QuteCom

QuteCom

Developer(s)	MBDSYS
Initial release	June 25, 2005
Stable release	2.2.1  (June 22, 2011; 4 months ago (2011-06-22)[1]) [+/−]
Preview release	[+/−]
Written in	C/C++ Qt
Operating system	Cross-platform
Type	VoIP/Instant messaging Service
License	GNU General Public License
Website	trac.qutecom.org/

QuteCom (previously called WengoPhone) is a free software SIP compliant VoIP client developed by the QuteCom (previously OpenWengo) community under the GNU General Public License (GPL). It allows users to speak to other users of SIP compliant VoIP software at no cost. It also allows users to call landlines and cell phones, send SMS and make video calls. None of these functionalities are tied to a particular provider, allowing users to choose among any SIP provider.

History

Development on WengoPhone began in September 2004. The first published version was released as version 0.949^{[citation needed]}.

A next-generation version of WengoPhone (WengoPhone NG) began development in 2005. The last release of WengoPhone before the change to QuteCom was version 2.1.2.

A WengoPhone Firefox extension has also been published, which is currently available on Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows, with a Linux version under development.

On January, 28th, 2008, Wengo, the original sponsor of WengoPhone, transferred the sponsorship of the project to MBDSYS, and it became known as QuteCom^[2].

On May 15th, 2008, osAlliance presented kvats as a branded 2.2 version of WengoPhone/QuteCom with the preferred SIP provider A1, a brand of mobilkom Austria.

Calls

PC-to-PC calls are Hi-Fi quality and use several codecs such as iLBC, G.711 (PCMA or PCMU), G.722, AMR (license needed), AMR-WB (license needed), G.729 (license needed)^[3]. It is possible to start a conversation with other users of the same software or any other software that is SIP compliant such as Gizmo. QuteCom also allows users to make video calls using FFmpeg. Supported video codec is H.263^[3]. Since version 2.1, QuteCom allows IM chats with MSN, YIM, AIM, ICQ and XMPP users. This has been achieved by using the libpurple library^[4].

Concerning calls to landlines, the default server configuration is the one from Wengo which was the primary sponsor of the OpenWengo project. After the release of version 2.1, QuteCom could be used with any SIP provider. This provides users an economic advantage as they can choose the SIP provider according to how much they charge per minute and not according to the software they use.

Protocol

The protocol being used is standard SIP.

User interface

The GUI is similar to those of other VoIP softphones such as Gizmo5 or Skype. From the main GUI, one can access through tabs the contact list, the list of calls but also the user SIP account. Technically, it is written in Python and Qt/C++ programming languages.

Features

The features of QuteCom are:

• SIP compliance
• Provider agnostic
• Allows users to send SMS to France
• NAT traversal
• Cross-platform
• Audio smileys
• Qt-based GUI
• Chatting with MSN, AIM, ICQ, Yahoo and XMPP users
• Encryption via SRTP, but key exchange over Everbee key that is not a Standard

Limitations

The main limitations of the QuteCom are:

• Lack of true privacy features such as encryption. A beta AES-128 encryption using SRTP is available since 2.1 version of QuteCom.
• Does not support H.261 and sends wrong H.263 packets, preventing communication with other videophones^{[citation needed]}.
• Does not support audio conferences with more than three people^{[citation needed]}.
• Key Exchange for encryption is not a standard, so it works only between QuteCom clients.

See also

Free software portal

• Comparison of VoIP software
• Blink
• Ekiga
• Empathy (software)
• Jitsi
• Wengo SIP Service

External links

• QuteCom Website

References

1. ^ Announcement: QuteCom 2.2.1
2. ^ Wengo entrusts the OpenWengo project to its partner MBDSYS
3. ^ ^{a b} QuteCom Supported Codecs
4. ^ QuteCom Website