Usage
Prev
Next

Chapter 2. Usage

To use KTalkd, you need a talk client. The text-based talk is available on most Unix-like systems. Try talk your_username to see what happens when you receive a talk request.

You can also try the answering machine the same way: initiate a talk to yourself, ignore the announcement twice, and you'll see the answering machine.

There is a talk client with a graphical interface for KDE, KTalk. It's not yet shipped with KDE packages, but you can find it on ftp://ftp.kde.org. It should be in ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/stable/latest/apps/network

The announcement dialog box is trivial: respond or ignore.

The configuration dialog should be rather straight forward, except for setting up a forward to another user (or even to another host).

Choosing a Forwarding Method

None is perfect, they all have pros (+) and cons (-).

FWA - Forward announcement only.

Direct connection. Not recommended.

  • (+) You know who the caller is, but

  • (-) Caller will have to respond to an announcement from you. Annoying.

  • (-) Don't use if you have an answering machine on your “away” location. (The answering machine can't popup an announcement, it would be confusing!)

FWR - Forward all requests, changing info when necessary

Direct connection.

  • (+) Caller won't know that you're away, but

  • (-) You won't really know who the caller is - only his username, (so you might see talk from Wintalk@my_host)

FWT - Forward all requests and take the talk.

No direct connection.

  • (+) Same as above, but also works if you and caller can't be in direct contact one with the other (for example, firewall).

  • (+) You'll be told who's really talking to you when you accept the talk

  • (-) But as in FWR, you won't know his machine name in the announcement

In short, use FWT it you want to use it behind a firewall (and if KTalkd can access both networks), and FWR otherwise.

Prev
Next
Home


Would you like to comment or contribute an update to this page?
Send feedback to the TDE Development Team