Phone calls from laptop

[Rick Sewill]

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On 07/16/2010 01:13 AM, RAMAKISHOREBABU KOPPULA wrote:
> 
> 
> On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 11:54 PM, JD <jd1008 at gmail.com
> <mailto:jd1008 at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
>      On 07/15/2010 11:20 AM, Frank Murphy wrote:
>     > On 15/07/10 10:37, RAMAKISHOREBABU KOPPULA wrote:
>     >> My laptop has a internal modem and RJ-11 connector. I want to connect
>     >> the phone line to the laptop and by using head phones I want to make
>     >> calls. How to do this? Is there any software available to do this?
>     >>
>     >> Kishore
>     >>
>     > Maybe?
>     >
>     > yum install ekiga
>     >
>     > Upstream:
>     > http://www.ekiga.org/
>     >
>     >
>     That's not what the user wants.
>     He just wants an app that will use the regular standard phone line
>     to make person to person calls using the local telco service.
>     He is not asking for a VOIP solution.
> 
>     Ekiga (formerly called GnomeMeeting) is a VoIP and video conferencing
>     application for GNOME and Windows. ...
> 
> 
> Yes, you are correct.
> 
> Kishore
> 
>     --

Not quite what you what, but something interesting to look at.
The Fedoraproject is trying to use VoIP for communications.

Please see, http://talk.fedoraproject.org/

For VoIP software,
please see http://talk.fedoraproject.org/setup-local-system

twinkle, empathy, ekiga, are VoIP softphones.  They are tools.
They use the SIP VoIP protocol.

Ekiga used to be gnome-meeting, compatible with Microsoft Netmeeting,
running the H.323 protocol Microsoft Netmeeting used.  Ekiga supports
both the H.323 protocol and the SIP VoIP protocol.

In order to do what you want, if you wish to use a SIP softphone, you
would need an account with a provider, that works with SIP softphones,
who let's you make landline calls from your VoIP softphone.
You would configure your VoIP softphone to use that provider.

In the case of most SIP VoIP softphones, you can configure multiple
providers.  There will be multiple providers.  You will need to search
the Internet to comparison shop.

I have not tried empathy.  I tried ekiga and twinkle.
I had better luck with twinkle and currently have twinkle running with
accounts on talk.fedoraproject.org and sipphone.com.

There are a large number of VoIP SIP providers.  They come and go.
Each VoIP SIP provider can be thought of as an island of VoIP SIP users.

There is a community that is trying to join these islands together.
Please see URL, http://sipbroker.com/sipbroker/action/login
The list of VoIP SIP providers, that I have found, is
http://www.sipbroker.com/sipbroker/action/providerWhitePages
The list of PSTN access numbers, that I have found, is
http://www.sipbroker.com/sipbroker/action/pstnNumbers

I should mention what a PSTN access number is.  Some SIP providers have
PSTN access numbers.  People, who do not near their VoIP SIP softphones
can call these PSTN access numbers to get into the SIP provider's
network letting the person call a PC from a landline or mobile phone.

Please note what I said about each provider being an island.  The
provider may (or may not) let one use the provider's PSTN access number
to call a person's softphone in a different island.  Hopefully, they do,
but it is their service and they do what they wish.

I do not make landline calls so can't answer what provider I'd use for
landline calls.

People have mentioned Skype.  Skype can also be thought of as an island
of people who use Skype for VoIP.  Partly, skype defines a proprietary
protocol for doing VoIP over the Internet.  Skype's protocol is
proprietary, so we don't get to see what their protocol actually is.
Skype is more than just a proprietary protocol and software running on
your PC.  Skype is run by one company.  That company is your provider
and will make landline calls when you use Skype.  You will need to check
their prices for providing this service.

I tried running Skype to talk to other people who were using Skype, as a
communications tool, at a place where I worked.
I found it was better to install Skype on the Windows PC, they provided,
rather than install it on my Fedora Linux PC.  I had problems with Skype
on my Fedora Linux PC.  This was some years ago.  Hopefully, Skype works
better on Fedora Linux now.

Other notes: I had problems, using the VoIP SIP protocol, through
firewalls and behind NAT, in the past.  Hopefully, those problems have
been fixed.  Currently, I am not behind NAT, so I can't give an answer.

What I will say about Skype...when it works...it just works.  It is easy
to install.  It works around firewalls and NAT and everything.
Personally, I do not trust Skype.  It is proprietary.  It works very
hard to get around security mechanisms.

Given my current Internet configuration, I would become a Skype
supernode if I ran Skype on my Linux PC.  Couple that with the fact my
ISP is going the bandwidth CAP route, I would probably exceed my ISP's
bandwidth CAP and suffer the consequences.

Off the topic, I am in the process of trying to switch ISPs.
Hopefully, I will get higher bandwidth.  Hopefully, there will be no
talk of bandwidth CAPs.

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