Conference Help

The Conference page contains the Knock, Chat, Look, Control, and Intercom service buttons. Through these services you will be able to engage in real time person-to-person interaction. These services allow you to directly interact with the site owner.

Conference services allow you to communicate with Big Planet DWP owners in private chat rooms, talk directly with owners through the Intercom service as though using a phone. You could even look at the owner's computer screen or operate the owner's computer from your own computer.

In order for these services to work, you and the site owner will need to be connected to the internet and not behind a firewall that prevents outside connections. You can determine if the owner's Conference services are available by the on-line status indicator located on this page.

Note: The owner might appear to be offline if he or she is behind a firewall.

How to:

• Knock
• Chat
• Look
• Control
• Intercom

To chat:

1. Click "Chat".
   You might need to log in or ask for permission from the site owner before continuing.
2. When the Chat window is displayed, type your first message and click the Send button or press Enter.
   Note: To insert a carriage return in your message, press Ctrl+Enter.
3. Your message is copied to the transcript panel in the upper part of the window. You can type more messages immediately or wait for a reply from the other user.
4. The reply is displayed below your message in the transcript panel. You can keep typing messages back and forth as long as you like.
   
5. When you've finished chatting, click the Disconnect button, then click the Close box.

Note: When either party disconnects, the session is ended, and the message at the bottom of the window changes to Disconnected.

To control a site owner's computer:

1. Click "Control".
   You might need to log in or ask for permission from the owner before continuing.
2. Once you have connected with the owner, the other computer's desktop will be displayed in a screen-sharing window.
   
3. While this window is active, you can use your mouse and keyboard to operate the other computer. Clicking in a screen-sharing window makes it the active window.
   
4. To return to your own computer, click outside the screen-sharing window.
5. To stop controlling, click the Close button in the upper right corner of the screen-sharing window. The program will close the window and end the connection.

Note: The Control service does not support the full-screen mode of the MS-DOS Prompt. Press Alt+Enter to shift the MS-DOS Prompt from full-screen mode to windowed mode.

If a screen-sharing window doesn't open, it might mean you have one of the following problems:

• You have not been accepted for the Control service by the site owner;
• The site owner might not currently be online;
• The site owner might be behind a firewall; or
• Another visitor might be controlling that computer. Two visitors cannot control the same site's computer at the same time.

The Intercom service lets you and a site owner talk to each other as if your computers were telephones. To use this service, you'll need to have a sound card, microphone, and speakers installed and properly configured on both computers.

To speak to a site owner:

1. Click "Intercom".
   You might need to log in or ask for permission from the site owner before continuing.
2. When the Intercom window is displayed, you can begin speaking with the site's owner.
3. If necessary, you can raise or lower the sensitivity of your microphone by dragging the slider in the Microphone Sensitivity panel .
4. When you've finished talking, click the Close button.

Intercom requirements

Both participants in an Intercom session will need to have:

• At least an 80486 DX2 66MHz processor
• At least 8 MB of RAM
• A sound card
• Speaker(s)
• A microphone

The Knock service lets you leave an electronic request to be notified when a Big Planet DWP owner has started using his or her computer. This is a great way to eliminate telephone tag!

To knock:

Click "Knock".

You might need to log in before continuing. A window titled "Knocking on 'owner name's' door" is displayed. A message near the top of the window says "Waiting for an answer."

While you're waiting, you can work on tasks in other windows. If you don't want the Knock window cluttering up your desktop, click its Minimize button, but don't close the window (doing so will cancel your Knock request).

If the other user has enabled automatic answering, the message in your Knock window changes to "'owner's name' is there" when the other user presses a key or moves his or her mouse. If you have minimized the Knock window, it is maximized automatically.

Note: The other user also has the option of ignoring your knock. In that case, you won't be notified of his or her activity.

Once the owner has responded, you can close the Knock window.

If the Knock window was reactivated while you were away from your computer, the owner might no longer be at his or her computer by the time you get back. You can start the notification process again by clicking the Knock Again button.

If you want to initiate a keyboard conference with the other user, click the Chat button.


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To look at the site owner's computer:

1. Click "Look".
   You might need to log in or ask for permission from the owner before continuing.
2. You'll see the owner's desktop in a screen-sharing window after you are admitted.
3. By moving your mouse, you will be able to scroll on the screen of the owner. The Look service allows you to see every part of the owner's desktop and what is happening there while you are connected.
4. To stop looking, you can click the Close button (in the upper-right corner). The program closes the window and ends the connection.

If a screen-sharing window doesn't open, it might mean that the owner is not connected to the internet at the moment or that another visitor is looking at that computer. Two users cannot look at the same site at the same time.


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