Skype

Peer-to-Peer

Peer-to-Peer Diagram

In Peer-to-Peer, each node makes its resources available to other nodes in its group. As such, Peer-to-Peer services will be less dependent on central hubs to coordinate or relay network traffic. Skype uses their own implementation of the Peer-to-Peer architecture. The diagram to the left will generally not provide an exact visual representation for Skype’s own p2p implementation as it has proprietary peer hierarchies and authentication services. But for our purposes this representation is sufficient in that it demonstrates the general layout, advantages and flaws that it shares with the general definition of a Peer-to-Peer network.

Advantages

The biggest advantage of Skype is that it should not incur any additional charges on the end-user. In reality, there are additional costs but these are generally invisible to the user as the ISP is responsible for regular maintenance and upgrades to the network. Nor is there the necessity for the user to keep up a server for dedicated use — this is all handled by Skype’s services. Another advantage of Skype is that it is relatively easy to use and is akin to most IM programs. This makes Skype perfect for online social meetings such as family conferences and online study groups, where not all of the users may be technically inclined.

• Free or Cheap
• No servers
• Easy to use

Disadvantages

Most of Skype’s flaws become evident in situations where technical efficiency or more moderation tools are necessary. Because Skype is p2p-based, each node requires multiple inbound and outbound connects. This generally results in greater overhead costs including bandwidth. Skype is also known to increase its own process priority. This means Skype will have more priority to access systems than other applications on the computer, this behavior may not be ideal for gaming or in other situations where other applications demand more system resources. Because Skype was designed to be easy to use, it is also less expressive in its ability to define user and moderation roles. For social voice chats this may not be a problem, but gaming and business users will often require this ability to provide a parallel to roles within their organization.

• Less efficient than Ventrilo and other Client-Server applications
• Greater overhead and bandwidth usage
• Little to no management and moderation tools

Ventrilo

Client-Server Diagram

In contrast to Skype’s Peer-to-Peer system, Ventrilo uses the Client-Server model. In the client-server model, nodes do not make any direct connections to other nodes. Instead, all nodes connect to the server which acts as a hub — it receives and relays only the necessary audio streams and data to individual nodes. The client-server model generally uses much less bandwidth and creates less overhead than the p2p system. The server’s role as a central hub also allows for more detailed roles and management tools available to the server administrators and users.

Advantages

Ventrilo will require less resource usage, both system and network related, than Skype. This is an especially useful trait in gaming where most users demand minimal application usage to ensure better in-game frame rates. The server can also act as a filter and management system, enabling more expressive user and moderator roles. Servers have the ability to create “Channels,” which act as partitions or virtual chatrooms within the server, allowing users to have conversions with certain subsets of the server population without having to go into a completely different conference room as you would with Skype. Rules can also be defined within the context of a specific channel.

• Less resource usage
• More moderation and management tools
• Greater organizational capabilities

Disadvantages

Ventrilo has its share of disadvantages. One being that it may require an additional cost to keep large servers running. Luckily, this cost is not great but it does exist and is evident to some frugal users. Another disadvantage is that it is not as easy to use as Skype — this is a drawback due to its ability to be customized to a group’s liking. Therefore Ventrilo may not be optimal in situations where a group wants to get up and running as quickly as possible.

• Requires server
• May require additional costs
• Not as easy to use as Skype

Conclusion

Skype and Ventrilo are both excellent tools. However, Skype may be more suitable for social groups (family chats, etc.) as it is easy to setup, use and costs nothing. Whereas Ventrilo may be more ideal for gaming and business users who require greater technical efficiency and more management tools at the cost of money and a greater learning curve.

2010 Ford Shelby GT500

Read the full press release below:

QuakeCon 2009 Gets Supercharged with the
Ventrilo Ultimate Power Up Sweepstakes
Winner Takes Off in New Ford Shelby GT500 Coupe

MESQUITE, TX – July 22, 2009 – Ventrilo, the premier group voice communications program used in tournaments and multiplayer games, is ready to blow the doors off of QuakeCon 2009 with the sponsorship of its second annual “QuakeCon Ultimate Power Up” Sweepstakes. One extremely lucky attendee will rocket away from QuakeCon 2009 in a brand new supercharged 2010 Ford Shelby Mustang GT500 Coupe, valued at approximately $52,000. The 14th annual QuakeCon will be held at the Gaylord Texan in Dallas from August 13 – 16 2009 and is open to the public and free to all attendees.

“One look under the hood of this 2010 Shelby and you’ll start strategizing on how to get your hands on this powerhouse street machine,” said Brian Knapp, president, Flagship Industries. “Ford and Shelby are both iconic American names that represent a long history of street legal horsepower, and it’s a thrill to be giving one away to the lucky winner of the Ventrilo Ultimate Power Up competition. As always it’s an honor to be working with our friends at id Software and giving back to the gaming community.”

“This is the most powerful production Mustang ever made and thanks to Ventrilo, someone from QuakeCon will walk away with the keys to this beast of a machine,” said Todd Hollenshead, president, id Software. “QuakeCon 2009 will be a can’t miss event for LAN fiends, game fans or id Software devotees; and Ventrilo giving away this bad ass muscle car is an example of why everyone needs to make sure that they have August 13 to 16 on their calendar for the world’s best video game party.”

The 2010 Ford Shelby Mustang GT500 Coupe to be given away will be Kona blue and comes with a six speed transmission mated to a supercharged 5.4 liter V-8 pumping out a brutal 540 horsepower and 510 lb-ft of pavement destroying torque. The car will be on display throughout QuakeCon in the main exhibition area.

A total of 100 tickets for the Shelby Mustang GT500 drawing will be awarded to QuakeCon attendees for everything from performance in the QuakeCon Pro, Open and Quick Draw Tournaments, to participation in other QuakeCon contests, events and random drawings. The winner will be randomly selected at 9 p.m. (Central Standard Time) on Saturday, August 15, as part of the tournament finals event on the QuakeCon Main Stage.

QuakeCon Power Up Rules:
QuakeCon 2009 registered attendees who are 18 years of age and older AND are legal residents of the United States, its territories and possessions and the District of Columbia are eligible to participate. No purchase necessary. A total of 100 raffle tickets will be distributed throughout the QuakeCon event. Additional information about contest rules, eligibility, restrictions and requirements will be available at www.quakecon.org.

About QuakeCon:
Often described as the “Woodstock of Gaming,” QuakeCon is a four-day, non-stop celebration of games and the people who play them. Free to all and open to the public, QuakeCon 2009 will feature North America’s largest Bring-Your-Own-Computer (BYOC) LAN party for nearly 3,000 people, drawings and contests for over $75,000 in cash and prizes, the $50,000 QUAKE LIVE Duel and Capture the Flag Championship tournaments, exhibits with the latest games and hardware, and non-stop entertainment, parties and events. First created in 1996 by a group of friends on IRC and now going into its fourteenth year, QuakeCon remains true to its original mission as an event created by gamers, for gamers. Sponsored by id Software and other industry-leading software and hardware manufacturers, QuakeCon continues to be run by a dedicated group of volunteers, including an executive team with more than 75 years of combined experience producing the event. 6,000 people attended QuakeCon 2008.

About Flagship Industries:
Flagship Industries Inc, located in Maryville, Illinois, was founded in 2003 to pursue the development and marketing of the Ventrilo product line which was originally started in the spring of 1999. Due to its superior sound quality, reliability, scalability, user interface and ever evolving feature set, Ventrilo has become the preferred group communications tool. More information can be found at www.ventrilo.com

About id Software:
id Software, part of the ZeniMax Media Inc. family of companies, has provided technical, design and artistic leadership as a world-renowned game developer and technology innovator since its founding in 1991. id Software’s iconic brands such as Wolfenstein, DOOM, QUAKE and Enemy Territory have become staples of popular culture for generations of gamers. More information on id Software can be found at www.idsoftware.com.

id, Wolfenstein, DOOM, QUAKE, RAGE, Enemy Territory, and QuakeCon and related logos are registered trademarks or trademarks owned by ZeniMax Media Inc.

All other trademarks and trade names are properties of their respective owners.

Designing your MOTD with Wordpad

First, to design your new MOTD, you’ll have to start up Wordpad. Open up Wordpad by entering "wordpad” in the search box if you use Windows Vista, or just press the WINDOWS BUTTON + R and type “wordpad” (without the quotes) and press enter. By now you should have the Wordpad editing program in front of you. Now, just design the MOTD to your liking.

Opening up the file with Notepad

Once you’re satisfied with your MOTD, go to File > Save As and save the document somewhere where you’ll remember. Once you’ve saved it, go to the folder where you saved it and right click on the file, then open it up with a program called notepad — not Wordpad. If you have successfully opened up the file with notepad, you can skip the next paragraph.

Notepad may not appear under the “open with” menu. If it’s not there, click on the “choose default program” option… then expand the “other programs” section and select notepad and uncheck “always use this program to open this type of file” option.

You’re almost there!

Now, you should have notepad in front of you displaying code that looks similar to:


{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang1033{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fcharset0 Arial;}}
{\colortbl ;\red255\green0\blue0;}
{\*\generator Msftedit 5.41.21.2508;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\cf1\b\f0\fs32 Welcome to My Ventrilo Server\cf0\b0\fs20\par
\par
This is an MOTD!\par
}

Now, press CTRL + A to select all of the text, and then press CTRL + C to copy it to your clipboard.

Adding it to your Ventrilo Server. Voila!

For the final step, open up the MOTD editor in your ventrilo server by logging in as admin, then right click and go to “Server Admin” and select MOTD or Guest MOTD *. Then paste (CTRL + V) it in the window and click on send. Now your custom styled MOTD should be all done!

*Guest MOTD will be displayed to all non-users, the regular MOTD option will be displayed to those who have accounts on your ventrilo server.

Conclusion

We hope you found this tutorial helpful and easy to use. Ventrilo is a great program which allows for much customization. My Ventrilo Server offers affordable and easy to use Ventrilo servers for all types of users, clans and guilds. So if you’re ever in need of a new Ventrilo Server, be sure to check out our packages.

Caveats

Unfortunately, Ventrilo only supports Rich Text Format (RTF) which allows for basic styling such as fonts, colors, bold, etc. Advanced features like images like you would see in HTML (websites) are not supported.

Download Ventrilo 3.0.5

Change log:

Logitech:

Added support for G35 headset soft buttons.

Added support for G19 Color Gamepanel LCD and soft buttons.

Modified G15 / G13 / Z-10 soft buttons to be interactive instead of just page selection.

Button1 = Menu
Button2 = OK
Button3 = Scroll Up
Button4 = Scroll Down

See documentation for more details about button usage.

Modified support for G15 / 13 to display more pages than the original 4, includes private chat pages.

Added option to G15 / G19 to force the Ventrilo display to the front when the program starts.

Be sure to read the documentation for the specific device support to learn how the soft buttons are processed and when they can be used depending on which page is being displayed. Each menu button will have a “Help” option at the bottom of the list.

Overlay:

Modified to support background image.

Modified to support user pictures for transmitter.

Added Setup-Overlay option “Extra width (pixels)” to make the overlay wider.

Improved response time when manually moving the Overlay.

Added “Mute Microphone” to in-Overlay menu.

Added “Mute Sound” to in-Overlay menu.

Added “Hide / Show overlay” to in-Overlay menu.

Added “Options” to in-Overlay menu.

Added “Help” to in-Overlay menu.

Added support to scroll back / forward through text messages.

Tweaked some of the colors for status indicators to create more contrast.

Modified scrolling events list to alternate colors for each new item.

Be sure to read the documentation for Overlay support to learn how the menu options work and what they can do.

User Options window:

New window used for setting unique information for specific user names.

Ability to locally mute, kick, ban and set transmitting images for G19 / Overlay.

Bug fixes:

Complaint List window: Fixed month display being off by one month.

Rcon window: Fixed window closing if escape pressed while scrolling text window has focus.

Private Chat window: Fixed new text scroll not working when minimized.

Global Chat window: Fixed new text scroll not working when minimized.

Added support for German keyboard character “<” as Bind. Experimental at this time.

Menu:

Added View->User Options.

Modified User->Private Chat to have a checkmark if it is already open for the selected user.

Enabling dual ventrilo copies:

1. First you’ll need to make sure you have a shortcut to ventrilo on your desktop, quick launch bar, start menu, or somewhere else.
2. Once you’ve found the shortcut, right click on it and go to “Properties.”
3. In the properties window look at the “Target” field/text box and append ” -m” to the end. The contents of that box should look like: "C:\Program Files\Ventrilo\Ventrilo.exe" -m
4. Now, to start up multiple ventrilo clients, just double click on that shortcut for each new client you want.

1. Open up your ventrilo client and go to “Setup.”
2. Enable direct sound (check “Use direct sound”) and click on the SFX button.
3. Select “Compressor” and click on “Add.” Use these settings in the compressor properties:

• Gain (this is the setting that sets the volume for all users, change at your own liking): ~15
• Attack: 0.01
• Release: ~500
• Threshold: ~30
• Ratio: 100
• Pre-delay: 4.0

Another major difference between these two codecs is the bandwidth (or the rate at which your internet is transferring data) usage. GSM will generally use more bandwidth than Speex, although both offer lower quality formats that use less bandwidth to help compensate for this. But strictly speaking, the high quality GSM format will use more bandwidth than the high quality Speex format. If some of your users have a slower internet speed you may want to stick with speex, or use one of the lower quality formats. This should not be an issue for most people with a DSL, fiber or cable internet connection.

If you’re a My Ventrilo Server customer, you can choose from all of the codecs offered by Ventrilo in our control panel. If your current ventrilo host restricts you to the lowest quality codecs, you can switch to My Ventrilo Server and choose from any compatible codec you want at no extra charge.

Use the code:

50off

You’re free to use the high quality ventrilo codecs (e.g. Speex, GSM 44khz) at no extra charge. View all slot configurations here.