Ekiga

Ekiga is an open-source software program whose purpose is to help you make telephone calls over the Internet, hold video conferences, as well as chat with your friends using instant messaging features. It works with the H.323 and SIP protocols, as well as other SIP compliant utilities and Microsoft NetMeeting.

The application gives you the possibility to make some prior configuration settings with the aid of a wizard. You can enter your first name and surname, set up your SIP or H.323 accounts, pick the connection type (e.g. modem, LAN, DSL/Cable), configure audio parameters (choose the audio ringing device, input and output device), and select your video input device.

Ekiga sports a clean and intuitive layout that helps you easily change your status (‘Available,’ ‘Away,’ ‘Busy’), enter a custom message to your status, display images from your camera devices, show offline contacts, as well as switch between three view modes: contact list, dialpad and call history.

The utility helps you pick or hang up phone calls, hold or transfer calls, suspend the video or audio streams, choose between several view modes (local video, remote video, picture-in-picture, extended video roles), zoom in or out, and enable the full screen mode.

The IM environment where you can chat with your friends is kept simple and basic. You may send a few emoticons, alter the Unicode characters, cut, copy, paste or delete messages, work with a multi-tabbed layout, as well as turn on the bold, italic or underline mode.

Ekiga integrates an address book which keeps tracks of your call history. You may clear the entire list, call or send a message to the selected contact, as well as create an LDAP directory.

You may add a new contact by providing details about the name and SIP address. You may organize contacts with the aid of preset or custom groups (e.g. Assistant, Family, Friend). The account manager helps you configure all your accounts and enable, disable, edit or remove them.

Ekiga gives you the possibility to tweak several parameters in order to add your full name, keep windows displaying video streams on top of other panes, enable network detection, and set up call forwarding options, namely always forward calls to the given host and forward calls to the given host if no answer or busy.

What’s more, you can specify the timeout used for rejecting or forwarding incoming calls, automatically answer incoming calls, and play sound notifications upon different events (you may add custom WAV files from your computer).

Last but not least, you are allowed to configure audio parameters (pick the codecs, enable silence detection and echo cancellation) and video features (choose the codecs, adjust the picture quality and specify the maximum video bitrate).

All things considered, Ekiga provides an essential feature pack for carrying out softphone, video conference and IM-related tasks, and is suitable for rookies and professionals alike.