Author: Bruce Richardson
Version: 1.0
Date last modified: 28.11.2003

A Total Newbie’s Guide to Using Ventrilo

 

Introduction

Ventrilo is a voice communications (voice comms) tool for real time voice chat over the internet. This is sometimes referred to as voice over IP.

It is designed for gamers to be able to chat with each other while playing a game, taking team based games to a whole new level as you are able to quickly issue orders and report incidents without having to stop and type your message.

In response to demand for an alternative voice comms solution to TeamSpeak 2, we at Multiplay are now offering Ventrilo servers for a small additional fee. But then if you are reading this guide, you probably already knew that!

This guide will cover:

     • Getting the Ventrilo software.
     • Setting up and connecting to a server.

This guide is not meant to be a complete guide to using Ventrilo. If you want more information, then take a look at the documentation on the Ventrilo website.

Multiplay UK is a licensed Ventrilo host.


 


Step 1 – Getting the Software


Visit www.ventrilo.com and follow the download link on the left of the page.
Assuming you are running a version of Microsoft Windows, you will want the Windows i386 – 32bit link. Ventrilo is free provided it is used for private, non profit use.

When the software has downloaded, run the executable and follow the installation instructions. Once it is installed it might be useful to place a shortcut on the desktop (if it hasn’t already) or even on the ‘Quick Launch’ bar. This is entirely up to you.


 


Step 2 – Setting Up and Connecting to a Server

 
When you start the Ventrilo client, the following window (left) will appear.

This is the main Ventrilo window, and we will be coming back to it several times during this guide.

For now it is completely blank. No users or servers have been set up. Lets change that.

Next to the top 3 drop down boxes, you will notice an arrow button (->). Click on the one next to User Name.


This window will appear:
 


In this window we can set up multiple users. Right now however, we are only interested in setting up one user. As there are no users yet, click on the New button.
This small popup window appears.
Just type in your nickname as you want it to appear in Ventrilo.

 
 


Okay. Well done, we now have a user to select.

Ventrilo also has some nifty text-to-speech functionality. But this is extra functionality not covered in this guide. Take a look at the Ventrilo website for more details.

That’s us done with the Setup User box. Click OK.

 

 And now we are back at the main window again. This time with a User Name selected.

Now we need to set up details for a server.

By now you should have been sent some server details, or you have gotten them from somewhere else. In any case, you will need them momentarily.

Click on the arrow button (->) next to the Server drop down list.

 

 Much like the Setup User window, a new box called window called Connection Editor should appear.

Click on New.

 

 Type in any name to describe the new server we are adding.

 

 Well done.

Now we need to enter the IP address and port details you should have already.

Put the IP number in Hostname or IP, and the port number in Port number (funnily enough).

 

 The final result should be something very similar to this.

If the server requires a password, type that into the Password field now.

For future reference, if you wish to join a certain channel in the server straight away, you can type in the channel name here. However, we wont be doing that right now. For now, just click on OK.

 

 And that is us very nearly finished. Assuming we have entered in all the correct details, all that remains to do is click on the Connect button.

 

 And there we have it. You should now be connected to your server, and it should look something like this.

To move around the rooms, just double click on the room name.

 

Thank you for reading this guide. I hope you have found it useful.
As I said before, it isn’t a complete guide to Ventrilo, so if you have any questions, come grab an admin in #mpukhosting on Quakenet IRC, and we will do our best to sort you out.

Bye.