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I think that we should have a voIP client officially included in the Portable Apps Suite.
I had originally thought that we should use Asterisk, but unfortunately, that is a voIP server, not a client.
So, Does anyone know of any reputable Open-Source voIP clients out there?
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I'll look into it. If it's not too hard, I'll do it.
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook
Is this a joke, a provocation, or just gimme-gimme mentality?
Gimme everything, free and portable, and right now
Asterisk is indeed a masterpiece of software, but it's a server and not a client. I would be hard pressed to think of any sensible use for it on my stick.
Some VoIP clients have already been presented in this forum (portable, of course), just use the search.
Cheers
Chris
Always on the move - love all portable apps!
It's an "Oops"
I'm just starting too get into voIP, and clearly, I still have a few things left to learn.
Are there any reputable open-source voIP clients?
Please Make TiLP Portable
Yep.
There's WengoPhone (believe it does VoIP), and Ekiga is avail. for Windows as well.
oopsy
Don't know of any opensource one, but there are a couple of protable and free ones around.
Depends on the protocol you intend to use. For SIP, check out PhonerLite, for IAX look for iaxLite.
Sorry, too lazy to google for the URLs.
But not to discourage you from asterisk: once you're a bit more familiar with VoIP, why not install one on a vserver? And then access it with your portable client(s) from wherever you happen to be. I'm doing this while I travel, has saved me lots of money for phone-calls. Just be warned - an asterisk is not trivial to configure ... much more difficult than installing it.
Cheers
Chris
Always on the move - love all portable apps!
thanks man, sorry about the confusion.
Please Make TiLP Portable
If you go to SourceForge, and look in the VoIP section, you will find 393 different applications. I am sure you can find some that will work there.
Oh that's a big help.
MC
In fact you won`t find a single mature Open Source Voip client.
What I mean with 'mature'?
- works behind nat
- works nat to nat
- free in price
- no need to register with real name
- works also without server from ip to ip
WengoPhone:
- I really could not advice this.
- The voice error messages are in French.
- Very often the server has problems and you can`t log in.
- Often the online status of your buddys and yourself is messed up and you can`t call.
- Them disabled ip to ip connections on purpose.
Phoner Lite / minisip / Ekiga on windows:
- Very bad quality (bug) often.
- Often connection is interrupted after 2 minutes.
Also note that most voip clients getting busted by firewalls, traffic shapping and blocked ports. I think voip is a very bad choice for pc to pc telephone. Because of that a Closed Source program, called Skype become the defacto standard for free pc to pc call, it uses some proprietary protocol and some pseudo encryption and therefore it works everywhere out of the box.
If there is a real replacement for Skype then tell me...
I never had issues with PhonerLite, and the quality is just fine.
But I agree it's not a Skype replacement. You need to know a little about VoIP in order to use it successfully - but then it's usually cheaper than Skype
Using one of the betamax clones (see http://backsla.sh/betamax) you can phone for free to most European landlines and the US. You can use their client, or - if you wish it portably - one of those I mentioned above. If your call breaks after short time, you probably have a firewall and/or NAT issue. And that can happen often when you have to rely on computers that you don't control.
To overcome NAT problems, use the IAX protocol. Unfortunately, betamax doesn't support IAX, but that's where you can use an asterisk server to do the translation. Works perfectly - I recently even managed to do phonecalls via a web-application, because the computer was so restricted that I couldn't launch any program from my stick.
Suggest to do some research before making the kind of your statements.
Cheers
Chris
Always on the move - love all portable apps!
You will never find a VoIP program, one that can call phones, that is free. There is a tax that must be paid for a connection to real phone lines.
I have been using VoIPerized. It is freeware, not OpenSource. It is basicly what you define as a "mature" VoIP program, besides the fact that it cannot call phones, only IP addresses. I would compare this program to an instant messanger, just for voice instead of text.
I have never used Skype, so I really have no idea what a replacement for Skype would be. I don't do enough VoIPing to try it yet. Maybe later though...
Has anyone looked at Linphone? It has an article about easy installation on Windows. Works on Linux, but apparently not on Mac?
Wikipedia lists a few other open source clients that work on Windows, Linux, Mac, etc.
What kind of network would we be using this with? It'd be nice if it were linked to something like GTalk or one of the IM networks.
MC
Hello cmmehl,
hello Caehan,
thanks for writing.
You are right, there are some 'alternatives'. But like linux is an alternative for windows it`s not an jump in & work 'replacement'.
There are some setups which may work. But none of them is easy and good for end users. For example, if someone asks me for an alternative/replacement for Internet Explorer / Outlook I can suggest without any worry Mozilla Firefox / Thunderbird - becuase it`s easy, very good and for end users.
I am not spreading Skype because of obvious concerns...
For voip there are some things you can do, but I can not suggest these to my family or all my friends because it`s to complicated / tricky / expensive.
Also blocked ports and blocked voip (by isp) is a big problem.
A real replacement(!) for Skype would be something like voip + serverless + nat to nat + encryption. Fortunately right now there is no such project.
Hope you understand my point now a bit better.
I imagine for some the concerns about Skype are not obvious. Could you expand on that?
MC
If you can invent a way for packets to go from one NATed machine behind a firewall to a different NATed machine behind a different firewall, without doing port forwarding or turning the firewall into a proxy, and without using a server (or P2P net) in the middle, you are ahead of most everyone else.
There's no such project because of the nature of firewalls: they are designed to keep things out. If you invent a way for your packets to go directly through my firewall to let me know you want to talk to me, without my having told the firewall to let them through, it will be seen as a firewall compromise and the firewall folks will fix that right away.
So, let's come up with some realistic criteria. "voip + serverless + nat to nat + encryption" is not going to happen any time soon. We can get VOIP, and we can get encryption. We can probably also use an encrypted protocol on random ports (to stop ISP traffic filtering). So what alternative (if any) is acceptable for the "serverless + nat to nat" part of your wishlist?
MC
a Portable Wengo already...
But it's in French, so it needs to be localized.
Just visit the framakey website
Screenshot
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report
JustVoIP is similar to Skype but without the chat feature and is cheaper.. Also it has lots of countries that can be dialled for free.
A PA topic is at https://portableapps.com/node/7727#comment-51849 which explains how to run off a USB drive.
JustVoIP website: http://www.justvoip.com
Cheers.
@Aciago:
It`s not really portable. It`s "just works" and it doesn`t even hold user settings.
@rab040ma:
* about Skype:
1) personal opinon:
I don`t support things which are dumb or childish in my opinion. It`s proprietary and has a strange license agreement, it`s also Closed Source. Because of this nice websites like this may not post launchers without getting problems with their lawyer.
2) It`s a monopol, I also don`t support monopols.
3) It acts strange, it updates itself without asking.
4) Traffic from my comp all time to anyone, no one can find out what it is because of proprietary protocol.
5) I also don`t use 'cool' software like google desktop, sure I appreciate the nice features. But I believe in privacy.
6) Every version just gets bigger, more junk inside, slower and less stable. Maybe Skype 1.0 was ok, but now since it`s ebay it`s just blow up.
7) http://fossvoip.blogspot.com/2005/12/why-thou-shall-not-use-skype.html
....
I could find even more points but I think it`s really off topic.
* about an alternative software:
It`s technically possible. With peer to peer and dht, just like skype does, a clone but secure and Open Source.
Thanks.
All good points.
I think Skype said that it tried SIP, along with other common protocols and codecs, and couldn't get the performance it wanted. Yes, it came up with proprietary protocols, but they do work.
I'd feel better if the Softphone suggestions being made met the criteria you mention (p2p, dht, encrypted, serverless, can use different directories, etc.). The impression I get is that the project to do that doesn't exist.
SIP might be an open protocol, but will it ever be something that consumers can use behind their firewalls, at least while we are waiting for IPv6?
To get back on topic, which softphone(s) or project(s) are moving in the right direction, at least, so that PortableApps support can move things along?
MC
is compatibility... I can use gaim or whatever you call it now, miranda or many other IMs that are out there to chat with my MSN contacts, but... Is there any VOIP program open source, portable & free that I can use to chat with my Skype contacts? not making them to switch to my VOIP client, of course...
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report
Hi,
is stay already an open source VOIP that is build to be completely portable is called PhonerLite :
http://www.phonerlite.de/index_en.htm
and download link :
http://www.phonerlite.de/download_en.htm
I use it with Tpad that I copnsider one of the best voip provider
www.tpad.com
And here are the instruction to configure it :
1) Download the software and install it into an USB pen from link :
http://www.phonerlite.de/download_en.htm
2) Click on icon of phonerlite
3) Click on "manual configuration"
4) Type on "proxy/register : sip.tpad.com
5) Type on "Real/Domain" : sip.tpad.com
6) STUN leave empty
7) Click on the right green indicator
8 ) Type on "User name" the personal Tpad number
9) Leave empty "Authentication Name"
10) Type on "Password" the tpad password
11) Type again your passowrd on "confirm"
12) Type on "Confirm" again the tpad password
13) Click on the right green indicator
14) "Recording device" leave as default
15) Click on the right green indicator
16) Click again on right "V" indicator
17) Account created and now it compare main window of phonerlite and say "wait for be register"
18 ) click on "configuration"
19 ) click on "user"
20 ) on "displayed name" cancel "Phonerlite" and type your "Tpad username"
21) click on "safe"
Now software will be connect to tpad and work properly for receive and make call
It looks to have a free license, but I don't see that it is open source. Can you find something that supports your assertion that it is OSS?
MC
It includes an 'advertising clause' similar to the old-style BSD license. So, it can't be considered open source/Free even though the source is available. (It's not using an OSI-approved license, it can't be hosted on SourceForge or Google Code)
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Well, there is no voip app right now I could suggest to host here.
Right now here are only "premium" apps are hosted here officially, very high quality. Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice... This are all programs I can suggest without any big concerns, them work out of the box and are really good.
But Open Source voip apps are all bloated. For Internet Explorer you can say FF is a good replacement, but for Skype there isn`t right now. Sure there are some, but them would create a support hell because always something isn`t working out of the box.
I don`t think portableapps.com will host a voip app here soon, maybe because of the lack of any "premium" or "professional" one.
What about Wengo Phone?
https://portableapps.com/node/15457
@Undintel: Thanks for these instructions. The software works like a charm using my Swiss VoIP provider (Sipgate).
Going on a round-the-world trip, PortableApps is a true life saver, since I can make sure to have all the needed software when using Internet-Cafés during my year-long journey. Thanks to all of you who have taken great care of creating these nifty little applications which I'll carry on my USB stick.
However, I don't really understand why recommending a portable VoIP client software is so hard.
Not everybody has a technology background: My parents (and some friends) back home have no computer, nor Skype or whatsoever. VoIP (SIP) is the only (cost effective) way to keep in touch with them. Moreover, since I was able to reuse my former landline phone number for VoIP, they can call me back wherever I am.
PhonerLite does the job from the USB stick. I couldn't care less, whether the software looks/behaves "professional" or not or whether it is open source or not. It simply works.