1. The plugin won't launch. Why?

The first time Onstream Webinars launches the screen sharing plugin, you will be presented with a dialog that asks you to accept the execution of the plugin. The best thing to do is to put a check inside the "remember my choice" checkbox and to press the button to accept the application to launch. On a Windows XP computer running FireFox, this dialog looks like this:

If you put a check inside the checkbox and then press "cancel", FireFox will remember your choice to disallow the launch of the plugin. The problem with this is that you will not be shown the dialog again, and you will not be able to run the plugin. To fix this, you must type "about:config" into the FireFox address bar, and enter "launchappshare" as the filter term.

Then select the launchappshare item and right-click it. From the dropdown menu, select the "Reset" option. This will reset the "remember my choice" feature in the dialog, and when you try to launch the application sharing plugin, you will now see the original dialog requesting your permission to run the plugin. This time, please check the "remember my choice" option and accept the execution of the plugin.

NOTE: this article needs a revision. On my Vista/FF3.0 the about:config does not show launchappshare. Instead, I need to look in Tools>Options>Applications (see here), and in the session, I see the following dialog. If the exe does not exist for some reason, it will not allow me to press OK.

 

2. Uninstalling the Mac OS X screenshare plugin for Onstream Webinars

• Navigate to your Applications folder
• Find the App "Application_Sharing"
• Right click the App and select "Show package contents"
• Open the Contents Folder
• Double click the Application "Onstream WebinarsUnInstaller" to run it
• Click "Continue" and then "Uninstall"
• The Onstream Webinars Application plugin will be uninstalled.

 

3. We are facing connectivity issues, particularly in establishing the connection and loading Synclets. Often this takes close to 2 minutes; sometimes it also throws a timeout error. Please suggest.

The first connection attempt still cycles through the list of connection configurations, meaning that the first connection attempt will still take a long time if the user is sitting in a network that does not allow RTMP. 
To fix this, we require account-wide customization of the order of the connection attempts. It is on our roadmap, but we still have to think of the best way to implement it. It is not necessarily in the best interest of all conference attendees to have a connection configuration pushed upon them by the account holder. RTMPT is much less efficient than RTMP, and we don't want to force it onto users who are capable of connecting via RTMP. The best solution currently is still for system administrators to allow RTMP.

 

4. We have a lot of audio problems. The audio cuts and falls away a lot.

Two possible reasons for this are lack of bandwidth and low-grade hardware (microphones).In the first case, it is important that the moderator take into consideration the bandwidth restrictions of (all) the connected clients.If bandwidth is a concern, it is advisable not to engage in bandwidth-intensive activities, such as screen sharing.

In the second case, it might be possible that like your microphone gain level may be too low.Please raise the gain level of your microphone.You can do this directly in the CONFERENCE synclet when you are broadcasting by hovering over your video element and adjusting the slider that fades in.You can also achieve this by going to Options >> Preferences >> Mic & Speakers and adjusting the slider there.

 

5. We require a feature which allows us to add a background image to the whiteboard which than allows a young person to write over the image or draw something over the top. Is this a feature that already exists or something you'd be willing to add?

Yes, the feature you are looking for already exists. You can achieve what you are looking for by following the steps below:

• Open your Media Library in the session (top bar) and select/add a image file from your computer by clicking the black plus button. It will then be added to your "Media Library" and will be converted for you. You can open it in the content viewer via double click.
• Once the image displays, you should click on the "Show Whiteboard" button (small button at the bottom right of the content viewer) to activate it. You will see the whiteboard appear on top of the image and you are good to go.

But remember, the image that a "Moderator" uploads can be seen by all the participants present in the session. And to use the whiteboard you have to give the participants these permissions or convert them to a moderator. So basically if the image is edited by one participant it will be shared on every participants screen.

 

6. We require a unique ID/link for our business. Is that possible?

While signing up, one will be asked to enter "My room link"; here he should enter his Name or the name of the Educational Institute or the Business Organization which can help his participants identify the session link sent by him. This can serve the purpose of having a unique link.

 

7. What are the system requirements for Onstream Webinars?

Please refer tohttp://support.onstreammedia.com/onsm_webinars_system_requirements.html for details.

 

8. What does the Communication Server setting in My Profile do?

Background 
To ensure the lowest possible latencies for our international customers, Onstream Webinars is deployed on a worldwide network of communication servers. The servers are connected amongst each other via the highes-speed internet backbone meaning your messages fly across the internet with the fewest possible number of hops.

Settings 
Auto-detect closest server - This is the default setting for your account and is the setting we recommend. Onstream Webinars will detect your geographic location using your IP and automatically route your connection to the closest server. We have an IP to server mapping in our network configuration which we tweak to make sure you are always connected to the fastest server, wherever you are.

Use product default - Any plan you may be subscribed to has a default server associated with it. This allows us to route you to a particular server if, for example, we wanted to help you troubleshoot your connectivity. Typically your support agent or system administrator would ask you to select this setting for testing.

France, Canada, etc - A list of geographic communication servers you could target specifically if you wanted to override the auto detection. You might want to do this if you know that there is a problem with internet routing to a particular country from your location.

Further information 
If you do not see the auto-detect closest server setting in your Profile then your system administrator has turned geo-location off on your server. If you are a system administrator, please contact our support to learn how to turn this setting on.

If your setting is set to Use product default then you may have signed up to Onstream Webinars before geo-location was introduced. You can safely switch to Auto-detect closest server.

 

9. What is the file size limit for documents in the Media Library?

We recently increased the file size allowed from 30MB to 100MB

For files that you do not plan to open in the Content Viewer (but merely post to the "Shared Files" area of Media Library in order for participants to download), the limit is 100 MB

 

10. What is the meaning for each granular permission described on the User Guide?

Moderators of a session can change other users’ role to promote or demote users and thereby control the access level they have to certain features in the room. In Onstream Webinars we call the level of access to features “permissions”. A moderator can also modify a particular user’s permissions individually. This feature is very powerful and quite advanced.

The permissions menu is available by clicking on a users avatar from the user list and selecting “permissions” from the menu.

The following list aims to describe what each of the permissions does.

 

11. What is the reason for this error: “You are no longer connected and please refresh the window for reconnecting”?

This is likely an indication of network issues.

We advise clients who experience regular disconnections to check their Internet connection; Onstream Webinars cannot maintain a connection if the Internet drops away sporadically.

Often, the problem has to do with a weak wireless signal, in which case we suggest that the client attempt a hardwired connection.

 

12. What kind of software is required for a host to share a screen and a user to view that screen?

To view and share a screen, you will need the latest version of Adobe Flash Player. To share your screen, you will also need a plugin which you will prompted to install once you try to share your screen.

Please refer tohttp://support.onstreammedia.com/onsm_webinars_system_requirements.html for details regarding the system requirements for the Onstream Webinars software.

 

13. When I answer a question in the Q&A box, everyone can see the answer. Is it possible to make it private or choose each time whether to display it or not?

Yes, you can choose which questions to answer - however once you answer them, everyone will see it. For private communication, please use the private chat feature.

14. When should Onstream Webinars run on a multi-server or multi-NIC setup?

The Onstream Webinars Enterprise Server License installation can be carried out on 1, 2 or 3 servers.

Here are some typical setups:

3 server setup:

• Server 1: Apache, MySQL, PHP (Linux)
• Server 2: Flash Media Server (Linux)
• Server 3: Onstream Webinars Media Converter (Windows)

2 server setup:

• Server 1: Apache, MySQL, PHP, Flash Media Server (Linux)
• Server 2: Onstream Webinars Media Converter (Windows)

1 server setup: Apache, MySQL, PHP, Flash Media Server, Onstream Webinars Media Converter (Windows)

Note that the single server setup must run on Windows as the Onstream Webinars Media Converter requires a Windows OS. Seehttp://support.onstreammedia.com/onsm_webinars_system_requirements.html for more details.

Aside from performance under load, which is the primary argument for a 2 or 3 server setup (and the topic for another article) there is also the issue of making common ports available to multiple services.

FMS uses port 1935 by default to connect to clients. Many corporate firewalls do not open this port, but do keep standard ports, such as 80 or 443 open. By assigning ports 80 and 443 to the FMS service you can increase connection success for such participants. Since you can not bind multiple services to the same port on the same NIC, you will either require 2 NICs - one binding FMS to ports 80 and 443, the other binding Apache to ports 80 and 443 - or opt for a 2 (or 3) server setup.

In summary, if your group of users connect from behind many different corporate firewalls over which you have no control, you will reduce connectivity problems by ensuring that FMS can bind to port 80 and 443 as well.

 

15. Which files can I open natively, without converting them first?

Files with the following extensions can be opened immediately after upload: swf, jpg, jpeg, png, gif, mp3, mp4, flv, m4v, f4v, f4a, f4b, f4p, mov (most), mp4v, m4a, 3gp (most), 3g2 and aac.

Out of the list above, you can choose to convert the following to a smaller, optimized size: mp4, flv, mov

Other filetypes can either be uploaded and converted or just uploaded (and shared with others for download, for example).

Filetypes that can be uploaded and converted: 
Office: doc, docx, ppt, pptx, pps, ppsx, xls, xlsx and also pdf, txt, and rtf 
Video: avi, wmv, mpg, mpeg, asf, asx, fix, mkv, xvid and the filetypes mentioned in the previous question (mp4, flv, mov) 
Audio: wma, wav, wave, aif, aiff, mpa and ogg

For a full list of technical specifications, please refer to our website at the addresshttp://support.onstreammedia.com/onsm_webinars_system_requirements.html