Re: [tlug] Skype or Something Better?

[Benjamin Kowarsch <trijezdci@example.com>]

On 14 February 2017 at 07:52, Darren Cook <darren@example.com> wrote:

What are people using? Or what choices do you not recommend? I mainly
use Skype for 1-on-1 calls, sometimes video, often just audio.
Screen-sharing is nice to have every now and again. I don't need much
else, so if that got me in the free tier of a service it is a bonus :-)

I have used a fair number of p2p voice/video platforms and found the most reliable to be Google Voice, both using the browser plugin from within the Gmail web client (desktop) and using the Hangouts app (phone/tablet).
 

(I would add encrypted connections, and real peer-to-peer, but I'm not
sure that can work if both ends are on a private IP on their respective
LANs??)

You can use pfSense as your internet access router and put FreeSwitch on that, there is an install and setup procedure for this within the pfSense GUI. If you have this on both ends, you can do edge-to-edge IPsec.

[SIP-client] --LAN-- [FreeSwitch/pfSense] --IPsec/WAN-- [FreeSwitch/pfSense] --LAN-- [Sip-client]

In addition to being vastly more secure, this is also far more reliable and of superior quality than any free cloud service could ever give you. The downside is that you will frequently have to call people who do not have IPsec, nor a SIP client at their end, so you still have to be ready for Skype/Google/Whatsapp or whatever the other party is using.