Video Audio Conferencing

NetMeeting 2.0 provides video audio conferencing. H.323 and T.120 compliance means NetMeeting clients can conference with many other systems. NetMeeting Version 2.0 is an improvement over Microsoft's first attempt at a network conferencing package. Version 2.0 includes data and audio conferencing and adds H.323 video conferencing support. NetMeeting also follows the T.120 computer conferencing series of standards which allows inter- operability with other video conferencing players such as Intel, PictureTel, VTel, and VDOnet.

NetMeeting has several document-conferencing features. Once you have established a connection with your meeting partner, you can share information via a shared clipboard, or you can transfer files. NetMeeting also lets you share applications in the same fashion as a remote control program. For more free-form work, you can use the shared whiteboard. Each participant can draw or make annotations on the whiteboard. Several people can participate in a data conference, but audio or video conferencing is strictly person-to-person. (You could, however, set up several two-person audio or video conferences and switch among them.)

GEARING UP

NetMeeting consists of the NetMeeting client and the Internet Locator Server. The NetMeeting client runs on Microsoft's 32-bit operating systems-Windows 95 or Windows NT. (A Windows 3.x version is not in the works.) In terms of hardware requirements for NetMeeting clients, a Pentium processor is only the starting point, and the latest video-capture hardware coupled with a camera is the best way to take advantage of NetMeeting. Hardware choices for audio and video conferencing can affect how well these conferences will work.

Sound cards support half- or full-duplex audio. Older 8-bit and 16-bit audio cards are typically half-duplex, which means you can talk or listen, but not both at the same time. Newer plug-and-play sound cards offer full-duplex and sometimes echo canceling support; the latter is useful for speakerphone-style operation.

If you have an Internet connection and plan to be making all your NetMeeting calls across this connection, all you need is the NetMeeting client. If you plan to use NetMeeting on your LAN, you might want to set up an ILS. Other- wise, you can get by with just NetMeeting on each client, as long as you populate your own address book with the necessary network addresses.

What if you don't know the address of someone you want to call, or what if that person has a dynamically assigned IP address (which is likely to be different each time he or she logs in)? The solution for these problems is the Internet Locator Service, which can be thought of as a directory service for NetMeeting clients. ILS runs on a Windows NT Server and works in conjunction with Microsoft's Web server, Internet Information Server (IIS).

NetMeeting clients use the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) to communicate with the ILS. You can configure a NetMeeting client with the name and address of a default ILS, and when a user starts up the NetMeeting client, it will automatically link up with the designated ILS and register the IP address.

In addition to LDAP, ILS uses IIS Active Server Pages to provide a scripting interface that allows Web pages to be created for adding users and displaying groups based on programmed criteria.

Anyone can call you when you have NetMeeting, simply by using the same ILS. Numerous ILSs can be found on the Internet.