Re: Voice Chat

[Bruno Hertz <brrhtz@yahoo.de>]

On Tue, 2005-03-15 at 10:38 -0600, Jacob S wrote:
> I'm looking for some recommendations on a good voice chat program. Both
> clients will be Sarge, to start, though I may add an OS X client later.
> Both clients have dsl connections and are not on the same network. It
> also needs to be semi-secure, since it will be going across the internet
> (it doesn't have to be encrypted, but I would like to avoid plain text
> passwords being transferred across the internet).
> 
> Recommendations for anything from IM clients with voice chat to
> GnomeMeeting or similar are welcome. VoIP would probably be overkill at
> this point, though if there are free solutions that work well, I have
> not totally ruled it out.
> 
> TIA,
> Jacob

I like the term voice chat, because it sounds like it would make things
somehow easier than VoIP :)

Anyway, I don't know whether Skype or any of that proprietary offerings
support Linux. But you could always go with a 0$ tarif from VoIP
providers like FWD and register there either with a SIP client (SJPhone,
XLite beta both closed source, linphone open but broken) or, if they
support IAX like FWD does, with an IAX client. Iaxcomm is open, runs
on Linux and Windows. It may even support direct PC to PC calls, just
ask on their list whether it does and how an IAX URI should look like
for such a call. And about OS X while you're at it. IAX btw is a good
protocol as it sends all data, signal and media, through a single UDP
stream, so it's the easiest to set up in NATed/firewalled environments.

If you need conferencing and stuff, either use teamspeak (closed
source), or asterisk (huge but fun).

Regards, Bruno.