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Why in the hell would a software have different features for similar processors??? Tip: $$$.

Even if an AMD could handle 15 users in a conference call, they are hard limiting it to 5. This is so shameful to Skype. I'm sure this is one of the things Google means with "do no evil".

I'm sure that this will eventually be circumvented with a 'crack', but, after all, why support a company that does this. Switch to other software...


Google Talk does conference call:

http://www.lpahome.com/call.html


TeamSpeak did conference call way before Skype:

http://www.teamspeak.org/


And many other softwares too:

http://www.google.com/Top/Business/Telecommunicati ons/Services/Conferencing/

There is no video tie in with this but I use TeamSpeak all the time to keeping in touch with my gaming pals. It does not use up so much bandwidth that it will crush you, but the performance is pretty good. Best part is there is a Linux server version. http://www.teamspeak.org/

I've been using TeamSpeak http://www.teamspeak.org/ and, though it is a bit of a different beast from Skype (no POTS, no IM, etc.), it works brilliantly as a simple VoIP communications mechanism.

My buddies and I use TeamSpeak often and it works well for us. The server took a little bit of time to get running but now that it's up (24 hours a day) any of us can chat at any time. :)

Teamspeak is a free cross-platform voice chat system.

Personally, I prefer TeamSpeak to Skype. The interface isn't quite as nice, but for group conversations it works alot better (IMO). Less bandwidth too, which is better if you're using it for VoIP while gaming..

If you don't mind a bit more messing around and can deal mentally with the stress of not actually having something that "makes calls", check out TeamSpeak or Ventrilo, both great voice communications packages.

I don't get what's so awesome about a peer-to-peer voice communications system. The fact that its encrypted sure is neat, but it doesn't seem to be a quantum leap over most of the other stuff we have now. Its not like a regular p2p system where you're going to get massive advantages - each voice call is different so its not like your client is going to be able to search these peers to get improved performance.

Surely, to decrease latency, you're going to connect directly between the peers anyway - hence, 'p2p', but it seems the marketing department are just focusing on the phrase 'p2p' to try and encourage more users to check it out. I found the explanation of Intelligent Routing on their p2p explained page a bit vague.

Anyway. Looks good for the newbies.

Also, there's a bunch of posts earlier whining about how Skype will be soon full of spyware. I'm not, and have never been, a Kazaa user so I'm not sure at which point the spyware stuff was introduced, but I feel its worth pointing out that the guys making Skype are NOT the same guys that currently manage Kazaa these days.

If you want to make your online gaming ten times as fun grab TeamSpeak 2 (available for Linux and Windows) and a headset microphone. Playing games with TS2 I have met so many cool, mature online players. Find a good TS server and make friends, then you will always have buddies up for a few rounds. Having a voice to go with the players gives you a sense of having real people around instead of just names and tends to get everyone to act more mature. That and you can tell who is 12 years old instantly...

TeamSpeak
RogerWilco

Both work swimmingly with most MMORPGs (I play Shadowbane). Go with God.

Any PC game will work even without voice support. Just get Teamspeak and start a server for just you and her.

Get TeamSpeak so that you can play any game you want and if she isn't the gaming type you can play any game you want online or off.

That seems to work for me when I travel. Leave the wife & kids at home, play DAOC or Star Wars Galaxies on the laptop and yak away with the kids & wife instead of them having to play something like Counterstrike or another violent game (the kids are 2 and >1, so no) yet still talk to me.

As others have said, there are tools such as TeakSpeak and Roger Wilco that will deal with the voice chat side of things.

But what game to play? I'd suggest A Tale In The Desert. It's nice because it has a very laid-back feel to it - there's no combat, and the emphasis is on long-term co-operation with your friends to further the development of your avatar (the web site, as well as the excellent fansites and wiki explain all this much better than I can).

It runs on Windows and Linux, and doesn't have to run full-screen, so it's great for leaving running in the background so that you can get some work done while your avatar is busy feeding the camels or waiting for papyrus to grow. The chat system is also pretty good, for those of is who don't want to inflict their irritating nasally voices on the rest of the world. :-)

Get some boom/headset mics for you and your SO and fire up one of the free voice engines, like TeamSpeak or Roger Wilco for voice chat (in or out of games). I've used TeamSpeak with excellent results while playing Unreal Tournament and other games, as well as just for conversing with distant family members on a semi-regular basis. (Free is good!)

For gaming, you have a chuckwagon full of choices. Unreal Tournament, Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy and Need for Speed: Underground top my recent list of multi-player games for raw fun and enjoyment with minimal commitment level (and I sense a commitment issue from the OP anyway!). Then of course, there's the obligatory mentions of The Sims, Everquest, Age of Mythology and Civilization III (find your own URLs for those), if you're into that kind of gaming (these require a higher commitment level).

If you two are more cerebral in your gaming, go hunt down a board game called Settlers of Catan and its offspring (Seafarers of Catan, et. al.) and play that with some friends next time you two are together. Once you get hooked on the board game -- and you will -- start playing it online. There's a nefarious, somewhat-underground (not after /. gets wind of it!) online client called Sea3D that works pretty darn well (Win32 only, sorry -- but if this is a problem, use the Java client instead), and is terribly enjoyable for raw strategy and board game fun, although it can sometimes be difficult to get players to join hosted games (there doesn't seem to be a LARGE community of Sea3D users yet). If you host your own games and have people you know join in, this is a non-issue.

If you're side-stepping the guy-girl conversation thing, your best bet is probably one of the action games, like Unreal and its similar-engine spawn (anything based off the Quake2 or Quake3 engines). There's usually so much going on in a DeathMatch or Team DeathMatch, there isn't much time for deep chit-chat, but you can both probably come out feeling like you had a onversation.

[Note to Guys: this probably isn't going to lead to a long-term, deep relationship, mind you, but will suffice for temporary distance relationships. Chicks don't generally like games, and especially don't like the KINDS of games we guys like, so YMMV. Board games and strategy type stuff, though, are generally universally enjoyable, which is why I mentioned Catan (this is the original German site).]

Good luck!!

Someone mentioned that playing a mmorpg game as a long distance couple might be a detriment to communication. I strongly disagree. We played through several major mmorpgs and beta tests of other games together. During "down time" in a game we carried on "normal" conversation. During the exciting parts of the game we got caught up into solving problems together. We even developed mutual friends whom we visited in the real world.

As far as someone worrying that "girls" might not like to play games for hours at a time: I and many of my friends are evidence to the contrary.

Lastly, though I think the MMORPGs are best suited for couple gaming, don't discount the FPS games either. I enjoyed Action Quake and beta tested Planetside. I just think they aren't as good for a couple because they (I'm talking public server play, not clan gaming) tend to be all action all the time rather than a mix of action, socialization/political skill, and strategy.

Pick a game that you two could enjoy. Fire up your favourite voice chat proggie (Ventrilo, TeamSpeak, Roger Wilco, etc.) and frag away.

The game doesn't necessarily need headset support or anything like that. So long as you have a third party proggie to handle the mess.

- shazow

For pc games, use Teamspeak. You can play whatever game you want online and talk through a sepparate client.

Actually, I think you're on the right track. How about TeamSpeak? I don't think you need to be playing a game to use it. If the crew will be relatively stationary, just put in a cheap networked computer running either Windows or Linux and a headset for every person. If they need to move farther than a cord will let them, see if wireless headsets exist. Make the fastest computer the server and you'll be all set.

I dont know anything about firewalls but Teamspeak has both a win32 and linux version, I've used it a lot, it has very low bandwidth comsumption and it's completely painless to set up.

you mean, like TeamSpeak? Comes in handy for gaming, could be used as a general purpose voice chat server...

VOIP is not just a TCP/IP connection. Based on the H.323 standard, the network must be established to support VOIP telephony to gain a QOS standard for audio and video. This basically means voice and picture packets get priority over other forms of transport on that network, and call routing is optomized depending on available telephone gateways etc.

This is not like connecting two machines via TCP/IP, and therefore is not an issue for individual users who want to connect their machines for communications purposes.

The regulations will effect entities set up for the purpose of providing a communications service for a fee; again, that does not include you using Roger Wilco or TeamSpeak to talk to grandma over the internet. Additionally, these tools will not provide the sound quality consistent with H.323 network connectivity - and will not support such services as POTS gateways or 911 service, which the service providers must also provide by law.

Don't lose any sleep over this. Individual network users have nothing to fear (unless the FCC goes completely froggy - in which case, all bets are off. However, the FCC chairman is leaning away from regulating anything on the internet - so regulating individuals is the furthest thing from his mind atm)

One word: teamspeak!!! I spend about half my time behind my desk at home. I started using teamspeak while gaming, but now I find teamspeak a valuable addition to other communication means such as phone/im/mail while working. I particularly find teamspeak less intrusive than im.

I use Teamspeak on my dinky 400mhz linux box. I was the easiest install, easiest to teach my friends, and it looked good. I had no trouble getting my friends to use it. I was very impressed with it. It also mixes the sound right, so there is no "can you hear me now" crap to go through with each new person.

Viruses can spread in other ways. Reputable download sites and/or official mirrors can get infected (e.g. TeamSpeak had this happen recently). The Linux kernel's BK repository was recently compromised (by that I mean the code was compromised at some point and got into the BK repository) and a priv elevation "feature" was inserted for a day or so. There are still users out there running old, vulnerable versions of Outlook/OE, although this most likely doesn't apply to the grandparent (? I lost track). Also witness the recent worms which didn't require user interaction to spread.

Oh, and I use Linux exclusively, I'm just pointing out that you can't be too careful.

Heh. I use that codec pretty much daily on my linux box to do VOIP. My client of choice (which may tell something about my predelictions) is TeamSpeak - a smallish app that will teach you how to configure alsa, but once it works, it works well - decent sound quality right there with POTS, doesn't use much bandwidth at all - if it did, my ping would be high... not something a gamer will tolerate... and light footprint. But damn! You've gotta tweak with your mixer to get it working =]. And forget about using artsd. Forget artsd anyhow. But I digress.

It's a neat little client/server app. I recommend checking it out if you're curious.

And it works with NAT (it's more or less like IRC with voice-capability)

While I love the attempt at voice communcation on Xbox Live, I've played it, alot, and found that for the most part its too gimmicky to be of any use.

Besides that, its an optional component, so whats the point, you can't tell your teammates in a game anything unless they have the thing plugged in as well. So you might find yourself sitting there talking to yourself. Even still, its not very optimized voice chat (see teamspeak)

I'd prefer a keyboard chat interface for those who shy away from voice communcation.

Have you tried Teamspeak? A friend of mine who has tried a lot of comm software on Wintendo says this is the best on Wintendo. (And the software is just about identical on both plats.)

Try Teamspeak. It has a windows and linux client, as well as a server for each platform. Free, as in beer!

I've found myself in a similar situation in reverse - being in the UK and wanting to talk to people in the US.

I found, under Windows, that Eyeball Chat works stunningly well.

Sure the video lags a little, but the audio is crystal clear.

Right now I'm thinking of moving to TeamSpeak but I'm not in too much hurry I have one Windows machine for playing around with and this works well.

Of the ones I've tried, I think the easiest to setup and use, along with a large selection of codecs, is TeamSpeak. Yes, it sounds like it's designed for gaming, but I could see using this for many other applications.

use teamspeak: teamspeak.org

has excellent sound quality, is free, has windows and linux clients and servers...

TeamSpeak was primarily designed to work for people who are behind a NAT router (share internet). Further more it was designed for gamers. That mean to us it had to use as little bandwidth as possible, while having a reasonable voice quality. We think we achieved that with the 650 bytes/s maximum CELP codec.

• Support for lower latency. (Theoretically as low as 50 ms)
• Support for better quality codecs. (CELP and GSM)
• Support for user based logins.
• Support for per channel passwords.
• Support for temporary channels.
• Support for sub channels.
• Support for moderated channels for conferencing.
• Linux client.
• TeamSpeak uses fewer threads on a server now. Helps to conserve resources.
• TeamSpeak Super Server design. One program can start several TS servers.
• Web based management interface to the server.
• TeamSpeak Client/Server SDK's, for including in your games/applications.

Different codecs to control quality and no latency problems. It even supports the MS Sidewinder Gamevoice device.

Teamspeak supports Windows & Linux. It now uses the speex codec.

We've used Teamspeak alot. It's stable and free.

I like TeamSpeak 2. Only the server's UDP port 8767 must be accessible, and the latest release candidate achieves excellent results with the open codec Speex. Both client and server are available for Windows and Linux.

I *Do* use it for only one network - MSN. Through some quirk of fate, all my friends have managed to standardise on MSN without really trying to. It has a much cleaner interface than the official MSN client, and I dont miss the voice chat feature since I use TeamSpeak to talk to my brother over the 'net.

Another program you might check out is Team Speak.

It has both Windows & Linux client / server programs.

http://www.teamspeak.org

One can bind a key to push-to-talk that's still intercepted when one's game has focus.

One feature I find missing is the ability to bind push-to-talk to a mouse button. (It can do this in the Win32 client.) If anyone knows how to do that, please post in the TS forums.

Yeah... and you could have every single gaming company write drivers for different video cards, and you get pissed when your $600 Turtle Beach card doesn't play sounds in Doom III. You also get to reset your computer every single time you want to play.

Do people multitask while playing games like Doom III? HELL YEAH! I can't remember how many times I've 'windowed' UT or TO:AoT to tweak my TeamSpeak settings. Or how often I take a break while woring (I work at home) to let off some steam lobbing grenades or rushing SF with my trusty AK.

Besides, Doom III is as much a proof of concept as it is a game. By developing the engine in a console-like enviroment you're limiting it's 'real world' parameters, you're not letting it get tested. Let's not kid ourselves, in 2-3 years time there's going to a *lot* of games toting the Doom III Engine badge.

Anyway, we've been in this situation before - praying your game can detect your video and sound card. This is why DirectX and OpenGL are popular - they provide a much needed interface and abstraction layer to your sound and graphics. This is one of the promises of a modern OS - set up an interface to differnet devices. Configure it once and you're set! The lack of this was one of the worst things about DOS, and I don't really want to go back there.

Try TeamSpeak Tis still in ßeta BUT what software for linux isn't LOL. It's available for Win32 & Linux as either client or server.