| Author |
Message |
Colin Wilson
Guest
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 Posted:
Mon Oct 25, 2004 2:19 am Post subject:
Re: video link from hotel to home |
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| Quote: | £200 for a single room
|
Holy crap, it only cost us that much for a suite with a direct view over
Niagara Falls the other week !
This`ll give you an idea of the view we had - this was taken from the
room...
http://www.thescousehouse.biz/cmine/displayimage.php?album=7&pos=9
--
Please add "[newsgroup]" in the subject of any personal replies via email
--- My new email address has "ngspamtrap" & @btinternet.com in it ;-) --- |
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Suz
Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Oct 25, 2004 2:23 am Post subject:
Re: video link from hotel to home |
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"BB" <bbauerAtitude@freeshell.org> wrote in message
news:2u03juF21q5q7U1@uni-berlin.de...
| Quote: | On Sat, 23 Oct 2004 08:48:51 +0100, Suz wrote:
My hubby will be away from home for work until Xmas, and although home at
the weekend, the kids will miss him terribly. We had the bright idea of
video conferencing to help a bit.
There have been several answers to your questions, though you might not
realize they were in english. ;)
The point is that firewalls or routers are very common with broadband
connections. You may have one in your house. These typically allow you to
make outgoing connections, but not incoming connections.
These firewalls also typically allow a lot of systems to share one network
address, through a function called "NAT". It would be hard to imagine a
hotel with broadband not having a NAT, since they obviously could have a
lot of systems (and internet addresses usually cost money). So you can
assume his will.
If you can have YOUR system not behind a NAT, that will greatly increase
the chance that a call can at least be made in one direction. Voice &
video can be a little deceiving, because sometimes when you call another
system, the actual connection actually occurs in the other direction (from
the other system to you). So if he can't call you, try calling him.
Alternately, there is also software that's supposed to make MSN messsenger
work behind a NAT (http://www.easyfp.com/msn-messenger-directtalk/). It
might be worthwhile to just get it and use it; its not particularly
expensive and although they don't explain how it works, I suspect they use
a common method that works with almost all NATs (also used by Skype for
internet phone).
|
Thanks BB for the lack of geek speak. We had figured most of this but it
would've made a great first answer.
So now we have a list of 'tunnellers':
RealTunnel
Eyeball Chat
ENat for MSN Messenger 2.1
Suz |
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Tx2
Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Oct 25, 2004 2:34 am Post subject:
Re: video link from hotel to home |
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In article <MPG.1be63ae5724059b398a96b@news.individual.net>,
void@btinternet.com, a.k.a Colin Wilson says...
cute hound. |
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Julian Knight
Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Oct 25, 2004 12:07 pm Post subject:
Re: video link from hotel to home |
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From Suz on 23/Oct/2004 17:00:
| Quote: | "Owain" <owain41276@stirlingcity.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1098535245.31839.0@nnrp-t71-02.news.clara.net...
"Suz" wrote
| My hubby will be away from home for work until Xmas, and although
| home at the weekend, the kids will miss him terribly. We had
| the bright idea of video conferencing to help a bit.
| So, two questions:
| 1. Will a cheap cam do the job? eg
| http://www.dabs.com/uk/ProductView?quicklinx=2FJ9
| 2. More importantly, will the hotel's broadband connection by
| 'broad' enough? The hotels will be
| http://www.runnymedehotel.com/bedrooms/services.html and
| http://glasgow.radissonsas.com/
| Their claims may be unreliable.
The hotels' broadband connection will almost certainly be 'broad' enough
especially if you are using dial-up at home,
Owain Owain. Dial-up indeed. We have 1.5Mbps. :o)
or setting your
videoconferencing software to use a low speed even though you're both
using
broadband. However some forms of videoconferencing and instant messaging
may
be blocked by the hotel's firewalls or proxy servers.
This is the bit that will be the killer and we can't test it until it's too
late.
What might work well as an alternative is emailing short video clips back
and forth.
I can hack not seeing his lovely mug for 5 days but the weans are only 5, 4
and 1 and I doubt they'd be impressed with anything other than 'live' chat.
That also avoids the need for your husband to commit to ebing at
the computer at a certain time, which might be difficult depending on his
work arrangements.
This'll only be in the evenings, say 5:30 to 8:00 (bedtime)
Owain
Cheers for all the thoughts,
Suzanne
|
I would definitely recommend setting up Skype accounts on both PC's and testing
before leaving as Skype provides voice and instant messaging and works fine
through NAT firewalls (though you might get some delay on voice in extreme
cases). This makes it a nice fallback.
You should also set up and test MS Netmeeting (type "conf" into the Windows run
dialog box) which may be of use combined with the "get around" methods that
others have mentioned. At least you will know that it works. Netmeeting is a
nice tool and is mature and stable. It provides voice, video, whiteboard (the
kids can draw dad a picture!), shared apps and even remote desktop. I don't have
any experience with the MSN stuff I'm afraid so I don't know if it provides the
same features.
Basically, you want lots of options available as it is VERY likely that many of
them will not work and it is CERTAIN that the hotel will be unable to help (in
some hotels it can be hard to find staff that even know the broadband link exists!).
It would be great if you could report back after the event to let us know how
you all got on.
--
Julian Knight, http://www.knightnet.org.uk/
Sheffield, United Kingdom
Security, Directory, Messaging, Network & PC Consultant
Yahoo! IM=knighjm, Skype Internet Phone: callto://j.knight |
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Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Oct 25, 2004 2:22 pm Post subject:
Re: video link from hotel to home |
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|
In article <417c24d0$0$31211$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com>,
Suz <clear@off.com> wrote:
| Quote: | £200 for a single room and £15 per day for a broadband link. But we're not
paying for it, his company will.
Good to hear the hotel is nice. Any tips on the area?
|
200 pounds a night for a single?! As I was saying, horrendously
overpriced. But not your problem. If my company was willing to pay 36000
pounds for me to stay in Egham for 6 months I'd rent a flat in Egham,
furnish it, put in ADSL and still have about 20000 pounds left (and have a
few thousand pounds worth of nice furniture)!
The hotel has a spa attached and is on the Thames so has some nice outdoor
areas (not much use with the weather how it is at the moment).
Close by are Egham (closest town) which while historic (Magna Carta and
all) is a bit boring. It has some nice restaurants, some pubs, and
Iceland, Tesco and Woolworths and a few Chinese/Indian takeaways.
Also nearby are Staines (with its cinema multiplex and decent
high-street), Windsor & Eton (with its castle, good pubs/restaurants,
theatre and decent shopping, not to mention Legoland nearby).
London is about 35 minutes by train from Staines, which is a short taxi
ride from the hotel (Egham would be a shorter taxi but longer train, but
the connections at Staines are better).
Zane. |
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Guest
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Steve Blair
Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Oct 25, 2004 4:35 pm Post subject:
Re: video link from hotel to home |
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|
You could try ZoomCall Pro VideoPhone. I have not used it in the
same way you wish but I have used it. I have a Firewire camera
on Windows XP and it works fine. In my case only one endpoint
is behind a NAT box. I'm not sure how the product would work
if both endpoints are behind NAT, although that configuration
is supported.
Suz wrote:
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Jim Hatfield
Guest
|
| Posted:
Mon Oct 25, 2004 9:51 pm Post subject:
Re: video link from hotel to home |
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|
On Sat, 23 Oct 2004 22:22:44 GMT, abuse@wilson.st () wrote:
| Quote: | If this is the case then try out www.eyeballchat.com. It uses a cunning
technique which allows two endpoint, both being behind NATting firewalls
and even using RFC_1918 addresses, to communicate for text, video and
audio, as well as AIM, MSN and Yahoo instant messaging.
|
and pray the NAT implementation uses "UDP consistent translation".
and also, that UDP is allowed at all! After all the hotel may provide
their own DNS proxy and point you at that using their DHCP server.
Then they can block outgoing UDP at the NAT box.
--
Jim Hatfield |
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Suz
Guest
|
| Posted:
Tue Oct 26, 2004 12:35 am Post subject:
Re: video link from hotel to home |
|
|
"Julian Knight" <news003@[127.0.0.1]> wrote in message
news:417cb450$0$80702$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader03.plus.net...
| Quote: | From Suz on 23/Oct/2004 17:00:
"Owain" <owain41276@stirlingcity.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1098535245.31839.0@nnrp-t71-02.news.clara.net...
"Suz" wrote
| My hubby will be away from home for work until Xmas, and although
| home at the weekend, the kids will miss him terribly. We had
| the bright idea of video conferencing to help a bit.
| So, two questions:
| 1. Will a cheap cam do the job? eg
| http://www.dabs.com/uk/ProductView?quicklinx=2FJ9
| 2. More importantly, will the hotel's broadband connection by
| 'broad' enough? The hotels will be
| http://www.runnymedehotel.com/bedrooms/services.html and
| http://glasgow.radissonsas.com/
| Their claims may be unreliable.
The hotels' broadband connection will almost certainly be 'broad' enough
especially if you are using dial-up at home,
Owain Owain. Dial-up indeed. We have 1.5Mbps. :o)
or setting your
videoconferencing software to use a low speed even though you're both
using
broadband. However some forms of videoconferencing and instant messaging
may
be blocked by the hotel's firewalls or proxy servers.
This is the bit that will be the killer and we can't test it until it's
too late.
What might work well as an alternative is emailing short video clips back
and forth.
I can hack not seeing his lovely mug for 5 days but the weans are only 5,
4 and 1 and I doubt they'd be impressed with anything other than 'live'
chat.
That also avoids the need for your husband to commit to ebing at
the computer at a certain time, which might be difficult depending on his
work arrangements.
I would definitely recommend setting up Skype accounts on both PC's and
testing before leaving as Skype provides voice and instant messaging and
works fine through NAT firewalls (though you might get some delay on voice
in extreme cases). This makes it a nice fallback.
|
Why not just use the company mobile phone instead?
| Quote: | You should also set up and test MS Netmeeting (type "conf" into the
Windows run dialog box) which may be of use combined with the "get around"
methods that others have mentioned. At least you will know that it works.
Netmeeting is a nice tool and is mature and stable. It provides voice,
video, whiteboard (the kids can draw dad a picture!), shared apps and even
remote desktop. I don't have any experience with the MSN stuff I'm afraid
so I don't know if it provides the same features.
|
Done both of these smoothly in 3 seconds and used RealTunnel from a
neighbours. (We both have NATS). Feeling hopefully......
| Quote: | Basically, you want lots of options available as it is VERY likely that
many of them will not work and it is CERTAIN that the hotel will be unable
to help (in some hotels it can be hard to find staff that even know the
broadband link exists!).
|
Absolutely.
| Quote: | It would be great if you could report back after the event to let us know
how you all got on.
|
I certainly will. Six days from now we'll know.
Suz |
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Julian Knight
Guest
|
| Posted:
Tue Oct 26, 2004 6:41 pm Post subject:
Re: video link from hotel to home |
|
|
From Suz on 25/Oct/2004 21:35:
| Quote: | "Julian Knight" <news003@[127.0.0.1]> wrote in message
news:417cb450$0$80702$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader03.plus.net...
....
I would definitely recommend setting up Skype accounts on both PC's and
testing before leaving as Skype provides voice and instant messaging and
works fine through NAT firewalls (though you might get some delay on voice
in extreme cases). This makes it a nice fallback.
Why not just use the company mobile phone instead?
|
Doh! OK, fair cop. In my defence I had been thinking about my own requirements
for overseas work where the cost of extended conversations by mobile is
prohibitive and the boss starts getting nervous ticks when she sees the bill!
| Quote: |
You should also set up and test MS Netmeeting (type "conf" into the
Windows run dialog box) which may be of use combined with the "get around"
methods that others have mentioned. At least you will know that it works.
Netmeeting is a nice tool and is mature and stable. It provides voice,
video, whiteboard (the kids can draw dad a picture!), shared apps and even
remote desktop. I don't have any experience with the MSN stuff I'm afraid
so I don't know if it provides the same features.
Done both of these smoothly in 3 seconds and used RealTunnel from a
neighbours. (We both have NATS). Feeling hopefully......
|
Hopefully one of them will work!
| Quote: |
Basically, you want lots of options available as it is VERY likely that
many of them will not work and it is CERTAIN that the hotel will be unable
to help (in some hotels it can be hard to find staff that even know the
broadband link exists!).
Absolutely.
It would be great if you could report back after the event to let us know
how you all got on.
I certainly will. Six days from now we'll know.
|
Great, look forward to it.
In the mean time, I've spotted another possibility. This one uses SIP so is more
standard and "only" costs $4.95 pm or $50 pa (of course, you'd need two of
those) but it does have a 15 day trial. It is supposed to be firewall friendly
but I don't know much about it. It is called SightSpeed Video Messenger:
http://www.sightspeed.com/page.php?page=videomessenger
--
Julian Knight, http://www.knightnet.org.uk/
Sheffield, United Kingdom
Security, Directory, Messaging, Network & PC Consultant
Yahoo! IM=knighjm, Skype Internet Phone: callto://j.knight |
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Suz
Guest
|
| Posted:
Mon Nov 01, 2004 6:09 am Post subject:
Re: video link from hotel to home |
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|
Got connection with 'webcam' in Msn Messenger! :-)
Video but no sound so far. :-(
In our tests 'webcam' worked like this, but we could use 'video conference'
for sound and picture. Here 'video conference' doesn't give anything.
Will keep you posted.
Suzanne |
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Jeff Gaines
Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Nov 01, 2004 5:49 pm Post subject:
Re: video link from hotel to home |
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|
On 01/11/2004 Suz wrote:
| Quote: | Got connection with 'webcam' in Msn Messenger! :-)
Video but no sound so far. :-(
In our tests 'webcam' worked like this, but we could use 'video
conference' for sound and picture. Here 'video conference' doesn't
give anything.
Will keep you posted.
Suzanne
|
I remember the first video conference at work which was exactly like
this. The techies at the other end wrote instructions on a whiteboard
and pointed the camera at it, we followed the instructions then wrote
on our whiteboard and pointed the camera at that.
Great fun :-)
--
Jeff Gaines Damerham Hampshire UK |
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David Wood
Guest
|
| Posted:
Mon Nov 01, 2004 7:33 pm Post subject:
Re: video link from hotel to home |
|
|
In message <41858da5$0$24063$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com>, Suz
<clear@off.com> writes
| Quote: | Got connection with 'webcam' in Msn Messenger! :-)
Video but no sound so far. :-(
|
That was what I'd predicted elsewhere in the thread:
It seems that MSN video isn't a problem if uPnP is available and the
router allows uPnP to open ports in the firewall. Video uses TCP, and
MSN Messenger 6.2.0137 (which is certainly a recent version if not the
latest) correctly drives uPnP to control the firewall. The webcam works
from either end (I only have one webcam so I can't try both ends sending
video at once - though I don't foresee a problem with bidirectional
video.).
MSN audio is a problem, though - it uses UDP. Whilst uPnP appears
capable of opening UDP ports in the firewall, it seems that this isn't
done correctly by the version of MSN Messenger I tried.
I'm not wholly confident of that latter paragraph, as I haven't studied
the uPnP specs in detail - but that was my empirical conclusion.
Audio is much trickier to get to work. You may find the results differ
depending on which end invites the other to an audio conversation. If
you invite the hotel end, that may work better than the other way round.
David
--
David Wood
david@wood2.org.uk |
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Suz
Guest
|
| Posted:
Tue Nov 02, 2004 1:16 am Post subject:
Re: video link from hotel to home |
|
|
| Quote: | Got connection with 'webcam' in Msn Messenger! :-)
Video but no sound so far. :-(
In our tests 'webcam' worked like this, but we could use 'video
conference' for sound and picture. Here 'video conference' doesn't give
anything.
Will keep you posted.
Suzanne
|
Can't get Audio with MSN messenger, but have got good audio and video with
Yahoo Messenger.
Baby spotted hubby and started blowing kisses very cute - and well worth it
all. Talking to him before bed stopped tears for the other 2 as well. |
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David Wood
Guest
|
| Posted:
Tue Nov 02, 2004 8:58 pm Post subject:
Re: video link from hotel to home |
|
|
In message <4186999d$0$93766$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com>, Suz
<clear@off.com> writes
| Quote: | Got connection with 'webcam' in Msn Messenger! :-)
Video but no sound so far. :-(
In our tests 'webcam' worked like this, but we could use 'video
conference' for sound and picture. Here 'video conference' doesn't give
anything.
Will keep you posted.
Suzanne
Can't get Audio with MSN messenger, but have got good audio and video with
Yahoo Messenger.
Baby spotted hubby and started blowing kisses very cute - and well worth it
all. Talking to him before bed stopped tears for the other 2 as well.
|
I'm glad you found a working solution :-)
Thanks for the update - I'm sure this thread is of value for future
reference.
David
--
David Wood
david@wood2.org.uk |
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