BearItAll <spam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>
>> New Workgroup VoIP Recording Software for Linux
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | New centralized VoIP call recording software, VONaLink TeamRecord for
>> | Linux, works with any VoIP phone system based on the SIP standard to
>> | record calls for an entire workgroup.
>> `----
>>
>> http://press.xtvworld.com/article17057.html
>
> Got one of those, it's called Skype and it's free, unless you call a
> landline. But I only make friends with people who have skype so I'm
> alright.
Skype is proprietary, locked-down, binary-only. If you like using
proprietary code, then I suppose this is just fine, but from my point of
view, I much prefer Asterisk and similar, as they're open and work well
enough.
>
> Cross voip is naff. But soon I will be able to make friends with people who
> use Yahoos voip too. Maybe one day I can make friends with AOL and other
> voip network users too.
So long as your proprietary vendor wants you to, and the other
proprietary vendors want you to. As soon as they do not, you'll find
that your connections no longer work, and you will lose contact with
those friends you so recently made.
>
> That is Voip's problem, voice over the Internet works well now, video can
> work well too, bit of a delay still but it doesn't spoil it.
Um, it sort of works, until someone else starts using the same bandwidth
for something. Since there is no concept of a circuit for streaming in
the internet, then a large traffic burst will take out your call. Of
course, you might be lucky a lot of the time, but then again, you might
not.
> But if
> everyone dashes off to support yet another voip vendor chanrging for
> something that is free,
Skype is proprietary - they could disconnect you tomorrow, and there is
positively nothing you could do about it. You can't even claim that you
paid to use their proprietary machines - you have zero rights.
> then we just end up with lots of phone networks. So
> if you need to talk to John Smith, you first have to find what network he
> is on, find out if cross network to him is free and balance that with
> whether what you need to talk to him about is worth the 50p or what ever,
> then you have to hope that he is sat next to his computer or has managed to
> get it working on his PDA.
This is what will happen as the E.164 networks collapse. C7 offers the
possibility to dial an almost arbitrarily large number of terminal
points from any terminal point on the planet, in a completely
unambiguous way, ie., it does not suffer from any of the addressing and
routeing problems which plague IPv4. As you move away from C7/E.164
numbering, you will be completely dependent on whoever might or might
not be running a presence server of some kind in order to be found;
these are essential due to the dynamic nature of IPv4 addresses coupled
with the constant use of NAT to get around the address shortages.
The *worst* thing you could do is base all your communications on a
proprietary presence offering, such as Skype, as they *will* charge you
just as soon as they realise you need them enough to pay. You would be
/far/ better off looking for open-source versions and supporting them.
There are open-source capabilities out there which can do this.
>
> Free? They must be charging you for something right? No they aren't, If you
> connect to John Jones, a comms link is established between you and him, no
> need for anything in between,
There is stuff in between, though - indeed, the Skype network sets up
what are called "supernodes" to handle signalling traffic. Your own PC
could be a supernode, handling signalling from hundreds or thousands of
machines, or maybe just a handful. There is no way of knowing what the
Skype network has decided to do with *your* computing resources, *your*
processor, *your* electricity bills, *your* adsl line or access line,
and *your* storage; but it could be using rather a lot of it - again,
because the system is completely proprietary there is *nothing you can
do about it*.
> no bandwidth costs on the Voip's hosts's
> server,
The bandwidth requirement for VoIP is much greater than that of TDM
networks as used by Telcos, because putting voice on IP is just not
efficient. Consequently, if you start using voice connections over your
DSL link, you will consume, depending on codec type, anything from
64-128kbit/s *both ways* for an average codec, for something which is
trunk toll-quality, it's likely to be higher than that. Of course, as
the signalling is in-band, that traffic has to be carried as well, as
has all the other traffic if your node is a supernode.
> they is a cost to your own host's bandwidth, but they have chosen
> to let this go, because you are such a nice user of their's and anyway its
> pretty tricky picking out the voip packets to put together a seperate
> charge sheet. The voip host might add extras such as a software answer
> phone, I'll let them charge for that. But the rest is free and they have no
> right or need to charge you for it.
Actually, your ISP has every right to charge you for traffic moved. If
you are on a limited download/upload deal, as most people in the UK are
now, then using Skype is potentially quite risky, as when you become a
supernode (which you will at some point), then all that traffic, which
is *nothing to do with you* will count against your allowance.
Additionally, the call traffic will also count against it, too.
>
> So, people of the world unite in a single Voip, Skype, so that we are all on
> the same address book and can all talk to each other. You can have answer
> phones and message recorders etc on your own PC, don't pay anyone for any
> of this.
No, try using something like dundi for getting a standard, accessible
presence capability, use Asterisk on your home machine, and use either
SIP phones or IAX phones to connect to things. If you use Asterisk, you
can also use the *same* SIP or IAX phones via a PSTN card to route
traffic onto the PSTN for off-internet calls, as well as using Asterisk
to collect your voicemail, email it on to you, and so on.
Please do *not* use proprietary stuff like Skype unless you are truly
happy with someone else make all your decisions for you.
>
> AOL, MSM and the others can all just join that same Skype, there is no need
> for issolation, the world is big enough for everyone, well, almost
> everyone, a few might have to be kicked off.
>
> I hope Yahoo do join Skype, it might encourage the others to jump on board.
>
I'm quite sure that each of the big companies will try to get their own
proprietary hold on some people's traffic, and will then charge to move
it between them. You only need to look at how IRC was distorted and
broken by AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft and more latterly Google. IRC was
perfectly good, free, ubiquitous, then along come the proprietary boys,
they take the free code and protocols, and they "embrace and extend"
them, and then they prevent communications between them. They *then*
make a big song and dance about possibly offering interconnection
between their networks - why? Because they don't think that there's any
money in anything else any more.
I think you should learn a *lot* more about Skype and how it works,
though, and that you should try out one of the Asterisk liveCDs for some
/real/ open source VoIP capability - I think you'll be amazed at what
open-source software does for you in terms of flexibility, capabilities
and speed of development. Asterisk is to PBXs what Linux is to Unix;
until Asterisk came along, 99% of people couldn't afford a PBX, now
everyone can.
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
| Cola faq: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/ |
| Cola trolls: http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/ |
|
|
