Guilds and gaming organizations across the globe commonly use Ventrilo Servers to communicate between teammates. With the ever-increasing amount of broadband connections in the home, Voice-over-IP collaboration tools such as Ventrilo have been growing in popularity. But before you decide to purchase a Ventrilo Server for your organization, there are four things you might want to consider before ordering.

First of all, and with ordering from any company, do your research on the company to ensure that it is a legitimate organization. We recommend looking for some kind of proof of the company's existence besides just on the Internet. For instance, a brick and mortar location, or office address would be a start. Furthermore, never underestimate the power of a phone number. If you are able to get in contact with a real person, chances are the company is not fly-by-night. Furthermore, if the company lists themselves as an incorporation and is located in the United States, you can easily lookup the record of filing with the State that they list themselves. Also keep an eye out for misspelled words and inconsistencies. If a company cannot even spell correctly or make up their mind, how do you think they will be able to provide a quality hosting experience?

The next action you should take before purchasing is asking a sales question. We do not recommend ordering right away without attempting to get at least a few questions asked about the service. Even if you already know the answers, you can get an idea of how quickly you will receive help should you require it in the future.

Your third course of action should be to shop around. You want to research into at least three of four providers before ordering. Weigh your options. Lowest prices do not mean the best service. While some larger providers may be able to offer lower prices due to sheer quantity sold, please do your research on the company beforehand. If the web site is of low quality, you might want to stay away. Those companies who provide “Test Servers" are generally known to be a bit more reputable, as they let you test the service in each location before ordering. Finally, ensure they have a location central to your users. For example if you have users in California and users in Miami, either Chicago or Dallas would be an ideal location for a server. Remember, Ventrilo does not report latency/pings correctly! You can get a true idea of the network quality of the location by going to “Start" then “Run," type “CMD" and press enter. Afterwards, type “ping " and press enter. “" is the address of the server you are attempting to ping.

Finally, you want to research the companies policies, refund options, and check for specials. There are usually one or two very reputable providers who will offer yearly specials for low prices. The companies who are doing this make money due to the fact that many guilds and gaming organizations do not last more than 3 months. Many times, the price to purchase a year of service through a special can be lower priced than that of 6 months on a normal package.