Linux Based IP Videophone

Meltoast writes "As reported in Communications Convergence Magazine, Innomedia has launched the MTA 3368 IP Videophone. It's 4-inch TFT color LCD can deliver video up to 768 kpbs and with a Linux based OS it supports video streaming, gaming, IM, HTTP, SNMP, TFTP, FTP and Telnet."

Comments

don't panic

[Rojo^]

Any prototype for a video phone I've ever seen has the option to disable / enable video broadcasting. For normal use, you probably wouldn't have to show your face, but it certainly would put a new twist on phone sex =)

Second thought. . . phone sex without video is kinda like having the lights off. Even I'm sexy with the lights off.

TCP stack?

[gazbo]

IIRC, the TCP stack in Linux is what is known as a "trusting stack" rather than the widely used BSD stack which is a "hostile stack". Now, this is what makes Linux so fast at packet handling, but is also why the Linux stack is so tied to iptables/ipchains/$firewall.

In order to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks on an IP videophone running on Linux, you'd have to have such a stateful firewall running on the phone - wouldn't this be a little heavyweight for a phone? Or have they modified Linux to use the BSD TCP-stack?

price

[Anonymous Coward]

Estimated pricing for the IP VideoPhone is expected to be around $1,600. Contact InnoMedia for further information.
http://products.datamation.com/commu nication/it/98 9422263.html

Yet another...

[mikeophile]

Overhyped, overpriced videophone that won't sell.

If you have a broadband connection and a laptop, why on earth would you need this? The thing doesn't even use encryption.

I've seen a lot of videophones come and go. Just because it uses Linux, doesn't make it better.

Ok, it does make it better, but would you buy one?

accident waiting to happen

[D0wnsp0ut]

Let me get this straight...it plugs into an IP network, has a browser-accessible administrative interface (ie. it's running a web server) and requires special software to work behind a firewall, which means 99% of the general populace will run it "naked on the net.")

These phones are going to get cracked in a heartbeat.

I can see it now "Honey, why is a naked picture of Anna Kournikova set as the screensaver?"

A solution that's ~$1000-$1600 cheaper

[Travoltus]

Desktop or Laptop:
RH Linux 8.0
Gnome Meeting (it does video and audio conferencing)
Quickcam 3000

Or a Sharp Zaurus using Zmeeting
@ http://zsi2.stonekeep.com/index.php?v=d&a=696 (I believe it does video, as well as audio conferencing)

(Dear Moderators: this ain't a troll, this is about how to do video conferencing while not putting your WALLET on a diet...)

firewall problems with NAT

[bigmo]

My real problem with any kind of teleconferencing over the internet is getting though a NAT firewall. While I may be able to set up my system to take care of it fairly easily, I can't really expect most of my clients to be willing to go to the trouble, even if they are capable of it. Most IT departments at the larger companies I work with don't return calls related to internal firewall issues, even if the call is from an employee. I'd love to hear of solutions to this problem from anyone with experience, as I can see many uses for this in my line of work, assuming it is easy for my clients.

FTP and Telnet? Is this 1985?

[shoppa]

Anyone using FTP or Telnet for any password-protected account has been a damn fool for many years. Maybe the implementors left out secure versions like ssh and scp because of export restrictions?