Ventrilo

Voice chat functionality is offered to users all over the world by Ventrilo. What we have here is a tool that uses VoIP technology to let people talk to one another. Create a new user, connect to a server, and you can chat with other Ventrilo users.

The Ventrilo client is available for Windows and Mac OS X.
The Quick Look video that accompanies this article shows the steps you must go through to install the Ventrilo client on a Windows-powered machine.

The first time you launch Ventrilo, you will be invited to check out an online tutorial. If you are a new user, this is well worth a look. You see, the online tutorial shows you how to get the Ventrilo client up and ready to use – the tutorial shows you how to set up a user, connect to a server, and talk to other people.

Connect to a server and you can chat with people who are connected to the same server – that is, in a nutshell, the functionality you can expect to get from Ventrilo. It must be mentioned here that two transmission modes are supported:
Voice Activation – Ventrilo monitors the input device and starts transmitting when it detects sound. This means that Ventrilo runs in the background and automatically transmits what you say.
Push to Talk – use a hotkey to start transmitting. This means that Ventrilo will transmit what you say only if you use a certain hotkey.

The Ventrilo client is free software.

There’s much to like about the Ventrilo client: it is free, it is available for Windows and Mac, it allows you to connect to a server and chat with other Ventrilo users.