How to make a home phone using VOIP?
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I want to make voice calls from my home computer using my internet connection. All the programs I've seen so far, appear to be designed for chat, or for use with a mobile phone, or they require both sides to communicate via their PCs. Two questions:
1.) What is a good program for voice from a PC. I don't need video. It would be nice if it could handle texting but that is not essential.
2.) How to solve any ISP privacy issues. I'm in the USA and I use Comcast. Can anyone recommend an alternative company/method.
I'm moving away from mobile phones gradually, and this would be a significant step for me.
Thank you.
Hi Pragmatist ;-)
One program i have wanted to try out is Mumble(in the repo)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumble_%28software%29
How ones get to converse privately person to person is something i can't tell you though.or creating a private chat room
Ideally the best would be to run you own Mumble server & your correspondents would only require a client.
I was unaware of Mumble -- I'll have to check it out.
Meanwhile, another VoIP client in the repo is Ekiga. Used through Ekiga.net it will only work with other Ekiga users, but it is also compatible with other commercial VoIP providers. Using it with a commercial VoIP provider will let you make and receive calls between your computer and actual phones...
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I will check out Ekiga, thanks.
Ultimately I am looking for a libre "Ooma" where I can hook up an actual phone and receive and send calls.
Comcast has some home phone option with a modem that has a jack for a phone. But, I am thinking about changing ISPs so that won't be a long-term solution.
Both Comcast and Ooma rely on hardware, so maybe that is necessary?
"where I can hook up an actual phone and receive and send calls."
So what you want is something called an Analog telephone adapter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_telephone_adapter and then use a program like Asterisk (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterisk_%28PBX%29) - which is in the Trisquel repo already, waiting to be installed - running on a computer somewhere for the phone to register with. Asterisk handles the voip and your voicemail and whatnot and ta da. Asterisk is rather powerful: It can register with an external voip provider or you could become your own and have your own voip system or whatever. Have fun.
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Outstanding! It will take me a while to figure it out, but I definitely want to try this. Thanks!
Indeed, and you could even get creative.
For example: Imagine hooking up a vintage telephone booth to an ATA adapter.
"This is a unique large, mid century American telephone booth with a wood body, glass sliding door, and a vent on top. When the door is closed, a light automatically turns on and there is a seat in front of the phone."
Sit down, place your call using voip.
And then of course imagine the reverse: The phone booth starts ringing when someone calls! ("Excuse me while I step into this phone booth to answer the call...")
Very retro but with modern coolness!
Jitsi has done me well for a few years. The repo version is buggy, but if you install the newest stable .deb it works fine.
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jitsi + ostel
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"Your friends need an ostel account too. To ensure your call security, ostel service cannot make calls to land lines or SIM card phone numbers on cellular networks."
It is something, but not a full solution. It is not practical for me to contact any person or business I may want to call and make sure they are set up with ostel first, before we can talk on the phone!
It looks useful if most of your friends and family have mobile phones, with data plans, who are willing to install the app, and sign up with ostel.
In my case, I already have some family and friends with flip phones without data plans, and some who use land line phones much more than their mobile phones.
The technology exists already. I could use Ooma, but I don't want to use non-free software. If only there were a Libre Ooma!
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Which is better for privacy when making calls from home:
1.) Mobile phone with Replicant.
2.) Landline phone with Verizon.
3.) VOIP phone with Comcast
My guess is that number 1 is at least as good as the others.
So ultimately my improvement in my phone use is that I will avoid non-free software and use Replicant instead. The surveillance is still an issue if I carry the mobile phone with me when I am away from home; But it will be a while before I will give up taking a mobile phone with me.
For privacy from Comcast in general, I can use Tor.
As always, I am interested to hear what people think about any of this. Since VOIP seems no more private than using a mobile phone at home, however, this thread can be closed from my point of view.