If you are just looking for voice then Skype may be the solution. But if you want to share application or say demonstrate something to your team or access some application on your computer in your office or want to see the desktop of your other team members or share that desktop or application they are using simultaneously then you will need more than calling. There are number of solutions in the marketplace for that. Some of the wellknown are besides what I mentioned earlier are from Raindance, Blive, Breeze by Macromedia and also Placeware by Microsoft and IBM has just launched a product in this category.
The one thing about using the usb adapters is they actually provide the sip function allowing for direct pc to pc connect which can avoid having to use spyke sip server. Try the spyke system first and see if it will work fine. The one reason I mention using standard phones is in a group situation sometimes the pc base mic's don't always pickup everyone's conversation in the room unless you increase the gain on the mic and that can cause feedback from the speakers. Where as standard speakerphones don't, juist depends on how close you can get the mic to the center of the group. Just do some experimentation to see what will work. If you do end up needing someone to see your screen but don't want to actually hassle with whiteboard apps or conferencing apps you can just use http://www.glance.net/site/Home.asp It broadcasts your screen to their servers then the client or trader you want to see your screen can just use a browser. Very simple to use and reasonally price. Another inhouse server based option is to download ventrillo server app and client app. All free for up to 8 users. Similar to any IM group product but the very best voice quality I've used. You can have one sides mic always on and key your side when need. Supports full duplex of multilpe voices at once. http://www.ventrilo.com/ Good luck and let us know what you end up doing. Chow Bsulli
Will this transmit any .wav files playing on the server computer at the office. I have many alerts set up for highs/lows on oil as well as cash close warnings and others. They are all running on the computer I will be using to remotely listen in. Will it do this or will it only transmit sound coming in through the mic? Thanks.
Ok... I tested out both Skype and Ventrilo. I'm going to go with Skype. It worked beautifully. Unbelievably, in fact. One of the things I wanted to pick up is the squawk coming from that computer. I couldn't get it to come up on the remote side of Skype until I ran a patch cable from the output port of that machine to the mic port with a splitter. Now, it works great although it seems like a weird solution. Thanks a lot to everyone who pointed me in the direction they thought would help. I have long wondered about this problem and it is solved today. Another great service that ET provides. Good luck trading and happy holidays.
First chance to check ET this afternoon the Ventrillo server would also need to have a client copy running on it as well to make what you wanted to work. That's why I suggested going with the Spyke first, primary reason is it works very well across Nat routing gateways. Glad to hear you got it all working. Good luck and good trading. Bsulli
Does anyone know how to pipe sound from my machine over Skype from one remote side or the other? For example, I have an alert that runs on my CQG machine that I would like the group to be able to hear in Chicago when it comes on. It would be great to be able to control what gets sent over Skype and what doesn't as far as sounds, so that there is no feedback, etc. Any ideas. PS: I love Skype. What a wonderful service.
Anyone have any clue how I can have sounds generated by my computer run over a VoIP connection using Skype? Come on... there must be someone who knows.
This might help..... http://spider.nrcde.ru/music/software/eng/vac.html http://w4.evectors.it/itentdirectory/topic?topic=skype&chunck=1 (fifth post from the top) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Following links from Stuart about running multiple Skype instances I came across the Skype Forums where people are talking abut how to run multiple instances of Skype, but also streaming Skype conversations into other VOIP and Net2Phone services using a nifty gadget called a Virtual Audio Cable. Virtual Audio Cable is a Windows multimedia driver allowing you to transfer audio (wave) streams from one application to another. It creates a pair of Wave In/Out devices for each cable. Any application can send audio stream to Out device, and any other application can receive this stream from In device. All transfers are made digitally, providing NO sound quality loss. [...] If more than one applications are sending audio to VAC, it will mix all streams together. If more than one applications are receiving audio from VAC, it will share the same audio data between all targets. [...] VAC is useful to record application's audio output in real time (for example - Generator, Reality or other software synth), or transfer a sound stream to another application processing it. You can, for example, use two or more software audio generators/synthesizers/sequencors to produce audio streams sending them to VAC Out, and record the mixed stream from VAC In using any recording software - Windows Sound Recorder, Sound Forge, WaveLab, Cool Edit, Gold Wave, Cakewalk, Cubase etc. This opens up all sorts of interesting possibilities like running a stream from a Skype conference to an internet radio broadcast. Very cool. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~