TetsuoShima Posted January 16, 2007 Share Posted January 16, 2007 I'm looking into using voice chat over the internet, since a good friend is going to South-Afrika for the next 6 months to finish his bachelor degree. We wanted to keep in touch and regularly have a chat, but neither one of us has any experience with this. I know Skype is a much used program, which usually works easily, but I really hate proprietary software technology that doesn't stick to the standard and tries to muscle out the competition. So whenever possible (when starting to use something for the first time for example), I use open source alternatives or more competition friendly software. So far, I've found WengoPhone and Gizmo. Does anybody has any experience with either one of these programs, or possible even with another one? Any pointers would be usefull... :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFMF Posted January 16, 2007 Share Posted January 16, 2007 Ventrilo Some of the Counter Strike: Source players on here use this software to cheat chat while playing. Gives great quality sound and doesn't use too much bandwidth or CPU. Whether you're gaming, nattering away or just idleing by - Ventrilo is the way to go ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
x5315 Posted January 16, 2007 Share Posted January 16, 2007 Teamspeak. Similair to ventrilo. I don't have a link, but you can google it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFMF Posted January 16, 2007 Share Posted January 16, 2007 If you want - download Ventrilo (Version 2.3.0 - it's free of course ;D) and you could try connecting to the server we use for ventrilo. Use the server IP address 81.107.4.223 - you can use it for testing out the sound quality/settings/features etc. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vfn4i83 Posted January 17, 2007 Share Posted January 17, 2007 Teamspeak. Similair to ventrilo. I don't have a link, but you can google it. http://www.goteamspeak.com/index.php?page=downloads Dont download the beta. Its a more reliable software, u can talk while playing even in a k6-2 350MHz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Megalith Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 i use Yahoo or MSN to chat to my overseas friends, it has all the features of skype and you can do conference chat also ::). Quite why people feel the need to have yet another communication application installed i dont know, i have yet to see any valid argument that supports any comms app over the usual messenger apps. if your friend has a computer the chances are he already has msn or yahoo installed as i suspect do you, so y not use them. ??? Dont believe the skype. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFMF Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 Oh duh. I've used MSN Messenger for years and i go and forget to mention it ::) Yeah MSN Messenger (and even Windows Messenger *shudder*) has quite a good voice and video chat system, although not as good as Ventrilo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TetsuoShima Posted February 3, 2007 Author Share Posted February 3, 2007 Been a while since I opened this topic, I looked at the suggested solutions, but in the end the easiest was a simple all-in-one solution, so I opted to use "OpenWengo". Wikipedia was quite helpfull in finding a decent amount of alternatives. Didn't think of that when I first posted this topic. Anyway, it supports the most popular IM protocols (MSN, YAHOO, ICQ, AIM, JABBER) desides its own, standard Wengo uses SIP SIMPLE for text messages, but it's equally easy to use any of the other supported protocols. For VOIP, it supports SIP, well... that is to say... It soon will... Version 1 is fully compliant, version 2.1 which is to be released by the end of the month, will also be (version 2.0 is not fully). It also supports video calls. There is plenty of codec support. What finally made me choose for this option was that it is open source and to an extend community build. With what they have in store this client looks extremely popular and phone rates are very low (in case I want to call someone on the phone, you never know...). It does not support call-in, only call-out, but that is no prob, people wanna call me will just have to use my 'real' phone. It may even be beneficial, calling people without them having the possibility to call you back at that number. May save some prank calls or commercial cr*p. This client shows tremendous potential, version 2 has not yet been released for a long time, so it isn't 100% mature yet, but when that and some extra feature will be introduced, it would have to potential to be the ultimate video/audio call client. Using it for gaming is of course out of the question, mentioned alternatives will suit that task way better, but for what I had in mind, this software could be perfect. Haven't used it a lot yet. Just installed it, installation was a breeze (for me, the GF couldn't get her audio set up, but that's probably a windows prob, selecting the right input and such... :D ), didn't even need to route it through the firewall (which I found kind of weird, but I guess that is a consequence of the server-client connection). So, for now, I'd say, recommended software. Will let y'all know what I think about it in a month or so... :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TetsuoShima Posted February 7, 2007 Author Share Posted February 7, 2007 Need another reason NOT to use Skype, EVER? http://www.pagetable.com/?p=27 Jucky... :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Megalith Posted February 10, 2007 Share Posted February 10, 2007 wow i didnt know that ^^ yet another reason to not believe the skype lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vystral Posted March 14, 2007 Share Posted March 14, 2007 Teamspeak and Ventrilo are both great. Here's my personal advantages and disadvantages of both: PROS TS: Free. Hosting your own is easy. Unlimited number of connections. VENT: MUCH better sound quality. Easier to use. CONS TS: Mediocre sound quality. Confusing admin interface. VENT: Only up to 8 connections on free version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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