Welcome to Linux Screw! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe our RSS feed.
There are two solutions to perform video conferencing between two completely different operating systems Linux and Windows: they are OpenWengo project and Ekiga.org. Both provide client software for Linux and Windows. OpenWengo project also offers client for Mac OS X.
OpenWengo is a community of enthusiasts and developers, creating free software products related to communication over IP. The flagship product of the OpenWengo project is a softphone which allows you to make free PC to PC video and voice calls, and to integrate all your IM contacts in one place.
Ekiga (formely known as GnomeMeeting) is an open source VoIP and video conferencing application for GNOME. Ekiga uses both the H.323 and SIP protocols. It supports many audio and video codecs, and is interoperable with other SIP compliant software and also with Microsoft NetMeeting. Ubuntu contains Ekiga by default.
I promise that I'll share my testings here when I achieve some positive results in video conferencing between Linux and Windows operating systems. You can subscribe our RSS feed to get informed first.
Any results, observations, notes, tips are welcome here.
Information Improvisation: These days audio video communications are key issues for better and affordable hosting facilities over the network, while using different operating systems at user ends. Courses like 642-414 provide such skills and knowledge to gain that advantage of voice over network. And if communication is through wireless than 642-587 certifications do it for you. Now, when means of communication ease up, pressure on ecommerce hosting servers has increased. Companies should hire services of strong technological partners like hostgator with careful selection of different suits of software.
Share This
Hi,
Here you'll find a list of SIP clients working with Ekiga:
http://wiki.ekiga.org/index.php/Which_programs_work_with_Ekiga_%3F
Warning: I'm not aware of a single SIP client running with Vista able to do video with Ekiga yet. With Vista, Microsoft just dropped the SIP support and promote their own closed protocol (Windows Live Messenger). This will probably improve at the time Ekiga 3.0 will be out (it will support numerous video codecs, including the excellent H.264).
Wengophone only works with wengophone for video due to bad implementation of the video codec (non-standard).
Regards,
Yannick
Hi, Yannick! Nice one!
Thank you for the link, mate. The problem is I have no access to any Window$ at the moment and can't proceed with any testings. Of course it’s possible to use VMware to emulate Windows but to get testings more clear I'd like to perform it with Linux and Windows which are physically at different computers
I hope to get something next week.
I wasn’t able to get a successful call happening on Vista, Windows Messenger (not Windows Live Messenger) on XP works with Ekiga on GNU/Linux. However, Windows Messenger is not available on Vista..anyone found a solution ?
Romadascoprire, if we're talking about video call, we didn't find any positive results yet unfortunately.
But testings are still in progress… 
Ekiga now has been ported to Windows, although the build is still in beta. I downloaded and installed Ekiga successfully to a Windows XP box and a PCLinuxOS machine. Ekiga passed all built in and ekiga.net provided tests on both computers. Both computers are on my wired home network. The computers successfully called and answered each other using both SIP and H323 protocols and maintained the connection. All good. Now the bad. Neither computer would display the other computers video, only the video of the owning computer. Neither computer would recieve audio. The mic VU meter on both computers indicated transmission but neither speaker VU meter indicated reception. So, contact was made, but communication was not successful. The Windows XP computer was behind a double firewall (computer & router) and the PCLinuxOS computer was behind a single firewall (router only). I hesitate to think this was the problem because both computers passed all the tests at ekiga.net which had to go through the firewalls. This is a great app with much promise and I'm gonna keep at it until somebody or me makes it work cross-platform. The worlds need for this capability is increasing logarithmically.
edit: Additionally, audio was not heard through the speakers of either headset.
Is it chat or commutication sevrice?