GnomeMeeting 1.0 Videoconferencing/VoIP Released

Howard Vanbel writes "Apparently the developers of GnomeMeeting have released the final v1.0 version of the videoconferencing/VoIP software. GnomeMeeting started as a final studies work at the Department of Computing Science and Engineering of the Universite Catholique de Louvain and after 3 years of development, GnomeMeeting 1.00 is ready! GnomeMeeting is the most advanced Open Source VoIP and videoconferencing software available - there's more info in the project FAQ."

Comments

But unfortuantely it's h323 only

[julf]

And h323 is a dying dinosaur (basically ISDN over IP). SIP (& other more modern and lightweight *internet* (as opposed to telephony) protocols) is the way to go.

Encryption

[chrisvdb]

I would very much like to see encryption of the voice stream added to its list of features! This would really set it aside from the competition...

Cheers,
Chris.

Re:Encryption

[tronicum]

Beside that this would be indeed nice, encryption can be done on the transport level.
Setup a VPN or tunnel.

Of course for a large userbase a simple "encrypt session" button would be ideal.

Hooray

[mkro]

Just when Microsoft start phasing out Netmeeting, we get something compatible :)

I guess we should put a bounty up for someone to reverse engineer the MSN Messenger 6.1 webcam protocol. (And yes, I know what GnomeMeeting is - and is supposed to do - and also know that an IM is not the same, but still, people just want to communicate with their friends and family.)

Congratulations!

[RichiP]

A fine product. Great for personal or even corporate use. I've been following (and updating) this application since early 0.9x days. Best of luck, and hope you don't have any problems with M$ for the similarity in name between the project name and a M$ app.

NAT and Firewall support

[Sanity]

One of the main problems with most VoIP apps, whether on Linux or Windows, is that getting them to work through a NAT or Firewall can be an absolute nightmare, even for those for whom port-mapping is normally second nature.

This is the reason that Skype seems to be succeeding where others have failed, despite using a closed and proprietary protocol.

NAT2NAT (establishing a direct connection between two firewalled nodes) really isn't that hard to do (just get both peers to fire some UDP packets at each-other for a few seconds to fool the NATs), so why are there no free and open protocols for low-configuration VoIP? (and if I have missed one *PLEASE* let me know)

Completely agree

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't believe that in this day and age the authors of these VoIP applications don't seem to realize that the vast majority of Internet users are behind NATs or firewalls. Protocols like SIP and H323 simply aren't equipped to deal with this effectively. The result? A closed protocol like Skype is rapidly becomming the global VoIP standard.

Zero-configuration NAT circumvention is much easier than people think. You just get both NATed peers which want to send UDP packets to each-other to send a few packets to the other's NATs on the ports you want to use. Most NATs will then start to forward those UDP packets and hey presto! You have established a direct UDP link between the two peers and your user hasn't had to lift a finger.

All someone has to do is to combine this technique with somethink like Speex, make sure you have both Linux and Windows versions, and we have a free competitor to Skype using an open protocol. I would do it myself if I had the time.

Even more interesting...

[jc42]

... would be if a "meeting" could be initiated by a program (that I'd like to write, of course), and the program could participate as one of the parties.

Now I know you're thinking of games. In this case, the app is a program on a hospital's computer that wants to contact one or more people, send them messages, and collect their replies. One-on-one would be useful, but even more useful would be with N parties that could all talk.

Scenario:

Patient: Hello?

Computer: Hello, Mr Jones. Your surgery is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday at 9 am. Is this OK with you?

Patient: Um, no; I have another appointment at that time.

Computer: OK; I'll check with Dr Smith to see if we can reschedule. While I call him, what would be some other good times for you? (Starts dialing Dr Smith)

Patient: Any time that afternoon would be fine.

DrSmith: Hello?

Computer: Mr. Jones says he has a conflict with his 9am appointment tomorrow. Here's his comment ... (plays Patient's comment).

DrSmith: I'd have to reschedule my golf game, but I could do it at 4pm tomorrow.

Patient: That would be OK with me, too.

Computer: Mr Jones' surgery is rescheduled for 4pm tomorrow. Can you both verify this?

Patient: Yes, 4pm is a good time.

DrSmith: 4pm tomorrow is OK here.

Computer: Rescheduled. Good-bye.

So could GnomeMeeting support a "meeting" like this? If so, how might I find the docs and/or some sample code?

Yeah, I know there's some voice recognition in there that is non-trivial. The first tests would probably be somewhat simpler, involving a basic computer message and recording all the replies of the other parties.

The Open Source nature is fairly important. In the US and other countries, we're seeing some fairly extensive medical privacy laws passed. This emphasizes that we really must avoid closed-source, binary software, because you can't know what's hidden inside it. In the long term, such software must be completely open to examination and auditing. Any Open-Source tools that can do the job will be very interesting to a lot of people that I work with.