Ventrilo is a VOIP (Voice Over IP) program. Basically, it's for real-time voice communications over the internet.
Despite the fact that there are one or two dudes that can be douchebags from time to time there, it is REALLY fun to be able to talk to fellow siegers during the game and when just messing around.
Some of my favorite vent people, in no particular order, are:
Schrute (Even though he never speaks.)
J3rk (Mic currently broken, but this guy is pure win.)
Piipe (Awesome to finally hear him.)
Roflraptor (Great person, great player, and I love the Aussie accents.)
Rbob/Nug/Bunny (Pretty much the same reasons an Raptor.)
Console (Kinda the same reasons as Raptor...lol)
GUARD!AN (You'll know why from the instant you meet him on vent.)
Vail
Kane
JKB
Trk (When not raging)
DUO (When not raging)
Jawa (When not raging)
Kera (When not raging)
M.T. Dragoon
Lorax
Cydonis (Just met this guy, but I like him.)
Piston, Randir, Ramshi, Sonic, Silver Absolution...I know I've probably missed some...sorry if I did.
Pizza gets honorable mention since he never gets on or plays anymore....oh, and Laser.
First of all, get ventrilo:
http://www.ventrilo.com/download.php
Most users will need the first link there under CLIENT.
If you want the 64-bit version or have an operating system other than 7/vista/xp, then get the proper one.
Here are the the Ventrilo FAQs:
http://www.ventrilo.com/setup.php
After the client program has been installed you can yews these quick step-by-step instructions for getting the program configured and connected into a server. Before you begin you need to know several things before you can connect to a server.
1) The server's hostname or IP address. The person running the server should have this information.
2) The server's port number. Ventrilo server's and client's default to port number 3784 but if the server admin has changed the port number then you will need to tell the Ventrilo client to yews the same port number when connecting to the server.
The hostname is newyork.maxfrag.net
The port is 4404
(YOU CAN ALSO CLICK ON THE NEWYORK.MAXFRAG.NET LINK NEAR THE TOP OF THE VENT TRACKER ON THE PORTAL PAGE, BUT IT WILL CHANGE ANY SETTINGS YOU MAY HAVE ALREADY SAVED FOR THAT SERVER.)
There is no password for the server itself, but there are passwords on some of the channels.
The general channel passwords are the same as the IMPULSE PUG PASSWORD.
Also, remember that you DO NOT have to have a MICROPHONE!!!!
You are not required to speak if you don't want to, but it's nice.
You can get plenty of good feedback from other players that way and just ignore Duo when he rages.
If anyone has any complaints about anything that goes on in the vent server, please contact me via xfire, PM, etc... (All comments/complaints will be kept confidential, of course.)
If I get enough complaints about a particular person/situation, I will deal with it.
Usually when we have a PUG, most everyone is in vent....Hope to see more of you there.
~archi