I'm looking for advice about what software packages are available for 
voice-and-video communications over a private lan. The thing about msn 
and skype is they're good but they use the internet - you have to log in 
to an external WAN serverand I wanted the same type of thing but 
completely contained within my own LAN. Is there any software for this?
I'd also appreciate tips on hardware devices that might do the same 
thing. I have a cisco router and I know about cisco voip phones but they 
don't do video. Thanks for any pointers.

tg wrote:
> I'm looking for advice about what software packages are available for 
> voice-and-video communications over a private lan. The thing about msn 
> and skype is they're good but they use the internet - you have to log in 
> to an external WAN serverand I wanted the same type of thing but 
> completely contained within my own LAN. Is there any software for this?
> I'd also appreciate tips on hardware devices that might do the same 
> thing. I have a cisco router and I know about cisco voip phones but they 
> don't do video. Thanks for any pointers. 
> 
> 
netmeeting?

In article <49019c1e$0$27554$fa0fcedb@news.zen.co.uk>,
tg  wrote:
>I'm looking for advice about what software packages are available for 
>voice-and-video communications over a private lan. The thing about msn 
>and skype is they're good but they use the internet - you have to log in 
>to an external WAN serverand I wanted the same type of thing but 
>completely contained within my own LAN. Is there any software for this?
>I'd also appreciate tips on hardware devices that might do the same 
>thing. I have a cisco router and I know about cisco voip phones but they 
>don't do video. Thanks for any pointers. 

The Asterisk software PBX handles video and voice and there are many
video phones and soft-video phones that work well with it. I've tried
the Grandstream GXV3000 and ATL400 video phones and  X-lite (eyebeam)
and Ekiga soft-phones with it.

Having the PBX in-house means all the data stays in-house (on the same
LAN), although it's more than capable of being used to bridge multiple
sites together over the Internet.

If you don't want to build your own asterisk system, there
are many pre-built systems out there - eg. have a look at
http://www.drogon.net/dsx/ but I do have a vested interest in that
particular one!

Gordon

Gordon Henderson wrote:

> If you don't want to build your own asterisk system, there
> are many pre-built systems out there - eg. have a look at
> http://www.drogon.net/dsx/ but I do have a vested interest in that
> particular one!

In the quest for pictures I followed a link to your watertower blog.
:¬)

I like blogs like that.
Informative and interesting with an injection of humanism.
http://watertower.drogon.net/notes/

I'll plug it for you Gordon then no-one can get upity.
:¬)


-- 
http://www.GymRatZ.co.uk - Fitness+Gym Equipment.
http://www.bodysolid-gym-equipment.co.uk
http://www.trade-price-supplements.co.uk
http://www.water-rower.co.uk

In article <gdsepm$hk4$1@registered.motzarella.org>,
www.GymRatZ.co.uk  wrote:
>Gordon Henderson wrote:
>
>> If you don't want to build your own asterisk system, there
>> are many pre-built systems out there - eg. have a look at
>> http://www.drogon.net/dsx/ but I do have a vested interest in that
>> particular one!
>
>In the quest for pictures I followed a link to your watertower blog.
>:¬)
>
>I like blogs like that.
>Informative and interesting with an injection of humanism.
>http://watertower.drogon.net/notes/
>
>I'll plug it for you Gordon then no-one can get upity.
>:¬)

Cheers!

I started it more out of curiosity than anything else - I have a client
who runs/creates/manages wordpress blogs for his clients, so thought I'd
have a look at WP and see what all this blogging stuff was all about!

Half way down the page is an article on video phones. Been using
Grandstreams for a while now - relative in Orkney is about to have a baby,
so they have one, we have one and in-laws (her parents) will get one
as a present when baby is born - I've never been convinced about video
phones myself - the technology is there and workable, but ...  Anyway,
I think the social/domestic environment is a good place for them though -
soon my in-laws will be able to see new grandchild 1000 miles away!

WP does seem quite versatile - my wife uses it now to record all her
travels and photos and so on...

Gordon

"Mike Scott"  wrote in 
message news:wMhMk.173898$ix.60833@newsfe10.ams2...
> tg wrote:
>>
> netmeeting?

ah yes of course Mike, thanks very much.
why didn't I think of that?

"Gordon Henderson" <gordon+usenet@drogon.net> wrote in message 
news:gdsato$2bke$1@energise.enta.net...

> The Asterisk software PBX handles video and voice and there are many
> video phones and soft-video phones that work well with it. I've tried
> the Grandstream GXV3000 and ATL400 video phones and  X-lite (eyebeam)
> and Ekiga soft-phones with it.
>
> Having the PBX in-house means all the data stays in-house (on the same
> LAN), although it's more than capable of being used to bridge multiple
> sites together over the Internet.
>
> If you don't want to build your own asterisk system, there
> are many pre-built systems out there - eg. have a look at
> http://www.drogon.net/dsx/ but I do have a vested interest in that
> particular one!

ok Gordon thanks for your response.

tg wrote:
> "Mike Scott"  wrote in 
> message news:wMhMk.173898$ix.60833@newsfe10.ams2...
>> tg wrote:
>> netmeeting?
> 
> ah yes of course Mike, thanks very much.
> why didn't I think of that? 
> 
> 
'Cos it doesn't come with vista? and isn't supposed to run under vista 
home either, apparently. AIUI there is a workaround though (flag the 
entire nm install package as NT4 compatibility mode and then install). 
I'm almost sure I saw something compatible called gnomemeeting, although 
I assume this is only for linux.

Why is it that the h.323 design committee didn't seem to have a half 
clue about firewalls?

In article <74CMk.39897$KL7.3041@newsfe08.ams2>,
Mike Scott   wrote:
>tg wrote:
>> "Mike Scott"  wrote in 
>> message news:wMhMk.173898$ix.60833@newsfe10.ams2...
>>> tg wrote:
>>> netmeeting?
>> 
>> ah yes of course Mike, thanks very much.
>> why didn't I think of that? 
>> 
>> 
>'Cos it doesn't come with vista? and isn't supposed to run under vista 
>home either, apparently. AIUI there is a workaround though (flag the 
>entire nm install package as NT4 compatibility mode and then install). 
>I'm almost sure I saw something compatible called gnomemeeting, although 
>I assume this is only for linux.
>
>Why is it that the h.323 design committee didn't seem to have a half 
>clue about firewalls?

That & SIP probably designed before NAT was popular... )-:

Gordon

Gordon Henderson wrote:

> That & SIP probably designed before NAT was popular... )-:

NAT may be commonplace, but it's rarely popular.

On Sat, 25 Oct 2008 13:47:03 +0100
Andy Burns  wrote:

> Gordon Henderson wrote:
> 
> > That & SIP probably designed before NAT was popular... )-:
> 
> NAT may be commonplace, but it's rarely popular.
> 
Why do you say that?

Rob Morley wrote:

> On Sat, 25 Oct 2008 13:47:03 +0100
> Andy Burns  wrote:
> 
>> NAT may be commonplace, but it's rarely popular.
>>
> Why do you say that?

Because it strangles various higher level protocols, and I don't accept 
claims that NAT's difficulties with inbound connections make it a 
substitute for a firewall.

The amount of time and frustration generated by NAT, I wish we would 
just bite the bullet and start using IPv6 for real.

On Fri, 24 Oct 2008 10:57:01 +0100, "tg" 
wrote:

>I'm looking for advice about what software packages are available for 
>voice-and-video communications over a private lan. The thing about msn 
>and skype is they're good but they use the internet - you have to log in 
>to an external WAN serverand I wanted the same type of thing but 
>completely contained within my own LAN. Is there any software for this?

VLC is a good playout tool that can also act as a server.
www.videolan.org

note it understands IP point to point and multicast.

>I'd also appreciate tips on hardware devices that might do the same 
>thing. I have a cisco router and I know about cisco voip phones but they 
>don't do video. Thanks for any pointers. 
>

some cisco phones do video conferencing - 7985?

but they are optimised around using a soft PBX for control - the cisco
version would be call manager on a server or the version that runs
under IOS on a router - a bit expensive for home use :)
-- 
Regards

stephen_hope@xyzworld.com - replace xyz with ntl

Andy Burns  wrote in <StOdnezvff-9vJ7UnZ2dneKdnZzinZ2d@posted.plusnet>:
> Rob Morley wrote:
> > On Sat, 25 Oct 2008 13:47:03 +0100
> > Andy Burns  wrote:
> >> NAT may be commonplace, but it's rarely popular.
> > Why do you say that?

> Because it strangles various higher level protocols, and I don't accept 
> claims that NAT's difficulties with inbound connections make it a 
> substitute for a firewall.

> The amount of time and frustration generated by NAT, I wish we would 
> just bite the bullet and start using IPv6 for real.

Yes. Especially protocols like SIP show the problems with NAT. It bit me a
few times the last week in building SIP tests. It finally stopped when I
just used all SIP stuff on the same LAN.

IPv6 will need more firewalls. All the processing capacity now used for NAT
tables masquearding as 'firewall' can be used.

                                                Koos

-- 
Koos van den Hout,           PGP keyid DSS/1024 0xF0D7C263 via keyservers
koos@kzdoos.xs4all.nl        or RSA/1024 0xCA845CB5                        -?)
                                Visit the site about books with reviews    /\\
http://idefix.net/~koos/                http://www.virtualbookcase.com/   _\_V

On 24 Oct, 17:57, "tg"  wrote:
> I'm looking for advice about what software packages are available for
> voice-and-video communications over a private lan. The thing about msn
> and skype is they're good but they use the internet - you have to log in
> to an external WAN serverand I wanted the same type of thing but
> completely contained within my own LAN. Is there any software for this?
> I'd also appreciate tips on hardware devices that might do the same
> thing. I have a cisco router and I know about cisco voip phones but they
> don't do video. Thanks for any pointers.

If your computers are windows system (not linux, unix,xBSD...), I
would like to suggest below solution:

Use miniSipServer as SIP server and use Xlite as clients. It is very
easy to establish VOIP environment in windows platform with them.

You can get miniSipServer from http://www.myvoipapp.com and get Xlite
from http://www.counterpath.com

good luck.

"Hongtian"  wrote in message 
news:3eeca9b6-14c8-4ec5-903a-c04201214dd7@w1g2000prk.googlegroups.com...
> On 24 Oct, 17:57, "tg"  wrote:

> If your computers are windows system (not linux, unix,xBSD...), I
> would like to suggest below solution:
>
> Use miniSipServer as SIP server and use Xlite as clients. It is very
> easy to establish VOIP environment in windows platform with them.
>
> You can get miniSipServer from http://www.myvoipapp.com and get Xlite
> from http://www.counterpath.com
>
ok thanks for your response hongtian.

"Stephen"  wrote in message 
news:mtb6g49kcam3cqivc6rm37vqtig8cc9jqf@4ax.com...
> On Fri, 24 Oct 2008 10:57:01 +0100, "tg" 
> wrote:
>
>>I'm looking for advice about what software packages are available for
>>voice-and-video communications over a private lan. The thing about msn
>>and skype is they're good but they use the internet - you have to log 
>>in
>>to an external WAN serverand I wanted the same type of thing but
>>completely contained within my own LAN. Is there any software for 
>>this?
>
> VLC is a good playout tool that can also act as a server.
> www.videolan.org

thanks for your response Stephen, I have VLC and I toook a look at it 
but I'm confused as to how it does voice and video comms over LAN.