Voice Chat Help Page
Frequently Asked Questions
General and Social Issues
Installation / Can't Connect / Can't Make It Work Issues
Sound Configuration Issues
How do I talk? top
Click on and hold down the CTRL (control) button on your keyboard. You
will see a small white triangle next to your name when you're talking.
How do I change my name? top
If you're using a registered username, register another one (remember
you can only have three names per email address). You can also logout
and re-login with a different name.
How do I boot out / ignore an obnoxious user?
top
Report the user to any Operator or write to abuse@lebanonvoice.com.
What are the system requirements?
top
- Windows 95/98/2000/NT
- 500KB disk space
- Pentium 100 MHz or faster (200 MHz recommended)
- A sound card
- Internet Explorer 4.0 or later, Netscape 4.08 or later, or AOL 4.0
or later.*
- Microphone (headset model recommended)
- Speakers
Note: If you do not have a small speaker icon on the right hand side
of the taskbar (normally at the bottom of your screen), then you either
do not have a sound card or do not have appropriate sound drivers installed.
I get the error "HTTP Did Not Parse".
What should I do? top
Generally, this occurs if you reject our license agreement by NOT clicking
"Yes" when the digital certificate is displayed. To resolve the problem,
accept the agreement by clicking "Yes" when prompted to accept it. If
the agreement no longer comes up, try uninstalling and reinstalling the
plugin by following the instructions below for an Internet Explorer browser or Netscape browser.
Why do I get a gray or white box while waiting
for the plug-in to load? top
A gray or white box may appear during the first 60 seconds while the
web page is loading. After loading, you should see a "Security Warning"
window pop up, to which you want to click "yes." Beyond this point, the
plug-in should work normally. If you continue to see this gray or white
box, please try uninstalling and reinstalling as directed below for an
Internet Explorer browser or Netscape browser.
I see a message that says "You are not
connected...." top
This message may appear for the following reasons:
* You are behind a firewall or otherwise unable to connect to the HearMe
voice servers
* The HearMe voice servers are currently down
If you suspect a firewall problem, HearMe voice chat clientcan be made to
work with the cooperation of your company's Information Technology (IT)
department. Please tell your firewall administrator(s) within that department
that HearMe "relies on the client software making outgoing TCP requests
to servers listening on ports 8800-8809. All of the ports from 8800 to
8809 need to be open." If your IT department can reconfigure the firewall
appropriately, then you'll be able to use HearMe successfully. An alternative
solution, which many people have reported success with, is to obtain access
to a modem dial-in Internet Sevice Provide (ISP) -- and use HearMe through
the ISP.
If you believe that HearMe's voice servers are down, please feel free
to submit a bug report and also try again later. We make every effort
to perform routine maintenance in the early morning hours -- so as to
minimize any disruption -- and we appreciate your support in this area.
My Internet Explorer says "Your browser is not
configured to install ActiveX plug-ins" when I try to install voice chat client.
What's wrong? top
To enable the installation of voice chat client, perform the following steps:
- Select the Tools menu.
- Select the Internet Options menu item.
- Select the Security tab.
- Either set the security level to at most Medium or click the Custom
Level button.
- If you clicked Custom Level, a new window will pop up. Select Enable
for the following items:
- Download signed ActiveX controls
- Run ActiveX controls and plug-ins
- Script ActiveX controls marked safe for scripting
How do I uninstall and reinstall the voice
chat client using Internet Explorer? top
- Open Internet Explorer
- Close all other Internet Explorer windows except one. Make sure that
the one remaining Internet Explorer window does not contain a "Powered
by HearMe" logo on it.
- If there is a HearMe VoiceCONTACT icon in your system tray (that is,
if you've invited people to a private conversation using HearMe VoiceCONTACT
before), right click on the icon and select "Exit" to shut it down
- Select "View | Internet Options" from the menu on Internet Explorer
5.x (or "Tools | Internet Options" on Internet Explorer 4.x)
- Click "Settings" (this appears immediately in the section "Temporary
Internet Files")
- Click "View Objects"
- For each object with the name "HearMe VoicePresence", "HearMe voice chat client",
or "HearMe Microphone Configuration", select the object, right-click
on it, and then select "Remove" from the popup menu. (If right-clicking
is difficult for you, you can alternatively select "File | Remove Program
File" from the menu)
- Completely exit Internet Explorer (by closing all windows and clicking
OK as necessary)
- If you relaunch Internet Explorer, follow again the above steps, and
find that the HearMe files that you attempted to remove are still present,
please also follow the Netscape uninstallation instructions below before
continuing.
- Open Regedit
- From your Windows task bar, click the "Start" button and select "Run...".
- Type "regedit" and click OK
- In the "Registry Editor" window, click the + (plus sign) button next
to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" and then next to "SOFTWARE"
- Select the folder labeled "HearMe"
- Select "Edit | Delete" from the menu
- Click "Yes" to confirm deletion of the key
- Close the the "Registry Editor" window. (Your changes are saved automatically)
- Visit a new web page to reinstall. Visit our demo site by going
to http://www.hearme.com/products/voice chat client/tryitnow.html
and you will automatically have the software reinstalled
- You should see the following upon installation:
* A security warning popup should appear automatically, click Yes
* A license agreement window should then popup, click "Accept" to continue
* You should then see a box on the web page with a list of people (if
any) concurrently visiting the web page. You may hear those people talking
How do I uninstall and reinstall voice chat clientBasic using Netscape? top
- Open Netscape
- Close all other Netscape windows except one. Make sure that the one
remaining Netscape window does not contain a "Powered by HearMe" logo
on it.
- If there is a HearMe VoiceCONTACT icon in your system tray (that is,
if you've invited people to a private conversation using HearMe VoiceCONTACT
before), right click on the icon and select "Exit" to shut it down
- Select "Edit | Preferences" from the menu
- Click on + (plus sign) next to "Advanced". (This appears on left side
of the window)
- Click on "SmartUpdate"
- Select "Hearme VoicePresence" or "HearMe voice chat client" from the right-hand
side window and click the Uninstall button
- Click "Yes" to confirm your uninstallation
- Close Netscape
- Just to double-check, open Windows Explorer and make sure that
the following files are deleted from your Netscape directory (if they
are not deleted, then delete them manually):
* C:\Program Files\Netscape\Communicator\Program\Plugins\npjac.dll
* C:\Program Files\Netscape\Communicator\Program\Plugins\npevp.dll
- Open Regedit
- From your Windows task bar, click the "Start" button and select "Run..."
- Type "regedit" and click OK
- In the "Registry Editor" window, click the + (plus sign) buttons to
expand this tree hierarchy. Click the + sign next to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE",
then next to "SOFTWARE"
- Next, select the folder labeled "HearMe"
- Select "Edit | Delete" from the menu
- Click "Yes" to confirm deletion of the key
- Close the the "Registry Editor" window. (Your changes are saved automatically)
- Visit a new web page to reinstall. Visit our demo site by going
to http://www.hearme.com/products/voice chat client/tryitnow.html
and you will automatically have the software reinstalled
- You should see the following upon installation:
* On that web page, you should see a puzzle piece that's labeled "Click
here to get the plug-in", click there
* A window that gives you the option to "Get the plugin" will appear,
click on "Get the plugin"
* A "Java Security" window should appear, click "Grant"
* A license agreement should then popup, click "Accept" to continue
* You will get a message saying that you need to restart Netscape. Often,
so long as the below steps work properly, this can be ignored
* You should then see a box on the web page with a list of people (if
any) concurrently visiting the web page. You may hear those people talking
If you continue to experience problems under Netscape, please submit
a bug report and consider following one of the following two options:
either try again under Microsoft Internet Explorer or install a new copy
of Netscape in a separate directory, and attempt to get the software to
work under the new copy of Netscape (we've found that new copies of Netscape
work almost all of the time).
Why can't I see another person that I know is looking
at the same page? top
For each person, verify that the web "Address" displayed by the web browser
is exactly, verbatim identical. For example, if one person's web
address reads http://www.hearme.com/ but another person's reads http://hearme.com/,
then they will not be able to see each other.
The owner/editor/controller of the web page can make some more advanced
changes to the web page to circumvent this type of issue. Web page owners
should seek advanced assistance at http://www.hearme.com/ within the "Help" pages
for voice chat clientBasic, look for information about "channel names".
When I was first asked to download your plugin,
I cancelled the download; now it won't ask me to download the plugin and
just gives an error message when I visit a page that has the control in
it. What can I do? top
Since you cancelled the initial plugin download, the web browser thinks
that the required plugin has already been downloaded to your PC, even
though it hasn't. Since the web browser cannot find the HearMe plugin,
it issues an error. Try uninstalling and then installing the plugin by
following the instructions above for an Internet Explorer browser or Netscape browser.
Where can I buy a microphone or a headset microphone?
top
We recommend that you visit the following web site for a high-quality,
inexpensive headset microphone: the store.
Other people can't hear me. How do I adjust my microphone?
top
This is typically caused by:
- The microphone’s position relative to your mouth is not correct.
- The microphone’s volume is too low.
We recommend that you try the HearMe "Audio Configuration Wizard" to
help you configure your microphone. It may take 30 seconds or so to open
this web page, but this should help you to configure your microphone and
speakers:
Advanced Instructions.
If using the HearMe Audio Configuration Wizard does not work, you can
also try taking the following steps:
- Double click on the small speaker icon in the bottom right-hand corner
of your Windows taskbar. The Play/Volume Control window appears.
NOTE: If you do not see a speaker icon, your computer is
not set up to use sound. You will need to install a sound card as
well as the software (the "drivers" that come with the card) to control
it and participate in live voice chat.
- Select the Options menu, Properties submenu, and then the Recording
radio button.
- In the "Show the following volume controls" window, make sure the
Mic (Microphone) checkbox is checked.
- Click OK. At this point, the volume control panel may change to reflect
input volume level control.
- When the Record Control window appears, make sure the Mic Volume "Select"
box is checked and all other Select boxes are unchecked to limit any
recording noise from other devices.
- Again select the Options menu, the Properties submenu, but then select
the Playback radio button.
- In the "Show the following volume controls" window, make sure that
Microphone and Wave are checked, and then click on OK.
- When the Play/Volume Control window appears, make sure the "Mute all"
is unchecked and the Microphone Volume Mute checkbox is checked. This
prevents simultaneous playback of your voice while speaking.
- You can turn the microphone volume level up or down now to suit your
preferences.
If the volume is still too low, you can select (with some sound cards)
the Advanced option under the microphone volume control. Check either
the Automatic Gain Control checkbox or the Mic Gain checkbox to further
increase the volume.
Why does the microphone automatically mute when F9/Talk
is pressed? top
In order to prevent squealing from audio feedback, voice chat clientautomatically
and intentionally mutes your microphone on the Windows Play Control panel
for the Microphone Volume. Again, this prevents audio feedback problems.
Others can still hear you, but you cannot hear yourself (you can verify
that you are indeed being heard by trying the HearMe Audio Configuration Wizard).
HearMe highly recommends that the Mute box be checked.
When I try to talk, I get this
message: "recording/playback device in use." top
To solve this problem,
1. Verify that no other audio applications are running.
2. If the error persists, restart your computer to ensure that no other
audio applications are running.
Why can I hear others talking but cannot
hear myself? top
More than likely, the Mute box on the Windows Play Control panel for
the Microphone Volume is checked. This is intentionally set to prevent
feedback and other noise from interfering with your speech. HearMe highly
recommends that the Mute box be checked.
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