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What is the best VoIP/IM program? Like GoogleTalk? How does it's VoIP work compared to others?

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As asked and after the client-oriented comments by and , here is a compact, practical primer on the real technical differences that should drive a choice.

VoIP basics: calls split into signaling (setting up/tearing down sessions, presence) and media (the audio stream). Signaling is typically handled by standards such as SIP (RFC 3261) or XMPP (RFC 6120). Media is carried over RTP (RFC 3550) and can be encrypted with SRTP (RFC 3711). For quality, modern implementations favor the Opus codec (RFC 6716).

NAT and firewalls cause most failures. STUN/TURN let endpoints discover or relay paths and ICE picks the best route; see RFC 5389 and RFC 8445. Browser-based stacks and many modern clients implement these together; WebRTC is a good reference for how media, crypto, and NAT traversal are combined (see https://webrtc.org/).

Practical checklist and quick troubleshooting:

  • If you need interop with other systems or PBXes, prefer standards-based signaling.
  • Look for Opus + SRTP/DTLS for best audio and security.
  • Ensure the client supports STUN/TURN/ICE or that a TURN service is available on mobile networks.
  • If calls have echo, dropouts, or one-way audio: check NAT/ALG on the router, test bandwidth/latency/jitter, and try forcing a different transport (UDP vs TCP/TLS).
  • If PSTN (regular phone) calling is needed, confirm whether and how that connectivity and pricing are provided.

These points help evaluate any client or service mentioned in the thread by focusing on the underlying technology and common failure modes.

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Member Avatar for Serunson

I use two instant messaging programs, MSN and Pidgin. MSN is more modern with a lot of added extra bits, including a Webcam facility and VoIP. Pidgin is a simpler program that is also free, but does not have the webcam or VoIP extras. It does however allow you to use multiple e-mail accounts instead of msns one hotmail account. For VoIP on it's own, i use two programs, TeamSpeak and Ventrillo. Their main purpose is for chatting while playing games online (such as Battlefield 2). They can however be used to just talk to each other. The software is free, but you have to buy a server to host. Skype is the most well known VoIP provider, i personally don't know much about it, but you can make calls from computer to computer or from computer to a telephone. My advice would be to find out some more about Skype, seeing as that could be your best option. Otherwise MSN is a worthy alternative.

Member Avatar for jbennet

not quite correct serunson. All those features can be added to pidgin/gaim using addons
pidgin = not simpler either, it supports many more protocols

and yeah skype is good. free for pc to pc but costs (cheap though) when ringing a landline

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