windows net meeting vs gotomeeting

No payments, no licence restrictions. NetMeeting is available with/for most versions of Windows. It is easy to use and under normal circumstances, it connects using ILS servers which can be quite slow and overloaded with people waving their webcams around and pointing them at things you will not want to see. There is also a whiteboard facility.

Most versions of NetMeeting allow direct connections to specific IP addresses which would suit your requirements precisely. You can connect directly from one user to another without having to go through ILS servers. You can find a lot more information and a list of suitable ILS servers here http://www.netmeetinghq.com/

The ILS server software used to be available for download from Microsoft but I haven't seen it around for a while.

I would suggest you look at Skype http://www.skype.com

Hi Mike,
Thanks for reply,
dont fancy viewing people pointing webcams places they shouldnt :-).
I tested net meeting internally by just specifying my internal ip address, this worked fine.

However, the setup will 99% of the time be between users from different locations (i mean remote users),  i.e  differnent public ip's.  Im unsure how this will work?  and will i need to do some firewall configuring?  Or can it be setup a little differnet?
Hope im making sense.
Thanks
Stephen

Generally speaking, an instant messenger such as ICQ or MSN can be used to communicate an IP address before establishing a call. Firewalls can be a problem and particularly with remote inbound connections. Unfortunately, there isn't a great deal you can do with the setup.

There is some information here  http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/133250.html and here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc767146.aspx which should help. They list port nos and stuff.

You could always agree to the users meeting at a certain time on a particular ILS server but the only way you'll be able to investigate the firewall implications is by trial and error. Firewall configurations are very specific and they vary so much from one site to another.

Hi Mike,

Thanks for detailed reply,
i have an sbs server which is used for mail,
Could i setup an ils server on this and have all mettings on this server?
Is there much to setting up an ils server?
would this avoid the firewall issues?
Thanks
Stephen

cheers mike, ill have a go at locating software thanks for replies.
Cheers
Stephen