NetMeeting can be a useful tool but it can also be very frustrating. I have found that people sometimes get into difficulty after  playing with various options and can't easily find their way to fix them. They end up with a program that is configured for some use that they never intended and can't make the kind of calls they want.

This page will list the most common problems I see with comments and solutions.

Incorrect View Selection (no video)

If your view of NetMeeting when you start up is not correct for video calls (no video window visible):

You have set your view so that you have no video window - this is a valid setting for some situations (using data only or use with a NetMeeting to telephone gateway) but for most people wanting to make audio/video calls these settings are incorrect.

To fix this problem make sure that the View menu does not have either Dial Pad or Data Only selected.

Incorrect Security Settings (no audio/video) - your settings incorrect

If you cannot connect to another party in an audio video call it may be because you or the other party have security settings that allow data only calls. In the Tools menu, Options item Security tab:

Make sure that the settings in the Security section about requiring Incoming Calls and Outgoing Calls to be secure are unchecked - making or receiving a "secure" call implies that it will be a data only call.

Incorrect Security Settings (no audio/video) - the other party's settings incorrect

If you receive an incoming call with a notice that looks like this:

or this:

the other party has made a secure call which will be data only. This is what a normal incoming call looks like:

The two captures that follow show the difference between a secure call and a normal call in progress ( notice the status bar at the bottom of the window).

Gateway Configured but not Required

If you try make a call and get a message like:

Likely you have configured the Advanced Calling features incorrectly in the Tools menu Options item - General tab

Clicking on the Advanced Calling shows dialog box like::

All items in this menu should be unchecked (as in the graphic) for normal operation.

Hosting a Meeting not Required

Under normal circumstances the host meeting function is not required: All items in this dialog should be unchecked:

Audio but No Video (video paused)

If your video setting in the Tools menu, Options item, Video tab is set to not automatically send or receive video when you start a call ( a setting I recommend because it sometimes help establish the call faster), it will be necessary to manually start the incoming and outgoing video using the pause/play button at the lower left below the video window. Incoming and outgoing video can be paused or played independently by right clicking on the image (either the incoming image in the video window or your image in the picture-in-picture box or a detached "My Window") and checking or unchecking the Pause item.

Incoming Audio No Incoming Video

If your settings are set to play incoming video and you are seeing nothing (but audio from the other party is heard) either the other party has no video camera or is not transmitting.  You or they can pause the video incoming or outgoing by right clicking on the video and checking or unchecking the pause item.

You can determine whether the other party apparently has audio or video capability by making sure that you are in View Participant List mode. Clicking on an individual and selecting Properties will show you what audio/video capability the party apparently has. It is possible the even though audio or video capability is indicated that the user cannot effectively use it (i.e. they might have a TV card with no camera, a sound card but no mic)

If you instead have the audio meters view you can toggle between this view and the participant view using the button on the right below the video window.

Audio Problems

The audio meter view (available by clicking on the button on the bottom right of the  video window if you are in the participant view) allows control of the audio properties of the call - the slider should be set at the lowest possible setting that will allow comfortable natural sound in both directions. The speaker section should have one green rectangle when the call is fully  connected -- if it does not likely you are experiencing a problem with the H.323 connectivity caused by a router, firewall or proxy blockage (the Audio Tips page has a discussion) or the call was made as a data only call ( see above).

If your microphone shows no meter movement when you speak likely either the microphone or its connection is faulty or your audio mixer is misconfigured (again the Audio Tips page has a discussion).

If the other party is experiencing echo of their voice and you are not using headphones (both you and the other end should be)-- it is possible to use your end in a half duplex mode by clicking off the microphone check box when you are speaking.

IEEE1394 Firewire cards and NetMeeting

IEEE1394(Firewire) cards ( and DV cameras) do not usually provide the required drivers (with VFW interfaces) for NetMeeting capture and thus cannot normally be used as video conferencing cameras.

At least one correspondent has found a ( perhaps clumsy but usable) solution to the problem -- his comment is in response to my standard - it doesn't work response:

"Actually, this is not true. I have such a configuration and I have managed to use the camera with netmeeting, with help of a product named "SoftCam" from Luminosity Software (www.softcam.com), together with the "AMCAP.EXE" program, which is part of Microsoft's DirectShow SDK. Here's the setting: -amcap.exe runs in a corner of the screen and displays a real-time preview of the DV cam. It can be resized at will -When running Netmeeting, I choose the "SoftCam" video source. -In the SoftCam control panel, I select "live" mode, and make sure that the capture frame matches amcap's preview area.

As far as I can tell, it works as well as a "native" VfW device. The only thing is that you must remember not to clutter the capture area with another window. I agree that the setting is not very straightforward, and I would like to see a little piece of software that combines amcap and softcam into a single VfW driver that takes its source from any WDM video device. I don't see any technical problem in that, and I am surprised that it doesn't exist yet. Microsoft claims that it supplies a VfW-to-WDM mapper that is supposed to do exactly this, but it requires additional software from the hardware vendor."

Many individuals have used the Trackerpod software as a (clumsy but usable) work around -- it has a WDM (new style) to VFW (old style) capture interface translation.

Another correspondent indicates:

"It IS TRUE that DV cameras coming in over Firewire (or anything else) do not work because they typically do not come with the kind of drivers that Netmeeting uses.

It is NOT true that Firewire webcams do not work. I have four kinds of Firewire cards on which I can use video in all cases that I have tried. These are:

1) Audigy Firewire interface
2) PCMCIA Firewire (for laptops)
3) Orange Micro Firewire (three ports)
4) Orange Micro Ethernet/Firewire combo board

I have an Orange Micro iBot camera and have successfully used it with all of these boards on both Windows 2000 and Windows XP. I have not been able to use it on Windows NT because drivers to not exist for firewire that will handle a camera (drivers DO exist for IP). I have not used any of this on the Windows 98 platform because I do not have sufficient CPU power (it's an IBM ThinkPad 240 with a celeron) to run the video, but I suspect it would if I had a system with enough gas.

The advantages of the Firewire solution is that it can support a far higher data rate than USB 1.1. As USB 1.1 can do a maximum of about 1mbps, it can not support a 30fps full color data rate. Thus, there is onboard circuitry on the camera that does compression before sending the data over the wire to the host. The benefits of this are that the work of compressing the video data flow can be, in part, offloaded from the main system processor. That can be important with older systems.

The Firewire interface has a 400mbps data rate which will easily handle 30fps full color; no surprise as it was developed in part to handle DV camcorders. Since the host is getting the raw data, it can use more sophisticated methods to do compression which can also change as new drivers are introduced. Of course, you have to have sufficient CPU power to do this. I only run the Firewire iBot camera on either a 1.1 Ghz or a dual 900Mhz system.