Kleene, Steven (kleenesj) wrote: > My employer is now having lots of audio/video conferences, some of which I > should at least listen to. Unfortunately, they are doing the conferences > with Cisco Webex. Webex uses an app that's not available for Debian Linux. > I've tried Webex's test site and have concluded that getting the full > audio/video conference is not an option. Mostly (so far) I don't need video > anyway. For audio only, Webex does let me call in to a toll telephone number > and enter an event code. That works. > > To avoid the phone charge, I can use a cellphone that has unlimited free > minutes. But I'd rather sit at my desktop. It seems VoIP should let me > connect to the toll number for free. There are many Linux VoIP programs, but > I haven't tried them yet. Do such programs require everyone at both ends to > be running the same program (as is done with Skype)? > > Can you recommend one or more VoIP programs that allow toll-free access? I'm > running Stretch with a simple window manager (fvwm), not Gnome or KDE.
VOIP is an interconnection protocol. In order to connect a VOIP device to the general telephone network, you need a gateway that is willing to do the conversion. The gateway will pay telephone tolls, so they are generally password-protected and charge you a fee. However, if WebEx has a public SIP interface, you can have any SIP VOIP program -- there are lots of them -- talk directly to that, without passing through a telephone gateway. A little googling shows me this page: https://help.webex.com/en-us/7yxpa9/Join-a-Webex-Meeting-from-a-Video-System and this one: https://help.webex.com/en-us/7ej8gq/Requirements-for-Business-to-Business-B2B-SIP-Calls-To-and-From-the-Cisco-Webex-Cloud which might be helpful. If you want to buy services from a telephone gateway service, they are generally quite cheap -- US 1 cent per minute is a reasonable price for outbound US calls in no particular volume. -dsr-
