Video Conferencing

Thomas Charron tcharron at ductape.net
Fri Aug 1 14:43:37 EDT 2003


> On Fri, 2003-08-01 at 10:25, Kevin D. Clark wrote:
>> I'd recommend checking out the stuff at http://www.openh323.org/ .
> A-HA! Thanks, Kevin. I was looking at their site, trying to figure out
> what was what. I'm going to download all of this stuff and see if I can
> get some of it to work.

  To make the long story short, H.323 is the standard that says 'this is
how it's all done'.  It's more then a protocol.  Basically, here's the
'short' version.

  Set up an H.323 Gatekeeper.  This software serves as kind of the
directory service for things like address books, etc.  When 'signing
in', you'd sign in to the gatekeeper.  When you wanted to make a call,
the client would send a message to the gatekeeper saying 'I wanna call
Ken', and the gatekeeper would 'set up' the call and provide the data to
both client so they could connect.

  Mess around with any H.323 compliant clients.  ANY client that is H.323
compliant, including netmeeting, will be able to use the above installed
gatekeeper.

  Now, TECHNICALLY the gatekeeper isnt REQUIRED, however.  I would STONGLY
advise to use one.  It makes administration and use MUCH easier, and
would allow controls to be put in place..

  A REALLY good 'What is H.323' can be found here: 
http://www.iec.org/online/tutorials/h323/index.html

  Note that H.323 isnt the only game out there.  SIP provides virtually
the same.  H.323 is much better in a smaller environment, while SIP is
more, hrm..  'Large User Base' driven.  However, the differences between
H.323 and SIP are more in how they figure out who to call, request
calls, setup things, etc..  In the end, call quality and the such is
much more dependant on the codec and protocol used to carry the call..




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