Introduction	Installation	Features

Where do you get it and what does it cost?	What is an ILS and do I need to use one?

A contemporary Internet conferencing tool ought to include at least the following facilities:

• text chat
• video and/or audio transfer
• file transfer
• a shared whiteboard

Microsoft Netmeeting has all these facilities and also includes a facility to collaboratively share an application over the Internet. This means the remote user can actually use a piece of software loaded and running on another remote machine.

You download it from the Microsoft NetMeeting site on the Internet. The URL is:

http://www.microsoft.com/netmeeting

Choose your operating system and click the "Go to download" button. Here is the limitation - Windows 95 and Window NT only! A Version for Mac is under development. At the next screen choose your language and click the button. Once you are at the download page, I recommend you go down the page until you are about 2/3 down the page and see the Telstra Big Pond symbol.

Go down the page until you see the Telstra Big Pond graphic. The Australian link downloads much faster that the American links.

The installation process is clean and straightforward though you will come across two parts that may have you thinking. You will be asked if you want to automatically logon to an ILS when NetMeeting starts. I recommend that you choose "no". It’s a pain to have it kicking straight into an ILS. When you want to start it offline or on your network, Win95 wants to dialup to log into the ILS. The other one will advise you that it is about to test your microphone and set recording levels for you. Make sure you have your microphone and then you click the "Start recording" button. The recording period is quite lengthy so be prepared to keep talking absolute rubbish for a while. These settings can be adjusted later by using the Tools, Options, Audio menu item.

It is an Internet Locater Service - ILS. It is a piece of software that sits on a server that maintains a register of users who want to be registered. The advantage of registering is that someone else, friend or stranger, can go to that ILS and see a list of people - the directory of users - and choose someone, click on the entry and a message goes to that user that someone wants to join them. The person can then accept or refuse the request.
But you don’t need to be in an ILS to use the software. First, you can run it over your local TCP/IP network and use it as an in-school conferencing environment. Video, sound, text chat, file swap and collaborative program sharing - all on your network running TCP/IP and it will cost you nothing ... except for microphones, sound cards, speakers, cameras...oh why did I mention it!

Second, you can use it with anyone else on the Internet, singles or in groups, once you know their IP address. You can read about how we have been using this as part of the National Associations Telecommunications Project funded by DEETYA at the Natcom site:

http://www.ash.org.au/teachers/natcom.

To get your IP address connect to your ISP. Click Start, Run and type winipcfg. You will be given your current IP address. All you need to do is to get that address to the other people. In the Natcom group, I post mine to the list when I logon and then people see it when they read their email.

Video transfer quality depends on your equipment as you would expect. It’s quite OK with a 486X2-66 and 1400 modem. You can only do a one-to-one video connection as there is no server to do one-to-many. But, while in a group meeting, you can swap from one to another.
Audio quality is unpredictable and again only one-to-one but switchable. I have been in a session when the audio quality and speed was superb, telephone quality, and other sessions in which it was all broken up and bubbly.

Text chat is as quick as you would expect chat to be. All the usual features of logging the chat session and private chat features are there. Similarly, all the usual file transfer options are there and work very well. These features are typical of IRC packages as well.

The Shared Whiteboard is excellent. All the basic features of a paint package are there. Update speed is very good. My only complaint is that the save feature only allows the whiteboard file format and none of the other standard graphics file formats.

It is the ability to collaboratively share an application over the Internet that provides the opportunity for investigation of this environment for real training purposes. I can start say, Notepad on my machine and then choose Tools, Share Application and select Notepad from the list of open applications. Then I choose Tools, Start Collaborating and the application can be controlled by other people connected in the meeting. The mouse pointer changes to a crosshair. The initials of the user appear next to the crosshair as they have control To take control, you click on the screen once. A dialog box tells you that you can take control by double-clicking the mouse.

You have probably read reviews of MS NetMeeting in magazines of late. It is doing the rounds because it is free and offers so much conferencing power. My advice....get it and get set up. We are entering the age of network conferencing, both on an intranet and on the Internet.