Ventrilo is one of the most popular pieces of Voice over IP (VoIP) software out there. Ventrilo allows you to talk through a microphone, hooked up to your computer, to anyone anywhere in the world.

And best of all, its completely free to use, but you do have to pay if you wish to own your own Ventrilo server. The sound quality when using Ventrilo is very good and you can be talking to more than one person at once, a sort of digital conference call. If its your first time using Ventrilo you will have a little bit of setup to do after installing before you can hop onto a Ventrilo server. Once you have Ventrilo open

it should look like the image on the left. The first thing you should do is click the small arrow to the right of where it says “User Name”.

A small box will appear and now you should hit “New”, this will allow you to type in a name that you would like to be identified as when you are in a Ventrilo server. Simply type in the name and then hit “Ok” to return back to the main Ventrilo program.

Next you will need to add a server to your server list. This can be your own server, a friends, something for work, any server that you know of and would like to join. First, hit the small arrow to the right of “Server” and then when the box pops up select “New”. This will allow you to type in a name for the Ventrilo server. After naming it you will need to put in the servers Hostname or IP and its Port Number. This is information that the owner of the server has and will have to give to you. Not all Ventrilo servers are password protected, but if one is you will have to type the password in on this screen. Once you have all that information inputted hit “Ok”, and now you are ready to go! Make sure your user name is selected, and then select the server you just added. Now all you have to do is hit “Connect” and you should join the server.
You will also want to check out the “Setup” menu to learn the various commands. One of the important things you will want to look at in the Setup menu and under the “Voice” tab is where it says “Use Push To Talk Hotkey (PTT Mode)”.

If you have this function de-selected people will be able to hear you whenever you speak into your microphone. “Sensitivity” refers to how faint of a sound it will pick up and “Silence Time” refers to how long you must be silent before your microphone stops transmitting. If you check the box your voice will only transmit when you push a hotkey, instead of whenever you make a noise. Check the box and then click on the text box to the right of where it says “Hotkey”, then push a button on your keyboard or mouse. That button is now your hotkey and whenever you hold it down your voice will transmit to the Ventrilo server.
Ventrilo can seem like a confusing bit of software at first, but hopefully now you arre well on your way to becoming an advanced user.

Tags: Ventrilo Client, Ventrilo Connectin Editor, Ventrilo Push to Talk, Ventrilo Server