Voice over Internet Protocol Voice over Internet Protocol ( aka VoIP ) is a method of transmitting audio over the by encoding analog audio in a digital form , transmitting it over the internet , and decoding it back to analog form for listening . It is also known by the acronym " VoIP " . Many guilds in " World of Warcraft " have access to dedicated VoIP servers to help make communication during raids easier . Two of the most popular 3rd party VoIP clients are TeamSpeak and Ventrilo , although Mumble has recently become very popular . World of Warcraft Voice Chat . As of Patch 2 . 2 . 0 , a VoIP client is built into " World of Warcraft " and features include : Patch 2 . 2 . 0 . The patch went live on September 25 , 2007 and included the built in Voice Chat . At time of release , only a few realms were slated to have the chat service turned on as to test it with all remaining realms to be enabled within the following week . Upon implementation , there were a few problems reported and Blizzard did rolling restarts on the realms to turn off the Voice chat functionality . September 28th , Blizzard had voice chat running on a very small list of realms since 7pm the previous night and was actively monitoring them . By late afternoon on October 1st , Blizzard had fixed the issue with voice chat and has since turned on the service for all realms . Imvox . Imvox is another Voice over IP ( VoIP ) software released under a proprietary license on Windows and OS X . The makers have licensed Skype ' s Skypekit SDK to bring the capabilities of Skype to gamers . Unlike Skype , however , which becomes significantly more demanding with larger voice conferences , Imvox mixes everything in the cloud on servers they host . This means a single audio stream from their servers for lower bandwidth and CPU usage , but maintaining Skype - like quality with the SILK codec . The Skypekit also provides echo cancellation for use without headsets and smart firewall traversal , making it easily usable on campus and professional networks . Also , unlike Skype , Imvox supports conferences of up to 200 users per channel , a tiered tree like Ventrilo to organize users , assignable push - to - talk ( PTT ) , individual muting of users , microphone normalization . Server management is done through the desktop client and any user can create / customize their own server , which is currently free and hosted by Imvox so no external server is required . Mumble . Mumble is a free / open - source voice chat application for groups . While it can be used for any kind of activity , it is primarily intended for gaming . Mumble has very low latency combined with good sound quality ; it uses Speex extensively , not just the voice compression technology , but also the voice pre - processing to remove noise and improve clarity . Mumble is open source , which means the source code is freely available , servers don ' t require a license , and people who are software savvy can alter the code and contribute to the project . Mumble is able to sound much clearer then its other voice applications thanks to de - noising . This is a standard part of Speex 1 . 1 and above . Removing the noise from the input means that the audio will be clearer and that the needed bit - rate will decrease . The client runs on Mac , Linux or Windows . The server is mostly bandwidth bound , so as long as your network hardware is sufficient it should run on pretty much anything . Mumble has a positional - audio component that makes players ' voices appear relative to other players ' positions , but as it accesses WoW ' s memory , it runs contrary to the ToU ( see § 2 . C ) and EULA ( see § 2 . D ) . TeamSpeak . TeamSpeak , or " TS " , is a Voice Over IP ( VoIP ) gaming client . TeamSpeak ' s platform offers a client - server architecture where client and server software is clearly separated . This means the server product runs as a dedicated server , rather than peer - to - peer . The TeamSpeak server software is capable of handling thousands of simultaneous clients or users , which results in an Internet - based teleconferencing solution that works for a repertory of different applications such as an alternative to conference calls , cutting long distance telephone costs , or just as a method of personal communication with friends and family . The software is released under proprietary license free of charge to non - profit entities while commercial or for - profit entities have the ability to become part of a licensing program . Teamspeex . Teamspeex is an unofficial 3rd party TeamSpeak client for Mac OS X which allows you to connect to TeamSpeak servers that utilize the Speex codec . TeamSpeex is sanctioned by the TeamSpeak developers . Ventrilo . Ventrilo , or " Vent " , is another Voice over IP ( VoIP ) software released under proprietary freeware license . It offers surround sound positioning and special sound effects on a per user , per channel , per server or global configuration level . Ventrilo uses various codecs include Speex and GSM . Generally the GSM codec , while it uses slightly higher bandwidth is the preferred due to its higher quality . Issues exist however , since all Ventrilo users on a channel must use the same codec and the GSM codec is not available for the Mac . Because of this , the server admin must create special Mac Speex channels for Mac users . Overall Mac support is poor for Ventrilo , and many screens show ' Feature Not Implemented ' and they have yet to release a 64 - bit version . Ventrilo is based on a client / server model . Servers under 8 individuals can be self - hosted with Ventrilo ' s server software . Larger servers must be leased from various hosting companies , which in turn pay a royalty to the makers of Ventrilo . Guild Site Integration . Since many guilds use Ventrilo as an important form of communication , some guild hosting sites have taken to offering Ventrilo as an optional add - on service / module . One example integration is available on Guildomatic guild hosting sites , where Ventrilo status is updated in real - time and displayed on guild home pages as a popup display . Another example of integration is available on Ejeet Networks guild hosting sites , where Ventrilo status is updated in real - time and displayed on guild home pages as internal block , which automatically adjusts to your theme . This allows guild members to easily see things like when their friends are online , which instances are currently being run , and so forth even when they ' re at work or somewhere where they can ' t play the game . Sample screenshots of the hover display can be found at the Guildomatic Ventrilo Spotlight page . Platform Compatibility . Ventrilo servers allow the administrator to configure various codecs with which voice data is encoded and transmitted . Current best practices are to use the GSM codec if your users are Windows - only , or the Speex codec if you will have MacOS users as well . Codecs . There are several different families of codec used by Ventrilo . The most popular are GSM and Speex . GSM is the same codec used in cell phones , while Speex is open source and available on all operating systems . If you have Mac users in your guild , you ' ll need to use the Speex codec . If you don ' t have Mac users , you may want to use GSM . More importantly , make sure you have the highest quality codec turned on . Double check to make sure your Ventrilo host has all of the highest quality codecs available . Most do , but only for an extra charge . Be sure to read their site to see if they support the high quality codecs . Volume Normalization . One problem that Ventrilo has is that it has no automatic volume normalization . While using " vent " you might notice that some people might be annoyingly soft whilst others are earbleedingly loud . To avoid this you simply have to change a few of the settings . This is not available on the Mac . Choosing your VoIP . There are many possible choices . If you ' d like to start small and want to speak with your friends while playing , you will most likely start with Skype . Skype however is based on a peer to peer model , which can put great strain on the user ' s bandwidth and CPU in larger conferences , and if the initiator of the call drops , all participants drop . On most servers , there is one system prevailing . You need this one installed if you want to PUG . If you want to get your own server , you have a wide range of choices — again . If you are recruiting for your guild , most players would only join if you support their favorite system — or don ' t want to use VoIP . Overall , considerations are generally cost , the Mac / PC makeup of the group , open source licensing , bandwidth and CPU consumption , voice quality and game integration