Re: [Ekiga-list] configuration

[John Hawley <johnhawley blueyonder co uk>]

Thanks for your suggestions, I believe you have grasped the essence of 
the problem but perhaps there are one or two other points I should clarify;

1. It is my understanding that virtually all fixed broadband lines in 
the UK are via one of two routes;

either

Attached to the cable TV network where much faster download rates are 
possible ( and I know that upload rates are at least 384k ) This option 
is not available locally as there is no local cable network.

or

Via standard copper telephone lines where the maximum achievable 
download rate is ~8meg. Unfortunately, effectively all of the copper 
network is owned by BT which once used to be the state monopoly 
telephone provider (been privatised ~20years) thus any ISP provider can 
only offer a service which includes and uses a BT telephone line ( and 
they think M$ is bad!) I have not gone into the subject exhaustively, 
but my friendly local BT network engineer ( well fishing buddy actually) 
tell me there's no real way of getting BT to modify the upload rates and 
in any event, they would prefer to sell you their own garbage videophone 
package and so have no commercial interest in upping speeds.

If I am wrong in the above assessment, please let me know as I would 
drop the monolithic BT for a better service at the first possible 
opportunity!


2. The hardware currently in use is

end 1. AMD 2.4gHz semperon + 512 meg ram + Philips webcam + win 2K pro 
sp4 (but can quickly add linux if deemed advantageous) However, whatever 
I do at this end, it must be suitable for use by a partially sighted 87 
year old with no knowledge of computers other than switch on and switch off.

end 2. Packard bell dual core Pentium 1.6 gHz laptop with 1 gig of ram 
and a built in Bison? webcam - this webcam is not recognised by Linux. 
OS = xp sp2 or Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon.


Thus for the moment anyway, webcam/video driver issues seem to dictate a 
windows environment although if making this system work correctly means 
the purchase of a couple of new webcams - so be it! My reluctance to buy 
"better" webcams is that the newer they are, the higher the resolution 
seems to be and the more bandwidth that is then required!



As for the mechanics of packet traffic through the internet, I must 
confess I've never really looked into it. If there is a way of forcing 
higher priority and share of available bandwidth, please point me to a 
site where I can read up on it.



As a final point, Ive just received an email from Damien on the subject 
of Ekiga 3.00 and I need to read this thoroughly and check out the 
repositories before doing anything drastic. But thanks once again for 
the suggestions I may well come back to you for more information


Regards John H