Adventures in Linux: Ekiga 0

Earlier tonight, I made my first PC to Phone call using Ekiga, calling a phone number in another state.

I initially started playing with it because I’ve volunteered to help out these people (the application is still pending) and they wanted to call me on Ekiga to discuss it.

It took me several days to set it up, leaning how it interacted with ALSA, opening the requisite ports in my firewall, making sure I had a headset compatible with my computer, and setting up a PC to Phone account with these people, but now all I have to do is slap on the headset and clickity click.

PC to PC calls are, natch, a piece of cake, and no charge.

I’ve been trying to get the Windows version working too, so I can share it with Windows users, but, so far, that software seems to live up the the “beta” in its file name. I have gotten it almost working, so I guess that’s progress.

It’s going to be a great fallback when I run low on cellphone minutes–$0.019 per minute to make US calls–and wonderful when calling others using free VoIP for computer to computer calls.

And the person I called said that this free open source doesn’t cost a dime computer program sounded better than my $200 cell phone.