Ekiga Softphone Features

Main Features of the Ekiga Softphone in a nutshell Version 4.0

• Ease of use with a modern Graphical User Interface
• Audio and Video free calls through the internet
• Free Instant Messaging through the internet with Presence support
• Audio (and video) calls to landlines and cell phones with support to the cheapest service providers
• High Definition Sound (wideband) and Video Quality up to DVD quality (high framerate, state of the art quality codec and frame size)
• Free of choice of the service provider
• SMS to cell phones if the service provider supports it (like the default provider)
• Standard Telephony features support like Call Hold, Call Transfer, Call Forwarding, DTMF
• Remote and Local Address Book support: Remote Address Book support with authentification using the standard LDAP technology, Local Address support in Gnome (Evolution)
• Multi platform: Windows and GNU/Linux
• Wide interoperability: Ekiga use the main deployed stantards for telephony protocols (SIP and H.323) and has been tested with a wide range of softphones, hardphones, PBX and service providers

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Graphical User Interface Version 4.0

• HIG Compliant GUI: Ekiga looks right, behaves properly, and fits into the GNOME user interface as a whole
• Translated into Many Languages
• Contact centric interface: preferred contacts can be listed in the main user interface (Buddy List)
• Contact's presence display: Offline, Away, Busy, Online status (SIP/SIMPLE)
• Automatic addition of network neighbours contacts in the main user interface (using the Bonjour/ZeroConf protocol)
• Separate call window
• Desktop wide notifications
• Connection quality meter in the statusbar
• Message Waiting Indications Support: Ekiga can tell you how many Voice Mails are waiting
• Easy to use short-cuts
• Easy account selection when dialing for a contact: auto-completion

Call Version 4.0

• Call Hold: This effectively pauses Video & Audio transmission
• Call Transfer: You can transfer the remote user to another user
• Call Forwarding on No Answer, on Busy, Always: This allows you to configure Ekiga to forward incoming calls to a specified user
• Message Waiting Indications Support
• Dialpad: This allow you to dial numbers using a graphical alphanumeric keypad
• DTMFs Support: This feature is necessary when using services asking you to dial numbers
• Calls History: This is a convenient way about all outgoing and incoming calls
• Call Monitoring: Statistics about the network traffic caused by Ekiga are displayed in the status bar
• Call Auto-Answer: Automatically answer all incoming calls
• Enum Support: Enum is a standard method to provide a unified numbering system between the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and various VoIP providers. It is officially deployed country wide

Audio Version 4.0

• Wideband Codec Support: HD sound quality
• Dynamic Threshold Algorithm for Silence Detection
• Echo Cancellation
• Dynamic Jitter Buffer
• 13 audio codecs supported; including G.711 for high interoperability and HD sound (G.722, G.722.1 and SILK)

Video Version 4.0

• High Framerate support (up to 30 fps)
• Configurable Resolution, up to DVD quality (from 176x144 to 704x576)
• Full-Screen Video
• Support for hardware rendering (DirectX under Windows, XVideo under GNU/Linux)
• Quality of images Versus Speed (framerate) slider
• 6 video codecs supported; including the best free codec (Theora) and state of art video codec (H.264)

Text chat Version 4.0

• Instant Messaging with built-in smiley support (SIP)
• Graphical selection of smiley for easy inclusion in text message
• Presence display: display your peer chat status

Contacts Version 4.0

• Presence Status with Custom Message (SIP): The status of your contacts are displayed in the main User Interface with a custom message, and you can set your own Status (Online, Away, Busy) with a custom message
• Advanced Addressbook: The Address Book is a feature which allows you to find users to call and/or to save locally your list of persons that you call on a regular basis
• Remote Address Book Support: Ekiga can load the list of users from a remote LDAP directory (with authentification)

Devices Version 4.0

• Hotplug: Automatic detection of hotplugging of audio devices and video devices on Linux (ALSA and V4L1/2)
• Devices Auto-Detection
• Sound API: on Windows DirectX, on GNU/Linux OSS and ALSA Compatible Soundcards Support or PulseAudio
• Video API: on Windows DirectX 9 video input and output, on GNU/Linux Video4Linux, Video4Linux 2 Cameras Support

Voice Over IP services Version 4.0

• Possibility to Simultaneously Register to Several Accounts: You can register as many SIP or H.323 provider accounts as you want, and you're able to use them simultaneously
• SIP Compliant: You can use any SIP compliant VoIP provider. They may provide you address for VoIP similar to e-mail address, PC-to-Phone calls, Phone-to PC calls, Voice mails, ...
• H.323v4 Compliant: You can use any H323v4 compliant VoIP provider. (Gatekeeper -RAS- Support)
• Outbound Proxy Support: Some providers use a relay for your communications and require this setting
• SIP dialog-info notifications: they allow displaying notifications of incoming calls in the roster, and being informed of incoming calls reaching your contacts (if the server supports it, e.g. Ekiga.net, Kamailio and Asterisk do)

Codecs Features Version 4.0

• SIP Capabilities exchange: Ekiga will automatically select the common codecs between the peers
• Video Bandwidth Limitation
• Intel IPP Codecs
• Plug-in support for audio and video codecs

Audio Codecs Version 4.0

• G.711-Alaw
• G.711-uLaw
• Speex (NarrowBand and WideBand)
• G.722 (wideband), G.722.1 (aka Siren 7), G.722.2 (aka GSM-AMR-WB)
• iLBC
• GSM-06.10, MS-GSM
• G.726
• G.721
• SILK (Skype's codec)
• CELT ultra-low delay (32 kHz or 48 kHz). Experimental

Video Codecs Version 4.0

• THEORA Video Codec (SIP only)
• H.264 Video Codec (SIP only)
• H.263 Video Codec (SIP only)
• H.263+ Video Codec (SIP only)
• H.261 Video Codec (SIP and H323)
• MPEG4 Video Codec (SIP only)

Network Version 4.0

• Local network integration using the Rendez-Vous/Bonjour/ZeroConf protocol: Ekiga users in the local network will show up automatically
• Detection of dynamic IP address changes and dynamic addition and removal of network interfaces
• Assisted NAT Support (automated STUN support): Ekiga has extensive and improved NAT support. In most of the cases, you do not have any configuration to do.
• Gateway/Proxy Support

Integration Version 4.0

• Part of the Gnome Desktop
• Integration with Novell Evolution: You can share your contacts with the groupware client for Linux, "Novell® Evolution™"
• KDE and GNOME Compatibility
• Remote LDAP server integration for network address-book integration
• State-of-the-art LDAP support (supports authentication)
• Interoperability with PBX like Asterisk™

Configuration Version 4.0

• Configuration Assistant: The Configuration Assistant is a 8 step-by-step questionnaire that will guide you through all the steps involved in creating the basic configuration you will need to operate Ekiga
• Configurable Sound Events: You can customize sounds and select a special sound device for them to play; you're able to have the ring in your Hi-Fi hardware and the call in the headset
• In call Instant-Apply Support for Settings
• Gnome's GConf and External Configuration support: Ekiga can store its settings in Gnome's GConf application or in a standalone file (e.g. on Windows)
• Configurable Port Ranges (SIP and H323): Ekiga uses standards ports; in rare cases you might change the ports. (Advanced setting)

Protocols Support Version 4.0

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Version 4.0

• SIP re-INVITE support
• Unique port : Use only one port for all outgoing SIP requests going to the same destination
• Proxy support
• Outbound Proxy support
• SIP: SIMPLE presence support
• SIP Presence subscriptions : SIP SUBSCRIBE/NOTIFY
• SIP Presence publishing : SIP PUBLISH
• SIP Presence document : SIP PIDF and Rich PIDF Extensions
• RFC2833 and SIP Info DTMFs support
• SIP dialog-info notifications: they allow displaying notifications of incoming calls in the roster, and being informed of incoming calls reaching your contacts (if the server supports it, e.g. Kamailio and Asterisk do).
• SIP RFCs in the OPAL stack (Ekiga do not use all of them, especially T.38 FAX features)

H.323 Version 4.0

• Registrar Support: You can register to SIP compliant VoIP providers.
• Gatekeeper (RAS) Support: You can register a VoIP service using H.323.
• Gateway/Proxy Support
• H.450.1 Call Hold
• H.450.2 Call Transfer
• H.450.3 Call Forwarding on No Answer, on Busy, Always
• RFC2833, Q.931, and Inband DTMF support
• H.235 Annex D. Support: Security of calls
• H.239 Support for multiple video streams (partial)
• H.245 Tunneling and Fast Start
• H.245 Text Chat during calls (H323)
• H.323 standards in the OPAL stack.

Windows Features Version 4.0

• Support for DirectX 9 Video Capture/Output
• Installer

Administrators Version 4.0

• Possibility for Administrators to Block Some Settings

Developers Version 4.0

• GUI and Engine separation to allow GUI customisation/port to other toolkits and integration in other projects
• Use of Boost in a signal-based organization

Experimental features Version 4.0

• Significant improvements in IPv6 support
• GStreamer audio and video capture support