[svlug] international phone calls - links

[Greg Herlein]

> - i know that "non-techies" can do it...because i receive
>   long distance calls from them on my regular phone...
> 	and kinda entertaining when i got a few calls
> 	over the net when the tacoma area was hit with the
> 	earthquake few months back
> 
> so if they can do it... i/we think we should be able to do it too..
> ( though i hate MS windoze apps.. was hoping i can find a
> ( linux-based pc-to-realphone  app that does the trick

Absolutely.  Net2Phone, DialPad, deltathree, Go2Call...  and
Quicknet's MicroTelco (which is a least cost service that uses
ITSPs like the above but finds the best rate for you).  They all
have Win32 clients - sometimes java, most of the time custom
binaries.  They use proprietary protocols to authenticate you,
and sometimes proprietary protocols to carry the voice and
signalling.

The problem with a linux port is NOT technical - it's
business.  They won't open their protocols since that would
invite hacking calls for free - at least if you have to decrypt
and reverse engineer there is some barrier to hacking - but they
perceive that the benefits cost ratio of doing a linux port is
too low to justify the investment.

> - building a hop-off gateway in europe is probably not worth the
>   $$$ that i'd save from international calls...
> 	- though it might be.... 

Depends on where in Europe, I think.  :)

> - am hoping they build a hop-off gw for me... and i build
>   a hop-off for others... 
> 	- have enough servers floating around...

Just like the Free World Dialup, but Open Source?  Good idea.
Hard to deliver on though.  There are huge problems - not the
least of which are technical.

Greg