Ultra hot and getting hotter! New FREE P2P IM and telephony app from the makers of Kazaa!

[antmanbee]

Skype requires Broadband Internet connection. Looks like it would be good. Too bad I am on Dialup.
I also used Dialpad when I lived overseas. It was great because of the ability to dial a regular phone from my computer.
Voice quality was Ok.
I still use VoxPhone. Small program with a superior voice compression. Much better than Dialpad with the exception that you can not dial a regular phone. Also the online user list is not available anymore so I use icq and send my ip address to others so they can call.

 

[mannydx]

The totally bomb one balk in the day was TALKFREE. You could set it to call you on your home number and then it would call whoever you told it to. With a cable modem, you can have your comp auto refresh the time to go up to one hour free.

 

[ShinSa]

This software is nothing new.

MSN messenger and AIM allows voice to voice conversations already.

Down goes the new IM proggie.

What I was looking for was a pc to phone connection, blah~

 

[badluck]

This software is nothing new.

MSN messenger and AIM allows voice to voice conversations already.

Down goes the new IM proggie.

What I was looking for was a pc to phone connection, blah~

Really? I can't believe this!! *sigh*

MSN and AIM's quality sucks....this sounds better than my home telephone....especially when calling overseas.....

 

[JeffMD]

hmm, ok, first.. how the hell can this be peer to peer? Kazaa allowed the abilitie of peoples directories to be spread from peer to peer, but file transfer was a direct connection. This works well in p2p because it was a browsing oriented network. everyone passed around eachother list of files.

how ever a netphone network has no such need. Sure you could spread around a "phone book" kazaa style, but who cares? you gona go through and call some random person? no way, its only use will be to those people who allready know the IP of the person they wan't to call to. From that point on P2P ceases and it all becomes a direct connection.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: mscdex0

Originally posted by: straubs

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

But a decentralized IM infrastructure, will mean that AOL and MS won't be able to cut you off rom talking to your friends online.

Perhaps you haven't heard of Jabber?

Or Trillian?

I've heard of both, I thought that Jabber was a open-source IM client (Trillian is not open-source), but both still tied into the MS and AOL IM networks (thus using their servers).

I was unaware that either one had stand-alone P2P IM network capabilities, outside of MS/AOL/ICQ/IRC, etc. Is that now true?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: ShinSa
This software is nothing new.

MSN messenger and AIM allows voice to voice conversations already.

Yes, but over a decentralized P2P network? Nope. No-one has done that, until now.

Originally posted by: ShinSa
Down goes the new IM proggie.

What I was looking for was a pc to phone connection, blah~

I'm sorry that it's not to your liking. This program is NOT (exactly) a replacement for PC-to-phone services like Dialpad, at least not yet. Perhaps soon, as they do mention that as a future possibility.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: JeffMD
hmm, ok, first.. how the hell can this be peer to peer? Kazaa allowed the abilitie of peoples directories to be spread from peer to peer, but file transfer was a direct connection. This works well in p2p because it was a browsing oriented network. everyone passed around eachother list of files.

how ever a netphone network has no such need. Sure you could spread around a "phone book" kazaa style, but who cares? you gona go through and call some random person? no way, its only use will be to those people who allready know the IP of the person they wan't to call to. From that point on P2P ceases and it all becomes a direct connection.

I think that you are making a lot of assumptions on how the networ is actually implemented. I don't actually know. However, the way that you describe, does not totally make sense, for what they are trying to do, both now and eventually in the future. I forsee them using people's computers that have both a broadband and a telco phone connection, to act as local gateways from the internet into the POTS network. Assuming that this is technically possible, then they will probably do this. Another thing would be multi-way party calls, that may require additional nodes to act as repeaters/reflectors. Another issue is NAT. Machines that are both behind NAT gateways/routers, cannot initiate a direct connection between each other, at least not without help. This is a common problem with P2P applications, that they (Skype) claim to have solved, without any specific configuration on the part of the end-users at the endpoint nodes.

Here's a question for you though - how do you find out the IP address of the person that you want to "call" online, given their "username" or "screen name"? The most common way is a lookaside table called a "directory". How are you going to maintain connection status and metadata (IP address, etc) for user identifiers, when a million people are using the network?

Either you have to pay for some pretty expensive and heavy-dutry centralized servers (what MS and AOL currently do), or you spread the load around on the network. That appears to be what Skype has done. I'm sure that they additionally use neighboring P2P nodes to get around the "NAT problem" as well. So what you think isn't in any way new, nor "a big deal", is probably the wrong observation.

(This all coming from someone who has also been designing some P2P systems similar to these, though not yet implemented enough to test yet. This technology is fascinating to me.)

 

[sunilJM]

awesome qaulity even for international calls!!!

just as good, if not better, than using a phone card with a land line.

blows yahoo, msn, and aol voice qaulity out of the water!


thank you OP!

 

[mcveigh]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

Originally posted by: mscdex0

Originally posted by: straubs

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

But a decentralized IM infrastructure, will mean that AOL and MS won't be able to cut you off rom talking to your friends online.

Perhaps you haven't heard of Jabber?

Or Trillian?

I've heard of both, I thought that Jabber was a open-source IM client (Trillian is not open-source), but both still tied into the MS and AOL IM networks (thus using their servers).

I was unaware that either one had stand-alone P2P IM network capabilities, outside of MS/AOL/ICQ/IRC, etc. Is that now true?

Jabber is a server first. it has dozens of clients for almost any platform.

as a matter of fact I installed the jabber server lsat week for a small real estate office that wanted their own private IM network.

very easy to setup.

 

[FPSguy]

There was a version of MSN Messenger that implemented free PC-to-phone calling. I used it a few times but didn't like the slight lag. Is that feature still available (or can you use it if you load the old version of MSN Messenger)?

 

[BadThad]

I guarantee you it has spyware/adware...hell, it's FastTrack!

YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT INSTALLATION OF THE SKYPE SOFTWARE WILL ALLOW THIRD PARTIES WHO ARE NOT AFFILIATED WITH SKYPER THE ABILITY TO ACCESS YOUR COMPUTER ("OUTSIDE PARTIES"). YOU AGREE THAT SKYPER WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGE, CLAIM OR LOSS OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES AS STATED IN PARAGRAPH 9(a) ABOVE, RESULTING FROM ANY ACTIONS OR OMISSIONS OF THE OUTSIDE PARTIES."

Duh....says right there!

 

[GLazarides]

I've been looking for something like this, I'm going to give it a try.

EDIT...
I just have to remember to run Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy after I load it ... hopefully it'll still run after I remove any spyware.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: GLazarides
I've been looking for something like this, I'm going to give it a try.

EDIT...
I just have to remember to run Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy after I load it ... hopefully it'll still run after I remove any spyware.

Please let us all know if you find anything. I personally think it's probably ok, but that disclaimer in the license scares me. It may just be a legal CYA for bundled installations of the software, assuming that other 3rd-party apps and services can connect to your computer running the Skype client. I hope that's all it is.

For those that claim that they are the same people behind FastTrack, well, they are, sort of. They "invented" it, but they are NOT (AFAIK, they sold the stuff to avoid legal liability) the same people that distribute and operate it. I would therefore assume that the majority of expenses incurred, are on the current company that "runs" Kazaa, and thus bundles the spyware/adware with the installer. I could however be completely wrong about this, but that is what my current understanding is.

 

[KrAkEdUpAbE]

I did it!! installed the proggie, cause i am just so curious about new stuff, but mind you i am a crazy person, I scan nearly everyday for adware/spyware junk, after installing an fiddling with skype i scanned to see if there was anything "un-invited", it didnt seem so, but i am still not too comfy with the service agreement, they open a potential security hole then say its not our fault if someone gets in.... not my idea of a good service, but still a very cool idea;-)

 

[summerbreeze]

Any updates from people who downloaded and used this regarding security holes ?

Would running spybot after using the program work ?

I am interested in trying this out, but am a bit scared since i am no techie. (Scared about security holes)

 

[Tegeril]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

Originally posted by: GLazarides
I've been looking for something like this, I'm going to give it a try.

EDIT...
I just have to remember to run Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy after I load it ... hopefully it'll still run after I remove any spyware.

Please let us all know if you find anything. I personally think it's probably ok, but that disclaimer in the license scares me. It may just be a legal CYA for bundled installations of the software, assuming that other 3rd-party apps and services can connect to your computer running the Skype client. I hope that's all it is.

For those that claim that they are the same people behind FastTrack, well, they are, sort of. They "invented" it, but they are NOT (AFAIK, they sold the stuff to avoid legal liability) the same people that distribute and operate it. I would therefore assume that the majority of expenses incurred, are on the current company that "runs" Kazaa, and thus bundles the spyware/adware with the installer. I could however be completely wrong about this, but that is what my current understanding is.

Someone ought to install this while Norton Systemworks is actively monitoring the install for extraneous files...that's the BEST way to find out if it has installed anything because Ad-Aware and Spybot require updates to identify new spyware.