Cross-Platform Open-Source Video Calls and Remote Support = Jitsi
I have been looking around for quite some time now to find a decent solution for cross-platform video calls. Main focus is Windows and Linux (Debian/Ubuntu flavor). I cannot really remember what the problems were in detail but something always sucked. Either video did not work at all or the client did support video on Windows but did not on Linux and so on.
I finally gave up my requirment for the solution to be open-source and decided to give evil Skype a chance. At least they got bought by Microsoft so running Skype on a M$ OS would not get any worse. But then the Skype Beta didn't really work as expected either. A workaround is required for it to detect the webcam on Linux. But once you have that configured streaming to Linux is really nice but the stream from Linux to Windows is somewhat shitty.
While researching some more on the web I stumbled upon Jitsi (formerly SIP-Communicator) again. It is a Java program that I checked out before but as described above did not really get it to work. Something abouth the ICE connection not working properly. In fact the project has its own implementation called ICE4J. One funny thing is that it seems to work much better when used with a SIP (I use iptel.org) than with a Jabber account (XMPP and Jingle). In fact, I had to disable ICE and UPnP on the Jabber account to get it working and writing these lines I just dicovered that SIP accounts do not have these settings.
Anway, this time I was surprised to have it detect my webcam right away no workaround required. I quickly set it up on Windows and wow... cross-platform video calling with acceptable quality. Tested it through double NAT, UMTS connection and it always worked.
I can now call back home when on the road (Windows OS) and have cool video sessions with my family (running Xubuntu). Again, things get better and better and better...
Wait a minute, did I mention that Jitsi also supports screen sharing? Well, If you read my last post you probably recognized that I am trying to support my dad remotely. When I did this UVNC setup I did not really think about sitting at home in front of a Linux machine. Now guess what? Right, UVNC is Windows only. Although you might be able to use another VNC viewer on the Linux box you will have a hard time to get the crypto plug-in to work.
I will now test if Jitsi is capabale to replace the UVNC approach and will report back at this very location...
Further reading: ZRTP (RTP encryption)
Update: Right after writing this post I got myself a UVC compliant webcam because I was wondering why the stream was very good in the direction to Linux but the stream to Windows was not. What can I say... this is definitely a recommendation. Even Skype now works without the workaround. Btw I got myself a Logitech Webcam C210 for around 18€
About
Originally this site was intended as a project site. The goal was to define standards for the perimeterless network using
open-source software. To be honest I simply do not have the time for such a thing. So what is left is a blog with sporadic
posts that are either helpful for myself or I think are helpful for others, too since I had a hard time finding information
on the Internet. Think of it as a knowledge base.
Ehm yes, somtimes I write down my two cents on any topic that may go through my mind at that point in time ;-)