SquidCam Frequently Asked Questions:

Q ) What is SquidCam? A ) SquidCam is a video chat application intended for use with broadband connections. It enables you to have a conversation with one or more people using SquidCam over a network (LAN and/or Internet) connection. SquidCam features audio and video connectivity, as well as text messaging, all without the need of a special service. Feature highlights include: A convenient, hands-free audio setup Extremely low latency compared to other video and VoIP applications No user limits: converse with as many people as your connection can handle LANcast mode for multi-person conferences over a local network Compatibility with hundreds of audio and video input devices (incl. USB and FireWire) Audio output device selection: chat using a headset while playing iTunes through your speakers Text messaging Your gateway to free long distance No advertisements, no monthly service fees, no hassle Q) Does SquidCam allow cross-platform video conferencing? A) Absolutely! The SquidCam client can communicate with other SquidCam clients regardless of what platform (OS X or Windows) is currently in use: OS X<->Windows Windows<->Windows OS X<->OS X Q) How much does SquidCam cost? A) SquidCam is freeware. You can use it free of charge.     Q ) What are the system requirements? A ) Any Macintosh computer running MacOS X (minimum of 10.1.5 recommended; compatible with MacOS X 10.2.x and above) or Windows (Win2k or WinXP recommended) with access to a TCP/IP (LAN and/or Internet) connection. A microphone and camera are not necessary, but obviously allow you to send audio and video during your communications session. At this time, SquidCam will only communicate with other SquidCam clients.     Q ) What if I don't know my IP address, or even have a dynamic IP address? A ) You can obtain a webloID through Weblopedia. This is used to track your IP address. Note that this is optional. SquidCam provides facilities for you to obtain your current IP address without the need of a third party (such as Weblopedia). The webloID is simply a convenient way to establish connections without the hassle of obtaining and relaying your current IP address to other users.     Q ) Is SquidCam compatible with any dictation software? A ) SquidCam is fully comptaible with dictation software, such as iListen from MacSpeech, Inc. We highly recommend this software if you require speech-to-text services (e.g. hands-free text communication with a deaf friend/client).     Q ) Do you have any hardware recommendations? A ) We haven't tested all available hardware, but we certainly have some suggestions: The faster your Mac, the better. Your system will spend a significant amount of time compressing and decompressing data during a session. We've had no problems with person-to-person conversations on a G3, but multi-person sessions will start to reach a processing peak and therefore require a first generation G4 system. A fast connection, such as a cable modem or DSL. If you have a modem (i.e. connected to a phone line; POTS) connection it may work, but don't be surprised if your session receives (and sends) few or no video frames during a session. We recommend dual channel ISDN (128kbps) as a bare minimum for a session. Cable modems work exceptionally well with video sessions. DSL connections will typically perform better than cable connections because of the upstream bandwidth. That is, the amount of data that you can send from your system. The more upstream bandwidth you have, the more data (audio and video) you can send. If you don't own a webcam, we suggest the iBOT or iBOT Pro from Orange Micro. It's compact, sturdy, offers a FireWire connector, and best of all it has a driver for OS X (many manufacturers still don't provide an OS X driver). We've found it to be very fast and stable. (Note: this isn't a paid endorsement and we haven't received any free/discounted merchandise from Orange Micro, we simply had good experiences with this camera during testing). USB-based webcams can also offer exceptional quality, though many of the lower priced solutions deliver poor color quality and low framerates. A headset is a really good option for conferencing. Plantronics offers a wide variety of well-constructed headsets (as mentioned above, we haven't received any free or discounted hardware; this is not a paid endorsement). We've tested using a few USB-based models and found them to be consistently reliable: they have both good input and output quality. If you intend to use SquidCam frequently, we strongly suggest getting a headset as your experience will be much more enjoyable. If you already own a webcam, we suggest determining if the manufacturer provides a MacOS X driver. Unfortunately, this seems to be a rare occurrence with a few minor exceptions (Logitech now offers an OS X driver for some webcam models). Apple has added a universal driver for FireWire-based cameras, although this is only available starting with Mac OS X 10.2 (aka Jaguar). If you can't find a working driver, we suggest checking the website of IOXperts. IOXperts provide drivers that are compatible with several USB and FireWire cameras. We've tested with the iMic from Griffin Technology and found it to work exceptionally well (running both audio input and output simultaneously). If used for audio input (microphone), the software conversion checkbox (audio input prefs pane) must be checked. We've also tested the iVoice microphone from MacAlly (the original iVoice, not the upcoming 'iVoice 2'). It works well as either an input or output device, but not as both. Our testing has shown that when used for both input and output, the output of the device will "bleed" over to the input. The result is that the person you're having a conversation with will hear himself/herself. Despite the input/output limitation, it's a sturdy and reliable device with good audio input quality.     Q ) Is SquidCam compatible with my Canon DV camcorder? A ) We have tested the Canon ZR25 with SquidCam. The audio and video feed worked flawlessly (both under Mac OS X 10.1.x and 10.2). However, we cannot guarantee that your camera/camcorder will work with SquidCam. Please download SquidCam, connect your video hardware to your system, and run SquidCam to see if it works correctly.     Q ) Are there plans for a Windows version? What about a MacOS 9.x version? A ) A Windows version is now available. Please check our download section. There will be no MacOS 9 version.     Q ) What is the LANcast feature? A ) LANcast is an extremely easy way to join a multi-person chat on a local network. Once you've launched SquidCam, you simply need to join (command-J) the LANcast, and you'll be presented with a window for each user currently in the LANcast. A single window handles the text messaging for the LANcast. The LANcast feature is useful for anything from a LAN party to a business meeting. Future versions of SquidCam will offer a group whiteboard within the LANcast feature.     Q ) Will SquidCam work with a cable modem? A ) SquidCam works extremely well with a cable modem connection. Your device may require a configuration change to allow connections on a specific port, and therefore allow SquidCam to receive calls. Please check out "NAT" section below for more information.     Q ) Will SquidCam work with NetMeeting or MSN Messenger? A ) No. We no plans to be compatible with these applications.     Q ) Will SquidCam work with a firewall? A ) Yes. You must open the port range 16967 to 16969 for both TCP and UDP packet types.     Q ) Will SquidCam work with a NAT device? A ) Absolutely. SquidCam has been tested with several popular NAT-based devices, including the Airport Base Station from Apple Computer, Inc. For outgoing calls, no special configuration is needed. For incoming calls, you will need to modify your NAT device settings, just as you would if you were running a web or ftp server. The setup requires two steps: 1) Determine which internal IP address will receive calls, 2) then set your NAT device to allow packets arriving at port '16969' to be sent to this IP. Once this is set, you should be able to receive incoming calls.     Q ) I represent a corporate/educational institution. Can you provide a special version of SquidCam to handle our needs? A ) Absolutely. Please contact us through the support form and we'll get back to you as soon as possible. The more information you can provide, the more thorough we can be with our answer(s).     Q ) How stable is SquidCam? A ) Experiences will vary from system to system. Our own experience has been quite good. The longest duration we have run SquidCam is slightly over twenty-three days (non-stop; no re-launch or restart of any kind). We're certain it would've been longer, had it not been for the fact that we needed to replace the installed version (version upgrade). We hope to run a longer trial test in the near future. Our test system configuration: Titanium Powerbook (G4/400) 128 megs of memory Mac OS X 10.2.1 QuickTime 6.0.1 Orange Micro iBOT IOXperts FireWire driver     Q ) There are certain features I'd like to see in SquidCam. I also have some questions not covered here, and I want to comment on your product. How can I relay all this to the support side of Weblopedia? A ) Please use the support form, and thank you for any comments/questions/criticisms you send us. We certainly appreciate all feedback.     Q ) Are there any Easter Eggs? A ) There's at least one...     Q ) Why call it "SquidCam"? A ) Great question!! Take your pick: 1) Because it's a difficult name to forget, 2) All the good names were taken, 3) We needed an excuse for a "name our app" contest