[linux-audio-user] fighting skype ...

[tommy]

Rob schrieb:

>On Friday 18 March 2005 15:44, Eric Dantan Rzewnicki wrote:
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>>I know very little about skype and don't have much time or personal
>>interest in learning about it. But, it's making inroads. I want to
>>understand what it does and what free software alternatives are
>>available. Is it possible for free software alternatives to inter
>>operate with the skype world?
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>Free software VOIP typically takes the form of SIP, or Session 
>Initiation Protocol, which is as close to a standard for end users as 
>VOIP really has.  Skype doesn't have any SIP gateways as far as I 
>know, though they're supposed to offer something called "SkypeIn" 
>this summer to do that.  Personally, I'd rather just avoid them 
>altogether, as it seems what they've brought to the mix is primarily 
>marketing.
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yes, but contrary to SIP and h232, skype uses some p2p protocol,
that minimizes their server load (according to skype). thats no big
deal for the user, as long as he / she can still find an free sip / h323
service provider, but as bandwith does cost money, this might be a
problem.

another point of skype is that it can (does) "missuse" some skypers
that are not behind a NAT as some sort of server to connect two
NAT'ed skype users - that means: skype just works, without any
configuration, and no matter if u and the person u are calling is
behind a NAT. this might be the reason 4 skype's popularity, and
there is no OS software i know of that has similar features.

>I would say Linphone is the most widely used free SIP client software, 
>at least under Linux.  Linspire seems to be throwing some money at 
>PhoneGaim, though, so maybe it'll be grandmother-friendly before 
>Linphone.
>
>Rob
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