I'd like VOIP that works. VOIP is essential for my work, video would be very, very nice for keeping in touch with loved ones (keeping in touch with little nieces as they grow up, that kind of thing).

It would be nice to get Skype working, but a more open alternative would be good too.

Skype worked fine with Mandriva 2008.0, I couldn't get it working with acceptable sound quality in 2008.1 in spite of following instructions. Now it seems broken in 2009.0 too, with no clear instructions on how to make it work - I just don't want to get into another vortex. Especially since, as I now discover, Skype does not support the open "SIP" VOIP protocol. I gather that MSN & Yahoo both do support it, and Google Talk supports other protocols for text (not sure about voice) so I could connect through Ekiga, for example.

I just set up Ekiga Softphone - don't know if it will work, but it's asked me to set up port forwarding without giving me the first clue of how to do it or which ports to forward >:-(.


I'm also thinking about changing to Debian - I want a distro that lets me configure it at install, setting up the system to be very light and fast. (I'm not really a Linux Geek, but at least I figure Debian should be well documented, and stable and fast enough to make it worth the trouble.) Does that affect my choice of VOIP?

Many thanks.

I may be biased...but you might find its got a lot to do with your webcam....they are not pretty to solve either...consider reading this pls

its basically a series of links but has been written by a good lookin guy
http://www.sidux.com/index.php?modul...ag=Webcamlinks

I am referring to solving the issue of skype not ekiga which I have not used

Hi

I too need VOIP service for my board. I wanted to know which kernel versions supports this?I will be porting the same on my custom board. So i m intrested in knowing the kernel version name and the the steps to be followed to configure the kernel for the same.

Kindly guide me !!

~ Newbie

Hi Chris,
FWIW, I use Kopete and skype for video voip chatting. Both work fine with Debian Squeeze and everything before that. I have always had problems with Ekiga and my very old/cheap spacecam 120 so I can do voice on ekiga but no video. For voice only Twinkle is my absolute total favourite sip client in the whole world.
cheers,
jdk

If you wanna do Computer 2 Computer chat - use GTalk ... Its got the best voice clarity ...
X Lite is another software you could use
(Takes forever to configure the darn thing though!)

Else - invest in a Cisco soft phone ... I dont know the situation in your part of the world - but - In my part of the globe they're kindda expensive !!!

Bump.

I suppose I could start another thread, but this one is recent enough, and I've had the same experience as the OP. Skype so far is the only option and it just barely works. I would much prefer using a FLOSS solution, but so far have found none that work reliably. I've tried ekiga and it worked for a while at a minimally acceptable level, with really crappy sound and video (worse than skype), and constant loss of connection. With the newest version of ekiga it will no longer even detect my webcam, even tho skype sees it just fine. I think ekiga has a big problem with NAT. I've had to bypass NAT at times to get ekiga to work reliably or at all.

Is it just not possible at the moment ? VOIP on Linux that works at acceptable level ?

I am a Linux Administrator myself and configuring Asterisk VoIP server.

But I am still trying all the VoIP softphones that can work with Linux (FLOSS or not).

Softphones I tried:
1) X-Lite - Works very good, but it doesn't show registered on Asterisk server, but anyway works fine. It is free and its pro versions are paid.

2) Wengo Phone - The mike and speaker bars don't move and I am unable to speak, though it registers in Asterisk server.

3) Idesfisk/Zoiper - Good VoIP phone. Registers (connects) to Asterisk server, but cannot make calls and gives error related to codecs (I am using g711u & g711a). (Zoiper Communicator on windows can make calls properly).

4) Ekiga - Registers with Asterisk server, but the mike and speaker bars don't move at all.

Hi,
This thread is already over 6 months old so I'm not sure if the OP is still around to see your answer. If you want to spread your information around it might be a good idea to start a new thread like "VOIP's that work with Linux: my experiences". That way everyone can benefit fully.
Cheers,
jdk

I'm still here :-). I appreciate all the responses.

Update from me: I switched to CrunchBang, and Skype works for me. I now have more chances to talk with geeks (I'm in Taiwan) so I'll talk to them about FLOSS* options, but to be honest it's not near the top of my to-do list.

*Whenever I hear "FLOSS" I think of the lesbian society at Sydney University.

I too found 'twinkle' a very good VoIP software and agree with jdkaye. Also 'Kphone' and 'WengoPhone' are now working fine. Of these Kphone supports video calls too. They are all sip phones.

I had tried these and other SIP phones, but no SIP phone could detect sound device on my Debian Desktop. I had installed these SIP phones manually.

I now installed the above softwares from the Debian repository and found these to be working fine.