Voice and video chat programs.

[John Ruschmeyer]

Keith Powell wrote:

>From what I have been able to find out, it would appear that the chat 
>programs are very restricted.
>
>It seems that, chatting over the internet, Skype can only talk to 
>Skype, GnomeMeeting to GnomeMeeting, Gizmoproject to Gizmoproject, 
>and so on. In other words, both users have to be running the same 
>program.
>
>Is this correct, or can different programs be used either end of the 
>chat?
>  
>
The question is not so much the programs as the protocols they support.

Skype is, aurguably, the worst in this regard. It uses a proprietary 
protocol and, as you pointed out, you can only use it to talk to other 
Skype users. (I'll ignore Skype-out for obvious reasons.)

GnomeMeeting, on the other hand, is based on the H.323 protocol for 
audio and video conferencing and, therefore, can interoperate with other 
videoconferencing clients such as Microsoft NetMeeting.

Gizmoproject is built on top of the Sip protocol with the underlying 
infastructure provided by sipphone.com. As a result, you could sing up 
with Gizmoproject, but then use and Sip-based client to talk to other 
Gizmoproject users. Further, with a little bit of trick dialing one can 
even use the interconnection of Sip networks to talk to users on, say, 
FreeWorldDialup.

<<<john>>>