Trying to figure out the how to use the webcam on my N800. The camera on the N800 works fine but it is just not clear to me what I need on my home windows XP computer so my family and I can "Internet call with video." What kind of hardware and software do you all recommend or you know to work for video calling N800 to a XP computer?

Look at Gizmo5 software for XP and N8xx, they have a website with helpful info. It works pretty good not great.

Gizmo and Skype are both heavy weight programs. It is possible to accomplish all the same things with the built-in SIP client. Sign up with any VoIP SIP (like FWD, Voxalot, Ekiga.net or Gizmo, although the latter requires their software to sign-up, really annoying!). Then set up the SIP account on the Nokia and use any one of the many available SIP softphones on the PC (I think one of the most popular ones is x-lite http://www.counterpath.com/x-lite.html )

The nice thing is that the built-in SIP client in the Nokia automatically signs in when you are in wifi range. At least with Skype, that's not the case. Also, by using generic SIP, if at some point you decide you want to make phone calls to regular phone lines or be called from regular phones, you can pick any of the myriads of SIP/VoIP providers and get the best rate. If you go with Skype, that's impossible (and Gizmo doesn't make it easy to do so and just eats additional system resources).

So in short: sign up with a free SIP provider, set it up in the Nokia and get X-lite for Windows. In Linux, I've had success using ekiga (the gnome VoIP softphone) to connect to the Nokia.

BTW: If you go with SIP, you can get a free landline here: http://www.ipkall.com/

Good advise m_stolle, you got me real close to sucess. I signed up for a FWD account and got it working with the X-lite softphone on my XP machine. Then I created a new SIP account on my N800 using the same settings. No luck, and I have tried just about every possible N800 SIP client configuration setting (execpt the correct one). I just can't get the N800 connect to the FWD SIP account I set up. Internet works fine and the N800 is using the same internal network as my XP PC. Any tricks or tips or advise on Nokia SIP client settings when configuring for FWD?



FWD Standard Configuration Settings:
Username: FWD Number
Password: FWD Password
Domain: fwd.pulver.com
SIP Proxy: fwd.pulver.com:5060
STUN server: stun.fwdnet.net:3478 (Phone must be STUN enabled)
OR
Outbound Proxy: fwdnat.pulver.com:5082
Listen RTP Port: 8000
Listen SIP Port: 5060

we in the UK can get free geographic and non-geographic numbers from http://www.sipgate.co.uk, and you can sign up without spending any money. you can also dial freephone numbers too! they have gateways to other networks such as FWD for free. I am pretty sure there's an equivalent service for Germany at http://www.sipgate.de

natch, calls between voip users are free.

well that answers the question of internet calling but how can I achieve video call?

At present, we only have had reports of success for video conferencing between the Nokias and a windows PC using gizmo (beta) on both ends. However, because the Nokias use standard protocols and codecs, there is no reason that software should not be available.

The Nokias support video over jingle (google talk, jabber) and sip. They support H263 and H263+ as video codecs. They support a variety of audio codecs including speex, G.711 ans GSM (I think). The question is just to find a PC software which would support the same codecs.

What softphone supports what changes by the day (really!), but I found a page listing various softphones here:
list of softphones.

The most promising appears to be kapanga, but others softphones may also work, for example the beta version of ekiga. I won't be able to try any of these software, unfortunately, because I don't use windows, so you will have to try yourself.


OTOH, I will try mac software (Xmeeting appears promising) and report failure or success.

...and the test from Xmeeting (beta) on the mac is: partial success.

Between a mac using xmeeting and a N810 using the built-in SIP client, I did the following:
-the N810 built in sip client uses a sipphone account (or a gizmo account, they are the same)
-xmeeting on the mac uses another sipphone account
-both devices are connected to the same router (an apple airport, which may be the reason for some of the noted problems)

I can:
-call from the mac to the N810
-view the video from the mac on the N810 (which I why I say partial success...)

I could not:
-hear myself in either direction (apparently xmeeting only supports the G.711 codecs, but those are supported by maemo, see maemo doc)
-call from the N810 to the mac (but that may be a router problem)
-view the video from the N810 on the mac (when I try I get various problem from instant hangup of the connection to full router crash...).

Now, please remember that xmeeting is alpha software, and retry in a few weeks.

Another remarks:
1: the video from the mac isight viewed on the N810 is MUCH nicer than what the built-in camera output. The Nokia camera is really poor.
2: for best results on the Nokia, please limit frame rate to 15/s. The Nokia can't really manage to decode 30 frames a second.
3: if somebody needs to test the connection over the Net, you can ask for my gizmo/sipphone i.d. provided you call at convenient times. I live in Europe, not in the US...
4: windows users: please report about windows software!

I wasn't aware of any apps that did H.323 on the N800..they support H.236 and H.264 CODEC's, but I didn't think they did H.323 dialing?

The video conference/VOIP apps all use SIP..not dialing a straight IP via H.323 ala..Polycom, Tandberg, Codian, MS Netmeeting.

Sorry, I mistyped. I meant the codecs to be h263 and h263+, the N800/N810 do NOT support h323 signaling, just sip and jabber.

It is quite easy to mistype the names of those standards, for example you typed h.236 instead of h.263 for the video codec...