Ekiga and Skype

[Barry Williams]

On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 2:18 AM, Aryan Ameri <info at ameri.me> wrote:
> On Wed, 2009-11-11 at 21:27 +1000, Geoffrey wrote:
>> Evidently (?) Skype is different and doesn't communicate with
>> Ekiga. I've learnt too that there is Skype for Linux.
>> This is a bit of a disappointment. What happened to standard protocols?
>> Incidently I have not yet upgraded to 9.10. I think I saw a comment on
>> Ubuntu-AU that Ekiga is not part of the upgrade. If so what has taken
>> its place?
>> My questions of members are, in relation to Ubuntu:
>> 1. Where do I go from the present position cited above?
>> 2. How is the Ubuntu softphone-Skype matter resolved?
>
> Yes, Skype uses its own proprietary protocol, and has gone to great
> lengths to protect it from reverse engineering, so that nothing can work
> with the Skype network other than Skype clients.
>
> SIP is the open and industry standard for VoIP (Voice over IP, the
> technical term used for "making a phone call over the Internet"). Ekiga
> is one such client that implements SIP. As Ekiga is a stinking piece of
> shyt, it's been removed from 9.10, and replaced with Empathy. Empathy is
> a nice client, and shows lots of promise, but at the moment its rather
> immature and its support for SIP is rather shaky.
>
> To my knowledge, no good open source softphone implementing SIP exists
> on any platfrom.
>
> If you need VoIP for the occasional use, then Skype is fine, and will do
> the job. If you are thinking of using VoIP for serious use, like for
> your business, then you need a good client, which supports the G.729
> codec. They are all proprietary, and they all cost money. CounterPath
> makes decent softphones, Bria and EyeBeam, but AFAIK they only run on
> Mac OS X and Windows, no Linux.
>
> Or alternatively you can use a hardware VoIP phone. Snom is a very good
> German brand, and is highly recommended. Of course, if you go that
> route, you then also need a call termination service. There are many
> decent aussie companies offering such services, have a look at
> whirlpool.net.au for more info.
>
> Cheers
>
> --
> Aryan Ameri
>
>
> --
> ubuntu-au mailing list
> ubuntu-au at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-au
>

I have used ekiga as a softphone and have no problem generally,
another softphone is gizmo which can be found at gizmo5.com which is
proprietary software but seems to work a bit better for my needs.
However I generally use them both to either call sip direct so no need
for an account or I use them with my nodephone account. It may be
useful to know what you are trying to do. Do you want to call out to
plain old telephones (pots) or do you want to call to another
computer?
Barry