Has anyone used Web-ex for remote conferencing?

Well, we did the conference yesterday and I was not the only one having problems. IMHO Webex really needs new software and procedures. Those would be my main gripes:

a. It requires the loading of some Java that takes minutes. I was hoping that joining a sample meeting would get that done for good so it doesn't have to load again and again when the real meetings begin. Nope, must load again every time :-(

b. It did not let me on before the meetings start time, and even then not before the client had logged on. Meaning we had to waste several minutes of everyone's time. Not efficient at all.

c. The client had my document uploaded because it was the item to be talked about. It's a very long one and neither I nor any other participant could scroll past page 9 but that's were the schematics started. At that point we all hung up on Webex, loaded the document onto our individual desktops and did the discussionn the old-fashioned way.

For the next meet I'll suggest to go without such online services because it just wastes our time. I annotate lengthy docs with paragraph numbering so it's easy to run the meeting "blind", via a good old phone conference.

I think you may be right. When joining the meeting the browser's "locked" indicator comes on and it is also a https URL. But: Right after I tested the site before the meeting I got an email from a sales guy. I replied asking about safety. Didn't get a response other than a sales pitch.

I wonder whether this would be a good market for Skype. The technology should be there. It would be ok if they'd charge for the service. But not 33c/min/participant, that's a bit steep.

It seems to me that it is MSwin paradigm oriented, and they are "cusp" technology (or at least think they are). The biggest issue is that same quality equivalent FOSS technology requires doofiii to allow "strange stuff" into their ideologies.

With respect to WebEx, they claim to have fast connections world-wide, but your case could be an indicator of them having a problem on the american net.

Rarther than uploading a document, just share the desktop. Then the speed of the document roll up and down is only determined by the PC that has the document. Moreover only information send is the screen capture, and that resolves fast when the immage is freezed.

Regards

Klaus

That's the scenario that I had hoped for. However, they did not even let me into the meeting without loading this slow meeting manager Java stuff. Completely takes the fun out of it. At least they could offer to let it reside on individual PCs after having used their demo meeting to see if things work. But no :-(

IMHO they could use some fresh IT talent and they should definitely listen to users. For example send out a request after a whole group became fed up and abandoned a session like what happened in this case.

Hi Jeorg, I don't remember how WEBEX does it, but I know that Spacecruiser has two option - one, just a 'view the meeting' setup only used a quick java type interface only let you see the meeting, you couldn't host of share your desktop. The more intense option had you install an application on your machine, that then let you host a meeting and share your desktop or individual applications. I always used the second setup, as it was a lot faster once you had the application installed. (Except, of course, when they had an update you needed to install, which you would discover 2 minutes before you were scheduled to host a meeting, which would take 5 minutes to upload and install... ;-) )

Charlie Edmondson Engineering

Well, I'd expect such meeting providers to cater to the technically not-so-savvy. Sales guys, marketeers, investment folks, doctors discussing a difficult case, and so on. Why don't they just offer an option "Keep Java routines on your machine? []Yes []No" But I guess that solution would be too straightforward.

I wonder how Skype would be. There ain't much info on their site about sharing presentations, doc files, desktops. Just video conferencing but seeing each other is usually the least of our worries. We would need to see a common document and make mutually agreed upon edits right then and there (redlining).

When I have a free moment ;-) I'm going to look into what Skype video entails. I have been conversing quite nicely with an Australian client via Skype (audio)... quite high quality, particularly notable yesterday when he called me via a land-line... I could barely understand him... like talking between two tin cans connected by string :-(

...Jim Thompson

Let us know what you find out. Especially WRT document sharing. That's really the only reason for me to use an online service. POTS usually works well and seeing each other doesn't add too much value IMHO. Unless you can show a drawing but when I tried that with my Logitech web cam it was nearly unintelligible. Those things don't have any real resolution and the dynamic range is the pits.

Some of my phone conferences have people on there from countries where English isn't frequently spoken. I am quite used to thick accents but I always wonder how people with just school-English would fare. Must be quite frustrating to them. "Wot leeshe foh onny won glou in shyste?" = "What is the reason for only a single ground in the system?"

What I found quite useful with Skype was that I could send hex files to the UK, while still chatting, and the UK wiring shop would burn the chip, reboot the pcb and see what happened their end. Typically a misplaced character on an LCD, if it was wrong I'd just alter the bit of C, recompile and re-send the new hex file.

Never got around to using the webcam, they don't seem to be set up for inspecting PCB probs

martin