Combatter's (t00t-ingly Good) Guide to TeamSpeak

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If you are new to TS in general, you probably want to read the whole thing. If you know what you are doing, I recommend that you skip to the QuickStart table.

Downloading

First off, you need to download and install TeamSpeak. At the time of writing the current version is 2.0.32.60 and there are versions available for Windows and Linux (although there is an unofficial Mac version called TeamSpeex which is currently at version 1.0 Beta 2). This guide is for the Windows version because if you use Linux you should be techie enough to work it out for yourself! ;P Well actually the Linux version is almost identical so this guide should still help ya.

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General Info

TeamSpeak is free to use (for us individual members anyway!) and allows you talk to fellow t00ters using a microphone. The server is divided up into areas called 'channels'.

The t00t Police's channel list is constantly evolving as server admins see fit. It is moderated in a similar way to the IRC channel #tootpolice but there are two main types of moderator (there are others but we don't tend to use them.) The two types are as follows...

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Admin Types

A Server Admin has admin rights on the whole server and can do things like kick/ban players, allow a connected user to register themselves, make other users into server/channel admins, send text messages to everyone on the whole server/in a specific channel, edit channel properties (see below) and probably a few other things that I don't know about.

A Channel Admin can kick players from the channel, make other users into admins for his/her channel, send text messages to everyone in their channel and edit the properties of the channel (e.g. name, topic, maximum users, password).

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Registering

You can register as a user on TS in two ways...

( A How To Register guide is currently under construction )

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Connecting

Load up TeamSpeak, click the "Connection" menu in the top left and click "Connect":

Right click the word Servers in the white area and click Add Server

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Connecting as an unregistered user - if you don't have a TS login yet

...click the "Anonymous" radio button and you will be presented with this..

Fill in the boxes like above, replacing "LoveLemming" with your chosen t00ter nickname and come on to #tootpolice to find out the "Server password". Now click the Connect button. If all goes well you should connect and be greeted with something looking like this

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OR Connecting as an registered user

...click the "Registered" radio button and you will be presented with this..

Fill in the boxes like above, replacing replacing "LoveLemming" with your chosen nickname, replace "Login Name" with the login name you were given to use and enter your password in the "User Password" box. Now click the Connect button...

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Talking

All being well, you should see something like this...

Now let's see if you can talk. By default TS is set up in "Voice Activation" mode which means it will automatically send what you are saying to the server if the volume of input to the mic is above a certain level. This can be tweaked (along with other stuff) as follows...

"Output Volume" sets how loud you hear other people. I have mine a couple of notches above the default so that I can hear people who have quiet mics over the noise of gunfire (DoD:S) and spell noises (GuildWars)!

If you have "Voice Send Method" set to "Push to talk" you can set a key that TS will listen for and whenever this key is held down, whatever is input to your mic will be sent to the server. Some ppl prefer this option because then they have direct control of when what they say is sent. But it can get annoying as the current application will still receive the keystroke which can cause annoyance - particularly as TS has a nasty habbit of making 'ping' noises at me whenever it's focused and I press my "push to talk" key! For example, if you are prone to shouting "FUCK!" everytime you die or to forgetting to shut down TS when having rampant steamy sex in the same room, you should probably use "Push to Talk"!!

If you set it to "Voice Activation", depending on ur mic, u probably want to have the "Voice Activation Level" about 3/4 of the way from the left but you will need to experiment a bit...

Speaking of experimenting, that's what the "Local Test" section is for. Set the Codec to "Speex 25.9" (the highest quality and the one used on all t00t channels) and click "Activate Local Test Mode". Now it'll echo back to you what is being recorded with a slight delay. Watch the green light and make sure it only comes on when you are talking. If it stays on when you aren't, move the "Voice Activation Level" slider further towards "shout." If your speach cuts out sometimes or you can't hear yourself at all, move it further towards "whisper." NOTE: The choice of Codec here does NOT affect which codec is used in actual conversations. This is decided by the server. Very little tweaking is required to get good quality speech going with TS (which is why it's so good!)

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Quick Start

Hostname:teamspeak.tootpolice.org
Nickname:(your chosen TP nickname)
Server-assigned nick:No
Autoreconnect:Yes (recommended)
For Anonymous Access
User type:Anonymous
Server Password:(come on to #tootpolice and ask someone for the password)
For Registered Access
User type:Registered
Login Name:(whatever ur login name is!)
User Password:(whatever ur password is!)

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Common Problems

Problem: No-one hears what you are saying

Solution : Make sure you have the correct recording device selected. Load up "Sounds and Audio Devices" from Control Panel...

Start -> Control Panel -> Sounds and Audio Devices (if your not using XP, work it out urself :P )

Click the Audio tab..

Make sure that your Sound card is selected as the default device for recording and playback (and optionally tick the "Use only Default Devices" unless you can think of a good reason not to have that ticked.)

Problem: The above solution didn't work and/or people can hear everything you hear

Solution: Make sure you have the correct recording input selected. Load up "Volume Control" from the start menu as follows...

Start -> (All) Programs -> Accessories -> Entertainment -> Volume Control (for Windows XP - for older Windows it'll be similar)

Now click Options -> Properties

Select the "Recording" radio box, make sure that "Microphone", "Mic" or similar is checked in the box and click OK

Now make sure that the checkbox below "Microphone" and next to the word "Select" is checked and that the volume slider is right at the top. There may also be an "advanced" button below the checkbox (try clicking Options -> Advanced Options if it is not already ticked) so you might want to click that and see what options you can fiddle with (e.g. if you have a "Mic Boost" option you might find that helps if you find people complaining that you are too quiet.)

Now you can close down Volume Control - you shouldn't have to do this everytime as the settings are stored internally in your sound card.

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All this stuff is (c) Ben Kennish 2010 alright? So don't try and pinch it and pass it on as your own you filthy thieving git! ;P