Re: [GnomeMeeting-list] No audio with netmeeting

[George Bell <gbell5 cox net>]

On Sunday 04 July 2004 06:49, Damien Sandras wrote:
> Good, let's hope it was a windows problem. In 99.999% of the cases, if :
> - you hear yourself with a 5 seconds delay using the configuration
> assistant
> - you receive the video from the other side
> - audio channels are shown as started in the general history
> then it means you are correctly configured and the problem is on the
> other side.
>
> If you don't hear yourself with a 5 seconds delay, then you have an
> audio config problem. If you do, but do not receive video from the other
> side, and do not receive audio, it is a NAT problem. And finally, if no
> audio channels are started, then you have no common codec.
>
> That summarizes all possible configuration problems encountered when
> using GnomeMeeting :)
>
We finally determined that the audio problem was actually caused on the 
windows computer by another application that appeared in the systray while 
netmeeting was running.   The application was "Skype" - while appearing in 
the systray it was "usurping" the microphone.   After closing Skype 
completely, the audio worked.  However, the quality of the audio was only 
just barely good enough to carry on a conversation.    The audio quality was 
somewhat bad(kind of sounded like underwater), but the worse problem was the 
constant fading in and out for relatively long periods experienced by both 
sides.  Perhaps another codec would help the former, but I don't think it 
would help the fading.  I didn't try other codecs.  I tried turning off 
silence detection on both sides but it didn't seem to help much.  The video 
froze frequently, and at one point it froze completely and no audio was 
getting transmitted at all, at which point we were forced to end the call.

Also I could not begin the call from the gnomemeeting side, even with the 
netmeeting computer entered in the Linksys router's DMZ.   

Skype seemed better with the audio connection, although I did not perform a 
lot of tests and so maybe Skype worked better only because the network 
happened to be less congested ( or whatever ) at that time.

I don't mean to compare the applications or make conclusions about either one.  
Just thought my observations might be helpful.  

George