MachineOfTheMonth: Audio conferencing with Linux

Aug 04, 2001, 20:30 (2 Talkback[s])
(Other stories by Glenn Mullikin)

[ Thanks to Glenn Mullikin for this link. ]

Here's a look at the other Nautilus project: an audio conferencing package that has versions available for both Linux and Windows. According to the author, it's easy to set up and operates either over the 'net or with a direct connection between two modems (for encrypted communications without the special phone):

"It worked on the first try. I was stunned. The quality was good. You can see some basic things happening when you run the program. You see what encoder it is running, LPC10 by default, which compresses alot but requires some horsepower from the cpu. You can see a cryptographic checksum that prints on your and your correspondent's screens to help prevent "man in the middle" attacks. The way to do that is simply to read off your key to each other and that would make things very difficult for an impostor.

At any rate, we can also see what the default encryption method is, BLOWFISH. Again, this is a great thing. On my two machines, I had no problems using the programs to communicate. Both the windows and linux clients run from a command line, using the same basic switches and options.

To initiate a call, you type nautilus -o -i ip-address where ip-address is your correspondent's ip address. To set up your machine in answer mode to take a call, simply type nautilus -a -i and when the call comes in, it all happens automatically. How much easier do you want it? With windows, you can look up the ip address using the winipcfg command at the dos prompt. With linux, I use the ipconfig command. So all you have to do beforehand is get your ip address to your friend or your friend gets his/her ip address to you."

Complete Story [8 pages, but plenty of content on each]

Related Stories:

• Linux Journal: The Linux Telephony Kernel API(Jan 21, 2001)
• NewsBytes: Net Talk Now Available For Linux Users(Jul 13, 2000)
• BW: Net Talk Opens the World of Internet Voice Communication to Linux Users(Jul 11, 2000)
• BW: Vovida Networks Announces Expanded Suite of VoIP Software Products(Sep 27, 1999)
• BW: World's First Linux-Based VoIP Communications System Demonstrated at LinuxWorld Expo(Aug 10, 1999)
• Quicknet Adds Linux Support to Internet Telephony Products(Apr 20, 1999)