Wengo Releases Flash Softphone For Web Pages 62
bolsh writes "Wengo, a French company specializing in VoIP and instant messaging, and patron of the OpenWengo project (previously featured in Free Software magazine and here on Slashdot), has just released WengoVisio — a Flash softphone that you can download and embed in your Web page, to allow readers to call you when you're available through their browser, without downloading any software. (Disclaimer: I work for Wengo, on the OpenWengo project.) It's functionally cut down from the full Wengophone, but it's enough to be able to make a phone call in a Web page for the first time."
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Wow, you're right. I read it as WengoVision. So. It's just audio then? Not a video phone? If it were a video phone, WengoVision might be a better name for it.
Wengo a Skype replacement? (Open Source, SIP) (Score:3, Interesting)
However, here is the question that is important for most Slashdot readers: Is WengoPhone a good replacement for Skype?. WengoPhone [wengophone.com] is open source and SIP compatible.
sounds cool (Score:4, Funny)
Sounds cool, but why did you name it after a Microsoft Office component?!
Links don't work! (Score:3, Informative)
"Offer 141 doesn't exist!"
Now that sucks big time! Not good PR if you are promoting your stuff.
Weird name & interoperability Q (Score:3, Insightful)
Also, can Wengo interoperate with Gizmo and/or iChat? If not, why not?
Re:Weird name & interoperability Q (Score:3, Interesting)
WengoPhone is an SIP based application that can be used with whatever SIP provider you want, as well as being able to interoperate with AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and Jabber (including Google Chat). Who you can talk to then depends on which SIP networks your SIP provider allows calls to. If you use Wengo as your provider, they only allow calls to other Wengo users. It is one of the more frustrating things about SIP - from a technical point-of-view there is little preven
Re:Weird name & interoperability Q (Score:2)
My question was more about SIP. If I have iChat (which is SIP-based) and my friend has Wengo (which is SIP-based), can we audio chat? What about Wengo and Gizmo? Or my home iChat client and work Sametime client?
I ask because I've never seen any SIP software described as interoperating with any other SIP software. Maybe I just need to try a bunch of this stuff and see for myself.
Re:Weird name & interoperability Q (Score:2)
Re:Weird name & interoperability Q (Score:2)
Can WengoPhone 2.0 be used with any SIP provider?
Not right now. However, it is the item with the highest priority on our todo list, apart from having a 2.0 release. So expect to see this feature implement right after the first NG release.
Re: interoperability Q (Score:1)
For my part, I'd love to see various platform providers collaborate on things like directory services and presence so that we could have any SIP user look for any other SIP user, regardless of platform.
And aside from VoIP, we want to be as inclusive as possible - IM in many proto
What's the purpose? (Score:1)
I can see one or two rare situations where this would be of use, but generally, uses are there for this type of technology?
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I can see one or two rare situations where this would be of use, but generally, uses are there for this type of technology?
This is an incredibly useful tool. It makes it easy for any company to easily allow its customers to contact the company directly via telephones. All while leveraging the exisiting telephony infrastructure. There are wide-ranging uses for this type of connectivity for corporate use. Many users do not want to download helper applications and being able to just click on a web page to make a phone call is extremely helpful for them. IRC and other techno-weenie tools may be useful for the slashdot crowd, but n
Re:What's the purpose? (Score:4, Insightful)
Honestly, I don't see a real use for this. If a company wants to leverage their telephony infrastructure, they can post their phone number in an easy to find location. If they want to cut down on costs, they can simply post a direct number and not a toll-free number (which cost extra).
Real phones have the advantage of not disconnecting if a user closes their browser window, their laptop suddenly goes into standby, Windows decides its time to reboot for updates, or Spyware decides to show 20 popup windows.
Cool idea, I just don't see much application for this.
Re:What's the purpose? (Score:4, Insightful)
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"Page the SysOp" (Score:1)
The sysop said it was lost to hard drive problems the night before, but the fact that I had dialed in and played my turns about 8 hours *after* the "crash" had me thinking that maybe, just maybe, the sysop was unhappy that I had an invincible class 5 citadel in each sector of a large dead end.
I'd only used my unspendably-large cash reserves for fighting the bad guys, too. Had I known he was a petty, arrogant j
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Re:What's the purpose? (Score:5, Interesting)
That was fine for me, I type quickly, and I'm at home with text (and I liked the ability to keep an exact record of the conversation). A lot of people, however, prefer to use voice for that kind of thing. Imagine putting a link on your support site saying 'click here to talk to a customer support representative,' and having it just work. You can route it to any SIP phone, or to a POTS line, and the customer doesn't have to know any of the technical details. If I were setting up support for a company these days, I would want to offer both solutions; text for those that don't have a microphone, voice for those that do.
My hosting company uses iChat for support; I can bing-bong them with quick queries, or have a full video or audio chat if that's more useful. Having the CEO and CTO on your Jabber roster, and the ability to bitch at them directly when things break, provides a certain level of confidence in a company that you rarely find these days.
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I don't see a huge use for it either. Plus I'd rather be the one initiating the call to cut down on prank calls. There's a lot of jerks on the net who'd I'm sure would love the opportunity to harass website owners, esp. of sites that they disagree with the content.
What would be neat is a way for a web surfer to talk to other
just a deeply disturbing concept... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Advertisers will love this (Score:5, Interesting)
Should attract a lot of impulse buyers.
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I can't count the number of times I've gone online & run into a wall while searching for information, or found what I was looking for, but called anyways in order to confirm.
The only downside I see to this is how do you navigate phone menus that don't accept voice commands? You know, "Press 1 for Customer Service" kinda stuff.
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Meanwhile VOIP requires a relatively modern computer, sound card, speakers, microphone, larger software footprint. Call quality can be horrible or downright unusable
No Software Download Pbbbt (Score:2)
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What are your experiences? Wengo links. (Score:4, Informative)
Does anyone have experience with Wengo? Skype is excellent, of course, but not open source and not compatible with standards.
Wengo Links:
Wengo French [wengo.fr]
Wengo English [wengo.com]
WengoPhone [wengophone.com]
OpenWengo [openwengo.org]
Wengo consulting [wdeal.com]. Sell your technical knowledge over the phone.
"Who is Wengo? [wengophone.com] People like you all over the world
and the team: 35 people in France keeping you in touch."
Wengo started in 2005. "Wengo is a subsidiary of the group neufcegetel."
Confusion: It is difficult to find their telephone service rates pages [wengophone.com]. The one linked is for the countries beginning with B.
Debian Wengo: Package: wengophone (2.0.0~rc5-svn8108-2) [debian.org] "SIP-based software telephone with video and chat features."
Observations: Their web site is confused. The site is incorrectly translated to English in some places.
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I got 2€ worth of time when signing up, and it's going to take me a while to spend it. The service is fine to
landlines, but I have been cut off during the few calls I've tried to mobile phones.
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I (using linux) have been looking for a way to do video calls with my family (using windows) with no success so far.
At some point I tried using wengo. It uses SIP so it is supposed to interoperate with other software running the same protocol (like ekiga which works on my computer). The linux version didn't work, could neither connect nor access my camera. The windows version didn't work; camera was working but could not connect. They advised in their forums
There is no shame in self-promotion. (Score:2)
Why I like OpenWengo (Score:3, Informative)
2. it's free software (yes, free as in speech or freedom)
Skype is neither free nor uses a free protocol, Gizmo Project is not free (at some point it had a big disclaimer when you installed it, something along the line of: "we don't guarantee that it doesn't contain a virus or that doesn't contain adware" -- No, thank you.
This is similar to Camfrog (Score:1)
This is similar to Camfrog Web [camfrog.com], except with Camfrog you can have multiple open chat windows and can carry on a convo in text while communicating via webcam and voice.
The downsides are last time I checked it came with a hefty price tag ($9000 for unlimited users) and operates exclusively on Windows servers.
I really hope this WengoVisio project produces something of similar quality. I've been seeking ways for my organization to communicate with its deaf clients, using sign language, over the web. There
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If they can sign, can't they type? I guess I don't understand why that or pen and paper are not realistic. I mean I think the idea for automatic translation of sign language is a really great (and frankly cool) idea, I just don't see how it'd be worth the increased cost over a pen and paper or typing in almost all situations.
Suuuuuuuuure.... Somehow, being able to sign gives you YEARS of keyboarding experience to quickly [in poor health/ill/rabid/blurred vision] type out your problem. Usin' that logic, since you're able to peck out a message on /., you've got the piano keyboard skills to play Für Elise with no training, right?
This is why my family and I haven't bothered to learn ASL or other variants. VERY few people sign, but darn near EVERYONE talks. We've invested our time more in learning to lip-read. It's not perfe
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The problem is that English is not a first language for many deaf folk, and ASL (American Sign Language) is a whole language in itself, complete with it's own syntax, structure, idioms, etc. So if you're in a medical emergency setting, pen and paper will likely be very inaccurate compared to an ASL interpreter.
It would be like trying to communicate, via pen and paper, with someone just off the boat. If you were a doctor or lawyer in an emergency situation you'd need a level of accuracy which incorrect E
It apparently does not work on LiveJournal... (Score:2)
ISR (Score:1, Offtopic)
Did anyone else read it as... (Score:3, Interesting)
I guess I need to have my eyes. Of course, the way people are addicted to Web Tech these days, I may be on to something - so to speak.
Too bad Wengo's dialer doesn't work (Score:2)
Which means it's not going to be useful to me. Pity.
No Go on MySpace (Score:1)
One word. . . (Score:1)
Not the first time it was done (Score:1)
Not true. FWD (FreeWorldDialup) had an activex implementation that allowed you to do the same. Here it is http://account.fwdnet.net/fwdtalk/ [fwdnet.net]
I have used it before and it works fine.
Another thing - this wengovisio looks suspiciously similar to meebo styling...
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oh, I'm not saying its the best way to do it, but nevertheless, it came first. Besides that, its free. Wengo might call itself free, but I was overwhelmed with the endless mumbo jumbo before I could sign up to try it out, and to top it al off I was asked for a credit card!! Skype doesn't ask for a credit card unless you want some pay services. Thats a part of why they're so big. Maybe weng
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>the widget is entrely free and easy to set-up (3 steps) and doesn't require any credit card.
>If you refer to the application (wengophone ), I understand from your comment that our account set-up process has to be improved & you're certainly right, BUT it only regards the wengophone (SIP client) and not the widget which is the inital topic here.
> Finally, you're only required to enter a credit card if you i/ buy credits (to call landli