Web Conferencing Is Not All Talk

Web conferencing is becoming one of the most important tools a business can implement over its internal network. It can effectively reduce hard travel costs for multinode companies, as well as provide higher levels of internal communication when used for various purposes such as job listings, conferences, announcement boards and project team effort conferencing.

We tested O'Reilly Software's WebBoard 3.5 Web Conferencing Software over our LAN with the needs of midsize businesses in mind. Our test bed included installation on a Gateway ALR 8200 Server running Windows NT 4.0, with clients running on Windows 95 and Windows 98.

O'Reilly recommends 64 MB RAM to run WebBoard 3.5, although it'll run on 32 MB. The software requires 20 MB of free hard disk space, a 486 or faster Intel-based CPU with a network interface card or modem, as well as a TCP/IP stack installed and running, and a CD-ROM drive for installation.

WebBoard 3.5 is available only off the O'Reilly Web site and must be installed over an existing WebBoard 3.0 installation. Documentation for WebBoard 3.5 is provided in PDF format, as well as in print upon request. It relies heavily on the "Conferencing with WebBoard" user guide. The guide is included along with a software CD-ROM when you purchase WebBoard 3.0.

The product can be installed either as an application or as a system service. O'Reilly recommends getting started using the product as an application if you're not familiar with NT services. The chief advantage of running WebBoard as a desktop application is that it's easier to manage manually.

However, we installed it as a service, primarily because it can run in that mode without anyone being logged on-which is an important requirement in a business environment. Also, when it's running as a service, it will automatically restart after an operation system reboot. If you want to run WebBoard in this manner, you must perform the installation using an administrator-level account.

We installed the Conference Room IRC chat server, which supports up to 1,000 users, and WebBoard Internal Web Server during our 3.0 installation.

WebBoard 3.0's backup prior to our 3.5 upgrade was not automatic. The backup involved manually saving the Registry keys as well as all their subtrees to a separate folder, using the Registry editor. Additionally, after installation of the upgrade was complete, we needed to recustomize our copies of the new files. We had to do this if the files had been customized previously and we wanted to keep those preferences.

Although these administrative requirements were inconvenient, we found several new features that made the upgrade worthwhile, particularly for the telecommuter. E-mail address verification has been added and can be activated on a board-for-board basis. This way, users can't create an account using another person's e-mail address and infiltrate a conference.

Broadcasting enables administrators to make boardwide announcements such as project meeting time updates. WebBoard 3.5's SMTP support now lets you bind WebBoard's SMTP server to another compatible SMTP server on the same computer. The support for upsizing from Microsoft Access database to SQL 6.5 has also been improved. However, you'll need to provide plenty of hard-disk space-which will be used during conferencing-when you've completed the upsizing.

Additionally, we found that the User-to-User Paging feature was a handy way to get a colleague's attention. Also, the boards are now conveniently listed in alphabetical order, which makes it simpler to administer larger numbers of boards.

You will find technical support available on the O'Reilly Web site. Tech support also is available via a toll number on a per-incident basis during Pacific time business hours, Monday through Friday. You also can find support through annual contracts via a toll-free telephone number.

While we would like to see the upgrade process become more automated from an administrative standpoint, the improvements in WebBoard 3.5 in terms of increased security, user friendliness and overall board management features for a business workplace are more than worth the implementation time.