First Time On Teamspeak
So you’ve got a team and you want to speak to them? You might want to use TeamSpeak then. (It’s also handy if you just want to get in on this “talking to people around the world without paying phone companies a million dollars a second” thing). And you’re in luck, because a TeamSpeak client is entirely free and with a simple TeamSpeak server you can host hundreds of people.
TeamSpeak channels provide conference calls for the computer generation, without all the convoluted keypressing and cost of a regular phone system. But once you’ve downloaded your client, how do you get up and chatting?
Finding somewhere to talk.
When first booting up a TeamSpeak client, you’re faced with this rather intimidatingly blank screen. Even moving across to “Connection > Connect” leaves things looking very barren, without even a “New server” button in sight.
There are two ways to proceed: odds are you’ve already got a destination channel in mind. TeamSpeak is the Voice over Internet Protocol of choice for first-person-shooters. Massively online RPGs like EVE Online slightly favor Ventrilo voice-servers, but in the fast and furious worlds of Counter-Strike and the like TeamSpeak is still king. If you’ve just gained access to a clan and need to be kept in the tactical loop while defending de_dust, just right click on “Servers” and select “Add Server”.
If you haven’t joined any audio clubs yet, don’t worry: TeamSpeak’s video-gaming roots will help you with the server browser. Just hit the “Web Server List” tab and you’ll be brought to loads of servers.
Far too many loads, in fact, and most of them useless so it’s time to get a little picky. Click on the “Change Filter” button.
Now you can cut down the multiplicity of false options to a few you can actually use. Don’t choose clan servers - unless you’re already invited you won’t be welcome. Choose servers without a password (there’s not much point in connecting to a server you can’t get into!), and select some minimum number of people. There are a huge number of ghost servers, set up for clans that aren’t playing right now, for events that are over or haven’t started yet, and of course those set up by people who aren’t as popular as they think they are. Filtering by country will help you get a decent connection, as well as improving your odds of being able to speak the language.
I’m in. Now what?
The first thing you have to do is watch your mouth! By default a TeamSpeak client has voice-activated transmission, so from the instant you connect people can hear everything you say (or do). Hit “Settings > Sound Input/Output Settings” to fix that. You can go with the classic CB-radio style “Push button to talk” option, in which case you should choose a key comfortably close to whichever controls you’ll be using during the game. A popular option is “CAPS LOCK”, or something else your pinky can press while the important fingers get their WASD on.
If you’re sure you won’t be interrupted (or incriminated) when talking non-stop, go with the “voice activation” option where you’ll transmit anything above a certain volume. Just be sure to use the slider and the “Activate Local Test Mode” to choose a level where you won’t have to shout but you won’t be inflicting unwelcome background noises on your new teammates. There’s no better way to get thrown out of a CounterStrike clan than by vigorously scratching yourself at them.
Now you’re online and ready to roll. Choose a channel and get chatting!
