamspeak the most.
Click to expand...

'Cat...
The easiest for these guys would probably be going the AIM, YIM, MSN, XFire, etc ad nauseum route.
The new IM clients all have voice capabilities, even video for some.

TS2 requires that you set up a server instance on one of your networked computers - not one of the gaming machines - and it has to have a static IP.
Don't worry the setup is straight forward and pretty easy to do.... just remember to write down the passwords that it generates for 'admin' and 'superadmin'. The TS2 forums can be of great assistance here. If you want your other friends on the internet to be able to log into your TS2 server then you have to open 3 different firewall ports on your NAT Router. Otherwise, you'll just be local to your lan.

Each game machine needs to have the TS2 Client installed.
Then just point the clients to the IP of the TS2 server, like so 192.168.1.58:8767 (8767 is the default TS2 port)

Then chat away.
I run one from my home DSL connection for my CS:S gaming.
My friends just point their clients to my IP and log in.

Works great!

 
thanks for the replys guys, but about TS2, I didnt know I had to use a 3rd PC as the.. server. How do I set it up as the server as well? Im just not sure how to set it up correctly to where the other 2 PC's can connect
 
mikebrown said:
thanks for the replys guys, but about TS2, I didnt know I had to use a 3rd PC as the.. server. How do I set it up as the server as well? Im just not sure how to set it up correctly to where the other 2 PC's can connect
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www.goteamspeak.com is your friend!

They have all the FAQs and forums that will answer all of your questions.


 
I host our Ventrillo server for our guild. We switched from TeamSpeak. TS has more options, Vent is easier to configure. You don't really need a seperate box for it. It doesn't use much in the resource department.
 
I never had an issue running TS server on my gaming rig while runing client on the same machine.
 
k guys thanks alot for all the info and help, got TS running! woohoo, only bad thing is now.. it lags... I dont know why, were only on a LAN. Oh well, better than havin to yell down the hall way :p
 
mikebrown said:
k guys thanks alot for all the info and help, got TS running! woohoo, only bad thing is now.. it lags... I dont know why, were only on a LAN. Oh well, better than havin to yell down the hall way :p
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Use a lower quality codec in the channel. That should help.
 
still having lag issues, as the codec changing did not work... :-/ not sure what to do about the lag still, would Ventillo or XFire solve this problem?
 
[I'm letting my brother on my account this one time to post this message.]​

Hello there!

My name is Dave. I'm Mike's brother.

We have that lag problem, but we can live with it. However, there is another problem that has been produced because of this. Whenever Mike speaks in his microphone, he hears himself about one second later (which is quite annoying)!

For some reason, the internal sounds in my computer (the beeps, playing music, etc) are also going through the lines as output back to Mike. For instance, if I play a song on my computer and cover up the mic, he will still hear it!

This explains why Mike can hear the same copy of himself. Once the signal comes to my computer, it internally makes sound, which is sent right back to him.

So the million dollar question is: How do I prevent "internal" sound from going out as output over the clients?

Thanks in advance for all the help!
-Dave
 
The sound card loopback can't be fixed. It's a hardware problem. That's how the card was designed.

You could try Ventrillo to see if it works any better. Bandwidth is the usual cause for lag and stuttering. But, on a LAN, bandwidth shouldn't be a problem.
 
Another cause for the audio feedback is when you are using TS as "voice activated" instead of "button activated" and have a speaker system set yp instead of using head phones. The sound of the game can activate the mic.... so when your brother speaks to you it comes over your speakers and activates your mic, sending what he is saying right back to him.

 
Umm.. have you tried double clicking on the speaker icon in the control panel, go to options -> properties.. make sure the "Playback" bullet is selected, and in the box, check line-in, microphone.. and anything else you might want.. then hit 'ok'.. the volume panel will expand with what you've checked.. find the Microphone and Line-in ones, and click the mute checkbox.. this usually "fixes" it
 
Oh, and all the 'internal' sounds could be going back to your brother if you have "Stereo Mixer" or "What You Hear" selected as the recording device.. you want your recording device to be set to microphone (unless you want to ghetto stream music or something)
 
MorfiusX said:
The sound card loopback can't be fixed. It's a hardware problem. That's how the card was designed.

You could try Ventrillo to see if it works any better. Bandwidth is the usual cause for lag and stuttering. But, on a LAN, bandwidth shouldn't be a problem.
Click to expand...
I think I was wrong about the loopback. See if this link form the Ventrilo FAQ helps:http://www.ventrilo.com/faq.php#sound4
 
Hey, brother Dave fixed it for us!! Steroemix was on istead of the mic, so it gave me all of his stuff, instead of the microphone. Woohoo!

Once again, thank you guys for ALL of you time and help, its MUCH appreciated!
 
just use skype, works quite well for things like this.
no need to setup anything either. Just install software, get accounts, and go :)

I used to do this with my wife in the other room along with 2-3 external friends and it worked flawlessly
 
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