a speak_freely question

[Geoff Shang]

Hi:

Yes it is possible to use the sflwl program to search an lwl server to see
if someone is online.  This is useful in order to resolve IP addresses so
that you can connect to them directly (as Shaun mentioned).  However, in
practice, the sflwl program is probably more hassle than it's worth.  It's
much easier to look at the webpage generated by sflwld than using sflwl, as
you can browse the information that is there rather than having to search
for it.

You can see the speakup lwl server page at
http://lwl.braille.uwo.ca/online.html or see who is on the reflector by
looking at http://lwl.braille.uwo.ca/speakup.html.  Note that searching by
E-mail address will only work if the person has their E=mail address
defined in the SPEAKFREE_ID variable when sfspeaker is run.  Frank, for
example, does not.

In order to connect directly to another person, run one instance of
sfspeaker on the default 2074 port (or any other agreed upon port) and give
sfmike the IP address to connect to.  Note that the person at the other end
will have to do the same thing for you to have a 2-way conversation, but
they will hear you if their sfspeaker is running when you connect.  You can
set sfspeaker to automatically write you a script that can be invoked to
answer an incoming call by using the -a option (e.g. sfspeaker
-a/home/geoff/answer).  This script contains the sfmike command needed to
answer the current incoming call.

Geoff.