VoiceChatter

VoiceChatter

Original author(s)	Weiland Software, LLC
Developer(s)	Chris Weiland
Initial release	November 2007
Stable release	1.3.0 (Client) 1.3.0 (Server) / 13 December 2009
Written in	C++
Operating system	Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, most POSIX OSes
Type	Voice over IP
License	Client: GPLv3 Server: Commercial or GPLv3
Website	http://www.voicechatter.org

VoiceChatter is a free, open source, cross platform, Voice over IP application. It is very similar to other commercial applications like TeamSpeak or Ventrilo. VoiceChatter uses a client-server architecture where different clients connect to the same server in order to speak with each other. VoiceChatter is targeted at gamers, so it is designed to be as light weight as possible without sacrificing sound quality or user friendliness.

Platform Support

Both the client and server have native support for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and most POSIX-based operating systems such as Unix, Linux, Solaris and BSD. Since VoiceChatter was designed to be cross-platform and is open source, even if the desired platform isn't supported out of the box, it can be easily ported to virtually any OS.

Main Features

While VoiceChatter doesn't have all of the bells and whistles that other applications have, all of the essentials are implemented. Some that require a little explanation are:

• Channels and subchannels - users can only speak with and hear other users in the same channel
• Passworded and user/group authenticated channels
• Admin abilities such as moving/kicking/banning clients
• Client and channel "comments" similar to Ventrilo
• Text chat so that people can still communicate without a microphone

Sound Quality

VoiceChatter uses the Speex codec for voice compression, which provides high quality, lightweight, low latency, and packet-loss tolerant voice transmission. The sound quality can be adjusted in the server configuration to save on bandwidth at the cost of sound quality.

VoiceChatter also takes advantage of the Speex automatic volume normalization feature. This means that everyone will have roughly the same volume when speaking without making any adjustments. This prevents the need for each person to repeatedly tweak their own volume settings in order to manually normalize each other's volume.

Users and Groups

For the purpose of granting admin privileges, VoiceChatter has the concept of users and groups. Each client logs in to the server with a registered user account (or the guest account if the client does not have a user account), and each user can belong to any number of groups. The server administrator can create any number of groups for what is needed. Every admin privilege can be enabled or disabled for each group, and each user can override the privilege of its groups.

Remote Admin Interface

The VoiceChatter server can open a raw TCP socket that accepts text commands similar to a shell. This can be used directly with your favorite telnet client or can, for example, accept commands from a web application. However, no such web based admin interface currently exists. Any admin function available to the client can also be done through the remote admin interface.

Licensing

The VoiceChatter client is available under the GPLv3 license. The VoiceChatter server software is available under a dual license. If the VoiceChatter software is to be used by a company or other entity for the purpose of commercial sales or rentals of VoiceChatter server instances, then the commercial license is required. The commercial license also involves a monthly fee. All other uses of the VoiceChatter server software is covered by the GPLv3, and the software can be used for free.

Default Ports

Voice: 7878 (UDP)

TCP Admin Interface: 7878 (TCP)

The voice and TCP admin interface ports always share the same port number.

See also

• Ventrilo
• TeamSpeak
• Mumble
• Roger Wilco

External links

• VoiceChatter Homepage
• VoiceChatter SourceForge Page
• VoiceChatter Freshmeat Page