Building a Community VoIP Directory Server? 19
Christopher Rath asks: "Earlier this month, a reference to Clay Shirky's piece on ZapMail was posted as a Slashdot article. An obvious (to me) next step, which was hinted at in a couple of the postings which followed, was for the Internet community---you and me---to put up a VoIP directory server. I want to use an Analog Telephone Adapter (ATA), like the Cisco ATA or The Kompany's new tkcPhone, to talk to other guys who have ATAs too; I have very little interest in making a local call using the ATA (for that I've still got my Bell land-line). Surely someone has already started such a project, if not, why not?"
"To make investing in an ATA worthwhile, I need an easy method of establishing a connection. In the current broadband environment, where most of us don't have static IP addresses, this means that we need our ATA to register itself with some VoIP directory server that can be used to assist with "dialing the number": as a user I want to remember my friend's ATA number, and then the directory server maps this to the ATA's current address. Once my ATA has the other ATA's address, the call should be ATA-to-ATA without any burden on the directory server."
In the past... (Score:2)
Look at the simple IRC network. It's not really that simple, but in terms of who is using what, it's just a simple layout. Who's network you prefer is decided by features and content. IM suffers from this too.
The same goes for the phone software. Who's directory would you want to be on?
Re:In the past... (Score:1)
and have a redundant backbone, yes
Re:In the past... (Score:2)
-s
Re:In the past... (Score:1)
Who funds it? Who owns it?
How does any community-based server on the Internet get funded? First, some interested individual(s) puts up the server. Then, as usage picks up they get creative: ads, selling stuff, donations, subscription fees, etc. In this case I would envision a low cost (say $5 per year) listing fee. It's owned by whoever puts it up, or by some independent entity created for the purpose.
Let's keep the government out of it.
Re:In the past... (Score:2)
AIM, MSN, Y! and ICQ messengers
Java and C#
efnet and undernet
We'll just have a split on who is using what again.
directory (Score:1)
lates/matt
http://www.freeworldialup.com/ (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:http://www.freeworldialup.com/ (Score:1)
Check the Cisco site - I was able to find the reset procedure there a few weeks ago.
Re:http://www.freeworldialup.com/ (Score:2)
That's exactly the sort of thing I had in mind.
isn't this where OSS and open standards step in? (Score:1)
I think a directory such as this could be a first step a lot of interesting tech
With a broadband connection and an extention of this service your
home computer ( and anything connected to it) could be only a cell phone away..
"Hey I think i'll call home..see if the mail is in the box..and let's double check that coffee pot==off"
of course this would also lead to the death (or reformating) of the baby bells..and something tells me they won't go without a BIG fight
damn..... (Score:1)
I think the solution here would be a series of
dns like databases that would be linked in to one
this would prevent another IM type war and create an easy, sane way to communicate with friends and family
ie: not haveing to keep track of one VoIP id, and IM id, a land line, cell phone, etc.
consider SIP (Score:1)
Re:consider SIP (Score:1)
touch base (Score:2)
i think if there was an incredibly cheap way to do it people would jump all over it
Free VOIP for Linux (Score:2)
The only software I could find was for managing VOIP for exchanges.
Re:Free VOIP for Linux (Score:2)
I think Speak Freely [fourmilab.ch] may be what you are looking for. I haven't tried it, but I did look into it. It seemed like a lot of trouble to get working, but if you're already using ALSA sound drivers, you're probably halfway there. I don't think the OSS drivers are able to do full duplex (playing and recording at the same time), so you probably won't be able to use the program very well with OSS drivers.