Frequently-Asked Questions about Tribal Voice's PowWow

This document is intended to answer the most Frequently-Asked Questions (FAQ's) about Tribal Voice's PowWow software. This FAQ is a supplement to the PowWow User's Guide. The PowWow User's Guide is included in the PowWow distribution .ZIP file and comes in two formats: A POWWOW.DOC file for Microsoft Word for Windows 6.0+ and WordPad users, and a POWWOW.WRI file for Microsoft Write users. Microsoft Write is included with Windows 3.x in your Accessories group.

If you have not read the PowWow User's Guide please do so before proceeding. It contains crucial information about installing and configuring PowWow as well as helpful troubleshooting information that can be used to resolve the most common technical issues.

This FAQ is constantly being updated as new versions of PowWow are released and new questions arise. The most recent version of this FAQ can always be found on Tribal Voice's ftp server from the following URL:

PowWow is a MS-Windows-based communications program for the Internet that allows up to seven (7) users to chat via typing or voice, send files, view personal home pages and JPEG pictures, and cruise the World-Wide Web (WWW) together.

Here is a listing of useful email addresses:

A3) What are the system requirements for PowWow?

PowWow requires a Microsoft Windows 3.1, Windows NT, or Windows 95 computer with a TCP/IP and Internet connection for chatting.

A World-Wide Web browser is required for cruising the web together.

A 486DX-33 or faster CPU, 28,800bps or faster Internet connection, and Microsoft Windows compatible sound card are required for voice chatting.

PowWow has been tested with the following operating systems:

• Microsoft Windows 3.1
• Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.11
• Microsoft Windows NT 3.51
• Microsoft Windows 95 (production version)
• IBM OS/2 Warp Connect with WIN-OS2 support and IBM TCP/IP 3.0.

PowWow is not available for the MacIntosh, Unix, or OS/2 Presentation Manager (native mode) operating systems nor are there any plans to port PowWow to these operating systems any time in the near future.

PowWow has been tested with the following TCP/IP stacks:

• America Online for Windows 2.5 with WinSock 1.1 for America Online
• CompuServe NetLauncher 1.0
• IBM TCP/IP 3.0 with DOS and WIN-OS/2 support (for OS/2 Warp Connect)
• Microsoft Windows 95 TCP/IP (production version)
• Microsoft Windows for Workgroups TCP/IP-32 3.11a and 3.11b
• NetManage Chameleon 4.5 through 4.6
• Softronics Softerm TCP/IP 4.0
• Trumpet WinSock 2.0b through 2.1f

The following TCP/IP stacks do not work with PowWow:

• AOL/GNN MegaWeb beta test (version unknown)
• Cyberspace Development TIA
• InfoExpress Virtual TCP/IP
• Netcom Netcruiser
• NetManage Chameleon Sampler 3.1
• Novell LAN Workplace 4.x
• Shiva PPP (version unknown)
• SLIrP
• TwinSock
• Trumpet WinSock 1.x

If you are unsure which TCP/IP stack you are using or if it is WinSock 1.1-compliant, try contacting your network administrator or your Internet service provider's technical support department for further assistance.

No. PowWow works by registering your PowWow Local User I.D. and IP address with a registration server. If you run PowWow with a SLIP/PPP emulator such as SlipKnot, SLiRP, TIA, TwinSock, or Virtual TCP/IP your computer will not have an IP address assigned to it and other people using PowWow will be unable to reach you.

PowWow has been tested with the following sound cards:

• Acer AcerPower S20 (Win 3.1, WfWG 3.11, Win 95)
• Advanced Gravis Ultrasound MAX (WfWG 3.11, Win 95, OS/2 Warp Connect)
• Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 (Win 3.1, WfWG 3.11, NT 3.51)
• Creative Labs Sound Blaster AWE 32 (WfWG 3.11, Win 95)
• Creative Labs Sound Blaster AWE 32 PnP (Win 95)
• IBM ThinkPad 755CE MWave 2.0 (WfWG 3.11, Win 95, OS/2 Warp Connect)
• Logitech AudioMan AM-1 (WfWG 3.11)*
• Turtle Beach Systems Monte Carlo (Win 3.1, WfWG 3.11)

However, any Microsoft Windows-compatible sound card should work.

PowWow has been tested with Internet connections ranging from dial-up SLIP and PPP connections at 9,600 bps up to direct network connections using a T-1 data line. Naturally, faster network connections allow PowWow to operate faster.

In order to use the voice chat feature of PowWow, an Internet connection of at least 28,800bps is required.

Each time PowWow is run it sends your PowWow Local User I.D., IP address, and password to the Tribal Voice PowWow Registration Database Server for verification. The "Attempting to register…" message, followed by "Registration accepted by PowWow server" is what you see of this process on your computer once registration is complete.

Your Local User I.D. can be up to 199 characters long. Specifically, your individual name can be up to 49 characters in length and your domain name can be up to 150 characters in length (including the at "@" sign).

Up to five people (four people and yourself) can chat together using PowWow Version 1.5. Up to seven people (six people and yourself) can chat together using PowWow Version 1.6beta 1 or later. If you have PowWow 2.0beta 1 or later you can use the Conference Mode to allow fifty people to chat together.

If you try to page someone who is connected to the maximum number of users, or if joining them would bring you over the maxumum number of users, the connection will be refused.

At the Tribal Voice PowWow White Pages server, you can find other users to chat with or add yourself so that others may chat with you. To reach the White Pages server, go to the following URL:

To use the voice chat feature, you need at least a 28,800 bps connection to the Internet. At 14,400 bps the connection rapidly gets worse until you can't hear anything intelligible.

We're working on improving this but now are going to concentrate on making the sound as good as possible with a 28,800bps connection. For best results:

• Set your voice resolution to medium by selecting Setup||Voice Settings from the Main Menu).
• Close any other applications, such as WWW or FTP software, which use your Internet connection.
• Use a good-quality microphone for recording (check your sound card's manual or technical support department for tips on which type of microphones work best and how to get best results).
• Use the audio mixer utility that came with your sound card to adjust the gain for the microphone, wave sound and speaker settings.
• Test your microphone with the Sound Recorder applet from your Accessories folder (the filename is C:\WINDOWS\SOUNDREC.EXE for Windows 3.x computers, and C:\WINDOWS\SNDREC32.EXE for Windows 95 and NT 3.51 computers).
• For best results, hold your microphone 12 inches (30cm) away from your mouth (your manual may recommend more or less distance-use whatever it says).
• Use a stand with your microphone or place it on a flat surface where it will not move around.

This message appears when the person you are trying to reach receives your chat request but does not reply before a time-out occurs at your end. A time-out occurs after sixty (60) seconds. To increase the time, add the line

TIMEOUT=120

This will increase the time to 120 seconds. If the this does not work, the person you are trying to call has probably left their computer and not turned the answering machine on. Try sending them email with the date and time you tried to call them.

This occurs when PowWow cannot reach the person you are trying to contact before a time-out occurs. Reasons for this include:

This message is displayed when the person you are paging declines your chat. Try sending them email with the date and time you paged them instead.

This message appears for three reasons:

PowWow stores the names (Sound I.D.'s) and locations (path and filename) of .WAV sounds files in the [SOUNDS] section of your C:\WINDOWS\POWWOW.INI file. If a bad entry is in this section PowWow will not display or play sounds correctly (you may hear your default Windows sound instead). Entries in the [SOUNDS] section should look like:

[SOUNDS]
ABLE=C:\POWWOW\ABLE.WAV
Bravo=C:\PowWow\Bravo.Wav
charlie=c:\powwow\charlie.wav

If you find any blank lines, lines missing either a name or a location, lines with garbage characters, or other malformed entries in the [SOUNDS] section you must remove them before PowWow can play the sounds. Examples of bad entries:

[SOUNDS]
=                                       (missing name and location)
Bravo=                                  (missing location)
=c:\powwow\charlie.wav                  (missing name)
DELTA=C:\POWWOW\DELTA.WAV!@#$%^         (garbage characters in filename)
ECHO=C:\POWWOW\WAV                      (missing filename)

To fix this use a text editor such as Notepad or Write to remove the bad entries from the [SOUNDS] section of your C:\WINDOWS\POWWOW.INI file.
After making the changes to the [SOUNDS] section go to the the [PowWow] section and change the SOUND_COUNT value to the current number of sounds you now have in the [SOUNDS] section of your C:\WINDOWS\POWWOW.INI file. Save the file and re-run PowWow for the changes to take effect.

Yes, PowWow chats can be started from a World-Wide Web browser provided both PowWow and a compatible World-Wide Web browser are running. To page someone, enter their PowWow Local User I.D. into the URL (location) field of the web browser using the following format:

powwow:user@domain.org

Note that unlike most URL's, PowWow does not use two slashes "// " in the location field. For example, typing:

powwow:powwow@tribal.com

into the Location field of your web browser would connect you with Tribal Voice's technical support department. This function may be used by World-Wide Web administrators to communicate directly with a person who is viewing a given web page.

Yes. The following HTML tag creates a link to PowWow:

<A HREF="powwow:user@domain.org">

The following HTML tag creates a button (form) to PowWow:

<FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="powwow:user@domain.org"><INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT" VALUE="Click here to PowWow"></FORM>

Remember that PowWow must be running on both computers, and the user selecting the PowWow link must be using a compatible web browser (see A5).

A copy of the PowWow icon is available from the following URL:

There are several places you can find sound card manufacturer's device drivers on the Internet. Here's a partial listing of WWW sites:

There are several places you can find the latest updates for TCP/IP (WinSock) software. Here is a partial listing of TCP/IP vendors:

There are several places you can go for more information about TCP/IP (WinSock):

cruise leader - see Leader

domain name - The "name" of a particular network of computers attached to the Internet. For example, all of Tribal Voice's networked computers have a domain name of tribal.com.

dynamic IP address - An internet protocol address that changes each time a connection is made to an Internet service provider. This type of connection is usually used with dial-up Internet accounts accessed via modem.

fixed IP address - An internet protocol address which remains the same. Networked computers and other computers with a dedicated connection to the Internet typically have fixed IP addresses.

Internet Service Provider - The company responsible for providing your Internet access.

IP address - A numeric address used to identify a computer or other device (printer, router, and so forth) over the Internet. IP addresses are composed of four sets of numbers with values of 0-255. For example: 204.227.15.1 is the IP address for the Tribal Voice's World-Wide Web server.

ISP - See Internet Service Provider

Leader - The person who first initiates a Cruise session in PowWow. The Leader has control of cruising the World-Wide Web. Wherever the Leader goes the other people follow in their World-Wide Web browsers.

Local User I.D. - Your PowWow address.

Remote User I.D. - Anyone else's PowWow address.

SLIP - stands for Serial Line Interface Protocol. A common method for connecting to the Internet using a modem.

static IP address - see fixed IP address

TCP/IP - stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. The method by which computers communicate with each other over the Internet.

URL - stands for Uniform Resource Locator. A standard method of displaying the name of a FTP or World-Wide Web server.