Paltalk technical questions

Subject: Paltalk technical questions
From: Grab
Date: 07 Feb 01 - 07:58 AM

Paltalk newbie warning...

Just started using Paltalk last night, and some good music was happening (top singing, Frank!). Trouble is, strange things were happening to the sound too. Solo singers and spoken word sounded OK, but anyone playing guitar had loads of snap, crackle and pop.

Is this a feature of the Paltalk system? Is it likely to be my end producing it as it tries to compress the signal down a weedy 33K line? Or is it on the instrumentalist's end, as their signal gets fed down their weedy 33K line? If so, is there some minimum bandwidth that'll let music go through OK? Or is it fundamental to the Paltalk software, since I know Mudcat Radio (RealPlayer) goes through without significant distortion at low bandwidths? Or could it even be that my (slightly old) PC doesn't have the horse-power to run the Paltalk compression fast enough?

I know Paltalk say that their minimum spec is a 28K modem and a P133, but we all know what "minimum" means when attached to computer hardware requirements! Could anyone suggest realistic minimum speeds, both for listening in and for singing? and a realistic minimum computer speed? I'm on a P233 with a 33K link - would this have enough juice?

Also, is it possible to disable the microphone, so that I don't accidentally press Ctrl and start sending? Ctrl-delete when editting text is my downfall! And is there anything that'll set the microphone permanently on, so that you don't need to hold the key down? apart from a large weight or half a clothes-peg, of course.

Cheers folks,

Grab.

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: alison
Date: 07 Feb 01 - 08:03 AM

if you are having trouble with sound.. open paltalk... open "groups".. select "paltalk help groups" and go into one of the "new user lobbys"...... they will be able to help you online by listening to you.....

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 07 Feb 01 - 08:17 AM

Grab, Alison's advice is good.

With regards to the other parts of your question, I can't get above a 28.8K connection at the moment and am having no sound problems although my PC is quite a bit faster than their miminum spec.

There have been a number of people having initial sound problems but as far as I am aware, everyone who has persevered with the audio settings (which PalHelp will guide you through) has managed to get reasonable sound.

I say everyone but I seem to remember Susan of DT having problems that required an upgrade but IF my memory serves me correctly, she was running a machine that was below the minimum spec ?14.4K modem?

Jon

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: Grab
Date: 07 Feb 01 - 08:30 AM

Cheers guys, I'll try that tonight.

Grab.

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 07 Feb 01 - 08:34 AM

I missed half of what I meant to say.

1. Your setup should work fine with PalTalk.

2. On Win95+ you can use the Accessibility options in Control Panel (you may need to add/remove programs/windows setup in Control Panel to install if it is not already there) to set the control key to hold down. My Windows 98 cd is corrupt so I can't add this. My solution is to wedge a packet of cigarete papers between the Ctrl key and the shift key - there will be plenty of other weird and wonderful solutions too.

3. I could write a program that would activate/deactivate the Ctrl key but I think it would be messy to use. You will just have to be very careful (jumping the mic is something that does not go down too well).

Jon

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: Dave Wynn
Date: 07 Feb 01 - 06:52 PM

Bulldog clips and tablecloth holders work on the Ctrl key...I bet there is a whole subculture based on what they use to hold the control key down with...I am a IKEA tablecloth holder person myself....!!

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 07 Feb 01 - 06:55 PM

I liked Alison's solution on Hearme the best - she used her toes.

Jon

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: Grab
Date: 08 Feb 01 - 07:25 AM

Jon, I'd try that, but I fear my other half may complain about the state of the keyboard... ;-)

Mic seems to be set up now - had a bit of a test run on one of those karaeoke groups, since there wasn't a Mudcat room open.

At uni, a friend used to use half a clothes-peg to hold the "run" key down when we were playing Doom - this may be worth trying.

Grab.

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: bigchuck
Date: 08 Feb 01 - 08:07 AM

I made a little wooden wedge from an old shingle that I had around. I stick it between the ctrl key and the edge. Seems to work fine.

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: alison
Date: 08 Feb 01 - 08:22 AM

spidertom gave me a kids bicycle tyre lever... works great......

using toes was fine until you tapped your foot..... *grin*

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: kendall
Date: 18 May 04 - 09:29 AM

I downloaded Paltalk a few days ago, and ever since I have been unable to get connected to the internet. The last time I tried, I gave up after 8 minutes and restored my settings to pre Paltalk. Why should Paltalk slow my computer to a crawl?

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: kitchen piper
Date: 18 May 04 - 09:51 AM

I wish Paltalk supported Mac's

:-(
Vicki

(I don't have any desire to run virtual pc)

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 18 May 04 - 09:53 AM

The little mic symbol on the left side at the bottom - above the loudspeaker symbol- if you click once on that, it switches on the mic and holds it - if you click again - it releases it.

I use an alleged 56K dialup (but the speed is line condition limited to just above 33 often) - but my regular thruput to Paltalk is rarely above 2 - 2.5 Kb.sec - well within the modem capabilities - I can dnld mudcat pages etc at the same time with no interference to the paltalk connection. I am using a P3 1Gb win 98SE though...

Paltalk I have found to be generally regularly beset with minor technical difficulties - dropouts, sudden total loss of sound necessitating shutdown and restart of paltalk s/w, 'yodelling' effects, and various other hassles - but considering the alternative (nothing!) and the relative cost (bugger all compared with other current technologies!) it's bearable - reminds me of the quality of Short Wave Ham Radio, but listenable.

My only complaint is that my current cheap desk mic doesn't drive the soundcard hard enough to put the mic at a reasonable distance away, but there are a few threads here on PC sound & mics, that may be useful.

Robin

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: kendall
Date: 18 May 04 - 07:38 PM

Does anyone know the answer to my question? I sent Paltalk a feedback comments but all I got was gobbledegook from them.

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: open mike
Date: 18 May 04 - 08:05 PM

i am not sure what is happening with your 'puter, Kendall,
but it might be that you can change settings to improve the
situation....on the pal talk set up list, you can choose to
have it open on demand, not have it always "on" could that
be it? the pop-ups in the free version are constant, but
i hear they do not happen in paid mode.
when i open the paltalk icon on the task bar
i have these choices:
cable modem/always connecte4d
wait for dialup connection
manual start
start paltalk
exit
(i have manual start clicked)
hope this helps--let me know if yo have
any other questions...what gobble-de-gook
answers did yo get?)

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 18 May 04 - 08:17 PM

Well, kendall, your question is a bit like 'how long is a piece of string'?

Without knowing the actual details of your hardware & operating system software, any answer given could only be couched in general terms - technical gobbledegook to those not familar with it.

If you send us here or even just me via PM the answer you got perhaps we can translate it - I may be going away for a short while soon though.

Some first thoughts...

1) Has your PC sufficient processing power to handle the paltalk s/w?

2) What is your operating system, and have you downloaded system updates to fix any little bugs with it.

3) what other software are you running when online, also do you have things like Real Player installed, etc?

Without some concrete idea of your system, all anyone can do (without using psychic powers) is just make educated guesses based on most likely situations.

Robin

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 18 May 04 - 08:30 PM

I don't know if this answers your question or not Kendall but Paltalk have got more and more agressive towards thier free (as opposed to paid up) members.

These days, from here, closing PT results in a nasty little IE Window at the bottom (I only see it's existance from the task bar and can only close it using task manager) for adv.com. Not sure that it does any sinister mailing out (sort of thing I'd guess you are looking for) and have not observed network traffic increase... but it's almost hidden presence in itself is worrying to me.

Jon

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: dwditty
Date: 18 May 04 - 08:51 PM

There are other technologies coming that have sound and features that will blow paltalk away. That being said, I have used paltalk on probably a dozen different pc's (old slow ones as well as new ones with the latest everything) on dial up, dsl, cable, and even T1. Aside from the occasional glitch from paltalk itself, I have never had a problem using it. I have been using it since 2000. It seems that it is only on mudcat that I see complaints about its usability.

Kendall, I have a very brief cheat sheet I have used to help people get started on Paltalk. I will send it to you when I get to my home PC..


DW

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 18 May 04 - 08:57 PM

dw, can I have your T1 - always wanted one of them!

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 18 May 04 - 09:15 PM

and dw, I missed the most important bit..

"There are other technologies coming that have sound and features that will blow paltalk away"


any pointers?

Jon

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: open mike
Date: 19 May 04 - 01:18 AM

ditto- i would like to know more about the other technologies..
I am always blown away that the technology exists which allows
us to be in each other's living (or bed) rooms from around the
globe..or wherever we have out computers...it amazes me that we
can sing and play for each other on line~~!!

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: dwditty
Date: 19 May 04 - 06:21 AM

I have been beta testing a service called Indline (www.indline.com). If you use pal, you will be able to figure it out easily. While not fully baked (and who knows, from a business standpoint, it may never get off the ground), the sound quality is crystal clear - head and shoulders above that on paltalk. I agree with open mike that being able to play for and listen to each other anywhere on the planet is truly remarkable.

dw

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: kendall
Date: 19 May 04 - 06:32 AM

I'm using windows XP, my computer is 6 months old, it is a 2.5 gb.

This is what happens:
I downloaded PT and immediatly, I was not able to log onto the internet. After 8 minutes of looking at thAT damned hourglass, I restored my settings to a few days earlier before PT.
Up comes the internet.
I reset it to receive PT, and again, can't connect with my ISP.
I've done this dance several times with the same result.
I sent a feedback note to PT, and they told me that they were being attacked by some hacker who was tying up their system.
I'll see if I can post their answer.

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: kendall
Date: 19 May 04 - 06:36 AM

Thank you for inquiry below. Unfortunately, as you might have noticed
during the past week, at times it has been difficult to connect to Paltalk.
You may have also noticed that the sound quality in some of the rooms hasn't
always been as clear as usual. We wish to apologize for the poor service
recently and will explain the cause. Our servers have been under constant
denial of service attacks. For those of you that do not know what a denial
of service attack is, consider what would happen if 5000 people were
constantly calling your cell phone and 4999 were deliberate wrong numbers.
Your cell phone would be rendered useless.   Basically, that is what has
been happening to us.


Please note that we are working on this issue around the clock in
conjunction with our service provider, upgrading our infrastructure to
better withstand these type of attacks as well as working with the proper
authorities to track down the parties responsible.   Service should now
begin to improve and we expect the service to be completely back to normal
over the next few days.



We

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 19 May 04 - 07:04 AM

Thanks dw.

I'm sharing Pip's computer for the next couple of days (sorcha has my room :-) ) but will have a look and see if I can install on mine and give it a whirl when I get the chance.

I find it hard to imagine the sound is so much better than Pal (which regardless of past comments from others was vastly superior to Hearme) but you never know - problem is that you for example come over crystal clear on Pal and I get that at 28.8K dial up...

Financially, I haven't a clue how these places do it. I know I'm one who never likes to pay for services (and don't with Pal) but I dread to think what connections to the Internet and servers you need to send that sort of data to a number of people and a number of rooms. I wonder what Pal's bandwith is????

Jon

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: kitchen piper
Date: 19 May 04 - 07:05 AM

indline looks funky, but again, it's not mac compatible.
There was no address to be able too contact them and ask either!
:-))
Vicki

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 19 May 04 - 07:07 AM

I was having hassles with paltalk getting thru.

Kendall,

I do understand Paltalk's response perfectly, but then perhaps I can talk "gobbledegook".... :-)

I thought that they explained things rather well, but if you would like to let me know just where you lose the thread of their explanation, perhaps I can use my Wordsmith skills and explain it in terms that may be more comphrensable to you.

The technically significant part of their 'gobbledegook' response was

"Our servers have been under constant denial of service attacks. For those of you that do not know what a denial of service attack is, consider what would happen if 5000 people were constantly calling your cell phone and 4999 were deliberate wrong numbers. Your cell phone would be rendered useless."

Perhaps if you look at just this bit and think about it, it may help you. You won't be able to get a response from the Paltalk server if it is 'busy' or being swamped with many false requests - i.e. a 'denial of service attack'.

I just tried, and got in without hassle.

You may have a software problem on your machine - something may be conflicting, but that sort of thing is almost (but not necessarily completely so, if enough clues can be obtained!) impossible to diagnose at a distance from the machine...

Basically, you did the right thing - if you are not getting connected, set your machine back to a working state.

I can't help you with WinXp - I run Win 98 - so someone else may be able to assist you more closely with that side of it.

When I run Paltalk, the folowing steps happen

1) I click on the 'start paltalk' link to the s/w

2) it starts an icon in the tray - I click on that and click 'start paltalk' (I don't have paltalk running on bootup, which is why I need step 1 above)

3) a Window opens up titled 'Paltalk logon'- this has a button labelled 'having trouble logging on - click here'

4) the next result is having completed the logon details and clicked to proceed, a new window replaces the logon window with a list of 'online pals' which should be empty for a new user.

It sounds like you may be stuck between steps 3 & 4 --- if that is the case, the 'denial of service attack' is keeping you from connecting. If you are not reaching step 3, the s/w is having problems - as I said I can't go much further without more direct info.


Robin

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: kendall
Date: 19 May 04 - 07:15 AM

But, I can't even connect to my ISP! what has that to do with denial of services in PT?

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 19 May 04 - 07:17 AM

Kendall, if you can't connect to your ISP, I doubt Pal is the problem.

How did you post above? Are you using someone elses PC?

Jon

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: Bassic
Date: 19 May 04 - 09:28 AM

Kendal.....try talking to your ISP people......it really does sound like Pal is causing a conflict somewhere, maybe changing a setting somewhere.......they may well have experience of the problem and be able to talk you through a fix.

Also, dont know if you use a firewall but maybe something in Pal is causing that to put up the shutters?

Good luck.

G

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: kendall
Date: 19 May 04 - 07:42 PM

I have a built in firewall.
And, I did talk to the ISP support. They said restore my computer to a previos date.
The problem IS in PT. No doubt about it.

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 19 May 04 - 08:29 PM

In that case kendall, go to the paltalk site, there is a forum there wher you can look for messages or post one asking for help. You should tell them what basic PC, OS etc you have and describe your problem as we have teased it out of you, running (XP?) firewall, etc. You may be helped, or nobody else may have experienced it and how to fix it.

Can't really do much more than that, sorry.

Robin

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: GUEST
Date: 20 May 04 - 04:47 PM

Any update?

Subject: RE: Paltalk technical questions
From: kendall
Date: 20 May 04 - 07:30 PM

No, I had PT a few years ago and it was more trouble than it was worth....had a wife like that too.