Microphone

[Lisa]

Thanks! I'll check it out.

An inexpensive headset Microphone can be bought for
~$15 at Office Depot/OfficeMax or Staples.

 

[Paul Johnson]

Please quote the same direction we all read...

http://wiki.ursine.ca/Best_Online_Quoting_Practices

No I do not have a microphone. My friend says I don't need one??
She also communicates with her sister and she says she doesn't have a
microphone.

Your friend is either stupid or needs to put down the water-bong. How else
is a piece of electronics supposed to hear anything without a microphone?
Telephones, radio transmitters, tape recorders, and every electronic device
that needs to hear what is going on since the dawn of machine-reproduced
sound must have a microphone of some kind. Without a microphone,
electronics are as deaf as rocks.

Where do you find the microphone setting anyway??? Is it the Sound and
Audio Device? I made sure it is not set to mute on my PC.

Need to look at your sound mixer and make sure the Microphone In volume is
not muted and that your microphone is plugged in.

 

[Paul Johnson]

I would suggest the easiest and cheapest thing to do it use Netmeeting.

NetMeeting is non-free and Windows-only, Jabber (which is what Google Talk,
LJ Talk and 30,000+ other IM services use) is free, cross-platform and has
VOIP support based on an open standard.

It depends on your audience, but unless you know factually that they have
Windows and Netmeeting, Jabber's going to be the more likely bet.

 

[Cliff Wild]

NetMeeting is non-free and Windows-only, Jabber (which is what Google
Talk, LJ Talk and 30,000+ other IM services use) is free,
cross-platform and has VOIP support based on an open standard.

It depends on your audience, but unless you know factually that they
have Windows and Netmeeting, Jabber's going to be the more likely bet.

Here is Netmeeting free download from Microsoft
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...7c-f778-4422-a6f4-efb8abba021e&DisplayLang=en

You suggestion sounds like something I might be interested in checking out.
I have my doubts of the usefulness to the OP considering the presumption of
extreme newbieism.

 

[Cliff Wild]

Please quote the same direction we all read...

http://wiki.ursine.ca/Best_Online_Quoting_Practices


Your friend is either stupid or needs to put down the water-bong.
How else is a piece of electronics supposed to hear anything without
a microphone? Telephones, radio transmitters, tape recorders, and
every electronic device that needs to hear what is going on since the
dawn of machine-reproduced sound must have a microphone of some kind.
Without a microphone, electronics are as deaf as rocks.


Need to look at your sound mixer and make sure the Microphone In
volume is not muted and that your microphone is plugged in.

I suggest you keep up with the flow. The hidden microphone topic has been
discussed and no one understood not needing a mic. She said her friend was
sure she *had* one. She just could not locate it. Maybe you should put down
*your* bong.

 

[Elmo]

She has a Webcam and it has a mike. I just don't get why she insists I have
one built in? If I do, I sure can't find it.

You can click Start, Run, type CONF, click OK. This will run
Netmeeting, which will test the mic as part of the setup. If there's a
mike, and you talk into it when prompted to read something, it will be
announced that you have a mic.

Or you could use Sound Recorder to test for a mic. But the bottom line
is, you'll probably have to get the same program that came with your
friend's webcam if you're going to communicate with them.

 

[Bob I]

If she knows what you have that well, then she will be able to tell you
exactly where the microphone is located. If you don't have a microphone,
they are pretty inexpensive, and can be picked up at a local computer shop.

 

[Paul Johnson]

Here is Netmeeting free download from Microsoft

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...7c-f778-4422-a6f4-efb8abba021e&DisplayLang=en

OK, I see a place where I can download a nonfree version of Netmeeting.
Where is this free version that you speak of?
http://en.wikipedia.org/Free_software

You suggestion sounds like something I might be interested in checking
out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabber

I have my doubts of the usefulness to the OP considering the presumption
of extreme newbieism.

Better to learn sooner rather than later, right? XMPP is the IETF standard
for instant messaging and the lowest common denominator for non-telephony
VOIP. This will come up again in the future as more people reject
maintaining a bajillion proprietary IM accounts in favor of the standard
that works between the most IM sites, and Jingle (XMPP's voice component)
gets extended to work with webcams (under development now looking at the
Google Talk newsgroups)

 

[Cliff Wild]

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...7c-f778-4422-a6f4-efb8abba021e&DisplayLang=en

OK, I see a place where I can download a nonfree version of
Netmeeting. Where is this free version that you speak of?

Did you check out the link above? I see nothing about paying for Netmeeting
at that site.

Where is you link to a nonfree version? I would like to check it see if
there it is different software.

 

[Elmo]

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...7c-f778-4422-a6f4-efb8abba021e&DisplayLang=en

OK, I see a place where I can download a nonfree version of Netmeeting.
Where is this free version that you speak of?
http://en.wikipedia.org/Free_software


Better to learn sooner rather than later, right? XMPP is the IETF standard
for instant messaging and the lowest common denominator for non-telephony
VOIP. This will come up again in the future as more people reject
maintaining a bajillion proprietary IM accounts in favor of the standard
that works between the most IM sites, and Jingle (XMPP's voice component)
gets extended to work with webcams (under development now looking at the
Google Talk newsgroups)

Click Start, Run, type CONF

Netmeeting has come on all W98 and later machines. In some cases you
need to install from the Windows components, but not with XP; it's
already there.

 

[Paul Johnson]

Did you check out the link above? I see nothing about paying for
Netmeeting at that site.

Not charging doesn't make software free, but merely no charge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software

Where is you link to a nonfree version? I would like to check it see if
there it is different software.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...7c-f778-4422-a6f4-efb8abba021e&DisplayLang=en
takes you to the non-free version. I can't find any place there that
indicates the license respects your freedoms as a user.

 

[Paul Johnson]

Click Start, Run, type CONF

Netmeeting has come on all W98 and later machines. In some cases you
need to install from the Windows components, but not with XP; it's
already there.

True, but that automatically eliminates interoperability the 30-40% of
people out there who don't run Windows. The Jabber method is universal.

 

[Paul Johnson]

Please don't quote in reverse order as it reduces readability and when left
untrimmed really wastes bandwidth.
http://wiki.ursine.ca/Best_Online_Quoting_Practices

More than likely, she doesn't know what she is talking about by insisting
you don't need a mic, you do need a mic and if you want visual you need a
web cam and proper software to use both, I suggest yahoo messenger it's
free, a web cam with embedded mic connected via USB is fairly cheap 30-40
bucks. just look carefully at the features for the web cam.

Yahoo Messenger is not free. The source code is not available, nor can you
redistribute it. Data sent via Yahoo becomes property of Yahoo. Using
clients other than Yahoo's official client violates their terms of service.
Clients are not available for most platforms. Only Yahoo can run a Yahoo
Messenger server; if they're down, you're down.

All these problems can be avoided entirely by using Jabber instead. Jabber
has about five million more users than Yahoo as of 2004 and gaining
rapidly; Jabber has a bigger audience, and since anybody can write a new
client or set up another Jabber server, it can reach an even wider audience
than the obsolete, commercial networks. Since Jabber's topography
resembles that of SMTP's, if you don't like one Jabber server's rules or
operations, you can go to another Jabber server or even start your own
without losing contact with your contacts.