Ventrilo For Communication For The Chronically Ill

My partner and I play World of Warcraft together. If you do, you may know that the in-game voice chat feature leaves much to be desired. To help make cooperative play more fun and to minimize the amount of time I spend zooming in to read text we went looking for a voice chat solution that would be free, work on our home network, and work on both my Mac and his PC. Our solution was Ventrilo.

Soon, we discovered that we’d keep Ventrilo running even after I had to log out to rest so that we could still chat about that neat web page he found or if I needed to ask him to get me something. If I’m having trouble with being loud enough to be heard the software can adjust for that. I’m sure our neighbors love it because now we do a lot less yelling down the length of our house.

Plus, with the addition of my wireless headset if I get up to do something I still have a way to ask for help if I fall and my partner can still keep an eye on me while he works.

We still use text based instant messaging (IM) chat, such as Google Talk, to communicate but having the option of voice too has been nice. The IM chat seems better for sending links to one another, and it’s more private if my paid carer is around. However, Ventrilo has real advantages too:

• It allows my partner to read to me on days my eyes are not functioning well.
• I don’t need to have my laptop right in front of me to communicate.
• Some days I can’t type and then the text based IM isn’t a good option for giving information.
• I can keep knitting and still chat, too!

One side benefit is that Ventrilo has helped me feel less lonely. My partner spends lots of time with his computer so he can work. Because of my chronic illness, I spend lots of time in my bed or curled up on the sofa. There’s something about hearing a voice rather than just seeing letters on a screen that’s much more comforting.

If you and the other people in your house each have their own Mac (Tiger or later) or PC (Win 95 or later) running on a home network this may work for you. Each person will need a microphone and headphones or a headset as well.

I’ll be honest, this isn’t the easiest thing in the world to set up. I sure can’t write a walk-through here. If you’re not familiar with using the Terminal and command line, now might be the time to call a friend who is. [Ed: ATMac will be posting detailed instructions with screen shots showing you how to set up your own Ventrilo server as soon as we can manage it!]

- Lisa Connor

Photo Credit: Laptop photo by Adactio