[Ekiga-list] Using ekiga 3 in "real life"

[Lionel Dricot <zeploum gmail com>]

Hello Ekiga users,

Next week, my girlfriend will take off for a 6 months Erasmus and I want to stay in touch with her so I'm trying to configure Ekiga. She's using Ubuntu and I have two choices :
- Using Ekiga 2 from Ubuntu repositories
- Using Ekiga 3 from the sevmek PPA
We both have an ekiga.net account.

I've two webcams that she can use :
- a Trust WB-3400T ( SN9C1xx PC camera under Ekiga 2 )  = "big webcam"
- another smaller Trust which is marked as CIF Single Chip in ekiga 2 = "small webcam"

For the network, I can configure my router so my IP is in the DMZ but it's out of question that my girlfriend do the same. I have no idea on what type of connection she will have there.



I've done several tests and :

Webcams :
- big webcam driver is a bit buggy under every applications : very slow framerate (but it has nothing to do with Ekiga)
- Ekiga 3 cannot detect "small webcam" which is working perfectly under Ekiga 2. On my laptop, Ekiga 3 says that the webcam driver doesn't support "the color profile". On my girlfriend's laptop, it says that "it cannot open SN9C1xx PC" (it seems that it still thinks he's using "big webcam"). small webcam is working perfectly with Ekiga 2, Cheese and every Gstreamer application. but it's not working at all with ekiga 3 on both PC.


Network :
- Most of the time, both Ekiga 2 and 3 refuses to connect to ekiga.net. It says that the connection has failed. Sometimes it works but I cannot find any logic behind that. Is there any problem with the service ?  It seems to have nothing to do with DMZ or open port. It just cannot connect most of the time. (and thus, I'm unable to call 500 ekiga net)
- Ekiga 3 always displays a warning about being unable to configure my network. Even if I'm in DMZ. If my girlfriend is not able to open port on his connection there, is there any chance we can use Ekiga at all ? Is ekiga restricted to users who are geek enough to be able to open ports on a router ?

Ekiga 3 :
- Except the contact list (which is handy, I like it), is there any advantage to use Ekiga 3 over Ekiga 2 ? We can live without a contact list (because we will always call each other, no one else) and the quality is not really an issue as, anyway, the bandwith is the bottleneck in my home connection.


So, what are you advices in order to be able to communicate between each other ?


Thanks a lot and, for those who will be there, see you at FOSDEM :-)

Lionel