*** ANSWERMAN INTERNET EXTRA *** For the week of January 20, 1997 This is the weekly newsletter for the community of Internet users on America Online. This week, AnswerMan's Focus is Internet Telephony. =*=*= IN THIS ISSUE =*=*= AnswerMan's Update -- Internet Telephony Upcoming Weekly Focus & Chats -- What's coming up Free Book of the Week -- Tricks of the Internet Gurus The End -- How to contact us or unsubscribe =*=*= WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK WITH ANSWERMAN =*=*= Go to keyword: For: AM FOCUS Links to all manner of Net stuff, neatly categorized ANSWERMAN Member web sites, daily tips, more good stuff NET HELP Get quick help for your Internet questions NET TUTORIAL Clueless about the Internet? Start here! AM CHAT Read transcripts of Internet chats that you missed AM GLOSSARY RTFM to decrypt that Internet jargon Here are direct links for AOL 3.0 users: Go to keyword AnswerMan AnswerMan Focus Net Tutorial =*=*= ANSWERMAN'S UPDATE -- Internet Telephony =*=*= by AnswerMan Note to self: if you want to do a newsletter issue about a new technology, make sure that it really works reliably before scheduling yourself to write about it for 37,000 people. That is my lesson for today. Because Internet telephony -- software that lets you communicate over the Internet by speaking rather than typing -- sounds like a great idea. The ads in the Internet mags ("Talk all you want, for free!") make it sound like it's the going to put Ma Bell out of business any day now. These programs work by digitizing your speech and sending the digital data over the Internet, compressing it along the way. The person you're talking to must have compatible software, which uncompresses the audio and plays your voice out of the computer's speaker. But in my experience, Ma Bell doesn't have a whole lot to worry about yet. Internet phone technology has potential -- but isn't reliable yet. Here's my little story: I started simply, deciding that if Internet phone technology really works, even my mother should be able to use it. In the course of two hours, Mom demonstrated abilities with her computer that I didn't know she had (uncompressing software like a pro, installing it with ease, and rebooting like a Jedi master.) We tried not one, but three Internet telephony programs, to no avail. To start, PGPfone, a free program for Mac and Windows that seemed to have potential, crashed Mom's Mac every time. Next, we tried Maven, a Mac-only audioconferencing tool. With it, my voice was reduced to a faint, unintelligible quacking. Mom's voice was lost to the ether altogether. Undaunted (actually, we were daunted but relentless) we tried a free demo of the commercial program DigiPhone. DigiPhone fared the best of all -- we could understand whole words at times, but never complete sentences. All in all, the quest to talk to AnswerMom for free over the Internet was a failure. Next, I conned my new friend CJ Dreamer into trying to chat with me. He downloaded PGPfone for Windows, and was rewarded with a cryptic error message. I also tried PGPfone on my PC -- it refused to admit that there was an Internet connection at all. Running out of friends and family to annoy, I asked Jenn (editor of the fine ICHILITES newsletter, to which you should subscribe) to try it. PGPfone was a bust, again, as was DigiPhone. We at least found a reason for the failures this time--Jenn was stuck behind a private network "firewall" which kept us from communicating by blocking our voice traffic. Jenn reported that the night before, she had attempted to chat with her mom over the Net, too. "She could hear me, but I couldn't hear her," she said. Finally, late last night, I used Digiphone to connect to a "NetPub", an online meeting place for finding people to chat with. I connected with a fellow in New York named Mark. We talked for several minutes -- and the sound quality was acceptable. Our cross-country chat went swimmingly until Mark mysteriously disconnected. That was just as well: although I was chatting with Mark, I didn't know him and thus didn't have a whole lot to say. Why did our attempts at using the amazing Internet telephone fail? It is hard to say for sure. In some cases it was clearly buggy software. In othemputer wasn't fast enough, and CJ Dreamer's winsock was not correctly configured. All I know it that some combination of events made our experiments with Internet telephony a failure. There are other programs that we didn't try (I've heard great things about a Windows program called PowWow, for instance.) If you've tried an Internet phone program with AOL and had better luck, send me some e-mail -- I'd love to hear about it. So for now, I'll have to say that Internet phone software is interesting, even fun to play with, but is not ready to replace the good old telephone. I've provided some links below for the experimenters among you (make sure you're using AOL 3.0 before trying any af them) but on the record, I say hold off for now. Here are direct links for AOL 3.0 users: AnswerMan Focus AnswerMan Community Center DigiPhone Internet Phone Freetel Maven (Mac only) PowWow Reviews from CNET =*=*= FREE BOOK OF THE WEEK =*=*= Did you know that there are free books about the Internet, on the Internet? These books are available in digital format on the Web, in their entirety, for free. (Most of these books are also available in traditional printed format, for a price. This is more expensive than the online version but easier to read while you're on the bus or in the bath.) For the next several weeks, AnswerMan will be highlighting one of these online books. This week's pick is Tricks of the Internet Gurus. Ready for a more advanced Internet book? This tome, co-written by more than 20 Internet "gurus," covers the bases for intermediate-to-advanced users who want to got even more from the Internet. Although this book is starting to show its age, it nonetheless has plenty of good information. Chapters include faxing from the Internet, telnet commands, online entertainment, finding stuff with archie, how educators use the Net and art on the Internet. Here is a direct link for AOL 3.0 users: Free Books =*=*= THE WEEKLY FOCUS & CHAT =*=*= Every Sunday, AnswerMan hosts a live chat to close out that week's Focus topic. Here's what's coming this Sunday, January 26 at 6 PM ET: Using Internet Phone software -- During this session, AnswerMan will explain how Internet phone software works, and the pros and cons of Internet phone tools. There will be a lot of time for questions and answers, too. Every week, AnswerMan focuses on a particular facet of using the Internet. Here are the Weekly Focus topics we'll be covering in the near future: Jan 20 - Jan 26: Internet Phone Jan 27 - Feb 2: Streaming Audio Feb 3 - Feb 9: Viruses Feb 10 - Feb 16: MUDs and Telnet Feb 17 - Feb 23: Great web sites for Mac and Windows Feb 24 - March 2: Tax Time Here is a direct link for AOL 3.0 users: AnswerMan Chat and Transcripts. =*=*= THE END =*=*= That's all for this week. Got comments about this newsletter? We want to hear them! Send 'em to AnswerMan. The e-mail address is "AnswerMan@aol.com". We would hate to see you go, but if you must leave, there are two easy ways to unsubscribe yourself from this newsletter. You can use either. #1: Send an e-mail message -- To: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM Subject: UNSUBSCRIBE Body: UNSUBSCRIBE ANSWERMAN #2: For AOL 3.0 users only: Click here then press "Unsubscribe". Copyright 1997 by America Online. All rights reserved. Do not use this newsletter if the safety seal has been broken or tampered with.