WengoPhone. A true alternative to Skype for Linux users?

[ramjet_1953]

Hi, Guys, I'm not sure how many people are aware of this, but it looks like a French company is positioning themselves to give Skype a run for their money.

The product is called WengoPhone and the new release is very slick and is identical for all OS's.

Unlike Skype's pathetic Linux version, WengoPhone is full featured and because they have made the sourcecode open source, many people are contributing.

It uses SIP and not a propriatary system, like Sykpe.

Also, video is enabled and seems to work OK.

Check it out:

http://www.openwengo.org/index.php/openwengo/public/homePage/openwengo/public/homePage

Regards,
Roger :cool:

[jmc1024]

It looks like calling landlines is available. I tried it once but it didn't work. I got a
"recording" in French that I could not understand. I'm sure I have to pay some
money up front but I don't see where I'm supposed to do that.
Mark

[ramjet_1953]

When you place a test call, it talks to you in English and French.

To buy credit, you just open WengoPhone up, click on the Wengo tab and open your account. There is an option when the browser window opens to go into the "Store".

It all worked fine for me.

Regards,
Roger

[tehkain]

As we all know, It is not an issue of client quality at the moment. Skype is the standard for voice on the internet. However we should promote jabber and SIP. They are far more capable and open. But like AIM and others we will most likley not be able to escape Skype. One thing that is worse with skype is that it is completely closed. Sadly we can't even use a custom client like we all do with AIM. Its a sad thing.

My hope is that GoogleTalk becomes popular. It seems that google is not pushing as much as they should be. Also they need to make it a phone alternative like skype. This is my hope. I rather have the lesser evil(google) and their open protocal before I skype any day.

Jabber and Sip all the way!

Jabbin! - A google talk capable voice client for linux, based off telepathy
http://www.jabbin.com/int/

Google Talk!
http://www.google.com/talk/

[Killtown]

Do any Linux alternatives have the public chat feature (http://www.skype.com/download/features/publicchats/) Skype has?

[ramjet_1953]

Google talk looks OK, but you can't make calls to landlines.

Calls to landlines is the killer feature that has made Skype so popular.

Now that WengoPhone is offering this feature and also a working video connection for peer to peer calls, it has the wood on Skype under Linux.

Regards,
Roger 8-)

[tehkain]

SIP can! Ekiga is a fine system.

[rajeev1204]

....


hello

Does jabbin enable the voice chat feature in gtalk ? In gaim we dont have voice .


SIP is unencrypted protocol unlike skype which is encrypted P2P protocol ( proprietary )

Also i dont think its a true alternative as the windows version of wengo looks better than the linux version

Also its buggy and crashes on 64 bit systems .

Google talk seems to be the superior option here as and when we get gaim to enable voice support for it

[Canuckelhead]

Can't imagine what the problem with Skype is ... I love it...

[Killtown]

Can't imagine what the problem with Skype is ... I love it...
public chat feature doesn't work on Ubuntu.

[awakatanka]

Its a alternative when its wide spread, it has some good futures but what can i do with it when others use skype, its hard to get them of it because it works and it works good. Cool thing about skype is that you can get gadgets like skype phones, it even works on some mobile phones with wifi.

[Obor]

Its a alternative when its wide spread, it has some good futures but what can i do with it when others use skype, its hard to get them of it because it works and it works good. Cool thing about skype is that you can get gadgets like skype phones, it even works on some mobile phones with wifi.
Exactly, I've tried Wengo last year and although it worked ok it was useless to me as all my friends and family use skype and have no reason to change.

For now I've settled for skype 1.4alpha which works great on my pc.

[Chemist]

I've just signed up for Gizmo, haven't had a chance to use it properly but it looks pretty neat. you can call landlines with it too

[loell]

i've never been a regular user of wengophone, simply because its QT, while i prefer GTK based.
and since Ekiga is installed by default, i choosed it over wengo... for a year now, i've used gizmo :)
it can call user landlines for free in many countries.

generally speaking all open voip apps is the alternative to closed network voip apps

( Yahoo voice / Windows live messenger / skype )


vs


( ekiga, wengophone, linphone, twinkle, gizmo[not gpl but open network] )

with regards to public chat, these open network apps can talk with each other seamlessly via a public conference numbers.

[rajeev1204]

Skype rocks ! Try the skype 1.4 alpha . Looks great .

[Extreme Coder]

As long as Skype on Linux doesn't have the same features Skype on Windows or Mac(like Video chatting, for example), then it's a no-no in my book.


Extreme Coder

[Ender Black]

Skype rocks ! Try the skype 1.4 alpha . Looks great .

Where are you finding the 1.4 Alpha? I can't find it on Skype.com... I'll probably end up with a slap to my forehead and a Homer Simpson-esque "D'oh" when you tell me.

[brian j]

https://developer.skype.com/LinuxSkype
:)

[jis]

Cool thing about skype is that you can get gadgets like skype phones, it even works on some mobile phones with wifi.

There could be SIP phones, right? Skype phones work with Skype only.

[gweaver]

I tried a Wengophone call for the first time last night and was very impressed with it. Much better call quality than GTalk.
For me it beats GTalk and Gizmo on sound quality and latency, and Skype on principle. I didn't bother persevering with Ekiga after I tried Wengophone.

In my experience the clients all work better on Windows than Linux (didn't try Ekiga on Windows), but with Wengophone the difference is small and apparently getting smaller. The project really seems to be taking off now.

I'm sure it will just be a matter of time before encryption for SIP calls becomes a reality.

[jis]

qweaver, which version of WengoPhone did you use last time?

[gweaver]

I used Wengophone 2.1.1 from http://www.openwengo.org/

There isn't a .deb package, so you have to run it the old-fashioned way. Hopefully newer versions will find their way into the repositories soon.

There are instructions here (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=486502) for anyone who is interested.

[jis]

I didn't bother persevering with Ekiga after I tried Wengophone.


I tried WengoPhone 2.1.1 and was not impressed with the sound quality (with my notebook's internal mic with mic boost), but was impressed by the fact that test call to 333 worked. I wouldn't throw Ekiga away now anyway,

[gweaver]

Maybe sound quality is related to the distance from the service provider?

I'll be making calls from the UK to Italy, so if geography has anything to do with it Wengo is in the right place!

Ekiga and Gizmo both connect to US networks, right? Maybe thats why I found Gizmo's sound quality to be poor?

Of course the only way to find out is to use WengoPhone or Ekiga with alternative service providers. Otherwise we won't know if its the provider, the geography or the software that affects quality.

[Depressed Man]

Just tried it out (latest version), though I don't think I have anyone to call with it lol. But anyone know how to add it to the menu and have it start with a command like wengo in terminal?

[Pekkalainen]

In the early versions Wengo was total crap for me. Then it got better and better for each version and now there are only like.. ehh.. 3 showstoppers left or so, maybe version 4.3 will be the first that is actually useable :lolflag:

[mips]

There could be SIP phones, right? Skype phones work with Skype only.

Yip and there are more SIP phones out there than skype phones. The market is just so much bigger. Most corporates that run VoIP use SIP protocol & devices.

[jis]

Depressed man, that's cool, you are saving bandwith. I have pretty much the same situation. The only one I can call to is number 333. Anyway, if you have many users for the computer, you might consider moving the wengo folder to /opt and creating a symbolic link to the launch script by "sudo ln -s [target] wengo" in /usr/bin.

[jis]

After changing audio settings in WengoPhone, the test call started to sound better.

[YannickDefais]

Hi,

You can try Ekiga with the wengo VoIP service as well:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Ekiga?highlight=%28ekiga%29#head-714b9ed65e7d4ab64d9daf158639410e7f17c29c

This way you can see which one is better: Ekiga or Wengophone.

Be aware video wont work between Ekiga and Wengophone. (codec/standard issue).

You can read the Ekiga documentation here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Ekiga

About encryption, this is a reality with twinkle, Ekiga will support it too for version 3.2.

Regards,
Yannick