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Re: undefined

#41

Post by pavel_lishin »

hawski wrote: post #37

I was wondering what to use for video calls with my father. He has a mobile core 2 duo machine (one of Dell's micro desktop PCs). Skype stopped working as stated in the title. I went with Facebook Messenger on Firefox, but video from his camera is very jerky. It looks like it hangs for a 1s every 1.5s. For me it's an indication of a performance problem - video is converted to a WebRTC friendly format and it's slow. I…

I want a dedicated hand-held that does video, and can lock the screen while maintaining video input and output.

I have a 16 month old kid; she has grandparents who are in various stages of decline, from "knees and back hurt a little" to "fairly advanced Alzheimers", and with various levels of computer expertise at the best of times.

I want to send each of them a tablet that someone configures once to be on wifi, and then just lets them receive calls from me, or the kid. I would also like this thing to be something sturdy enough I could just give to the kid so she can run around with it, and drool on it, without disconnecting the call until I unlock the device. (Grandparents aren't at the drooling stage yet, but at least one is likely to leave it outside in the rain.)

Does such a critter exist?

Re: undefined

#42

Post by pmlnr »

hawski wrote: post #37

I was wondering what to use for video calls with my father. He has a mobile core 2 duo machine (one of Dell's micro desktop PCs). Skype stopped working as stated in the title. I went with Facebook Messenger on Firefox, but video from his camera is very jerky. It looks like it hangs for a 1s every 1.5s. For me it's an indication of a performance problem - video is converted to a WebRTC friendly format and it's slow. I…

Thing you may want to try:

https://talky.io/ - needs Chrome or Chromium, fails to work under Firefox

https://about.riot.im/ - a Matrix client that looks fine

http://linphone.org/ - this is SIP based, so only if that is working on their network

However, I'm pretty much having the same problems, so I'd welcome suggestions myself.

Re: undefined

#43

Post by Mister_Snuggles »

izacus wrote: post #18
FussyZeus wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will never understand the idea in Microsoft that having UPnP running or being willing to open all kinds of jacked up ports is an acceptable user experience. UPnP is nice to have but it's difficult to find a router that has it, and even so, I've used Google Hangouts and Facetime over my network with zero issues, what makes Skype so star spangled awesome that it needs forwarded ports?

Huh, I've never seen a router (this includes ISP provided DOCSIS/DSL/FTTH units) without UPnP support. It seems very well supported?

I've recently switched to UniFi gear and the UniFi Controller does not provide a GUI option to enable UPnP. There's a thread[0] on the forums that asks for it, but it's only implemented in the beta version of the controller.

The UniFi Security Gateway supports UPnP just fine, but you have to enable it through the commandline (and have it blown away every time the controller reprovisions it) or add it to config.properties.json so that the controller will include it when provisioning.

Since neither option is easily discoverable, the USG essentially doesn't support it. You really have to know where to look to find it.

[0] https://community.ubnt.com/t5/UniFi-Routing-Switching-Featur...

Re: undefined

#44

Post by pmlnr »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #41
hawski wrote: post #37

I was wondering what to use for video calls with my father. He has a mobile core 2 duo machine (one of Dell's micro desktop PCs). Skype stopped working as stated in the title. I went with Facebook Messenger on Firefox, but video from his camera is very jerky. It looks like it hangs for a 1s every 1.5s. For me it's an indication of a performance problem - video is converted to a WebRTC friendly format and it's slow. I…

I want a dedicated hand-held that does video, and can lock the screen while maintaining video input and output. I have a 16 month old kid; she has grandparents who are in various stages of decline, from "knees and back hurt a little" to "fairly advanced Alzheimers", and with various levels of computer expertise at the best of times. I want to send each of them a tablet that someone configures once to be on wifi, and…

No, it does not, unless you stay in the Apple world, and use facetime.

Re: undefined

#45

Post by torrent-of-ions »

danirod wrote: post #11

As others are saying, the new Electron-based app is so bad on so many levels. Recently it has been failing to deliver incoming messages. They don't even appear, it just causes confusion to anyone trying to have a text conversation. Plus the lack of features that versions for other platforms have. At this point it's just better to use web.skype.com on a browser tab. I find that more reliable than the Electron client.…

That they can mess up even text chat is unbelievable. These are problems in networking that have been solved for decades. An undergraduate should be capable of writing a text chat program with 100% accuracy. This is pathetic.

Re: undefined

#46

Post by Mister_Snuggles »

will4274 wrote: post #17
FussyZeus wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will never understand the idea in Microsoft that having UPnP running or being willing to open all kinds of jacked up ports is an acceptable user experience. UPnP is nice to have but it's difficult to find a router that has it, and even so, I've used Google Hangouts and Facetime over my network with zero issues, what makes Skype so star spangled awesome that it needs forwarded ports?

Every router I've bought in the last decade has had UPnP, and I don't look for it. Citation needed on the "difficult to find"

The last router I bought (a UniFi Security Gateway) can do UPnP, but the (non-beta) UniFi Controller doesn't expose that option. You can enable it through the commandline on the router though.

I'd certainly call the option "difficult to find". ;)

Re: undefined

#47

Post by phalangion »

franciscop wrote: post #33
fao_ wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you need an alternative, the company I have been at for the last year uses Zoom, and it's been fantastic. I started using it for mentoring recently.

You mean for codementor? I've been asked people to use Hangouts since I had some trouble with zoom, but it might be my lack of experience with zoom/bad instructions.

I do find the Zoom has some weird defaults, like automatically taking over the full screen. They also hide the settings in the app, and it's not possible to get there from the call screen. But overall I've been pleased with Zoom.

Re: undefined

#48

Post by deelowe »

Microsoft is trying their best to kill Skype. And they will succeed if they keep walling it off like this. Windows isn't the center of the world anymore, they should be focusing on building a platform instead of a product.

Re: undefined

#49

Post by kirushik »

pmlnr wrote: post #42
hawski wrote: post #37

I was wondering what to use for video calls with my father. He has a mobile core 2 duo machine (one of Dell's micro desktop PCs). Skype stopped working as stated in the title. I went with Facebook Messenger on Firefox, but video from his camera is very jerky. It looks like it hangs for a 1s every 1.5s. For me it's an indication of a performance problem - video is converted to a WebRTC friendly format and it's slow. I…

Thing you may want to try: https://talky.io/ - needs Chrome or Chromium, fails to work under Firefox https://about.riot.im/ - a Matrix client that looks fine http://linphone.org/ - this is SIP based, so only if that is working on their network However, I'm pretty much having the same problems, so I'd welcome suggestions myself.

Also https://appear.in — works fine in Linux browsers (Chromium and Firefox are both OK, use them myself regularly).

Just create a room, share the link and you're all set.

Re: undefined

#50

Post by turbohedgehog »

danirod wrote: post #11

As others are saying, the new Electron-based app is so bad on so many levels. Recently it has been failing to deliver incoming messages. They don't even appear, it just causes confusion to anyone trying to have a text conversation. Plus the lack of features that versions for other platforms have. At this point it's just better to use web.skype.com on a browser tab. I find that more reliable than the Electron client.…

> * The classic, full version of Skype for Windows sometimes flips the order of a few messages, so that if you send two messages, the first one appears below the second one.

This is most likely due to one computer's time being out of sync then re-syncing

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