| openSUSE-Dokumentation Part II. Communication and Collaboration / Chapter 18. Using Voice over IP with Ekiga | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 17.4. Chatting | 18.2. The Ekiga User Interface |  | |
| openSUSE-Dokumentation Part II. Communication and Collaboration / Chapter 18. Using Voice over IP with Ekiga | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17.4. Chatting | 18.2. The Ekiga User Interface | | |
Contents
Abstract
Modern telecommunication means far more than just making a phone call. It is also about exchanging text messages and sometimes even video conferencing. Roaming enables you to be reachable under one phone number all across the world. Ekiga brings these features to your Linux desktop, allowing you to communicate over broadband Internet.
Before starting, make sure that the following requirements are met:
Your sound card is properly configured.
A headset or a microphone and speakers are attached to your computer.
For dialing in to regular phone networks, a SIP account is required. SIP (Signaling protocol for Internet Telephony) is the protocol used to establish sessions for audio and video conferencing or call forwarding. There are many VoIP providers all over the world. For a quick start, have a look at the service that the ekiga project provides at http://www.ekiga.net.
For video conferencing, a Web cam is connected to your computer.
On first start, Ekiga opens a configuration assistant that requests all data needed to configure your instance of Ekiga. To configure Ekiga, proceed as follows:
Enter your full name (name and surname).
Enter your ekiga.net account data or choose not to
sign up with ekiga.net.
To add other accounts later, configure them using +.
Determine your connection type.
Determine the type of firewall to use to enable you to make calls with Ekiga.
Choose the audio manager to use. Accept the default setting , as it guarantees the best sound quality and other sound systems, like OSS, are not available on openSUSE.
Choose the audio input and output devices and test your settings.
Accept the video manager selection, .
Choose the video input device and test your settings.
Check the summary of your settings and apply them.
If registration fails after you made changes to your configuration, just restart Ekiga.
Ekiga allows you to maintain multiple accounts. To configure an additional account, proceed as follows:
Open + and select .
Choose an .
Select an appropriate depending on the type of account you use. Normally, you would select here.
Enter the to which you want to register. This is usually an IP address or a host name that will be given to you by your Internet Telephony Service Provider. Enter , and according to the data provided by your provider.
Leave the configuration dialog with and activate the account. The status of your account displayed in the Ekiga main window changes to .
