If you're looking to hold interactive Web-based meetings, but can't afford to expand your infrastructure, consider a Web conferencing service. These hosts offer a variety of options from VoIP to PSTN audio, collaborative features such as screen sharing and presentation abilities, and the option to get live help, often within seconds. You'll also eliminate security concerns associated with connecting outside organizations to your network for meetings. For our real-world tests, we invited service providers that could host meetings of up to 15 participants without adding more than a small client program to users' computers. Of the four companies that accepted our challenge, WebEx Communications' Meeting Center earned our Editor's Choice award. This service performed well on many platforms, had excellent user support and came in at a reasonable price. Rain-dance Communications provided a feature-rich service, but was somewhat more expensive for our scenarios. WiredRed Software and Internet MegaMeeting provided more spartan services, but charged less as well.
展开▼
