Netmeeting Application Sharing - Retro tool still has legs

I have been using Netmeeting for about 7 years and have found it to be a very convenient way to create ad hoc data sharing sessions. It is reasonably reliable, supports multiple users, and does not require any sort of server (as long as you can figure out the IP addresses of the computers in the meeting).

Many Win2000 and WinXP users don't realize (or are too young to know :-) that Netmeeting is usually still available as part of the Windows OS. I have run into a few coworkers who have had to download it from the mother ship, but this is not a big deal. Microsoft doesn't advertise its availability in the Start / All Programs menu, probably because they would rather have you use a pay service like MS LiveMeeting.

To start up Netmeeting for the first time, go to Start / Run and enter conf. Follow the simple initial setup procedure and you will be off and running. Don't bother with directory servers or anything like that unless your enterprise actually has one and you know where it is on the network. To do anything useful, you need to have someone to call who also has Netmeeting running. If you want to create a shortcut, you will probably find conf.exe in C:\Program Files\NetMeeting. Be productive.