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I use Skype to video chat with my parents, but Skype video quality is very poor on my network. However, connecting directly to the other person's webcam works great.
I am looking for a P2P video chat application for Windows, that would work over WAN and connect directly to an IP address and port.
I can't find anything that does not route via a third-party server.
What should I choose?
ShacharWeis
Posted 2012-04-11T17:11:04.760
Reputation: 123
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Both H.323 and SIP can used for point-to-point connections, and there are many programs that support both protocols. But both these protocols require a lot more work to get reliably working through a firewall, or router doing network address translation.
As far as easy of use, Skype, Google Voice, and other IM-based clients tend to be much easier to get working, and are generally fine.
What makes you think Skype isn't point-to-point? Unless you have firewalls that are blocking things, the audio/video payloads should be going from point to point. Fire up wireshark and actually look. At least in my tests on a unfiltered connection the audio/video payload is point-to-point. Only some control stuff goes to the master.
Zoredache
Posted 2012-04-11T17:11:04.760
Reputation: 18 453
Thanks, I'm not sure why skype quality is so low. Running wireshark is a great idea. – ShacharWeis – 2012-04-12T13:09:11.940
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Ekiga can connect directly to the peer.
Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams
Posted 2012-04-11T17:11:04.760
Reputation: 100 516
what about web service? there is a lot flash based p2p video chats. – crea7or – 2012-04-11T18:07:13.637
What makes you think Skype isn't point to point? Unless you have firewalls that are blocking things, the audio/video payloads should be going from point to point. Fire up wireshark and actually look. – Zoredache – 2012-04-11T20:22:02.557