18 Mar
2005
18 Mar
'05
6:22 p.m.
Rob schrieb:
On Friday 18 March 2005 15:44, Eric Dantan Rzewnicki
wrote:
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 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?
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.
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