Mumble is an Open-Source multi-plattform Teamspeak alternative that comes, like Teamspeak, as a client and server application which is distributed together in the Windows version. The gaming community usually sets up the server versions of Teamspeak and Mumble on Linux servers on the Internet so that everyone can connect to them all the time.

A Windows server would only make sense for playing the game for a few hours but there are probably users who run a Windows client 24/7 as well.

Mumble has several features that might convince gamers to switch from Teamspeak to it. It uses encryption which is nice but probably nothing that gamers are that excited about. A more interesting feature is positional audio for supported games.

What that means is that a user in Mumble will hear the voices of his mates coming from the direction their character is standing in the game. This is currently supported in World of Warcraft and Battlefield 2.

Everything comes down to bandwidth requirements and quality of speed in the end. Mumble is using a default 45.4 kbit/s which can be increased or reduced to suit specific needs.

Mumble is available for Windows, Apple Macintosh and various Linux distributions.

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Installation of the Teamspeak server is really easy but differs depending on your operating system. You simply install and run it on a Windows operating system. Admin and Superadmin passwords are shown at first start and you have to use them to login into the web interface and configure the server. (login details are saved in the file server.log, you can look them up there if you forgot to write them down).

You find a detailed instruction for linux at the teamspeak homepage – the process involves adding a user teamspeak, using wget to download the current version, unpacking that version and running the start script.

The web admin looks the same for windows and linux, there is no server version of teamspeak for mac.

Select Servers in the admin interface, one server is already running and you should select this one to change the configuraton of it. Server Settings displays some values that you can change: For instance the Server name, the welcome message, you can password protect the server here and define the maximum amount of users that can connect to it.

You also enable the codecs in that menu and are free to change the port the server is running on. You are free to add users from the server settings menu or from the client version directly.

Now, logout, start the Teamspeak client and select Connection, Connect from the menu. Right-Click Servers, Add a new Server and enter the login details of that server. Please note that you need at least the password of the server if the admin protected it with a password. This would mean you login anonymous using the server password. The other method would be that you are a registered user on that server and login registered with a username and password (and no server password).

Click connect and the connection to the server should be made. If you login using your admin account you are free to add channels to the server, maybe something like Chat, Game 1, Game 2, AFK. Big servers with lots of users (clans for instance) normaly have one folder for every game and then subfolders for that game. One example would be WoW as the top folder and the subfolders instance 1, instance 2, battlefield, grinding, level, raid, crafting, afk. You may add as much folders as you like.

Channels may be for registered users only, may be moderated, may use different codecs and may be password protected. Everything is highly customisable as you can see.

Teamspeak does not use lots of ressources making it ideal for multiplayer games but also for general voice communication. The website has a big forum that should help if you run into troubles setting it up or running it.

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