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PhoneGaim Brings Phone Calling To IM Users

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the get-your-voip-on dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Eweek has an article on how PhoneGaim integrates IM and phone into one program making it possible for AOL/ICQ, MSN and Yahoo users to call each other, landlines and cellphones. It talks about how it could be a Skype-killer since it's based on open standard SIP and comes with free PSTN calling (5 minutes per day), free voicemail via email, and even supports incoming phone calls from PSTN. It's out first for desktop Linux (maybe the start of a new trend?) but it's open source so expect a MSWin version shortly from Gaim team."

3 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. Re:missing the point by letxa2000 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    What I'd really like (and it may already exist, but I haven't been able to find it) is a totally hardware, totally internal VoIP solution.

    That is... We have a main office and I'm in a remote location (another country). I want to be able to buy a piece of hardware I can just connect to my remote location's LAN (which is connected to the Internet) and buy a piece of hardware that connects to the LAN at my main office. The hardware at my remote location would just connect to a normal phone while the hardware at my main office would just connect to a phone line (or extension of a PBX). When the line/extension rings, it goes over the Internet and rings my phone at my remote location. If I want to make a call, I pick up my phone and I'm given a dial-tone from my main office.

    But what I want is a pure hardware solution. I want to pay for the hardware and be done with it. There should be no monthly fee since once I have the hardware I'm not using anyone elses resources.

    Likewise, I should be able to make free phone calls to others that use the same hardware as long as my phone knows their IP address (or there is a free/cheap service that maps their number to their current dynamic IP address).

    Is there something like this? In theory the hadware ought to be dirt cheap since all it really would require is a network card, an ADC/DAC, and a microcontroller to perform the logic. Such a device could probably be built for less than $30, so it ought to be availble to the public for less than $100 for each location.

  2. a word from Gaim by L.Schierer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As a gaim developer, I'm rather curious to know where this idea that we will be providing a win32 version of this fork has come from.

    1. Re:a word from Gaim by L.Schierer · · Score: 5, Interesting

      We have not as yet seen a patch from them, and I know from the brief glance we gave to the source when this came to our attention yesterday that if submitted as it currently exists, it would be unacceptable, as they have ignored some of the more basic design concepts in Gaim's source. So my question stands, I remain rather curious where this idea (on both their part and /.'s) comes from.