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Practical Internet Telephony Available?
Rude Turnip asks: "I've become involved in a long distance relationship (northeast-midwest). My girlfriend and I like to chat on ICQ via text for a while and then head on over to the telephone for sometimes about two hours....This is on literally a daily basis. Needless to say, the long distance charges (even at a dime-a-minute) tend to run high. I'm considering buying blocks of prepaid LD time from www.bigzoo.com which would only cost me 3.9 cents/minute and going for Sprint's 1000 weekend minutes plan for $25/month. However, I'd like to try talking for free over the net. My experience with voice-over-IP (voip) software like Webphone and Netmeeting has been less than pleasant. I'd like to be able to use a device (like the AplioPhone) that lets me and my girlfriend talk over the internet without too much lag and without too much loss in sound quality. Anybody care to share their experiences with voice-over-IP devices?"
Check out Speakfreely at http://www.speakfreely.org. It's Open Source, has versions for both Windows and Linux, and the versions for both OSs can talk to each other. It may be a lot more complicated than programs like NetMeeting, but with all the options, you can tweak it to get the ideal sound quality for your internet connection. Plus it has built-in encryption. I've used it via 56k modems and while its not quite as good as a normal telephone, it still works great (esp. for the price!). With a faster connection, I'd imagine that you could get better quality than a phone. For new users of this program who are frustrated with lag, I'd suggest changing the Jitter Compensation setting to None so your voice isn't buffered.