Voice software: your experiences

[A Trackless Stranger]

I know a lot of groups are using a variety of different voice solutions and I was wondering if there was a consensus out there.

Briefly, could you tell me:

1) Whether or not your group uses a third-party voice solution and why or why not?

2) Which product do you use?

3) Is the solution hosted off-site or does the group run the solution off one of the same boxes running FG (very interested in this one)

4) Anything else you think is worth adding...

Thanks.

[Cantstanzya]

This post answers alot of your questions.

[Dukeybear]

Our group uses Teamspeak via Xfire. I think its a great solution as Xfire will configure and run the Teamspeak server "behind the scenes" so to speak on the same box that you would run fantasy grounds on. No external hosting required. It also functions as an IM device which is useful for letting people know you've dropped out or whipser to the GM, etc. The interface is what you would expect from a IM client so people are usually familiar with it from the start.

Plus it's free.

The only real mucking about is that you will need to configure your microphone sensitivity but that goes with the territory. Even that is really easy to do.
We've tried Vent and others but they just dont have the total package like Xfire does. (GUI and functionality) Give it a try.

[Griogre]

I know a lot of groups are using a variety of different voice solutions and I was wondering if there was a consensus out there.

Briefly, could you tell me:

1) Whether or not your group uses a third-party voice solution and why or why not?

2) Which product do you use?

3) Is the solution hosted off-site or does the group run the solution off one of the same boxes running FG (very interested in this one)

4) Anything else you think is worth adding...

Thanks.

Already answered most of this in the tread Cantstanzya linked to. I did want to add that unless the gamemaster has an unusual internet connection he would be normally better off having someone else run the voice server. Most Internet connections have a much greater "down" bandwith than "up" because that fits the pattern of *most* internet use. Voice apps normally want as much up as down for the server - thus if the GM is pushing out large amounts of data (an "up" bandwith use), then running the voice server with alot of talking - it is likely the GM will run out of "up" bandwith so data from both voice and FG will get lost.

This is why a dedicated server is nice because the bandwith load is shifted to the server. I didn't mention it in my other post but there are many Teamspeak servers free for anyone to use.