[HOT] Using Wifi to make phone calls from mobiles using a router.

[Bjoern Hassler]

Hi John, Hi Philippe,

Thanks for the post. I'd written this reply before Philippe posted, but not
hit sent, sorry. Let me send it anyway.

To explain further: Unless one router extends the network of the other,
each phone would be behind a firewall created by the router. So you'd have
to place the phone in the DMZ or port-forward on the router. Using
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSipSimple might be especially helpful if you
are doing point-to-point WiFi (without internet connection of either
router). A "192.168.x.x" is network internal, so you won't be able to
connect between "192.168.y.y". And even then, as Philippe points out, the
address of the router may not be fixed.

However, if the routers are connected to the internet, it would also be
possible to use commercial VOIP apps (like WhatsApp, Hangouts, Skype). I am
not sure how they route voice traffic these days, but Skype used to allow
peer-to-peer, which like Hangouts/WhatsApp should mean "peer-to-peer when
possible". In any case, for an app that just "handshakes" via the internet,
and then can use peer-to-peer, only the connectivity between the routers
matters. A nice feature would be if the app told you what it's doing (p2p
or via server) so that you know whether you're safe on WiFi or killing the
internet connection...

There is an app called FireChat, that apparently can do p2p off-internet.
It's proprietary, and I haven't looking into it much. However, it strikes
me that such an app would be really useful, especially server-less, with
the option to connect to a global network if available.

Is there anybody who wants to form a little action group to investigate?

Hope this helps!
Bjoern

On 10 January 2018 at 23:58, john whelan <jwhelan0112 at gmail.com> wrote:

> The problem was mentioned some time ago in reference to a refugee camp in
> Europe.
>
> You need csip simple and to know the phone's ip address.  IP checker is a
> simple free app that will how this.
>
> "Just install csip simple and create a profile called "user", not linked
> to any server. To call another person with the same setup, you just need to
> know his ip address. Once they have sent it via voice, email, sms or
> whatsapp or ever (much better) a safer way like textsecure, you simply type
> "user at 15.14.173 et cetera (basically user@ other person's ip) and their
> Csipsimple will ring. It works and it's the purest form of Internet. "
>
> It doesn't have to be called user by the way.  So John or Mabel will work
> fine.  You do need the ip address so to call John it would be
> John at 192.168.2.99 mabel at 192.168.2.33
>
> You do not need the router to be connected to the internet for this to
> work by the way.
>
> Cut and paste should work.  So stick the wifi router up high and you
> should be able to cover a fair range.
>
> Cheerio John
>
>
>
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