Hi Merrie,
Yes, we've used NetMeeting with MeetingPoint a little bit, and more
extensively with the OnLive! Conference Server (http://www.onlive.com ) -
we've got their server software running on our server which allows us to
have multi-way audio calls (though no video at all then). It integrates with
NetMeeting quite well, though the process of setting up a call is a bit
laborious at first.
Basically, here's how it works in terms of using it and what the software
does:
When you get the server software, you install it on a server and you pay for
a certain number of licenses. If your server is configured for more than one
IP address you can set up several "rooms" - for example, if you've got five
IP addresses available and you've got 25 licenses, you can set up 5 "rooms"
with a maximum of 5 participants each. You could also set up two rooms, one
with 12 and one with 13 participants, for example. There's no limit to the
number of participants per meeting apart from the NetMeeting limit of 8,
supposedly, though we've had 10 in such a meeting.
Once you've set up such rooms each room has a unique http:// URL. This you
can distribute, or link to from a website. When someone goes to that URL
they click on "Join", which connects their NetMeeting audio to that audio
room. Anyone else who does the same will also have their audio connected, so
they can all speak to each other.
Once a user has connected their audio component they can click on another
button that says "Connect Data Conference"; anyone who does that will have
their NetMeeting data tools connected with others in the audio call who have
done the same. All of that means that they can all now speak to each other
and use the data tools together.
The server software therefore needs to be running on a server with plenty of
bandwidth - the server basically receives any audio signals and
redistributes them to all the others in that call.
Hope that helps!
Eric Baber
http://www.netmeeting.co.uk
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