This section contains some troubleshooting advice for issues commonly experienced in the chat room.
</p>
<h2>Webcam Sharing</h2>
<h3>Permission Denied, or NotAllowedError</h3>
<p>
If you see an error message from <strongclass="has-text-danger">ChatClient</strong> that says
something like "Webcam error: Permission denied" or a "NotAllowedError," this section is for you.
</p>
<p>
The reason for this error is that your web browser did not grant access to your Camera and Microphone
for the chat room to use. This may be because you accidentally clicked on the "Deny" button when your
browser asked you for permission, or because your web browser <em>itself</em> does not have permission for
these devices on your computer.
</p>
<p>
When you encounter this error, there are two places to look to resolve this:
</p>
<ol>
<li>
In your web browser's settings (e.g. in Google Chrome or Firefox), make sure that you are granting
permission for your Camera and Microphone to the chat room's website ({{.Hostname}}).
</li>
<li>
In your operating system's settings, ensure that your web browser itself has permission to use
your Camera and Microphone. <strong>Notice:</strong> on recent Mac OS and Windows systems, your
web browser might not have permission by default to access these devices!
</li>
</ol>
<p>
Please see the following sections for in-depth guidance on where to look.
</p>
<p>
<strong>Notice:</strong> webcam sharing will require both your Camera <em>and</em> your Microphone
permission - if either one is denied, webcam sharing will fail.
</p>
<h4>1. Check your web browser's permissions for {{.Hostname}}</h4>
<p>
Go into your web browser's settings, to the "Privacy" or "Permissions" section and verify that
<code>{{.Hostname}}</code> has permissions to use your Camera <strong>and</strong> your Microphone.
Or at the very least: make sure that these settings are not set to "Deny" for {{.Hostname}}.
</p>
<p>
For example, on <iclass="fab fa-chrome"></i><strong>Google Chrome:</strong>
</p>
<ul>
<li>Go into your browser Settings -> "Privacy and security"</li>
<li>Click on "Site settings" <small>("Controls what information sites can use and show (location, camera, pop-ups, and more")</small></li>
<li>From here you can check the permissions in two ways:
<ul>
<li>Under the "Recent activity" section, look for {{.Hostname}} or click "View permissions and data stored across sites" to look for it there.</li>
<li>Or: under the "Permissions" section, click into the "Camera" and "Microphone" settings to see the list of sites you've given/denied
permission for, and change {{.Hostname}} to "Allow" or remove {{.Hostname}} from the list of sites.
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>
Or for example, on <iclass="fab fa-firefox"></i><strong>Mozilla Firefox:</strong>
</p>
<ul>
<li>Go into your browser Settings -> "Privacy & Security"</li>
<li>Scroll down to the "Permissions" section where you see buttons for Camera and Microphone.</li>
<li>Click on the "Settings..." button for Camera and Microphone to see the list of websites you've given/denied permission for.</li>
<li>Find <code>{{.Hostname}}</code> and remove it from the list.</li>
</ul>
<p>
After changing your browser settings, <strong>exit and restart your web browser</strong> and log on to the chat room.
When going on webcam, hopefully your browser should ask you for permission for your webcam and microphone: be sure to
click on "Allow" when prompted.
</p>
<p>
If the change in your web browser's settings doesn't resolve the permission error, then check in your operating system's settings.
</p>
<h4>2. Check in your operating system's settings</h4>
<p>
For example, <strong>if you are on <iclass="fab fa-apple"></i> Mac OS:</strong>
</p>
<ul>
<li>Click on the Apple icon in your top menu bar and open "System Settings"</li>
<li>Click on "Privacy & Security"</li>
<li>Look for the Camera and Microphone settings and ensure that they are <strong>allowed</strong> for your web browser.</li>
<li>For more information, try: <ahref="https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/control-access-to-your-camera-mchlf6d108da/mac">https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/control-access-to-your-camera-mchlf6d108da/mac</a></li>
</ul>
<p>
Or for example, <strong>if you are on <iclass="fab fa-windows"></i> Windows 10 or Windows 11:</strong>
</p>
<ul>
<li>Click on the Start button > Settings > Privacy & Security > Camera, and make sure Camera access is turned <strong>on.</strong></li>
<li>Make sure that "Let apps access your camera" is also turned on.</li>
<li>Ensure that your web browser (e.g. Google Chrome) has permission to access your camera and microphone.</li>
<li>For more information, try: <ahref="https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/manage-app-permissions-for-your-camera-in-windows-87ebc757-1f87-7bbf-84b5-0686afb6ca6b">https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/manage-app-permissions-for-your-camera-in-windows-87ebc757-1f87-7bbf-84b5-0686afb6ca6b</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Other Webcam Errors</h3>
<p>
The most common error is a Permission Error as described above, but there are some less common
error messages you may experience. Here is a short list of some of them:
</p>
<ul>
<li>
<strong>AbortError:</strong> e.g. "Starting videoinput failed"
<br><br>
A common cause for this error may be that your webcam device is already in use by a different program,
so that your web browser was not able to open it. Please make sure that you are not running another video
chat program (such as Skype or Zoom) which has your camera active, and try again.
</li>
<li>
<strong>NotFoundError</strong> or <strong>NotReadableError</strong>
<br><br>
This error may indicate that your camera device was not available to your web browser. For example, your
webcam might not be plugged in to USB or you may be missing hardware drivers for it. To begin diagnosing
this problem, check whether <other>other</other> websites or apps are able to use your camera: if none of
them can either, it heavily points toward a hardware or driver error.
</li>
</ul>
<p>
Other possible errors should be uncommon. If this troubleshooting guide has not been helpful, try copying
the error message into a search engine and find information online: all of the text following "Webcam error:"
will be coming from your web browser, so relevant results may be found online. A possible place to start may
be the <ahref="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/MediaDevices/getUserMedia">Mozilla documentation for getUserMedia.</a>
</p>
<h3>Other peoples' webcams don't load</h3>
<p>
It may sometimes happen that you clicked to watch somebody else's webcam on chat, and their video doesn't
load. If it only happens with <em>some</em> cameras (but other cameras load correctly), then the problem is
most likely on <em>that person's</em> side and not your own: their camera likely doesn't work for anybody
else who is trying to watch it, either.
</p>
<p>
Webcam sharing on the chat room works by "peer to peer" direct connections between chatters. Usually, this
tends to "just work" for most people, but sometimes your network connection or firewall can get in the way
and prevent a connection from being established.
</p>
<p>
The most common kinds of network conditions that cause problems connecting to webcams include:
</p>
<ul>
<li>
If you are on a heavily firewalled network, such as in a school or workplace.
</li>
<li>
If you are on a cellular network, e.g. from a smartphone or tablet. Some cell phone carriers
add firewalls to their network to prevent direct peer-to-peer connections with mobile devices.
</li>
<li>
If you are using a Virtual Private Network, or VPN: some VPN providers don't forward the kind
of network messages that are needed to establish a peer-to-peer connection.
</li>
</ul>
<p>
For some specific advice:
</p>
<ul>
<li>
If you can not connect to <strong>any</strong> webcam at all (e.g. many people are on webcam but you
can not get <strong>any</strong> of them to work): most likely it is because you are on a firewalled
network, like those listed above. If you are on a cell network, try switching to WiFi; or if you are
using a VPN, try turning off your VPN.
</li>
<li>
If <strong>only one or two webcams</strong> won't open for you, but others on the chat room are working:
the problem is likely not on your end! It is likely that the people whose cameras are not working are
on a firewalled network, and they are likely having worse problems than you are!
</li>
<li>
If somebody's webcam button has a slash \ through it, like <iclass="fa fa-video-slash has-text-info"></i>
then it <em>probably</em> means that this person requires <strong>you</strong> to share your webcam first
before you can open theirs. You can click on their camera button to see an exact reason why their camera
