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Windows Live Messenger with VoIP
V-man writes "Microsoft has just launched Windows Live Messenger with free PC-to-PC phone calls and PC-to-phone calling as a pay service provided by Verizon Web Calling. Of course, most people doing PC-to-PC and PC-to-phone calling are probably using Firefox...too bad the Launch Page isn't Mozilla friendly."
What's wrong with it? It works just fine in my Firefox. I was expecting the screen that tells me I have to "upgrade" to IE to even see the screen. But, nope, works fine.
too bad the Launch Page isn't Mozilla friendly.
What part isn't Mozilla friendly? I just went to the launch page with Firefox 1.5.0.4 and was able to navigate through the tabs and download the installer with no problem.
It's VOIP! And instead of bypassing the telco, it requires a telco! And instead of working on every computer, it only works on Windows computers. And instead of being free, it costs money! And instead of working with every IM system, it only works with MSN! And instead of rendering it in HTML, we decided to give Adobe/Macromedia a cut and do the whole web page in Flash!
About all it's missing is a .us domain name for Web 2.0 buzzword compliance.
Yeah, I noticed that last night when I went online to check the msn messenger server status when they went down in the UK.
I just assumed is was because I use Ubuntu, can a windows user or a mac user confirm this? Does it work in Safari?
I just assumed it was a flash item that didn't work in Linux because of lack of flash 8 player.
"...most people doing PC-to-PC and PC-to-phone calling are probably using Firefox..."
Oh? Where did you dig up this little nugget of information?
Two points: 1) not only über-geeks are doing PC-to-PC calling. 2) Lots of über-geeks actually use IE.
Doesn't Skype do this pretty damn well already?
The few surviving samurai survey the battlefield. Count the arms the legs and heads and then divide by five.
Windows Live Messenger, Still spell check free...
I'm curious, why is everyone promoting it as a new feature for instant messaging? Yahoo Messenger has had voice chat facilities for ages.
Maybe if you had an up to date version of Firefox you'd be fine... cause it works with no problems here.
And people complain about Microsoft's FUD...
Slashdot is composed largely of wankers prattling on about things they know nothing about.
Platform advocacy is like choosing a favorite severely developmentally disabled child.
Only uber geeks due this? I am sitting in an office right now with a bunch of folks who use the their computers for VOIP related things, and most are engineers. So I don't see where it is only going to be used by "geeks" that doesn't make any sence what so ever. People are willing to use voip and computers for phone conversations, just look at all the "normals" with a webcam the internet is more accepted as a form of communication than I think even the phone, its becasue of pages like myspace etc. which have made the net usable.
Did someone say cake?
Why not just use Skype? While I'm at it, are there any better VOIP packages that are standards based (I tried Gizmo project, but I never got it working)?
A guy at work installed it on a trials machine, and that machine suffered weird problems. It could release, obtain, and renew a DHCP address, but couldn't ping anything, not even the gateway (which is also the switch that does the DHCP stuff).
He rolled the system back, and it all works.
There is a lot of different stuff on that machine though, so it **might** not be just due to that. I wonder if it hooks into the IP stack at some level, and that's what messed it up? Anyone else have any similar issues with it?
Get your own free personal location tracker
The nice thing about dealing with verizon is that the U.S. government will archive all of your conversations for free! Of course, you may not be able to access them, but it's nice to know there are backups out there somewhere.
Heck, at my company, it's not even WEB friendly:
Forbidden
You were denied access because:
Access denied by Websense content category. The requested URL belongs to the following category: Instant Messaging.
Don't know what version of "mozilla" your running, but was able to see the launch page just fine on FireFox, the only one that matters.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
Even M$ doesn't believe this business plan will work. The M$ Live Exec is gone which might be an indication of how this is going to go down.
Prediction: The real iPhone killer is going to be sex robots from Japan. Think about it.
Without charges...
hand
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Umm, I don't think this is a new feature as ICQ has had this ability for years. Congrats Microsoft for finally making it to 1998. Too bad ICQ was bought my AOL as it was the IM of choice back in the day.
Talk about giving away the razors for free...
Two points: 1) not only über-geeks are doing PC-to-PC calling. 2) Lots of über-geeks actually use IE.
Two counterpoints: 1) If people are using Firefox predominantly, they they are liable to not care that Windows Live Messenger has this function as they probably are not in the habit of using MS products and 2) über-geek is a hackneyed phrase that no self-respecting geek would use let alone be labelled as
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
Of course, most people doing PC-to-PC and PC-to-phone calling are probably using Firefox
Why?
too bad the Launch Page isn't Mozilla friendly.
It works for me.
Hey, it's better than a CAR ANALOGY.
it's a blue bright blue Saturday hey hey
So, are you saying competition is a bad thing?
Come on. This is nothing but good for the VoIP industry. With this, Google Talk, YIM, and Skype (and others, I'm sure) having voice capabilities, each must compete to be the best. Who wins? The consumer.
There are no uninteresting things. There are only uninterested people.
Couldn't AT&T complain that they aren't a viable alternative to verizon, in the same method that google complained that Google isn't an option for IE default searching?
It's VOIP! And instead of bypassing the telco, it requires a telco! And instead of working on every computer, it only works on Windows computers. And instead of being free, it costs money! And instead of working with every IM system, it only works with MSN! And instead of rendering it in HTML, we decided to give Adobe/Macromedia a cut and do the whole web page in Flash!
Couldn't have put it better myself, although when my computer goes to the messenger website, it detects that I am coming from a mac, and offers me the mac version, so I guess it's not limited only to Windows. However, since the website won't even let me see the page for the windows version, I can't compare the differences. Perhaps the mac version has yet to offer full VOIP functionality.
A guy at work installed it on a trials machine, and that machine suffered weird problems. It could release, obtain, and renew a DHCP address, but couldn't ping anything, not even the gateway (which is also the switch that does the DHCP stuff).
He rolled the system back, and it all works.
There is a lot of different stuff on that machine though, so it **might** not be just due to that. I wonder if it hooks into the IP stack at some level, and that's what messed it up? Anyone else have any similar issues with it?
Parent post is a probably a textbook definition of FUD.
So did MSN.. They've all had voice chat.
It's the PC to POTS feature that's really new.
Of course, only XBox users are smart enough to know that. Too bad slashdot isn't made-up-bullshit unfriendly.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
I've got IE7 Beta2 installed. Crashes with an error in ieframe.dll.
Well, will continue to use miranda then.
Maybe if you were using a non-MS OS you'd be complaining... cause it doesn't work here.
And people (read: me) complain about Macrodobe and their shitty software...
Goten Xiao
Its interesting that new name, they move from the MSN idea to this Windows Live but it will be good if they include REAL live chat. A long time ago when everybody has ICQ you can see char by char what is typing the other person. (More than one friend ask me if there is a way yo do that).
Is an interesting move, it's not surprising... the alliance against Google is here. (now they need to figured out the best way to include PayPal on this) Maybe include paypal and passport and a UNIFIED IM are the next steps.
I'm still waiting for All Peers because the easy-to-share with friends all over the net is really good. Yes of course, there is a LOT of ways to do this, but for the average users it isn't a "easy ToDo thing"
BTW its the right time to find some vulns on this "Easy Share", with Ms behind there must be an "easy ToFind Vuln".
Rock and Roll
Just because the Simpsons' already did it doesn't mean that South Park doesn't kick their asses up and down the street!!!!
...is, by definintion, non-über.
It's called the Session Initiation Protocol, and pretty much every VoIP service OTHER than Skype uses/supports it. (With a few small exceptions such as Google Talk which uses the Jingle VoIP extensions to the XMPP (aka Jabber) protocol). Note in that particular case that Google and many of the big proponents of SIP (especially Project Gizmo/SIPPhone) have been working on solutions for XMPP+Jingle interoperability with SIP.
There are a wide variety of SIP softphones available, just as there are a wide variety of SIP service providers. Many of these also support the IAX protocol, which is primarily used by Asterisk PBX systems.
Examples, most of these service providers provide their own SIP client, but in most cases SIP clients are interchangeable between SIP services:
StanaPhone (http://www.stanaphone.com/) - Free incoming DIDs (dial-in phone numbers) in various New York area codes
SIPPhone/Gizmo Project (http://www.gizmoproject.com/) - Free PC-to-PC, DIDs and outgoing PSTN cost money (not much though)
Free World Dialup - Primarily PC-to-PC (or Asterisk-to-Asterisk or whatever), but with some PSTN in/out capability
The list goes on and on, and I haven't even included the "landline replacement" VoIP providers. (Vonage in the U.S. is the most well known example, but most educated consumers hate them as they have some rather customer-unfriendly policies such as locking telephone adapters to their service and forbidding the use of your own telephone adapter without paying a significant extra fee). A few other providers do use other (although usually still known and standardized) protocols such as AT&T CallVantage (which uses the MGCP protocol).
See http://www.voip-info.org/ for LOTS of addition information on hardware, setup, and cheap providers.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
It makes perfect sense. Making phone calls via a PC is still a very, VERY geeky thing to do (I haven't had a microphone plugged into my PC since I bought a Sound Blaster 1.0 and wanted to try it out). Most uber-geeks use Firefox. Makes perfect sense to me. I really doubt that there are a lot of ordinary people that sit at their PC's with a microphone making phone calls.
Yeah, it works for me in firefox too. And even if it didn't i used the IE Tabs plug in and opened it that way too. an it worked fine. That was mostly a pointless comment by the original posted. So i downloaded it. Ew. it comes with Rhapsody. no thanks. No support for sip messaging. sucks wanted to use it instead of MSN messenger for work. logged in uder my never used optonline account. anyone want to play with it?
one of the issues i have is the inability to show icons within the buddy list in Messenger 8. This was a feature i really liked about Messenger 7, as it really can make it easier to quickly find somebody on your list (unless they change their userpic every 2 minutes)... now i have been unable to find a way to display them. :-\
I want VOIP in my Psi Jabber client on Windows. And when asterisk PBX integration with Jabber happens, then I'll have an open-source alternative to Skype or WLMw/VoIP for IM-to-POTS calls too.
Pitty their webpage isnt locale friendly either. If I am in a non english speaking country. I get the local language with NO OPTION to pick ENGLISH (My native language). This is not just a Microsoft issue, it is a genreal ignorant web designer issue trying to be a smart arse second guessing my language and gets it WRONG. Seperate Language from Location please.
The launch page is completely compatible with Mozilla. I was able to view it and download the software with the latest versions of Firefox and Mozilla with no problems at all. Someone needs to upgrade their browser version.
http://www.palmzone.net
Are you joking? With about 10 million users, world-wide, Firefox doesn't lead in anything except the ill-informed arrogance of many of its users. Yea, it's an OK browser and did innovate tabbed browsing, but all browsers now have that and it still is not as fully functional as IE. I have tried both - current and past versions - and have dumped Firefox every time. IEs popularity, though, is its greatest comparative weakness. Hackers get next to no public ego points for hacking Firefox, but get tons of publicity for IE hacks. About Microsoft's so-called laxness in fixing security holes, these generally take only a week or so to get patched. Firefox waits until they accumulate enough to justify an entirely new version!
Last I heard, IE was the browser with the highest market share ...so wtf is this guy talking about most people using Firefox?
um, this is news how? Windows Live Messenger's forerunner, MSN Messenger, has had this feature for years. Nevermind all of the other alternatives, Free Software or otherwise...
Eh? Most users make calls via Firefox? Try looking outside your bedroom... It's the Mac issue all over again. 'I Use this, all my friends use this, so that's the standard, isn't it?' And you know that all these 'geeks' (hehehe) will still be loudly proclaiming how their browser is the best, even once the app has finished its lifecycle (cue Amiga, Netscape, Digital, Betamax, BBC Micro, 8-Track...). I only need three characters for you lot - I. E. 7. What a shame the poster couldn't simply report news without adding their own naive opinion first. Still, that's the web for you.
WengoPhone software is FOSS (GPL), cross-platform, and uses the SIP standard - all unlike Skype/Google Talk/Windows Live Messenger (though Skype is cross-platform). It's just as easy to use as the rest, so hopefully more people start using this. (I'm not affiliated with Wengo.)
Fuck off, idiot. It's not my machine. I don't use it. I didn't install anything on it. I didn't say the problem was caused by the software. I didn't spend much of my time working out why.
It might be coincidence. It might not. STFU, and GBTW.
And this parent post is a textbook definition of the lack of sense of humor.
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