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Industry-Standard VOIP Phone Using All Free Software
Ralf Ackermann writes: "Voice over IP on a HardPhone running Linux and
just using Open Source software became real. We have sucessfully installed and tested (interoperability with Cisco
7960 as well as Pingtel xPressa in an environment with a partysip SIP registrar and proxy) the linphone SIP phone on a StrongARM based
TuxScreen.
Here is the link describing the steps for others
to use the setup as well: TuxScreen running SIP. All the infos for setting up a comparable installation can be found on the
URL, please also feel free to ask or drop opinions. Many thanks to the linphone developers as well as to my student Florian
Winterstein (for working on a console linphonec version). The setup (on a StrongARM system) is well suited for PDA (iPAQ) or
wearable environments as well."
SIP is an open protocol, so what is special about this?
Check this out for another linux-based VoIP, standards-compliant (both SIP *and* H323) phone.
It's been out for quite awhile, over a year. My company is a reseller. They're cheap (~ $199 each) and they rock.
Don't sweat the petty things. But do pet the sweaty things.
They just -had- to include the Xeyes in the screenshot.
void women (int money, time_t time);
One of my friends from IRC once mentioned that his employeer, a CLEC, was deploying wireless internet, and that he aparently had some sort of cell phone that also would talk with the wireless gear, and would allow him to make VoIP phone calls. Sweet eh?
The company I work for has been looking at VoIP for several months now. Since we have several offices across the country, it would be very advantageous, technologically, for us to use VoIP for the end-user phones, rather than the hodge-podge of systems we use today.
Unfortunately, the prohibiting factor has been the cost of the phones themselves. The cost for an actual system is within reason, but some VoIP telephones run into the $700 range.
At this pricepoint, it seems much more affordable and reasonable. And while the GUI would need work to make it dummy-friendly, we have no shortage of graphics designers and programmers who could make that work.
One step closer to VoIP from beginning to end makes me happy. And I know it'd make our CFO happy, too. =)
jrbd
I used to run something like that on the dark side of OSes, but now my cell phone plan is so cheap with practically unlimited nationwide long distance and free roaming, I have *zero* need for such a thing. The only time I could see that it might be useful nowadays is if I were making a lot of overseas calls.
Just mix in a few 1000 digit primes.
Chop fish into 128 pieces, add and blow.
Simmer and stir, and allow 1-3 secs for CPU to cool.
Talk when done.
-- In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was UNSIGNED, and the main(){} was without form and void...
I do not understand why IP phones
a) have so low market penetration
b) cost so much
-- I know part of the problem with a is b.
What I think really is needed is a low cost, high quality server system for one of these systems. Based on what little research I have done, it costs almost as much, if not more, for hardware for a small office system as it would to get a real small PBX like phone system.
I don't think a phone really needs a 9" LCD screen, or whatever was in the screen shot, but the "Java Phone" from the other company has a screen size perfect for the company phone directory. That I think could be the "killer app" for these things.
Anyway, anyone know of low cost PBX software (if that is even what is is called in the IP phone world)? Open Source, under a BSD like license would be cool, and lower the barrier to market entry for companies wanting to roll a system like this out. Of course, cards to hook up to a POTS connection would also be needed. Voicemail over the web, via shoutcast or something would rock. I havn't listened to my voicemail at work in 3 months. With a better interface, I may stop refusing to use it.
-Pete
Soccer Goal Plans
Asterisk
VOCAL
Pardon me, but WTF? What part of this do you want censored? I do not understand. Does anyone else understand what io333 is talking about?
This is fine for intraoffice communication, but what about the real world? I think that a solution for connection VoIP -> POTS could be easy, with a little knowledge of Linux drivers.
...)
Get an older box (P2 400 or so), with plenty of PCI slots, and preferrably an onboard NIC also. Get some Winmodems equal to the # of pci slots.
WinModems, even in all of their Microsoft-sponsored godless evil towards open source platforms, are basically A/D and D/A converters hooked to a phone jack. It should be relatively simple to talk (no pun intended) to them in software and use one as an interface to POTS. It has all of the neccesary hardware, and writing a sound driver for it shouldn't be too difficult. A brand of WinModem with fairly standard hardware could be decided on by the implementer, and drivers written for that. (Winmodems? Standard?
Client software with available source code could be modified to use those, as well as control the phone-line functions. Just run an instance per WinModem.
Honestly, I think that this could work, and it would be a great hack to accomplish. Anyone fancy a go at it?
Every cloud has a silver lining (except for the mushroom shaped ones, which have a lining of Iridium & Strontium 90)
I could not find any mention of the TuxPhone hardware (phone) itself on the site other than the photo, and discussions about the embeded lcd/strongarm thing. No mention of how it links with the phone in the picture, etc.
Are there any "low cost" IP telephones in the market today? $600 (what looks like the going rate) seems like too much to me.
-Pete
Soccer Goal Plans
Yeah but do you think things will be any different? Who will regulate VoIP when it is ready to replace what we currently have?
:)
Maybe I'm being pessimistic here, but I think that when VoIP is phased in, we may see lower prices but the system will still get the shit taxed out of it. Essentially, the only thing that will change is the technology underlying the means of how we communicate. Then again, that's just my opinion.
(shameless plug) Take a look at Speex, an open-source, patent-free speech codec (Speex is to speech what Vorbis is to music). Speex should soon be available in Linphone too!
Opus: the Swiss army knife of audio codec
Until you start getting network congestion messages every time you make a call.
Am I imagining things or is net traffic and latency going to be a real serious problem before these can become used abound?
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
The TuxScreen phone itself was selling for $99 not too long ago. I have one in my closet (which I will now have to drag out so I can play with this project).
IMHO that's what makes this implementation so revolutionary. Other posters were asking why this is newsworthy? Well, a $100 phone that runs open-source VoIP is pretty newsworthy to me. I've done both VoIP and voice-over-frame-relay installations, and you're talking about thousands of dollars for even a small implementation (using IP phones or regular digital PBX phones, special cards in the PBX and the router, special software, and so on).
Compare this to $100 phones and a gateway running on a cheap Linux box.
Any info on VOIP for a regular PC? I need international long-distance access. I saw this Ask Slashdot article that recommended Speakfreely, but I haven't had time to try it.
Any advice?
Open Source VoIP and telephony is tracked at http://www.linuxtelephony.org.
VoIP hardware (PCI cards) is IIRC $79, gateways are $179, drivers have been in the kernel since (again IIRC) 2.2.16. http://www.quicknet.net.
VoIP in the U.S. is almost pointless because the PSTN is too good. No one wants near perfect when perfect is cheap and easy. In the third world, if you can get a phone circuit it averages $1.27 per minute, whereas VoIP through a hop-off provider like Net2Phone (http://www.net2phone.com) runs average about $0.23 per minute or less. Straight IP to IP (like across a VPN from company branch to branch) is just the cost of the ISP (usually flat rate). So VoIP cafes are a popular way for the non-super-rich and powerful to make calls to their relatives in the first world.
Personally, the VoIP calls I have made have an almost imperceptible latency problem and sounded *far* better than any GSM call I have ever heard. Then again, these calls were during business hours so net congestion was not an issue for me.
The Ogg Vorbis has a low bit rate mode that is useful for VoIP telephony, and is grossly better than GSM to my ear.
Finally, VoIP is used by the big players here in the US. Qwest and Sprint use VoIP in preference to ATM due to cost of the equipment (Bits per second/price of hardware. IP is more efficient than ATM due to less overhead). Any cross-country call is VoIP nowadays.
Just my two bits.
-C
How often does your Internet connection go down? How often does your router or Ethernet switch crash? Do you ever get a guarenteed or consistant data and latency rate?
Now how often do your telephone systems crash? How often does the quality of the call degrade or drop during the call?
Traditional phone systems are consistant, rock solid stable, and can handle a large user base.
I'd love to see good evidence to the contrary, but I've always heard the single largest cost for the telecoms is the billing infrastructure and it sounds quite reasonable. The billing adds all kinds of cost intensive human resources to the infrastructure that is supposed to be entirely automated. It requires receptionists, cashiers, accountants and all of the associated business crap. And how many hours do they spend arguing about bad bills and other make work? While the customer argues on their own time, they companies have to pay their represntatives. And so the customer not only has to argue about bad bills on their own time but is paying the salary of the person they are arguing with. That's where monopolies no longer serve the interests of the people. Simply because telecoms evolved from a labor instensive model doesn't mean they get to stay that way in order to create busy work. This is always the argument against communism is that state run enterprises create all thes useless make-work jobs. It seems the private telecoms of the US are striking example of this same make-work inefficiency. The argument of socialist -vs- free market is misleading and off-topic, the point is that any institution that affects the majority of the people and is clearly failing to function for the benefit of those people it influences over a period of decades should not be supported by the society. That has nothing to do with socialist -vs- free market. It's just common sense.
VoIP using only Open Source isn't new, nor is interoperability with Cisco equipment, nor is SIP, or even embedded VoIP using Linux.
The OpenH323 Project (http://www.openh323.org) has had a H.323 protocol stack availble since 1999. This stack works with Cisco gear and most other commercial H.323 products, and works on Linux, *BSD, Windows and other systems.
A full GUI Linux client using this stack can be found at http://www.gnomemeeting.org.
There is also a SIP stack available as part of the OPAL Project available from the same site. Others are also available (see http://www.vovida.org) for one example.
Lots of companies (including my own) have been doing "real" VoIP using Open Source for years.
(Disclaimer: I'm one of the authors of OpenH323)
All of the phones put out by Cisco and Call Manager (the server that runs everything) don't use SIP, they use the open protocol SCCP or Skinny. If you hook up a SIP phone and try to register with Call Manager, it won't even work, as Call Manager dosen't support SIP. Nor is Cisco too hot to trot on SIP, as you can do less with SIP than with SCCP or even H.323. I've spoken to Cisco about SIP (including CCIE's) and SIP isn't anything special, especially in the enterprise market.
--- RFC 1149 Compliant.
they already have it:
r _ip.html
Symbol Technologies and they work pretty good:
http://www.symbol.com/products/wireless/voice_ove
Also check out IP Blue, a company that sell IP Phones for your IPaq. It works over an 802.11b connection.
--- RFC 1149 Compliant.
If they would do a color screen and support skinny, they would make a fortune, especially if the phone was sub $300. Also, the phone would need to support html/xml, ldap and that would be the ultimate. Finally, it a web cam option ca,e with it, you could corner the market in phones.
--- RFC 1149 Compliant.