Powerful, cost-effective, secure web conferencing software

GroupWorld.net Frequently Asked Questions

General Product Questions

1. What browsers does GroupWorld.net run on and how much bandwidth is the user required to have?

GroupWorld.net currently works on Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Netscape, Firefox and Safari on Windows, Linux and Mac OSX. Minimum bandwidth when using video or desktop sharing is 256kbps upload and download, but 512kbps recommended. For further details, see the Client System Requirements page.

2. Do I need a server to run GroupWorld.net?

No, we offer fully hosted solutions so you do not require a server.

3. Do I need to be a system administrator to set up GroupWorld.net?

No, you don't need any specialised knowledge in order to set up GroupWorld.net. If you purchase a hosted solution, we simply email you a link to a web page which your users just click on to connect to your GroupWorld.net conference room. You can optionally copy the html code to your own web server and customize the page.

4. Do I need a web server?

No, you can access your conference room from our web server by simply clicking on the link that we email you.

5. What operating systems does the GroupWorld.net server run on?

Currently we have Windows, Linux and Mac OSX versions of the GroupWorld.net software, but it can be easily ported to any POSIX operating system.

6. How reliable/scalable is GroupWorld.net?

We have been refining our client-server software architecture since 1997, and we support up to 300 simultaneous users on our hosted service each day. All of our products currently have zero known bugs, and the GroupWorld.net server software has been running continuously for over a year with no downtime except for one precautionary server reboot.

7. Can we customize GroupWorld.net?

GroupWorld.net is highly customizable in a number of ways. Because it runs from within a web page, you can completely customize the web page that contains the GroupWorld.net plugin. There are also many configuration options that can be changed in order to alter the functionality of the product, such as adding/removing buttons, changing the size of the video windows (or removing them entirely), and many other options. In addition, if you purchase the enterprise version you get the full source code to all of the applets.

8. What languages does GroupWorld.net support?

GroupWorld.net can easily be translated into any language, and fully supports Unicode characters. Check out our Chinese, Arabic and Hebrew demos.

Support/technical Questions

9. Why do I hear an echo of my own voice when using the voice conferencing?

This generally means that another user has loudspeakers which are feeding back into their microphone. Ideally all users should have earphones or headsets when using the voice conferencing. This issue can also occur with some sound cards if you have not explicitly selected a recording source in the Windows Recording Volume Control.

10. I get delays/breakups with the sound/video.

Please check the troubleshooting section in the help pages.

11. The audio does not work at all.

Please check the troubleshooting section in the help pages.

12. The conference room doesn't appear at all in Internet Explorer.

Groupworld will work on all 32-bit versions of Internet Explorer. The most likely cause of problems is if you have increased the IE security settings and thus ActiveX controls (plugins) have been disabled. The simplest solution is to add www.groupworld.net to your "trusted sites" (in internet options->security).

13. I have problems using GroupWorld.net on Windows Vista.

Normally GroupWorld.net should run without any problems on Vista. However, if you have changed your security settings you may get an error "Cannot chdir to Groupworld directory". If this happens, you will need to go into your Internet Explorer security options and either uncheck "enable protected mode", or else add www.groupworld.net to your "trusted sites" (the latter is recommended).

14. How do I record the session to a wmv/avi file?

The recording feature in GroupWorld.net records to a custom format on the server, and can only be played back through GroupWorld.net. If you want to record the session to an avi/wmv file we recommend using Camtasia Studio. In order to record the audio part of a session using Camtasia, make sure you configure Camtasia to record from "stereo mix" (in Vista you might need to enable this device, as it is disabled by default - go to control panel->sound->recording and right-click and choose "show disabled devices"). You will also need to unmute your microphone in the Windows volume control (it is muted by default so that you don't hear your own voice when you speak into the microphone). In Vista you do this in control panel->sound->playback->levels.

15. How do I increase the number of video windows visible?

By default there is only space for 3 video windows, but you can increase this if you have a wide/high room. You can also configure the video so that only the presenter can send video, or so that only the person talking can send video - this enables you to have 10 or 25 users but only one person sending video.

16. How can I create a multi-room login page for Groupworld?

You can use this example html code (just replace "1" with your actual GroupWorld.net instance id).

17. How can I increase the size of the video windows?

Just set the "large video windows" option when creating a room.

18. How do I change the video framerate?

By default the video runs at a 8 frames per second when the user is speaking and 4 frames per second when not speaking, but you can increase the framerate when creating a new room ("default video framerate" option), but it will use more bandwidth.

19. I'm experiencing crashes/slowness/lost connections.

Check out our client system requirements to make sure your system is supported.
Try temporarily disabling browser toolbars, virus checkers and security software in case they are interfering with GroupWorld.net (normally this should not be the case, so please let us know if you do experience any incompatibilities with other software).
Bring up task manager (press the ctrl+alt+delete keys in Windows) to see if another process is using all of your computer's cpu or memory.
Try pinging www.groupworld.net to see if there are any network problems. In Windows, bring up a DOS window and type "ping www.groupworld.net". If you experience more than 10% data loss, performance will be affected.

20. Why is there lag and/or missing pen strokes when using a Wacom tablet on Windows 7?

See here.

21. What bandwidth do I need in order to run the GroupWorld.net server?

It is recommended that you have 512kbps (kilobits per second) for each user connected from outside your network if you are using desktop sharing or video. If you are not using these high-bandwidth applications then you will be able to support a lot more users (e.g. whiteboard and text chat only, you will be able to support 25 users on 256kbps). Note that this is the UPLOAD bandwidth of your internet connection (which is generally lower than the download bandwidth). The applications that use the most bandwidth are desktop sharing, video conferencing and audio. The audio (voice) conferencing uses 26kbps (kilobits per second) of bandwidth. So, if you have one person speaking and 5 people connected, it will use 26x5 = 130kbps. The video conferencing uses 1.5-2k (kilobytes) per frame when using the small window size, and 3-4k per frame when using the large window size. So, if one user is broadcasting video to two other users at 10 frames per second using the large window size, it will use about 2x4x10x8=640kbps of outbound bandwidth on the server, and 320kbps of upload bandwidth on each user's computer. Desktop sharing sends a compressed png image of the desktop at the beginning (which is generally 50-100k, depending on the size of your desktop), and subsequently sends the changed areas of the screen (again png compressed) once per second. In general, 512kbps of bandwidth per person will give a good response under most circumstances.

22. What technology does GroupWorld.net use?

Both the client and the server are compiled C++. The client has a built-in virtual machine interpreter which is used to develop the applets, similar to java but based on an object-oriented version of C. We developed this framework because neither java nor flash had the features and functionality that we required. This technology allows us to quickly develop multi-user collaborative applications while only requiring a small 500k download for the plugin. Also see the Technical Info page.

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