Ubuntu substitute to Netmeeting in Windows?

On Thu, 17. May 2007 18:32:56 Murty wrote:
> New question #6752 on Ubuntu:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/6752
>
> We have recently installed Ubuntu in all the PCs in our LAN but there is no
> one to help us in networking. Now we are able to connect to Internet using
> cablenet and share some folders but how to use remote administration
> without Internet like Windows Netmeeting. Is there a substitute for
> Netmeeting in Ubuntu. This OS is very much new to us as we are
> non-technical people who are in teaching 'O' level courses to women and
> children.

Of course there are several tools like Netmeeting.
Unix (and Linux as another Unix Flavour) once was designed for network
communication decades ago starting in the late 70ies.

- If you are looking for GI Tools you may have a look at:

ekiga - H.323 and SIP compatible VOIP client
 H.323 and SIP compatible videoconferencing and VOIP/IP-Telephony application
 that allows you to make audio and video calls to remote users with H.323
 hardware or software (such as Microsoft Netmeeting) as well as SIP endpoints.
 It supports all modern videoconferencing features, such as registering
 to an LDAP directory, gatekeeper support, making multi-user conference
 calls using an external MCU, using modern Quicknet telephony cards,
 and making PC-To-Phone calls.

pidgin - multi-protocol instant messaging client
 Pidgin is a graphical, modular Instant Messaging client capable of using
 AIM/ICQ, Yahoo!, MSN, IRC, Jabber, Napster, Zephyr, Gadu-Gadu, Bonjour,
 Groupwise, Sametime, and SIMPLE all at once.

gtalk - plug-in replacement for standard talk
 GNU Talk supports talk protocols 0 & 1. Defines protocol 2.
 Client supports multiple connections, file transfer,
 primitive encryption, shared apps, auto-answer, multiple
 front-ends including GTK and Emacs.
 The daemon collects request versions 0, 1, & 2 together,
 and permits interaction between clients of different
 types.
 Also supports MRU tty announce, announce-redirect,
 blacklists, and tty-bomb filtering.

xtalk - BSD talk compatible X Window System client
 XTalk is a visual communication program which copies lines from your
 terminal to that of another user. This is an X Window System version,
 written in Python.

- There are also a lot of terminal progras:

ohphone - Command line H.323 client with X, SVGA and SDL support
 Supports both voice and video phone calls using H.323 Voice over IP
 (VoIP) conferencing. Allows you to initiate and receive H.323 calls
 from the command line, can interoperate with any other H.323 client
 like GnomeMeeting or NetMeeting. It can be used interactively via a
 menu interface or simply via command line arguments.

utalk - talk-like program with additional features
 utalk uses a protocol, based on UDP, which ensures a quick response
 even over links with high packet loss, allows editing of previously
 typed text, including scrollback, deletion and overstrike, and
 provides some additional features.

talk - Chat with another user
 Talk is a visual communication program which copies lines from your terminal
 to that of another user.

talkd - Remote user communication server
ktalkd - talk daemon for KDE
 KTalkd is an enhanced talk daemon - a program to handle incoming talk
 requests, announce them and allow you to respond to it using a talk
 client. Note that KTalkd is designed to run on a single-user workstation,
 and shouldn't be run on a multi-user machine.

You will get a short introdutional info by using 'apt-cache search $TERM'
and 'apt-cache show $paketname', e.g.:

 apt-cache show ekiga
Package: ekiga
[... shortened ...]
Description: H.323 and SIP compatible VOIP client
 H.323 and SIP compatible videoconferencing and VOIP/IP-Telephony application
 that allows you to make audio and video calls to remote users with H.323
 hardware or software (such as Microsoft Netmeeting) as well as SIP endpoints.
 .
 It supports all modern videoconferencing features, such as registering
 to an LDAP directory, gatekeeper support, making multi-user conference
 calls using an external MCU, using modern Quicknet telephony cards,
 and making PC-To-Phone calls.

regards,
thomas

Thanks Utkarshraj Atmaram, that solved my question.

Atmaram has replied very fast which solved my problem. Thomas has given la list of substitutes with excellent explanation.

On Fri, 18. May 2007 04:04:12 Murty wrote:
> Question #6752 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/6752
>
> Murty posted a new comment:
> Atmaram has replied very fast which solved my problem. Thomas has given
> la list of substitutes with excellent explanation.

You said that you would like to have a Netmeeting pendant for administration
purposes.

If you are looking for a convenient way of administration you also may have a
look to the other tools for remote desktop access.

There are several tools to 'take over' a users desktop. This may be
interesting to solve problems users may have with certain applications.

In the Ubuntu menu you will find
 System - Setiings - Remote Desktop
At this point a user may grant remote acess to his desktop to others.
If you enable remote access you also will see a URL line which says:

 vncviewer $NameOfTheMachine:0

Where $NameOfTzheMachine:0 depends on your settings. I may be a full qualified
hostname or just the IP + ':0' (e.g. 192.168.0.33:0)

So an administrator or supervisor is able to take over a remote desktop by
starting a command in a terminal:

 vncviewer $NameOfTheMachine:0

Replace $NameOfTheMachine:0 with the given name in the above setting.
You may also add a new starter on the administrators desktop by left-click on
the desktop and choosing 'Starter anlegen' (pardon me don't have an english
desktop in the moment, you should see 'Starter anlegen' as the second entry
of the popup menu). As command add 'vncviewer $NameOfTheMachine:0' and give
it a name.

If you start vncviewer you will see a password popup menu (if the user set
one) and after typing the password a new window with the remote Desktop will
pop up.

If you use your mouse or the keyboard the userwho sits at the remote machine
will see every action you do.
On the other side you also will see every action the remote user does in the
popup window.

This is a very smart way to give users assistance in solving problems they
have in the use of applications. (It also may be 'misused' for administrative
purposes.)

Cool isn't it :-))

Other tools are xdmcp, freeNX / NoMachine, ltsp, ..., ...
Each of it has its own strength for certain fields of use.
So for having my Linux desktop available when I'm 'on the road' I'm using
freeNX / NoMachine. This gives me full access to my home desktop, even via a
128kB ISDN telephone line. Using a DSL line it's no problem to use a desktop
on a machine which is on the other side of the globe. (have a look to
www.cosmopod.com, they offer free NoMachine accounts. It's a nice proof of
concept)

Usually remote system administration in Linux is not done via tools like
netmeeting or vncviewer. Remote Linux systems are administrated by uing ssh
access in a terminal.
E.G. by typing:

 ssh username@192.168.0.33

in a terminal (IP-address depends on your settings and username must be a user
on the remote system).
This will open a ssh session where you can do all tasks needed for
administration, e.g. using apt-get or other command line tools.
NB. It's not usual to log in as root user via ssh, it's seen as a bad
behaviour because of security aspects. But you may become root privileges by
using sudo.

You will find a lot of books, e.g. from O'Reilly, Prentice Hall and other
publishers targeting Linux administration.

regards,
thomas

Is there nothing that provides the screen share (presenter/viewer) capabilities of net meeting? There's a lot of SIP and voice conference, but what about the shared whiteboard or application presenter abilities?

I second this question. Can Ubuntu's Remote Desktop or any other software connect to the shared whiteboard or application presenter, having NetMeeting as a server?