Some Skype Alternatives

Only available for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS.
VoxOx - What you get for free.
The calls you make using this app can be encrypted using the AES 128-bits encryption system, but must be enabled by users and their contacts.

ooVoo: Features List
ooVoo audio and video are not encrypted.
Only available for PC and Mac.

Logitech Vid is the fast, free and easy way to make a video call.

Jitsi: Features
Security features:
Encrypted password storage
Password protection with a master password
Encrypted Instant Messaging with Off-the-Record Messaging (OTR)
Call encryption with SRTP and ZRTP

 

I wish Skype offered these things. Everyone I know uses Skype so I can't really do much about it.

 

Skype is out. The recent MS purchase and MS's developing "new technology" to record and store everything, should be a red flag.

http://news.techworld.com/security/...rd-skype-calls-say-privacy-advocates/?olo=rss

Jitsi always looked great, but I could never figure out how to call an *IP Address* .vs a SIP number.

If anyone could figure that out, it looks perfect. (In Net Meeting, you could run Hamachi VPN and call your buddy at his 5.xxx.xxx.xxx address).

Relying on an intermediary is not ideal (I realize Hamachi may be considered that, but you can always run OpenVPN, NeoRouter, or Team Viewer in VPN mode...plus Jitsi will be a second layer of encryption).

NN

 

I though Skype did offer all of these things....encryption, video etc...

 

Oh wow. That's not very comforting.

 

I like Sipgate:

http://www.sipgate.co.uk/

http://www.sipgate.com/

http://www.sipgate.de/

 

$2 a month is pretty reasonable.

 

Anyone tried Brosix? http://www.brosix.com/

 

using jitsi and RedPhone (Android) here. Both work very well and give me encrypted VOIP and OTR.

 

When it comes to VoIP encryption choosing a paid-for product kind of defeats the point. You're entrusting that company with all your personal details if they were ever issued a court order.

Skype does offer "all those things" (though not that specific encryption method). The real scare here is that Skype owns all certificates which could be presented to law enforcement if requested for MITM. But Skype has always been like that.

 

True. You could buy a Skype card at Walmart and then only connect to Skype through a VPN. But of course if you did something bad, they could always look at the Walmart video to see who bought the card. Otherwise, I don't think anyone would ever look.

 

Nothing some sun glasses and face paint can't remedy.

 

Can Jitsi call an IP direct?

Thanks,

NN

 

Not AFAIK. but you could set up your own server to connect to. I use it through google talk, as everything is encrypted independently of the server I see no issue with this. RedPhone does direct calling and uses no server (from what I understand).

 

Thanks, if Jitsi would only do IP direct, it would be perfect. This can do it, but it's not encrypted, so you have to use it through a VPN...I use Hamachi

http://www.nch.com.au/talk/index.html

NN

 

You could set up your own SIP server and that would work. I just did so

 

I've got a WHS box, so I could do it. What one do you recommend?

P

 

I used asterix to setup a SIP PBX server and connect with jitsi. If I wanted to I could enforce ZRTP via asterix as well.

 

who the hell really who care about this stuff except for criminals, extremists and other radicals?

i'm not a big fan of Big Brother but surveillance is the price to pay in a society where everyone can learn how to make chemical/biological/nuclear weapons by using Google.

 

Sounds like a plan.

 

I care about privacy and free speech.

From one of my favorite radicals:

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety". Benjamin Franklin

 

right you are caspian.

but benjamin franklin did not have to live in a world where antrax and radio-active materials are available on the black market.
hell, you don't even need the black market to get anthrax, just Google it to get the 'recipe'.

the only thing i am concerned with this loss of privacy is political activism.
i certainly want activism and alternative points of view to be heard without being censored by Big Brother.

and of course, if you are concerned about industrial espionage those anti-surveillance measures are a must.
for me, industrial espionage and political activism are the only 2 areas that have a legitimate use for anti-surveillance measures.
there are probably others but those are the only ones i can think of atm.

for an average Joe like me, this privacy stuff is overkill.

 

I really don't want to turn this into a political treatise on the fundementals that this country was founded on, but the current terrorismnoia is pure BS fear marketing to make the gov and private companies, rich. You have a better chance of being killed by your ladder. We kill 50,000 of each other, every year in homicides. Cars, Cancer...jeez. Don't fall for it.

NN

 

I would agree but I have personally had calls "cut" mid sentence when the other end was in china. So I think it's perfectly normal not to want skype but something secure and private

 

right,

Big Brother is working overtime over there in China.
that is one kind of situation i had overlooked where secure communication is obviously useful.