IP Telephony
Note: The information on this page is focused on personal/small group video conferencing as one might use between collaborators or for interviewing applicants (or when one is an applicant for a position elsewhere). The department also has an accessgrid based video conferencing room which is primarily used for the taught course centre but can in special circumstances be used for other purposes.
IP telephony allows you to make phone calls between two computers, from a computer to an ordinary phone or between other IP telephony devices. When calling between two computers the call costs are typically much lower (or free) than an equivalent regular phone call.
To use IP telephony software your PC needs to have speakers/headphones and a microphone.
Checking your speaker and microphone levels are set appropriately
A common initial mistake is to forget to set the input and output volumes to none zero. On a linux desktop PC you can run a mixer application, e.g. aumix to display and check the levels. Check the Volume and Microphone (or sometimes IGain) values are none zero and than the Recording device is set to be the microphone.
IP Telephony Clients
Skype
skype is probably the best known IP Telephony system. Using skype you can make calls to other skype users.
The university no longer requires specific configuration settings for the use of skype.
Registering for a skype username and password
The first time you start skype you need to create an account with skype by picking a skype username and password. Once registered you can use this username and password to log in to skype from any computer with skype installed.
Testing your skype connection
Having started the skype application and logged in you can make a test call by calling echo123. Skype will connect to its echo robot and you should hear the robot tell you to record a 10 second message after the tone. Having recorded a 10 second message the robot then plays it back to you before giving you final information and disconnecting.
If you heard the robot then your speakers/headphones are working correctly. If you heard your recorded message played back to you then your microphone is working. If one or both of these are not working check they are plugged into the correct sockets. Many PCs have speaker/microphone sockets on the front of the case but these do not always work in which case try connecting via the sockets on the rear. Also check the skype Sound Device Options to confirm the correct sound input device is selected (e.g. you may have a USB webcam with built in microphone but it is defaulting to the noraml audio input sockets on the PC, change to the USB mic and things should work).
You are now ready to make a real call.
Ekiga
ekiga is a SIP IP telephony system.
When you first run ekiga it offers to create a ekiga SIP account for you. You do not need this to use ekiga but it does provide you with a machine independant identity.
Testing your SIP connection
If you have an ekiga sip account you can test ekiga by calling the echo robot at sip:500 [-at-] ekiga [dot] net. If all is working correctly the robot will welcome you and tell you it is offering an echo test. The echo test basically means if you say something into the microphone you should hear it back on the speakers. This can also give you an idea of whether you might suffer any delay. If the volume levels are not suitable check both the mixer settings (as discussed above) as well as the audio settings within ekiga.
Calling another user at another computer
To call another user at another machine who also has ekiga running enter the address sip:username [-at-] fully [dot] qualified [dot] hostname, e.g. sip:bloggs [-at-] fluffy-dragon [dot] maths [dot] ox [dot] ac [dot] uk. If the other user has a registered SIP address then you can call that instead (regardless of the machine they are sat at), e.g. sip:bloggs [-at-] ekiga [dot] net.