Peer-to-Peer VOIP

Hi Guys,

I'm a bit new to VoIP and would like to setup a peer-to-peer system. I've got a couple of mates around the world (and two here in Australia) and would like to setup the PC to be able to receive and make calls to a VoIP phone via broadband. We all have cable/adsl which is always on through the use of a netgear router. Ideally i'd like to be able to plug my ip phone into my router and then my PC into the phone, so when someone calls me some software on my PC picks that up and forwards it to the phone. Maybe use something like email addresses or internet IP Addresses or even a domain name as the "phone number". I'd prefer not to have to setup a gateway server and have my friends call through that as i don't want to have to pay for bandwidth they use when they call and talk to each other!!!

It's basically just the next level up from using Netmeeting. I'd like the phone to ring and to use it like a normal phone. It doesn't need a connection to the PSTN network, as i only want it to be used for calling other friends with an IP Phone, eventually getting them all up and running!

Any suggestions or places to start looking?

Reply to
GiJO
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what you are looking for is SIP. Get a SIP client each; register with a SIP procy such as for example, Free World Dialup or iptel.org (or use your own SIP addresses, maybe in conjunction with some dyn dns serice) and make sure you do not have problems with a NAT device or firewall at either end, and you should be set.

There are also proprietary protocols like the one used by Skype.

Reply to
Georg Schwarz

yeah i saw Skype and they have phones you can plug in via USB, there is a mobile phone sized one which would be handy, means you can just plug it in anywhere and away you go. I'll look into SIP, don't know anything about it or what the three letters even mean! Thanks for the tips

Reply to
GiJO

just another thing, so if i got two IP phones, a SIP client (any recommendations?) and broadband at each end, then i can dial each phone based on IP address? or does it have to be a domain name? What do you mean by "own SIP address", what does that refer to? Both ends will probably have a firewall and NAT, so what ports would i need to open and forward (do i forward to the PC the SIP Client is running on or directly to the IP Phone?)

Reply to
GiJO

SIP supports both, with a DNS-based address being more flexible of course

it refers to the addressing scheme used by SIP (aka Session Initiation Protocol; an Internet standard); think of it like an "email address" for real-time communications.

SIP uses dynamic port allocation, so your NAT device and firewall must most likely explicitely support SIP (or you have to fiddle with some port ranges, which depend on your particular SIP client). If you are using a SIP phone, then that phone *is* the SIP client (just as a PC with an appropriate software for example).

Reply to
Georg Schwarz

awesome... thanks for the heads-up it makes more sense. So effectively a SIP phone is like a mini PC in itself, you can configure the internet gateway (router), and then enter in the ip address to call and you're talking over the net! I think there is a package for linux which can handle SIP, so i could install that and it would sort out all the port forwarding etc. I'm tipping SIP phones aren't cheap though.

Reply to
GiJO

Try

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thats what I have you can call each other with a number you choose to call another Nikotel.

Reply to
Carlos

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