Video Conferencing Software

Firewall settings are a consideration for network-to-Internet connections. The NetMeeting Resource Kit addresses the details of this for Microsoft products like the Microsoft Proxy Server, and much of this information also applies to third-party firewall and proxy server products. The documentation notes that some firewalls can handle any number of outgoing calls but only a restricted number of incoming calls. NetMeeting video conferencing software uses UDP for IP connections needed for Internet calls, which may be a concern for firewall configuration.

Developers

The NetMeeting Software Development Kit is available on Microsoft's Web site. It includes an ActiveX control that can add conference support to Web pages. It supports JavaScript and Visual Basic Scripts as well as other OLE-enabled applications. COM (Common Object Model) objects are provided for ILS support, custom audio and video codec installation support, and for adding NetMeeting support to COM-based applications. Sample files are included, but the development tools are not for most users.

Most Webmasters will add basic call linkages to Web pages using the callto statement. You will need the ability to access HTML tags (which typically means working directly with the HTML source file), so you can add a callto statement. Users that have NetMeeting installed can then click on callto hyperlinks to initiate a conference call.

Meeting time NetMeeting Version 2.0 will have a major impact on data, audio, and video conferencing. Hopefully, we will continue to see improvements in it and other vendors solutions while maintaining compatibility. NetMeeting is adding to the validity of audio and video conferencing in the workplace simply through the weight of Microsoft's commitment.

The next major release of NetMeeting is supposed to bring much-needed features like H.323 gatekeeper support. In the meantime, NetMeeting may be just the computer conferencing tool you need, if your network has the bandwidth to spare. Audio conferencing hardware (a sound board) is now part of almost every new PC, so all you need beyond this is a microphone. Video conferencing hardware is available for less than $ 1,000, with some solutions closing in on the $ 100 price tag. Best of all, computer conferencing solutions can be used to get real work done.

Requirements: A 90MHz Pentium-based computer or better, running Windows 98 or Windows XP, with 5Mbytes of available hard disk space. For Windows 98, 16Mbytes of RAM is required; for Windows XP, 24Mbytes of RAM is required. Using the video conferencing features requires a video camera and video-capture card that supports Video for Windows drivers; for audio conferencing, a sound card, speakers, and microphone are required. Internet Locator Server (ILS) runs on a Windows XP machine with 32Mbytes of RAM and 8Mbytes of available hard disk space.