well...I actually TALKED with a HearMe rep today...I downloaded the necessary plug-in to get to their new demo/help forum...The HearMe folks are serious ...their invention is now EXPENSIVE, but fancy. What he told me is that they now licence a full-duplex HearMe to companies, (or whomever) for $10,000 UP depending on how many people you want to allow in...(the $10,000 gets you 20 people)...says they warned everyone this was coming...*grin*...so...them days is gone forever.

The interesting part is, I asked him about PalTalk, and he says that while HearMe can cope with 'almost' all firewalls, PalTalk has some serious issues with firewalls....and that 'some' ISPs have a firewall built into their configuration!! This may be what PalTalk means when they say "if this doesn't work, you may not be able to use PalTalk from your machine/location".... I will call my ISP (StarPower/Erols) east coast USA..(BIG company)and see if they have any ideas.

In the meantime, I seem to be shut out...and I suspect that others are having the same experience.

Now, there IS a 'freeish' version of the HearMe program that functions like an audio version of ICQ, but the rights to this were bought by Eudora Email, and requires you to have Eudora 5...but it is of little use to Mudcatters as a group....

so...technology marches on...maybe soon