[clug] Webcams and SIP VoIP

[Tony and Robyn Lewis]

yq8sckj02 at sneakemail.com wrote:
> 2.  I'm looking for VoIP software that uses SIP.  Should also support videoconferencing. Extra points for security features but it's for personal use - PABX features not required.  I've looked at a few and Ekiga (http://www.ekiga.net) looks like the pick of the bunch so far. Has anyone tried this?  Any other recommendations?
>   

I've dabbled down this path, and I can't believe how much soft phones 
suck on Linux.  They're not much better on Windows and Mac either, IMO.

I was using ekiga on dapper for a while.  The major PITA was you had to 
bind the device to a specific interface.  So if you changed from wired 
to wireless to VPN, you have to edit your preferences and restart 
ekiga.  Who's idea was that?

The secondary PITA was it would start hogging CPU for no reason, and 
needed to be restarted.

Still, it was the FOSS pick of the bunch I found.

Another worth watching is Wengophone (wengo.com).  At the time I tried 
it, it was verrrry beta (unusable), but holds promise.  Maybe.

in non-FOSS, the Xten X-Lite (xten.com) worked well, but has a fairly 
quirky interface.  Lots of options, and is compiled for Linux, Windows 
and Mac  Scratching the memory banks, I think SJphone was a contender too.

Tony