AVChat Software Product Blog

The latest build of AVChat 3, made available for download today, packs some awesome new features:

• Tool tips on most buttons in the UI.
• Better UI (you can now re size your cam and the users list, other cams are now floating on top of the text chat area,cam borders are drawn correctly, slightly skinnier interface with default padding set to 6px).
• YouTube videos now play (again) in the actual YouTube player.
• Added option in the UI to show join/leave messages in the text chat.
• Lots of small updates for the text chat (proper html encoding for html characters, better detection/highlight mechanism for links, in some cases text chat would go over YouTube videos/pictures previews).
• Some small changes to the upload mechanism in php to go around some wierd web server security settings we’ve met : “http” not allowed in GET variables, not even HTML encoded !!!
• Added a new video/audio quality profile for 768kbits/s streams .
• Ghost users should now be detected and disconnected in max 17 seconds on all 3 media servers.
• Changed the way the fps, free time, nr of viewers shows up in the cam areas.
• Clicking the [Add IT] buttn in the YT submit button now adds the video directly.
• Spaces in usernames are not replaced by _ anymore.
• New option in avc_settings.xxx to disable YouTube previews.
• Added memory usage display (off by default, you can turn it on from avc_settings.xxx)

and bug fixes:

• The info  about who is someone watching visible in admin.swf was not exact all the time.
• When cliking ACCEPT/DENY for someone’s request to your private stream some wierd text would fill up the text chat input box (bug introduced in build 609).
• Window padding value in style.css now actually works.
• Sorted out some sorting issues for the users list.
• When a  YT movie preview was shown in the chat the whole movie was downloaded even tough you weren’t watching it.
• private streams were not working on Wowza 2 (they were on Wowza 1.7)!

and some updates to security too:

• Added the possibility to add an ip range for the ips from where admin.swf is allowed to connect.
• Admins now see the ip of each user in the text chat, you can double click the ip to select it.
• The allow localhost connections option is now available for all 3 media servers: Wowza, FMIS, Red5.
• The Rooms List in admin.swf  now shows the ip of the creator of the room.
• Admin can now enter closed rooms.

How to get the new AVChat 3 release

You can obtain the latest AVChat 3 build by downloading the software again ( using the download link from the delivery/trial email) and:

• doing a clean install
  or
  
• overwrite all the old files including the FMIS/Red5 server side files and the translation files

Why a connection attempt to a working media server might fail:

Red5, FMIS and Wowza by default only accept  rtmp connections over port 1935. This will work fine for most home Internet connections however when you’re behind a corporate firewall/network you might hit 2 major restrictions:

1. NO traffic/connections to non standard ports like 1935 (default port for rtmp). Traffic is only allowed to standard ports like 80 (http) and 443 (https) . The solution for this is to configure the media server to accept  rtmp connections over ports 443 and 80 .
2. NO non-http traffic allowed (or a proxy server is used). The solution for this is to configure the media server to accept  rtmpt connections. Rtmpt is rtmp wrapped as http and its slower. It also adds some overhead/consumes more bandwidth because each rtmp packet needs to be wrapped as http. According to a 2004 Adobe article, only 4% of Internet users are behind such a network.

The automatic connection sequence in Flash Player:

By default, when a Flash Player app (AVChat 3 for example) tries to connect to a media server (Red5, FMIS or Wowza), it automatically tries to establish a connection by using the following sequence of ports and protocols:

1. rtmp://myserver:1935/avchat30/_definst_
2. rtmp://myserver:443/avchat30/_definst_
3. rtmp://myserver:80/avchat30/_definst_
4. rtmpt://myserver:80/avchat30/_definst_

This connection sequence can enable connections to succeed that otherwise would not. This automatic retry sequence occurs only if the initial connection specifies the RTMP protocol and does not specify a port - for example rtmp://myserver/avchat30/_definst_ . During this connection sequence, users may wait several seconds for multiple connection attempts to time out.

However for the above connection sequence to actually produce more sucessfull connection attempts the media server must also be properly configured to listen for rtmp connections over ports 1935, 443 and 80 and for rtmpt connections over port 80.

Configuring your media server for best connection success rate:

[Before making the below changes make sure there is no other program listening on port 80 or 443 on your media server. These ports are surely already used by Apache. Use the netstat -ant command on linux to see which ports are already used.  FMIS, Red5 and Wowza use port 1935 by default for a reason!].

If you’re using FMIS:

• solution for restriction 1: move it to a separate server and configure it listen for rtmp connections over ports 1935, 443 and 80. You need to edit conf/fms.ini, set ADAPTOR.HOSTPORT = :1935,443,80 and restart FMIS. Make sure you don’t have other apps (like the Apache web server) started and listening on 80 or 443.
• solution for restriction 2:  same as above, FMIS can listen for both rtmp and rtmpt connections over the same ports at the same time

Most FMIS hosting services (like influxis.com) are already configured like this  out of the box.

If you’re using  Wowza:

• solution for restriction 1: move it to a separate server and make it listen for rtmp connections over ports 1935, 443 and 80. You need to edit conf/VHost.xml , set <Port>1935,443,80</Port> and restart Wowza. Make sure you don’t have other apps (like the Apache web server) started and listening on 80 or 443.
• solution for restriction 2: same as above, Wowza can listen for both rtmp and rtmpt connections over the same ports at the same time

If you’re using Red5:

• solution for restriction 1: move it to a separate dedicated/vps server and bind rtmp connections to port 443 instead of 1935 (Red5 0.9 can not listen for rtmp connections over several simultaneous ports like Wowza and FMIS can). You need to edit conf/red5.properties, set rtmp.port=443 and restart Red5. Make sure you don’t have other apps (like the Apache web server) started and listening on 443 . You can also use port 80 but we will use that for listening for rtmpt connections as explained below.
• solution for restriction 2: bind rtmpt connections to port 80. You need to edit conf/red5.properties, set rtmpt.port=80 and restart Red5. Make sure you don’t have other apps (like the Apache web server) started and listening on 80.

How can you check your connection

Here you will find 2 port testers which will attempt to establish rtmp and rtmpt connections (using all ports) to a properly configured media server. Red5 ships with a similar tool and you can download another one from here.

More info

There is a great article (from 2005 I think) on the Adobe website that goes more in depth about these issues. I recommend you read it if you want to understand a little bit more about how the Internet works and why these steps are necessary and why such configurations are not the default: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashcom/articles/firewalls_proxy.html .

Just like the title says, we now provide a native AVChat 3 Plugin for WordPress that handles the integration between the user management system in WordPress and AVChat 3.

Some of the Features:

• automatic username recoginition (AVChat 3 will automatically recognize the usernames of users logged in the WordPress web site )
• allows different permissions and settings for each user role directly from admin area
• it installs as any other WordPress plugin
• is compatible with SEO friendly URL’s in WordPress
• administrators can configure basic AVChat 3 settings (like the rtmp connectionstring) directly from the admin area

The price for the AVChat 3 Video Chat Plugin for WordPress is $49 and it’s available when you buy AVChat 3.

To buy it go to the purchase page and select one of the  AVChat 3 licenses + the WordPress plugin.

Visit the AVChat 3 Video Chat Plugin for WordPress page for more details and screenshots.

PS: We are also working on some other features for this plugin like a Who’s chatting module that will allow you to show on your WordPress website who is actively logged in the video chat. If you have other great ideas drop us a line at contact@avchat.net.

Based on our customers suggestions we decided to improve the Drupal 6 Module for AVChat 3 . We reorganized it, we changed the way it works, and most important we added some cool new features:

• User profiles can now be accessed directly from the chat.
• The users list now shows the profile pictures (works only if “User Settings->Picture Support” is enabled from Administer)
• Settings for each user role. If one user is assigned to more user roles, then the module will take the best value (Example: A user is assigned to two roles: authenticated and gold member. Free Video Time for “authenticated” role is 1 hour and for “gold members” role is 2 hours. The module will allow the user to have 2 hours of Free Video Time)
• The possibility to choose in “Administer” between two modes of displaying the chat: Popup Window or Embedded in a web site page.
• New permissions added for users who have access to “Flash Video Chat Admin Area”.
• Clean Url friendly

What’s changed:

• Less cookies (no more than 3)
• It can be installed in /modules/ folder directly (it can still be installed in /sites/all/modules/)
• No more paths incompatibility: the paths to the swfs are now relative to $base_url
• Updated permissions page

All these goodies are available in the Drupal 6 Module from our latest build (603).

To get the new Drupal 6 module download it again from your client download page. The link should be in your delivery email.

New features:

• Wowza Media Server compatibility (more on that in a later post).
• We switched to the AS3 You Tube API, which means you can now see more than 1 video in the chat. The You Tube controls had to change tough to something simpler! .
• The color of the Top Status Bar is now the same with the color of the windows.
• The user’s avatar is now shown in the Top Status Bar and avatars now have rounded corners. The radius is controlled via style.css (cornerradius property from the windows class):
• Avatars now keep their aspect ratio.
• Admins now have the ability to close rooms ( users can not join closed rooms ):
  
• The Rooms List now shows separate column for # of users in the room, the description (when available) is shown in parenthesis.
• Major modifications to the AVChat 3 Module for Drupal 6 (more on that in a later post).
• Added a red glow around the tab containing the last received message.
• Added check box to disable auto scrolling ( this will allow proper viewing of pictures and videos in crowded rooms):
  
• Revised upload system:
  • editable filetype filters for security,useful variables are now sent to upload.xxx via GET (file size, file name, etc…)
  • upload system is now independent of the default uploadedFiles folder
  • you can modify upload.php to put the files anywhere on your web server).
• The admin interface (admin.swf) can now be fully limited to only the features of the user interface.
• Changed the color for the following text to red: USER requests permission to view your Webcam
• You can now control the width and height of the preview area for images (imagePreviewAreaWidthAndHeight in avc_settings.xxx)
• You can now translate the Loading Settings… message via the lstext flash var.
• Moved the Who Is Typing text box to the top so that it will not cover most recent messages
• added DOS protection to writeuserlist.xxx
• added functionality to make AVChat 3 work with a license key added to settings.asc

Bug fixes:

• several issues regarding the Community Builder integration inside the Joomla 1.5 Component
• added more missing texts to the language file
• issue with maxStreams limitation not working properly when autoStartOthersWebcams was on
• room names and text messages are now properly trimmed before they are created/sent.
• issues with rounded corners not scaling properly
• issue with the rooms-I-am-in counter not increasing when you were automatically dropped in a room

How to get the new AVChat 3 release

You can obtain the latest AVChat 3 build by downloading the software again ( using the download link from the delivery/trial email) and:

• doing a clean install
  OR
• overwrite all the old files including the FMIS/Red5 server side files and the translation files

Several intermediate builds were silently posted since the last major one so some of you already benefit from some of the above features.  We have some cool new features in development, hopefully we will get a new build out with some of them in the following weeks.

The login screen in AVChat 3 shows up to ask the user for its username and gender. However if you provide these info’s via avc_settings.php or avc_settings.asp the login is not needed anymore so it will be skipped!

So this is what you need to do in order to auto login users:

• set the value of $config['username'] to something (like the username of the person logged in the website)
• change the value of $config['gender'] to male, female or couple
• set $config['changegender']=0; so the user will not be given the chance to change its gender
• set $config['changeuser']=0; so the user will not be given the chance to change its username

You can also use $config['disableGenderSelection'] to disable the gender selection altogether and $config['coupleGenderEnabled'] to disable the couple gender.

As we promised, the  AVChat 3 video chat module for phpFox 2 is ready. Besides compatibility with phpFox 2, this module is more powerful, easier to install and easier to use than the one we had for 1.6 .

Features in the phpFox 2 module:

• automatic user name, gender and profile picture integration
• independent permissions control for each user group (in admin control panel)
• user profiles integration
• automatic integration with the user and admin menus
• it installs as any other phpFox 2 module
• compatible with SEO friendly URL’s in phpFox

The price for the video chat module for phpFox 2 is $49 (includes the video chat module for phpFox 1.6 too) and its available when you buy AVChat 3.

To buy the AVChat 3 Video Chat Module for your phpFox 2 website go to the purchase page and select a AVChat 3 license + the phpFox module.

For more details and screenshots visit the AVChat 3 Video Chat Module for phpFox 2.0 page.

About bandwidth usage

The bandwidth usage/month depends on many factors and can never be guessed without several days of actual running the video chat software on your website:

• number of people online watching cams and how much time they spend watching
• number of people online broadcasting cams and how much time they spend broadcasting
• how many cams a user can see at once
• audio/video quality (128,256,512kbits/s etc…)

For example a user broadcasting its webcam for 30 minutes at 256kbits/s will use  57Mbytes of bandwdith (256kbits/s * 60 seconds * 30 minutes=57Mbytes).

Another user viewing the first one for 30 minutes will use the same amount: 57Mbytes. Total: 114Mbytes for a 30 minute 1 to 1 video chat session.

Reducing bandwidth usage

AVChat 3 offers several ways to reduce the monthly bandwidth used on the media server:

• the automatic bandwidth reduction feature which is on by default
• you can lower the audio/video quality for the streams so that they use less bandwidth
• you can limit the amount of time/day users can view web cams
• you can limit the amount of web cams users can view at once (4 by default)

Who is typing box in AVChat 3

In avc_settings.php you will find the following config option:

$config['showWhoIsTyping']=1;

Set it to 0 and the who-is-typing box will not be shown anymore in the chat.

If you are using avc_settings.asp look for the showWhoIsTyping variable and set it to 0!

Error 1: If, when trying to connect using AVChat 3, you are getting this error message: Connection failed, media server might be down or firewall might be blocking the connection! like this:

You need to check:

• your rtmp connection string inserted in avc_settings.xxx
• the media server might not be running (you can check if Red5 is running by going to http://yourred5server.com:5080/)
• the media server might have not started properly (thus is not running, you can check the logs in Red5/log for any ERROR messages during startup)
• there is a firewall on the media server blocking TCP traffic over port 1935 (and 5080)
• the user trying to connect is behind a firewall that blocks the connection (either a personal one installed on his computer or a corporate one installed on his network, to test his connection capabilities he should run these connection tests: http://www.flashcomguru.com/apps/port_test/index.cfm )

Error 2: If, when trying to connect using AVChat 3, you are getting this error message:  Connection Rejected:No scope ”avchat30/_definst_” on this server OR The connection with the video chat server could not be made like this:

It means you are using Red5 and your Red5  is running but:

• make sure you use Red5 0.8 final (AVChat 3 is not compatible with any other versions)
• make sure you installed the AVChat 3 Red5 server files properly (Red5/webapps/avchat30)
• make sure you restart Red5 after you installed the Red5 server side files (Red5/webapps/avchat30)

Error 3: If, when trying to connect using AVChat 3, you are getting this error message: Application (avchat30) is not defined , like this:

you are using FMIS and you have not created the FMIS server side avchat30 app (FMIS/applications/avchat30), follow the installation instructions and you should be just fine!