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I use Skype to video chat with my parents, but Skype video quality is very poor on my network. However, connecting directly to the other person's webcam works great.

I am looking for a P2P video chat application for Windows, that would work over WAN and connect directly to an IP address and port.

I can't find anything that does not route via a third-party server.

What should I choose?

Peter Mortensen
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ShacharWeis
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  • what about web service? there is a lot flash based p2p video chats. – crea7or Apr 11 '12 at 18:07
  • What makes you think Skype isn't point to point? Unless you have firewalls that are blocking things, the audio/video payloads should be going from point to point. Fire up wireshark and actually look. – Zoredache Apr 11 '12 at 20:22

2 Answers2

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Ekiga can connect directly to the peer.

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams
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Both H.323 and SIP can used for point-to-point connections, and there are many programs that support both protocols. But both these protocols require a lot more work to get reliably working through a firewall, or router doing network address translation.

As far as easy of use, Skype, Google Voice, and other IM-based clients tend to be much easier to get working, and are generally fine.

What makes you think Skype isn't point-to-point? Unless you have firewalls that are blocking things, the audio/video payloads should be going from point to point. Fire up wireshark and actually look. At least in my tests on a unfiltered connection the audio/video payload is point-to-point. Only some control stuff goes to the master.

Peter Mortensen
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Zoredache
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