Re: [tlug] 7/10 TLUG Technical Meeting - voice communication questions

[Jake Morrison <jake_morrison@example.com>]

--- Shawn <javajunkie@example.com> wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I would dearly love to make the meeting but alas must go to 
> Kyoto this weekend.
> 
> If the issue of VOIP to phone comes up, would someone care to post
> some notes to the list?  I know GnomeMeeting requires hardware 
> and a service provider to do it.  Is is possible without 
> hardware with Asterisk?

GnomeMeeting can connect directly, endpoint to endpoint, though
you have to know the IP addresses. If you are on a dynamic IP,
this is a pain.  Generally speaking, you would normally use
an H.323 Gatekeeper. The gatekeeper acts kind of like a dynamic
DNS, mapping an H.323 ID to an IP. You can run one of these yourself.
I would recommend gnugk (http://www.gnugk.org/). 

Similarly, you can go endpoint to endpoint with a SIP phone, or
you can register with a SIP "registrar", which performs one of
the registration function of an H.323 gatekeeper. 

Asterisk includes a SIP registrar and proxy, and it works pretty well.
You also get things like voicemail, so it is a pretty good solution. 

With SIP, you can use a free registrar like Free World Dialup 
(http://www.freeworldialup.org/). 

There are also some tricks you can use with DNS SRV records too to
eliminate the requirement for a registrar. 

The biggest problem you are likely to run into in general is
getting past firewalls. There are a number of solutions, 
depending on the network and endpoint capability. VPNs are 
transparent to the endpoints, but may degrade the call quality.
You can use a proxy, but that may mean that the traffic goes further
and through mure hops, again degrading the quality. There are other
techniques like STUN and other proprietary things, but they need to 
be supported by the endpoints.

> 
> Any suggested providers?  I've looked through  
> http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-VOIP+Service+Providers a little but
> found
> 1)  monthly plans needed (I wouldn't call that much)
> 2)  windows required
> 3)  special phone or other hardware needed

The only real requirement for a provider is connectivity to the
legacy telephone system. 

> 
> Ideally it would be nice to be able to do it via my pc's headphone
> set without a fixed monthly charge and no additional hardware needed.
  
> Net2phone will do that if I boot into my now very dusty and
> dangerously unpatched windows but...
> 
> Also looked at:
> http://www.voip-info.org/tiki-index.php
> http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk
> 
> -- 
> Shawn
> 
> Karma is immutable, so act accordingly!
>  

Jake