----------------------------------------------------------------------- CyberPhone CyberScience, Inc. The Internet Telephone P.O. Box 4446 Copyright (c) 1995 Metuchen, NJ 08840 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- What is CyberPhone? ------------------------- CyberPhone is a tool which allows users to talk to one another in real-time over the Internet. CyberPhone is currently available for Windows (16-bit as well as 32-bit), Linux, Solaris and SunOS. CyberPhone provides many features which make it one of the most easy to use, practical and versatile Internet phone programs available. CyberPhone is a server-based Internet phone program which means that in order to call someone, all you have to do is "click" on their name, no email addresses or IP addresses are required. CyberPhone provides many features such as: * Easy to use interface * Cross-platform support * Server-based Internet phone system * Full Duplex audio * File Transfer Capability * Text Chat Capability * Caller ID * Custom Color Selection * Selective Call Blocking * Automated login/logout * Multiple user information * Commercial advertisement capability * Netscape interface to advertisements * 8-Bit Soundcard Support * Development team that listens to its users Supported Platforms: * Windows 3.1 * Windows 95 * Linux * Solaris * SunOS * Many more to come.... Table of Contents ------------------------- I. Minimum Requirements II. How to Install III. Configuration Items IV. Options V. Controls VI. Local User Information VII. Getting Started I. Minimum Requirements: ------------------------- 1. Windows 3.1 2. 486/33 3. 4MB RAM 4. 14.4 modem 5. 8-Bit Soundcard II. How To Install: ------------------------- 1. Download the file "CPWINXXX.EXE". 2. Create the directory "\CPHONE". 3. Move the file "CPWINXXX.EXE" to "\CPHONE". 4. Extract the files by executing "CPWINXXX". 5. Add the executable "CPHONE.EXE" to a "Program Item" with the Windows program manager. III. Configuration Items --------------------------- The items described below are contained in the CyberPhone Configuration window. Once the values on this window are changed, the "Apply" button must be pressed in order for the changes to take effect. 1. OUTPUT VOLUME This value controls the volume of your speakers/headphones. The maximum value is 100 which is the loudest setting and the minimum value is 0 which is the softest setting. 2. VOICE DETECTION This value controls the sensitivity of CyberPhone to your voice. CyberPhone implements a silence removal algorithm which prevents transmission of silence voice data over the Internet. This value controls how CyberPhone responds to your voice. The maximum value is 100 which will require you to YELL into the microphone and the minium value is 0 which causes CyberPhone to continuously transmit, whether or not you are actually talking. The trick is to find the happy medium! 3. RINGER ON/OFF These toggle buttons determine whether or not you will hear a "ringin" sound when another user calls you. Turn it on and you will hear the "ringin" sound. Turn it off and you will NOT hear the "ringin" sound. 4. SECONDS UNTIL AUTO REJECT This value controls how long the phone will ring before an incoming call from another user is automatically rejected. For instance, if you are not at your computer and another user calls you and you have this value set to 5 (seconds), the incoming call will automatically be rejected if you do not answer the phone within 5 seconds. 5. NETWORK TIMEOUT This value controls how long CyberPhone will wait for packets it expects to receive as well as how long it will wait for other network services. 6. SOUNDCARD INPUT DEVICE This pulldown box is used to select which sound card input device you wish to use for recording. A list of available devices will appear in the pulldown list. CyberPhoner requires a 16bit, 8Khz input device. 7. SOUNDCARD OUTPUT DEVICE This pulldown box is used to select which sound card output device you wish to use for playback. A list of available devices will appear in the pulldown list. CyberPhone requires a 16bit, 8khz output device. 8. SOUNDCARD OUTPUT SLOWDOWN This value is used to slowdown the output rate of your soundcard on playback. IT CAN ONLY BE USED IN HALF-DUPLEX because the input and output rates must be the same in full duplex. This value is useful if you are running a 14.4 modem and experiencing poor quality. If this is the case, setting this value to 500 will cause the output rate to be set to 7500 (8000-500). This can improve the quality at which you hear others at the expense of making the other user's voice sound a bit slower. The minimum value is 0 and the maximum value is 1000. Recommended value for 14.4 users is 500. 9. ALWAYS 8BIT INPUT AUDIO This option allows you to force CyberPhone to use 8bit recording. If you have a 16bit sound card, this will cause CyberPhone to use your sound card in 8bit mode. If this option is not selected, CyberPhone will first try to configure your sound card for 16bit input audio. If it fails, it will then try 8bit audio. This option is really only here for BETA testing so users can hear the difference between 8bit and 16bit audio (THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE). If you have an 8bit sound card, it is NOT required that you set this option because CyberPhone will automatically try 8bit when 16bit fails. 10. ALWAYS 8BIT OUTPUT AUDIO This is the same as above only for playback instead of record. 11. FULL DUPLEX This checkbox determines whether or not you wish to run CyberPhone in full duplex mode. Full duplex mode allows you talk and listen at the same time. If your soundcard or sound driver does not support full duplex, you will experience an "Error opening input/output audio device" when trying to talk to someone. 12. AUTO DETECT This button can be used to have CyberPhone automatically detect whether or not you can run in full duplex mode. Make sure you are NOT talking to anyone before you press this button, otherwise it may detect half duplex even if you have full duplex. 13. INITIAL DELAY This parameter allow you to choose how long voice is first buffered when it is received before it is played. Larger values will give better quality with the disadvantage of increased delay. The unit of value is in 100ms. Therefore, a value of 3 would mean a delay of 300ms. 14. OUTPUT SLOWDOWN This parameter allows you to alter the output samling rate of your soundcard. You can use this value to slowdown the playback of incoming voice. This can be used to reduce the "choppiness" effect. The disadvantage of this feature is that it changes the pitch of the user you are talking to. This option can only be non-zero in half-duplex. 15. BACKGROUND COLOR This option allows you to choose a new background color for CyberPhone. In order for this change to take effect, YOU MUST RESTART CYBERPHONE. 16. NETSCAPE PATH Each advertisement displayed at the bottom of the main window is linked to a web address. If you click on the advertisement at the bottom of the main window, CyberPhone will attempt to startup Netscape and automatically bring you to the web address associated with the advertisement. The NETSCAPE PATH parameter determines the location on your machine where the file "NETSCAPE.EXE" is found. If you do not have Netscape installed on your machine, don't worry about this parameter. 17. AUTOMATIC LOGIN This option causes CyberPhone to automatically login to a server each time the program is started. CyberPhone will use the userid and server from the previous time it was executed. 18. SUPPRESS DAILY MESSAGE This option allows you to suppress the Daily Message, so that it does not appear each time you login to a server. This can be useful if you have CyberPhone configured as part of your Startup programs and you want it to automatically log you into a server without having to do anything. 19. HIGH COMPRESSION (14.4 USERS) This option should be used if you are using a 14.4 or less Internet connection. If either party in a conversation has this option checked, CyberPhone will use the HIGH compression algorithm. This algorithm works well on 14.4 modems and gets rid of the "choppiness" problem altogether. This HIGH compression algorithm does not produce voice fidelity as good as the LOW compression algorithm, but it works MUCH better than the LOW compression algorithm on 14.4 modems. This algorithm is very sensitive to the microphone position in relation to your mouth. We recommend users call themselves to find the best position for the microphone. This algorithm will also only work as long as both parties are using version 0.9 or better of CyberPhone, otherwise the LOW compression algorithm will be used. 20. SEND VOICE VIA TCP CHANNEL This option allows you to transmit voice via TCP rather than UDP. TCP will guarantee that ALL voice packets are received by the other user, while UDP does not make any guarantees that a packet will arrive at its destination. TCP is much more Internet friendly since it is a FAIR protocol. The disadvantage to TCP is that it can create a burstiness condition in a converstation. We recommend using UDP unless you are losing a lot of packets. IV. OPTIONS ------------------------------- The items described below are contained in the CyberPhone Options pulldown menu. Changes to these items take effect immediately. 1. HANDS OFF This feature allows you to talk to someone without having to press the "Talk" button to switch between the TALK and LISTEN states. It allows you to talk to someone without having to use the mouse or keyboard. If you are running in full duplex, this feature is DISABLED since it there is no TALK or LISTEN state in full duplex. 2. SOUND EFFECTS This feature allows you to turn ON/OFF sound effects. Sound effects are sounds you hear when you make phone calls such as the "dialtone", "ringin", "ringout", and "busy" signals. Turn this feature off and you will not hear any of these sounds. Turn this feature on and you will hear all of these sounds when making calls. 3. AUTO ACCEPT This feauture can be used to automatically accept incoming calls. If this feature is enabled, whenever an incoming call is detected, it will be accepted without having to press any buttons such as Accept or Reject. V. CONTROLS -------------------------------- 1. TALK BUTTON This radio button controls the TALK/LISTEN state of CyberPhone. This radio button ONLY serves a purpose in HALF-DUPLEX audio since there is no TALK/LISTEN state in FULL-DUPLEX. In HALF-DUPLEX, this button can be used to switch the program from TALK to LISTEN and from LISTEN to TALK. The current state of CyberPhone is shown in the display area below the time. If the "HANDS OFF" option is enabled, it is NOT required that the user use this button during a conversation because CyberPhone will perform the switch automatically. However, this button can be used to cut into a conversation in HALF-DUPLEX when someone is speaking to you and you want to say something. 2. MUTE BUTTON This radio button enables/disables the mute feature. When mute is enabled, you will be able to hear what the other user is saying but he/she will not be able to hear you. Basically, the mute feature prevents CyberPhone from transmitting your voice. 3. BLOCK BUTTON This radio button enables/disables call blocking. Call blocking allows you to block incoming calls from all users except those that you pre-select. You can pre-select who you want to allow calls to come in from by using the Call Blocking windows from the Options pulldown menu. 4. CALL BUTTON 5. HANGUP BUTTON 6. LOGIN BUTTON 7. EVENT BUTTON 8. USERS BUTTON 9. CONFIG BUTTON VI. LOCAL USER INFORMATION -------------------------------- CyberPhone allows you to keep information for multiple users on one machine. This means that you can install CyberPhone on one machine, and many different users can use it at different times while each maintaining their own personal user information. This is ideal for business environments as well as CyberCafes. When CyberPhone is first installed, it will automatically popup the local user information window. CyberPhone requires information for at least one user. Each user must enter in the following information: 1. Userid 2. First Name 3. Last Name 4. Location 5. Email address 6. Password (Optional) 7. Registration Information (Optional) The Local User Information window allows you to add new user information, update existing user information and delete old user information. When updates are made to existing user information, the changes will only be seen by everyone else when you logout and then log back into a server. VII. Getting Started 1. One of the first things you should do before calling anyone else, is call yourself! With CyberPhone, you can actually do this and it is an excellent test to make sure you have everything setup properly. If you call yourself and you can't hear what you are saying, nobody else will be able to hear you either. 2. If you are running a 14.4 Internet connection, try setting the "Output Slowdown" in the Config window to 500. This will improve the choppiness problem on 14.4 connections. 3. Go ahead and call someone, it's that EASY!!! END OF FILE