Cross-Platform VoIP Software?

feilkin writes "With the release of Skype's Linux client, I'm wondering about alternatives. Namely, cross-platform solutions for voice communication. I've got friends who are using Windows, Linux and OSX, and I'm hoping that there is a way to communicate with all of them. I myself am using Linux, and I haven't been able to find any solutions that seem fitting to my situation completely. Does anyone have a solution that'll be useful on all three platforms, or solutions that may be coming in the near future?"

Bayonne

[nacturation]

I haven't checked in on the project in a while, but Bayonne [gnu.org] was coming along nicely in this area and is currently used in a few production facilities.

You might have to roll your own, but the framework is certainly there.

Re:SIP

[walt-sjc]

I use SIP devices with Asterisk, FWD, etc. Sip has one major flaw - horrible support for NAT. If you are behind NAT, you frequently need to use an external proxy. Considering that SIP is not all that old, it boggles the mind that it handles NAT so poorly.

Re:SIP

[Anonymous Coward]

SIP can handle NAT situations just fine, you just need to ensure your endpoint as declared in the SIP packets is your real address, and the devices between do The Right Thing.

* from 0.7.x onwards can force the address to be correct, and works fine for me behind a 1:1 NAT.

re: software is lame

[Rage Maxis]

don't fuck around with a stupid software phone.

just get a grandstream budgetel or a sipura or a wisip or any number of other SIP hardware phones.

You will be happy you did. I am.

plus wearing stupid headsets looks retarded.

No problems here...

[artemis67]

I use Road Runner through Time-Warner Cable, and have no issues with port-blocking. Also, the Vonage VoIP-box goes outside of your router/firewall, so you won't compromise your own network, either.

Re:err...Yes Skype

[sumdumass]

but once they reduce the number of bits, how on earth do they push those bits so damn fast across the continent?

I'll take a stab at how.. This is just a guess but instead of doing a transmit and recive, they might open a stream like one from a streaming video server but smaller to only use enough bandwidth neccesary for low-medium quality voice. durring the non talking time they could just introduce sub audible noise to keep the conection alive and recive the same from the other end. with a stream like this, it will also give them the ability to have a checksum on the other end to mesure link quality and adjust the streams bitrate as neccesary to acomidate for the conditions of the conections.

This stream could be somethign like the internet radio but because it is voice it might only need half the bandwidth and if they compress it a little they can push a lot of trafic with little bandwidth. If they cut out some of the highs in the transmission they can also cut out some of the tinny sounds asociated with low bitrate conections. also they might take a voice sample at the beguining of the call and use a checksum based on that to set a software EQ that would pull the distortion out but that seems like it would use alot of proccessing power

Re:SpeakFreely used to be an option...

[Anonymous Coward]

SpeakFreely worked nicely on phone lines too.

I used to chat with my girlfriend in Ohio from LA; both of us used dial up (AOL, even), and voice quality was good (even at 28.8kbps). Only problem was my computer at the time did not have a bi-directional sound card, so I had to talk CB style.

Pretty amazing for back then, actually.

Re:err...Yes Skype

[mindstrm]

Half of streaming radio? Far, far less than that.

The VoIP codecs I've commonly seen use about 6kbps. That's nothing by today's standards.. acceptable quality for voice is far, far below radio.

You can make voip calls quite easily over a 28.8kbps modem dialup connection.

Skype for Mac coming shortly!

[timealterer]

On June 16, 2004, there was an internal demonstration at Skype of the alpha version of Skype for Mac.The alpha version worked well and the development team is working towards a beta launch of Skype for Mac in about 2-3 months. The other major OS that Skype doesn't support is Windows 98, and there aren't official plans for that as of yet.

Re:OpenH323

[ciryon]

OpenH323 is:

• Microsoft Netmeeting on Windows (still included in XP, even if it's "hidden" inside Program Files)
• Gnomemeeting [gnomemeeting.org] on Linux
• OphoneX [sourceforge.net] for OS X.

That's the bad solution. You need to open loads of ports and it is still tricky to get to work.

I suggest using AIM/iChat on Windows/OS X since audio and video is the best in the business. Also works through firewalls without need to open ports. This solution isn't available for Linux afaik, but it might be in the future. The protocols are open.

Ciryon