How to get Ventrilo working guide

Ventrilo is a very widely used program for Voice Over communication with other people on the internet. It is commonly used when playing games such as World of Warcraft or any other game that doesn't have a built in VOIP (Voice over IP) or a game that has a very poorly made VOIP implemented. For a lot of players the simple act of trying to get Ventrilo setup can be extremely annoying and frustrating. A lot can go wrong when you're trying to get vent to work on your machine. Nothing damaging to your computer or anything that can cause irreparable damage so don't be paranoid about that.

It is however ungodly rare that Ventrilo will work immediately after you download it. If you're unfamiliar with the program or computers in general the process of setting up Ventrilo could take hours. This guide here will hopefully help you get past that. After downloading and installing Ventrilo the very first step is to Add or Edit user accounts. In the line of arrows in the upper right hand side of Vent click the top one (as seen in the picture below).

After clicking this input your user account name and click Ok. This will create your user name which is the name everyone will view you as while you're in Ventrilo. Use your character's name ingame or whatever people you're playing with are familiar calling you. If you're known as "Teh Masta" in game, put in "Teh Masta" as your user name, not your real life name whatever it may be. After you create your user account it is time to add the server you're trying to connect to to Ventrilo.

This is the most important part and the information has to match exactly to what you were told to input here. Below is an example of two common type of server name layouts. If someone gave you a server name that doesn't look like this most likely it is their goof and not a problem on your end.

lead.typefrag.com

184.154.207.174

silver.typefrag.com

The arrow you need to click in order to add a new server is just below the arrow you had to click before to add your username. Clicking this arrow will bring up another window where you input the required information for Ventrilo. A picture of this window is found below.

The Hostname or IP is where you will want to put in the examples of information I gave to you above. Not all of them will be the same so put in the information whatever player that is asking you to connect to vent provided you with. An example of a hostname is: lead.typefrag.com .. An example of an IP address that would go here is this: 184.154.207.174 .. Below that you can find the information for a port. The numbers that go where it says port change depending on what server you're trying to connect too. Almost every port will be different.

After you input all of the required information click Ok to complete this part. At this point in time you are able to connect to the server if you'd like too. All you would have to do is click Connect and you'll be able to join the servers information you just input. If you'd like to try getting vent to work and do not have your own server to try out google "Public Ventrilo Servers". You'll be able to find one here that works which you can try connecting too. What we just did, however, isn't the hard part of getting Ventrilo to work. The hard part is actually getting your Microphone to work which is what I am going to explain next.

To access to Setup window of Ventrilo where most of our work is going to take place next click "Setup" on the right side of the Ventrilo window.

To get started here the main thing you should know is when you press the "Test" button you'll be able to see if your mic works or not. This will help you out a ton in the very near future so you're not bugging people every time to see if your mic works. To get started in here make sure everything is checked on that I have checked. You can tweak stuff later but for right now copy an already working vent. Make sure your Output Device is set to "Default DirectSound Device" and Input Device is set to the same.

Make sure there is nothing selected for Hardware Input Mixer. These are all the default settings. Now be sure to set a Push to Talk key. Any key will work for right now but when you're playing games set something that feels comfortable. A lot of people use the Ctrl button on their keyboard. If your vent doesn't work right now (remember, press test, hold your push to talk key and try talking. After letting go of the key you should hear yourself if it is working) we will start changing some options.

Since there can be different problems for everyone there is no point in putting it in paragraph form anymore. Instead what I am going to do is give a long list of different problems and let you pick what one is closest to your own.

I can't hear myself at all: Try switching your Output Device to anything else on the list. Test to see if you can hear yourself after each time you do. You can also tweak with Hardware input mixer during this part. Sometimes tweaking something in here fixes it. Also crank the Line Volume up to max.

I can hear myself but people tell me I am very quiet: Raise your Outbound up a smidge, testing each time to hear how loud you are.

I sound fine but other people sound very quiet: Raise your Inbound up a smidge, listening closely after each time to see how loud some people are.

I did what you said but still can't hear myself: Click on the "Speech" Tab in Ventrilo and change your Output Device here. Also increase your Rate and Volume levels to see if it fixes your problem.

It's still not working...: If you did everything I recommended and your vent is still not working don't worry, I have been in that same exact boat before. What you need to do is very tedious now, you need to keep adjusting options, any of the ones I listed already until you finally find the combination that works. I know, it sounds stupid and it kinda is but aside from that I have no idea how to get vent working. I've had to tweak stuff for almost 2hrs before until something finally clicked. If you think you can find a better way online by all means look around. I've only ever done trial and error at this point.