paltalk.com > Reviews (7)

Another excellent program which I was surprised to see had only one other opinion written about it. So I have decided that I should speak out in favour of this excellent internet chat site.

Pal talk is a free download available, strangely enough, from paltalk.com, it takes moments to download as it is a mere 411Kb in file size. Installation is simple and straight forward and it nestles comfortably on your task bar.

Paltalk is similar in being to ICQ however it is far easier to get to grips with and get up and running. Like most programs of this type you pick a user ID and register then, when you are on-line, it will tell you when any other paltalk members that you have set up as friends are also surfing. This allows you to call them and start either a text, voice or video session with them. Like ICQ you do need your friends to be using the software to initialise a chat but the program comes with the facility to e-mail an invite to them and updates your 'friends' list when they join.

So what does it offer? Well, as I have already mentioned you can text, voice or video conference with friends either singly or in a group. It allows you to set up your own chat rooms which can be either public (allowing anyone to join) or private which can only be joined by invitation. You can even set up a password to protect entry by unauthorised surfers. Setting up these functions is pretty easy and there is plenty of help available linked directly to the paltalk website. These pages are invaluable.

There are a number of groups permanently set up and running on a whole range of subjects which you can join and participate in. Some are text only while others allow voice contact.

Voice messaging is fast and efficient with only a slight delay at the recipient's end and video is also pretty stable. I regularly use Paltalk to converse with my brothers and a few friends. To me it is the ideal medium to do so and I have had no real problems with it.

Going back a couple of paragraphs, I mentioned the help pages, I feel I must emphasise how helpful and informative these are. In particular I did experience some problems initially when running Paltalk, these problems were connected with Firewall Security issues and were soon overcome with the excellent help available.

Security from unwanted callers is also another feature, allowing you to block specific callers or restricting your chat to users in your friends list. A great feature.

While ICQ may be the Rolls Royce of the chat forums, to many it is just too complicated and too fiddley. I prefer the BMW myself, Paltalk. It does what you want in comfort and with sufficient style to make it a very worthwhile program.

(C)2001 Jon White