Stupid question time

[macuk]

Hi All,

I am fairly new to conferencing / webcam stuff and have only used Marratech, skype, msn, netmeeting, camfrog, paltalk and yahoo so far.

I have been asked to find out how to use a Tandberg 880 system for a customer (they have one installed, but nobody has used it yet and knows how).

Is it possible to hold a conference with a Tandberg 880 system and the other party be using a webcam on a laptop with some third party software via the internet? If so what software would you recommend?

This is probably a daft question or do the other people have to be using a Tandberg, Cisco or Polycom system also?

Look forward to the responses and sorry for novice questions.

[pzielie]

The easiest to use is usually Netmeeting because it is packaged with windows, just dial by IP address, Tandberg does not support DNS dialing. If you want to use another software package just make sure it is H.323 compliant and it will work. If you have problems with the connections try disabling all the video proyocols except H.261 and all the audio protocols except G.711 on the Tandberg.

Polycom has a free trial of their PVX software that will work with some of the better compression schems but it will eat your whole processor.

H.323 is asymetrical, it will allow different bandwdths and protocols in each direction. You will likely see much better video on the PC end than on the Tandberg because the Tandberg is doing a much better job of compression.

[trapehzoid]

you can dial dns addresses with tandbergs and polycoms. you just have to be registered to something that supports it.

netmeeting is 'hidden' in WinXP. I think you can just run the .exe for it though. here's a good resource

http://www.meetingbywire.com/XPNetMeeting.htm

[macuk]

Many thanks to both of you for your prompt and extremely helpful replies. :)