Speak Freely and Reflector

[Geoff Shang]

On Wed, 30 Jan 2002, Steve Holmes wrote:

> should I be using the
> speak_freely-7.2 as my base software? How much difference is there from
> this one  and the CVS version?

The only difference between the regular speak freely and the CVS version is
the ability to have the audio mixed when 2 or more people speak at once.  A
nice feature, but not curcial.  Oh and you can see who's on the reflector
from within  speak freely, and you also get readline support for chats.
You also get to enjoy sfspeaker crashing from time to time for some obsucre
as yet undetermined reason.

> If I go with CVS, do I still need this base
> 7.2 version?

No.

> Is this stuff usable with the basic default OSS sound
> support in linux or do I have to install ALSA?

You don't have to install alsa, but it works better with alsa, particularly
if you're using the stock 7.2 release.  When on the reflector, 7.2 hangs
onto the output device for about 20 seconds after a person speaks before
releasing it.  If you use OSS, you won't be able to talk until the 20
seconds is up and, if the reflector is even mildly busy, this may never
happen without you asking to be allowed to get a word in.  This behaviour
has been changed in the CVS version and the sound device is released much
quicker, so I dare say that it would work better with OSS than 7.2 does.

> Final question: I realize which ports to open up and forward through to my
> inside machine but am a bit unclear with ipchains on which chains to
> update.  I'm quite sure the forward chain needs to be set to accept the
> UDP ports 2074:2076 and 4074:4076 but what about the input chain? Need I
> accept there as well?  So far, I've pretty much just done IP masquerading
> but haven't really organized my fire wall yet.

Well, I would think yes, since a packet would have to be allowed in before
it could be forwarded.

Geoff.