Slashdot Mirror
Finally: PC-to-Phone Calling from Linux
Greg Herlein writes "There is finally a way to do direct PC to Phone calling from linux: GnomeMeeting
now supports decent quality, low-cost VoIP calls to any real phone in the world. It's about time." The calls are through a company called MicroTelco; read this FAQ page to learn more about it. (And don't forget TheKompany's approach to IP-telephony-with-Linux, using a Sharp Zaurus plus Net2Phone.)
And it supported strong encryption on the phone calls, too...
Admittedly somewhat less user friendly, but it's been around for years.
GnomeMeeting has potential, too.
Linux Journal had an article covering this in its Jan. edition.
Sorry, but i've yet to ever investigate this very interesting field.
The faq and the features page are not written too well.
What tools can i use to do pc-pc calls over linux?
-- -- --
Help my mini cause: My journal
Your "insightfull" comment shows only that you did not read the article; the page explains that you require a hardware device from Quicknet in order to use the G.723.1 audio codec. The card has only linux drivers, so you lost your bet.
And if your ISP's terms of service do not prohibit voice over IP...
For those living in Brazil (and other countries, maybe?): most DSL providers (the one which offers the DSL link, not the ISPs who authenticate you and offer e-mail, DNS servers, etc) won't allow you to use voice over IP. Reasons seem to be:
In my experience, net2phone is as good as some international phone calls I have made with a regular phone anyway. You *must* have good ping times to the phone provider's gateway though, otherwise it sucks. Also, a decent modem or broadband is needed. Software modems (winmodems) give crappy quality.
Conversion Rate Optimisation French / English consultant
I have been rated down a lot now, and I am no longer sure who acually did read on their web-page. Quote:
The libraries and applications should also compile on Windows 95/98, BeOS (thanks Yuri!), Linux PPC, FreeBSD x86, OpenBSD x86 (thanks Roger!) and Solaris Sparc & x86.
It should mean that it available for many other systems than just Linux, I would claim my first comment to still be 100% true.
Note to self: get smarter troll to guard door.
A major - and often overlooked - factor is the quality of the microphone used. The build-in mics of webcams or the mic of cheapskate headsets are really too lousy to make for decent sound quality, as they introduce so much distortion and noise that the codec is ill-equipped to handle.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
GnomeMeeting is european and yes it works well with Europe phone numbers
Unfortunately, most of it is commercial ... although the SME server software is open source and available from the E-Smith developer site. Still, their voip stuff looks standards-based, so hopefully it interoperates with other stuff.
You can use Net2Phone http://web.net2phone.com/products/commcenter/downl oad.asp
From the article:
5.2. Why do I currently have to buy a Quicknet card if I want to do PC-To-Phone calls?
All providers need the G.723.1 audio codec to be able to do PC-To-Phone calls. That codec is patented and can't be added directly into the GnomeMeeting code. However, buying a Quicknet card offers you other features that will also be useful if you are not doing PC-To-Phone calls.
(Emphasis mine).
Hm, only one vendor is listed on the Gnome meeting website -- their cheapest card is US$109.
On a Windows PC, you don't need a card - the soundcard and CPU are sufficient for PC-to-Phone.
I guess Microsoft pays the codec royalties -- and a copy of Windows XP Home off pricewatch.com is US$90.
*Grin* I think only hardcore Linux users will followup on this article.
I wonder if it's possible to convince the telcom company they're using as their gateway ("MicroTelco") to accepts voice calls using a free codec (the new Ogg Vorbis voice codec comes to mind).
H.323 is more complicated than other protocols because it uses two tcp connections and several UDP sessions from a single "call".Only one of the tcp connections goes to a well known port; all the other ports are negotiated and thus temporary. Furthermore the content of the streams is far more difficult for firewall to understand than existing protocols, becuase h.323 encodes packets using Abstract Syntax Notation (ASN.1)
#3 pencils and quadrille pads.
I have worked for Net2Phone for years. I can tell you that if enough requests came in, they would gladly make a Linux client. It is a simple cost/benefit equation.
A lot of our hardware runs embedded Linux.
PC-to-Phone calls are still not ready on Linux, and they cost money to do. According to the GnomeMeeting FAQ: Step 3: Register a MicroTelco account on http://www.linuxjack.com.
However, when you go to linuxjack.com, it says that they will be adding accounts for MicroTelco on their site SOON (marketing word for "whenever"), and you can't just use a regular MicroTelco account like you would on Windows.
This is only really good news if you'd use voip-voip, or if all this proprietary technology actually works.
"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
1 John 4:14
Here's some links:
And she is visibly more literate than Ellen Feiss. Now I'll stop posting pictures before Jonita kicks my ass.
Jonita, you've been on slashdot and you are prettier than Ellen Feiss. I should apologize for subjecting you to geek-fantasy love, but you will be petrified shortly, and you won't care.
Dacels Jewelers can't be trusted.
It should mean that it available for many other systems than just Linux, I would claim my first comment to still be 100% true.
Welcome to learning the difference between a codec, library, and a driver.
GnomeMeeting, which is the libraries and the application, will compile on all those platforms.
The codec, is windows only, so you need hardware.
The device driver, is a Quicknet Linux device, is.. well.. a Linux device. You can read about it at linuxjack.com.
I have been rated down a lot now, and I am no longer sure who acually did read on their web-page.
Awww, did the karma whore lose some points? Next time posting relevant not "Linux is a kernel!" posts, sheep.
Dacels Jewelers can't be trusted.
Well, in order to receive calls in your Linux box you either have to use a provider with that capabilitry, such as perhaps MicroTelco, or perhaps wait for the integration of all services and addresses under ATM.
(Asynchronous Transfer Mode is now used extensively, especially now that ADSL, which directly links with ATM, is in fashion. But it has not really made it to the consumer end yet.)
This applies also to the comment concerning cuting off the revenue from providers. If services are integrated like this there will be some other way of passing costs, depending on the service used, since there would be multiple service-providers sharing infrastructure.
I miss my rubber keyboard.(Homepage)
Personal use is getting approachable, too. Someone recently had a column (eweek, ddj, infoworld... I read too much and can't find it!) that talked about links on dslreports.com that talked about switching to Vonage, a hardware VoIP vendor. Their base price is $25-40 per month, with lots of services, cheap int'l, and TRUE number portability!
The more fair question is who uses VoIP and is it hardware? Since there's so much evidence (lag-times during generic phone calls (try counting in unison with someone on a phone call to measure lagtime), the mere presence of some sort of multiplexer between my home and the phone company's Central Office, and noise-cancellation effects (where the other side LITERALLY goes silent rather than transmit minor background noise) I think we're all using a lot more VoIP than we realize.Speaking of which, it really chaps my asterisk to think the phone companies managed to make this sort of massive savings (to datastreams rather than a copper pair per call) and our rates went up, not down. As much as people complain about the **AA's, telcos top my list of companies that have rip-off pricing. Despite my losing about $30k in value on my telco stock last year, I am thrilled to see them cratering.
-- advaitavedanta
That's why I use a Plantronics headset. Good build and good sound at a good price. There others are nice as well. I have one for my cellphone. And yes I'm a satisfied customer.
Needs emphasis --
Bigzoo.com: 2.9 cents per minute inside the U.S., 4.4 cents per minute to France from the U.S. Sound quality perfect. Honest company.
Because the Net2Phone software has the algorithm implimented in software. It is a patented algorithm and cannot be used in free software, hence free software must currently use a hardware-based solution.
The hardware apparently has some advantages over software-only implimentations, including the usage of a real telephone.
vonage.com will work for those without Microsoft Windows as it is a hardware-only solution, it connects to your hub/switch and 'just works'. The nice thing you get with GnomeMeeting is the ability to dial from the computer and the option to use the computer to speak or process the audio data.
The advantage with Quicknet vs Vontage.com is that Quicknet does not (currently?) have a monthly access fee. Vontage will charge you a monthly fee, for unlimited calling (or less for 500 domestic minutes).. Quicknet charges per-minute and is blind to national borders.