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extraspecialbitter
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 Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 3:51 pm Post subject: a Skype conundrum |
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My daughter lives in Kenya and communicates with most of her stateside friends and relatives via Skype. I've used BLASTERISK to call her cell phone, but am limited to a maximum of three minutes. I know it's technically possible to run Skype under BLAG, but I choose to keep my BLAG systems free of non-free software and therefore run Skype under the inferior LinuxMint or (*shudder*) Windoze instead. It would totally rock to use a free-software voice-and-video over IP solution that would successfully communicate with Skype. Shall I dub it "DreamNet"?
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jebba
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| Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 5:36 pm Post subject: |
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Couldn't she install some SIP or IAX2 software on her machine? Then you could do computer to computer call. Or does she just have landline/cell?
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extraspecialbitter
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| Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 4:33 am Post subject: |
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I've just installed ekiga, which seems fairly straightforward and will run on Windoze as well as BLAG. Once I figure out how to place calls with it I'll try to talk my computer-challenged daughter into installing it on her laptop. I did buy it for her after all...
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jebba
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| Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 4:51 am Post subject: |
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| extraspecialbitter wrote: | | I've just installed ekiga, which seems fairly straightforward and will run on Windoze as well as BLAG. Once I figure out how to place calls with it I'll try to talk my computer-challenged daughter into installing it on her laptop. I did buy it for her after all... |
One issue with ekiga is if you're behind a NAT you may need a STUN server. The default gnome/ekiga accounts may provide for this.
The iax2 protocol developed by digium for asterisk doesn't have the NAT issues. There really aren't great iax2 fones (yet).
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gr00ve
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| Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 1:33 pm Post subject: |
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skype 2.0.0.68 runs perfectly well in blag
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extraspecialbitter
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| Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 7:23 pm Post subject: |
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| gr00ve wrote: | | skype 2.0.0.68 runs perfectly well in blag |
it probably does - and that's the conundrum: whether to "taint" an all-free BLAG system with non-free software or hope that its free counterparts are up to snuff. When that's not the case, I'll usually run it on a distro with no pretense of freedom - e.g. LinuxMint.
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jebba
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| Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 8:26 pm Post subject: |
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I've added the program `ihu` == i hear you, which is a VoIP application that only works with itself. hehe. But it looks pretty interesting, and does encrypted calls. Doesn't work via NATs though, so that could be a big downside (unless you do port forwarding).
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gr00ve
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| Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 2:34 pm Post subject: |
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quite honestly one of the main reasons why i chose skype over array of other voip based solutions available was the price.
€4.54/month allows me to call most landlines in the eu for free.
in addition to that i spend about 15€/month for all the other calls and skype routing to my mobile when i'm on the road.
not to mention that i also get to have a regular phone number so that folks can call it up either free or low cost.
[ok summer is slow - so above numbers might rise a bit shortly/hopefully]
running a small business makes my spending very restricted, but the way i see it this is a payment for the solution which works real well and most times is very reliable even on crappy links.
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