With Skype being in the news and with cowonjolt working out some sound issues, I was wondering what Skype alternatives others are using. On another forum I visit, a member was talking about using Mumble and that seemed interesting.

I'm also curious about knowing if there are any other VOIPs with video, like Skype, or are they all just voice. From my googling they all seem to be just voice.

__{{emoticon}}__ Thats okay with me, since video chat can sometimes be very intense. __{{emoticon}}__

Thanks,
Dave

========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://jitsi.org/"
linktext was:"http://jitsi.org/"
====================================
is what I have been installing lately instead of skype.

Thanks roky. I'll have to check this out.

Dave

rokytnji,

I just got around to installing jitsi. Very nice looking video. Much larger than the default Skype and looks very clear. I was wondering if one is able to test sound configuration as one can do in Skype.

I also noticed that it did not install its repo in sources.list, but in sources.list.d.

Well anyway, Do you use it much? Do you have any tips or tricks?

Thanks,
Dave

You can use gmail (just install voice&video plugin) on 1 to 1 to another gmail user. Or use Google+ hangout with a bunch of people.

Thanks secipolla. I will investigate that also.
Dave

If you want a Google+ invite, just ask (although by googling you may find one faster). I'm not using the hangout feature because I don't have a webcam, nor a proper machine (it needs a dual-core plus circa 3Mbit connection).
I installed Jitsi here. It can use the gmail accounts too for video/voice chat (not Jitsi ←→ Gmail, only Jitsi ←→ Jitsi) but I want to explore it better (I don't understand much about this - I have to learn about this protocols thing like if we can make connections directly to another IP address for instance).
We could even arrange a chat (like IDK if we could have a chat with multiple people at once) but I guess it doesn't make sense before I really study this thing a bit.

secipolla wrote:We could even arrange a chat (like IDK if we could have a chat with multiple people at once) but I guess it doesn't make sense before I really study this thing a bit.

Sounds like a plan, but like you, I need to check into it a bit.
Thanks.
Dave

Well anyway, Do you use it much? Do you have any tips or tricks?

No __{{emoticon}}__ . I am not a social butterfly online. I install it so as if I run across anybody using yahoo or whatever messenger service. Then I will create a account and connect up. Just a unused wrench lying in the toolbox for now. Back when I had skype. I only did one test call with my wife. After that. Nada.

rokytnji wrote:Just a unused wrench lying in the toolbox for now.

I certainly hear you on that one!!

rokytnji wrote: Back when I had skype. I only did one test call with my wife.

I use it to speak and see my daughter at her University. Other than that, like you...Nada. __{{emoticon}}__

Just started being interested in the general subject, hence am not sure if its related to what you exactly ask (Skype-replacement).
Right now i use Ekiga, and i am not sure if it is exactly the same type of thing .
(as no one mentions Ekiga i assume its a different beast, for something like that we also tried twinkle )

sipwitch just got packaged for Debian. Another tool mentioned is jabber+jingle
(from:
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/LeavingTheCloud"
linktext was:"http://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/LeavingTheCloud"
====================================
)

This sounds interesting:

communication services

Another thing that became fairly clear to me during discussions at Debconf is that in the near term, planning to build communication services around XMPP is the approach most likely to give good results. Investigating the software choices available to build an interesting XMPP infrastructure is now a high priority for me. Jonas has done some work towards configuring and integrating ejabberd or Prosody, I've started studying yate as a possible call manager and VoIP server choice with XMPP/jingle support, and we await with great interest a release from the Buddycloud developers to evaluate as a possible basis for deploying social network services.

Some of these software choices will lead us to use Apache as our web services base technology because of the need for features that only it supports well among daemons that are Free Software.

Jonas completed packaging GNU Sip Witch for Debian, and it is now available in the mirror network. Tzafrir Cohen and Jonas did some initial testing on its use.

from here
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.gag.com/bdale/blog/index.html"
linktext was:"http://www.gag.com/bdale/blog/index.html"
====================================


I post this as you said:

I installed Jitsi here. It can use the gmail accounts too for video/voice chat (not Jitsi ←→ Gmail, only Jitsi ←→ Jitsi) but I want to explore it better (I don't understand much about this - I have to learn about this protocols thing like if we can make connections directly to another IP address for instance).

and as far i understand the quote above, from the blog, its one of the main points (ip to ip).

If you find an easy and plain English explanation bout the IP<->IP problem, please post it
(i would really love to understand more of it, but to me its heavy stuff, and all i find is intimidating).

@nadir

If you find an easy and plain English explanation bout the IP<->IP problem, please post it
(i would really love to understand more of it, but to me its heavy stuff, and all i find is intimidating).

Ditto __{{emoticon}}__

Dave