The Community Browser™ makes it easy for you to locate and call people. In the Community Browser, you can gain access to chat rooms covering a wide range of subjects to find Internet Phone users to call. You may also search for a specific user using the Community Browser Find option.

A Chat Room is an interactive environment which functions as a "virtual community''. Each chat room contains a list of users from which you can select a person to call. At the same time, you view a chat room's graphic and textual Web content, which adds interesting and fun aspects to the conversation.

Using the Community Browser

The Community Browser can be opened in one of the following ways:

In the Internet Phone window, choose Community Browser... from the Go menu.
In the Internet Phone window, click the Community Browser icon at the right of the Call Line.

The Community Browser window appears.

TIP If you want to open the Community Browser window each time you run Internet Phone, choose Preferences from the Options menu in the Internet Phone window. Select the General icon and click the Display tab. Check the Open Community Browser on Startup checkbox and click the OK button.

When you open the Community Browser for the first time, you automatically join one of the Public Chat rooms, and your personal information is displayed as an entry in the user list. Each entry in the user list represents an Internet Phone user and includes his or her personal information such as Nickname, Comment and Country.

When you open the Community Browser window at other times, you will join, by default, the last chat room that you were in before you logged off. If you want, you can choose to Auto Join a Favorite chat room, see The Favorites View.

The Community Browser Views

The Community Browser is arranged in an easy to navigate hierarchy. Below the menu bar is the Index which contains a list of different views:

Public - The Public view contains chat rooms divided by topic, which are accessible to all Internet Phone users. You can switch between the various topics and chat rooms and call anybody who appears on a user list. Unique chat rooms found in this view are the on-line conference rooms where you can have a conversation with several people, see Conferences.
Member - The Member view contains chat rooms that you or other Internet Phone users create. Here, you can also add Web content to make your chat room more attractive to other callers with similar interests.
Favorites - The Favorites view contains your personal list of chat rooms that you select, so that you may store them in one place and access them easily. Your private chat rooms are also listed in this view.
Find - The Find view contains a Web page in which you can search for specific users according to information that you provide.

To browse between the Community Browser views

Click a view in the Index, then do one of the following:

In the Public and Member views, select a topic in the Topic list, click a chat room icon in the Chat Room list, and view the room content. Click the Join button to see the list of users and then select a user to call.
In the Find view, follow the instructions to perform a user search and then call the person directly from this page.

To update the Community Browser

Each section of the Community Browser window is updated periodically. You can update each section manually by right-clicking on the section you want to update in the Community Browser and choosing Refresh.

Chat Rooms

The chat rooms in the Community Browser are categorized by topic to attract users who share similar interests. A chat room contains a list of currently on-line users who have joined that specific chat room, as well as graphic and textual Web content pertaining to the room's subject. The user lists contain the names of the currently on-line chat room participants, along with their user information and Internet Phone capabilities.

Periodically, the Community Browser automatically updates itself. It adds new users who logged on and removes those who logged off.

You can easily join, leave and create chat rooms of your own. After joining a chat room, you can call other people on the chat room's user list and communicate with them using a variety of multimedia features, see Multimedia Sessions.

Joining and Leaving Chat Rooms

You can view and then choose to join any chat room that appears in the various views of the Community Browser window. In the View mode you can see the chat room Web content. When you choose to join the room you can also see the users that are on-line in this room.

NOTE You can restrict access to chat rooms that have content ratings by exercising parental control, see Parental Control.

To view a chat room

Click any chat room icon. The Web content appears.

To join a chat room

Do one of the following:

Click on the blinking Join button (located on the left of the chat room title.)
Choose Join from the Chat Room menu

You are now joined to the selected chat room, you can see the on-line users and your name is added to the user list. Furthermore, the chat room icon appears in the Joined Chat Room list at the bottom of the Community Browser. This list contains the icons of all chat rooms you currently joined, regardless of view and topic.

To join more than one chat room at the same time

Each time you want to join a new chat room, you may keep previous chat rooms you have joined active. In this way, you will be able to receive calls from people in chat rooms that you are not currently in. All of your active chat room icons will appear in the Joined Chat Room list.

  1. Click the Join button to join a chat room. The chat room icon is added to the Joined Chat Room list.
  2. Browse the hierarchy of the Community Browser window and click another chat room icon.
  3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 each time you want to join another chat room.

To leave a chat room

Do one of the following:

Choose Leave from the Chat Room menu to leave the current chat room.
Select a chat room icon from the Joined Chat Room list. Click the Leave button.
Select a chat room icon from the Joined Chat Room list. Right-click on it and choose Leave.

When you leave a chat room, its icon is removed from the Joined Chat room list. Your name is also removed from the user list, and you return to the View mode.

Creating a Chat Room

In Internet Phone Release 5, you can easily create new chat rooms and wait for others to join.

When you create a chat room, you must choose if it will be Public, which is open to all Internet Phone users, or Private, which is open only to specific people who know the room name. If the new chat room is Public, it appears in both the Member and your Favorites views. If the new chat room is Private, it appears only in your Favorites view.

To create a public and/or private chat room

  1. Choose New... from the Chat Room menu. The New Chat Room form appears.
  2. Enter all of the requested information.

After a short interval, the new chat room will be active. Other users will see your room after they update the Community Browser window or after they log in at a different time.

Private Chat Rooms

If you want to conduct private conversations, you can create a private chat room. This "unlisted'' chat room cannot be seen on the Member chat room list, and can only be accessed by users who know the exact name of the private chat room.

When another person wants to join this private chat room and reach you there, he/she must open a private chat room with exactly the same name. When a person joins this chat room, his or her user name appears on the User list and one of you can double-click the other's name to place a call.

To join an existing private chat room

  1. Point to Open in the Chat Room menu.
  2. In the form, select Private and enter the name of the private chat room that you want to join.

The Favorites View

The Favorites view contains your personal list of chat rooms that you want to visit on a regular basis. This list is not limited by number, and you can use it to quickly join chat rooms and call users. The Favorites view also contains private chat rooms.

To add a chat room to the Favorite view

From the Joined Chat Room list, do one of the following:

Select a chat room icon and then choose Add to Favorites from the Chat Room menu.
Select a chat room icon, click the right mouse button and then choose Add to Favorites.

The procedure for joining and leaving chat rooms in the Favorites view is the same as in any other view, see Joining and Leaving Chat Rooms

To automatically join a chat room when you start Internet Phone

Do one of the following:

Right-click on the Favorite chat room icon representing the chat room that you want to join when you start Internet Phone. Choose Auto Join.
Right-click on a chat room icon from the Joined Chat Room list and select Auto Join. This room is also added to the Favorites chat rooms.

By default, you will join this chat room every time you open the Community Browser. You can join to more than one chat room on startup.

Conferences

Real-time on-line conferences are becoming popular and Internet Phone Release 5 enables you to join these conferences easily.

To join an on-line conference

  1. Select Public in the Index.
  2. Click a topic in the Topic list (e.g, General).
  3. Click the Conference icon in the Chat Room list.

You have now entered the conference room via VocalTec Conference Server. A participant list displays the names of all the current conference participants. The name of the current speaker is highlighted in real-time. Only one person at a time can speak.

Follow the on-screen instructions to join the conference. After joining the conference you can listen and talk to the other conference participants.