What do I need to run the Chatterbox software?
You need to have a Windows98/ME/2000/XP computer (preferably Windows
2000 or XP) connected to the Internet. You will also need a webpage
to list your Chatterbox chat room links. Your Internet connection
must have enough throughput (bandwidth or kilobits per second) to
accommodate the number of users you expect to have active. For the
highest quality voice, that will be approximately 20 kbits/sec per
active user. Using the lower bandwidth, but slightly lower voice
quality compression available on the server, you will need to plan for
about 9 kbits/sec per active user.
For example. If you purchase a 10 user license and want to have 10
active users running at the same time, your Internet connection must
have about 10 x 20 kbits/sec or 200 kbits/sec of "upload" speed. Your
average cable or dsl modem connection would sufficent to handle 10
active users. A 56 kbit/sec modem could handle about 5 users. If you
switch to the lower quality voice, you can essentially double the
number of active users you can support.
Can I just have your company run the server and provide the
Internet connection?
Yes, Please contact us for more info.
What does unlimited rooms really mean?
Do you allow for oversubscription?
To answer this question we will use several examples. Let's say
you purchase the 100 user server. Assuming no oversubscription
you would be able to configure that 100 user server into:
1 room of 100 users
2 rooms of 50 users (or 2 rooms 1 with 5 users, 1 with 95 users)
...
50 rooms of 2 users each
100 rooms of 1 users (but they probably would get bored talking to
themselves, so 50 rooms of 2 users is better)
However we allow a 5x oversubscription rate. This allows you to
configure more users than you have actually purchased. So the
same 100 users can be configured as:
1 room of 500 users (but this defeats the purpose of
oversubscription)
2 rooms of 50 users (or 2 rooms 1 with 5 users, 1 with 95 users)
...
250 rooms of 2 users each
So unlimited is not really unlimited, it
is still limited by the number of users you have purchased.
And please remember that even though you have configured 500 users,
only the first 100 users to connect to the server will actually get
in.
Are there any additional fees to pay for the
software after I purchase it?
Yes. Beginning with Version 2.0 of our product, we require that every
customer agree to and pay an annual service and maintenance fee. The
fee is 25% of the price of your server. This 25% is due on the
anniversary of the purchase of your server and ensures that for
another year you can:
An annual support fee is common in the software
industry. Reputable companies never go without one. Our support fee
is slightly higher to cover the costs of our automatic download
services.
If the mandatory service fee is not paid, your right to
use license for the server will be revoked and your server disabled
through our license enforcement system.
How can I qualify to get a free copy of your server? We are a
non-profit or no-profit or "what's profit?" kind of company and we
could really benefit from this software - your generosity would be
greatly appreciated.
Well, we probably receive at least one request per day to give away
our software. In general we do not give away our software. If we do,
its because we feel that what we receive in return is well worth that
exchange. If you can justify our giving you the software by clearly
showing how you can generate sells for us in a timely fashion, we
might be very interested. Or if you can offer some type of support,
marketing, development or other services to us that we can use - we
might be willing to help you out - just contact us to find out.
I heard that your company would give me a 10% commission check for
sending people to you who buy your product. Is that true?
Absolutely. However, this is not an automatic transaction. There are
several conditions that must be met for you to earn that 10%:
How do I get support for the product?
Our standard support policy is to contact us by email with your need
and we will respond within 4 business hours. However, if you need
something more personal or more timely, we can negotiate such terms as
part of your purchase. Our email support is "Free", requiring no
annual support fees. You are also entitied to free minor updates (bug
fix releases) to your product.
Can I easily upgrade my server to support more users?
Yes, this is very simple, you pay us the difference between your
current license and the license to which you want to upgrade and we
make the change almost instantly on our licensing server. Once we
make that change, you press the "Update License" button on the server
and you are good to go.
Is it true that your server checks its license key every couple of
hours? If so what happens if your license server is no longer
available?
This is correct. To allow us to prevent some hackers from endlessly
copying our software for free, we have to have a means to ensure that
we can control the license when your license expires. If, for some
reason, the Chatterbox server cannot reach our license key server, it
will continue to run for several hours before it stops. The server
will continuously try to reach our license server automatically when
it is available again or when your network connectivity is restored to
the Internet. As we are able, we will be adding redundant license key
servers to ensure that it will be very unlikely, due to any
operational outage on our part, that your server would be unable to
reach our license key server.
If your company needs a version of our product that cannot be deployed
with Internet connectivity or need an "unlimited license", please
contact us.
What if, by some strange twist, your company goes
out of business, will we be able to continue to use the server?
Yes. Our "safety net" policy is that for those companies who are
concerned about this impossible possibility, we will provide them, at
the time we would no longer be in business, with an "license-free"
version of our server and a copy of of the Chatterbox client to use as
they need. This server will not require that it contact our license
key server or make use of our download services for the client. If,
for some reason, your company may want to be really pessimistic, we
would be glad to work with your company to arrange for our source code
and or unlicensed server to be put into a third party escrow for safe
keeping.
When will you offer video transmission so my friends can see live
video pictures of me?
First, why would someone want to see your picture? Just kidding.
Having video as an option is on our "to do some day" list, but nothing
real soon. Primarily because most people don't have enough bandwidth
to make it worth having and it also interferes greatly with the voice
quality.
Will you ever offer this neat product on a
Macintosh?
Essentially, the answer is no. However you could run
the VirtualPC product on your MAC and it will work just fine.
How do uninstall this program?
You will find the uninstaller in the control panel under add/remove
programs. Look for "Conference Client Uninstall"
I am a shaw cable user and the client keeps
crashing.
Shaw cable uses a proxy that responds unpredictably. We have
been unable to resolve the cause of the crash. However a simple
work around is to start IE, go to tools->internet options. In
the dialog box click on the connections tab, then on the button "lan
settings". In the new box "unselect" the checkbox "Automatically
detect settings". This will have no adverse affect on normal web
browsing and will allow our client to run without crashing.
