Re: Skype?

[John Goerzen <jgoerzen@complete.org>]

On Tue, Jul 05, 2005 at 09:26:02AM -0400, Lennart Sorensen wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 05, 2005 at 07:24:30AM -0500, John Goerzen wrote:
> > I know this is a bit OT, but can somebody explain to me the allure of
> > Skype when there is a huge SIP community, with soft phones, hard phones,
> > and even the asterisk PBX in Linux?
> 
> Asterisk PBX is for running real phone systems (not VoIP) over T1/E1
> (24/32 voice channels) and analog phone lines.  It does extensions and

It does these things, yes, but it *does* do VOIP.  I use it in my own
home for precisely that purpose, and get 1.1 cent per minute long
distance service from voxee.com right now.

I also use fwdnet.net to make calls over the Internet to other VOIP
users.

> skype and other VoIP systems are for making phone calls over the
> internet to other VoIP users, and on some systems (I believe skype is
> one of them) it also deals with transfering the call to a normal
> telephone and vice versa.  I am pretty sure asterisk also allows for
> VoIP but that is certainly not its main purpose.

I would argue with you about that, but in any case, asterisk is by no
means the only VOIP software in Debian that can speak the standard SIP
protocol.