Build-Your-Own Video Conferencing

VoIP Security Threats

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Stevens) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 15:52:00 +0000

Interesting video on VoIP security.

So that idea didn't go so well...

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Stevens) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:24:00 +0000

Using a blog as a project record seemed like such a good idea at the time. In practice, once I'd gotten going with the project work itself, I had neither the time or the inclination to update. Maybe it would have worked had the project been my sole point of focus, but other work got in the way.

The project is done, the dissertation is handed in

I don't know how much of my work I'll be able to publish as I'm not sure what sort of ownership rights the university places on it, but if I can publish the interesting bits I will. Any interested eys should be kept here and on the project home page.

I'm going to leave this blog active as the project has left me with quite an interest in VoIP and other realtime digital communication technologies, so should the mood take me I may use this as dedicated outlet for anything related to this that I want to share.

Second Review

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Stevens) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:32:00 +0000

It's been a busy few weeks. The second review hand in is now over and done with, and I've submitted a nearly completed research chapter on formal testing. I say nearly complete because I'm not yet familier enough with the subject to write a paper that covers everything that it needs to. But, it's started and the progress report has been submitted along side it.

Upate & Research Topics

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Stevens) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:37:00 +0000

Been a reasonably productive couple of weeks. I finally have the computer I needed from the uni to start running test servers on, so as soon as the 2nd review is out of the way in a couple of weeks I can resume my practical testing.

I also (I think) have my TOR finalised - I have my 2 reasonable research topics to do chapters on:

1. Evaluation & comparison of VoIP and Video Conferencing to inform practical work
2. Performing and documenting formal testing of network services

Hopefully this should be the last re-draft, but if they keep giving me hoops I guess I have to keep jumping. Now I just need to decide which one of these to use for the research chapter that needs submitting at my second review. And of course write the damn thing.

Video Testing 1

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Stevens) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 01:29:00 +0000

Performed first video conferencing test with TokBox today. Notes can be found here. Further testing under different conditions necessary. Other tester connected to internet via 3G mobile internet. While this provides interesting info on the use of these services from varying types of network connections it does not provide an accurate picture of the services using standard broadband and associated network speeds, which is a base line that is required for accurate testing.

Also spoke to other tester via Skype. No notes produced for this yet, but performance was considerably better than that of TokBox. Will produce and publish notes asap.

TokBox, Skype, Video Conferencing, 3G

Blue Box

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Stevens) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 01:07:00 +0000

The Blue Box VoIP Security Podcast.

Potentially useful to the project, logged for further investigation...

Blue Box, VoIP, Security, Podcast

TokBox API Test

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Stevens) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 17:42:00 +0000

TokBox Conferencing and video mail test pages added to project website

Video Post

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Stevens) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 14:21:00 +0000

A test video post using Tokbox

www.tokbox.com

Really need to rope in some victims to help me test the conferencing side of it. I hope the lag isn't there when it's running live.

Tokbox Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Stevens) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:39:00 +0000

Link

More Tokbox

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Stevens) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:14:00 +0000

I've had a bit more of a chance to play with this now and there are some pretty interesting features. One of the most useful looking ones in terms of helping my project research is the conference function whereby you send your participants a link to a web based video conference. This is exactly the sort of thing the uni is wanting to do, so I think further testing of Tokbox and the capabilities of its API definitely needs to be done.

I need to get a couple of people to help me with the testing of the multi-user functions and start looking at how it all works.

On sidenote, the Tokbox site has a public posts section. I'm still poking around here looking at different things, but straight away when you start looking at peoples posts and comments you pick up an undercurrent of unpleasantness. It has the potential to be an excellent platform for communication and public debate, but at the moment my impressions are that there is a lot of unneccessary arguing and sniping. Very unfortunate. On the flip side, the dreadful public post I foolishly had up there for 5 minutes (before getting rid of it until I can get myself looking presentable enough for another attempt!) gathered an encouraging comment within minutes of going up, so maybe I'm wrong and have caught the site on a bad day?

Social aspects aside (this was just a side note as it isn't relevant to the project), Tokboxs video mail and conferencing features look very promising.

Tokbox, webcam, social, flaming, video conferencing

Tokbox Update

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Stevens) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 19:14:00 +0000

I decided to have another play with this today, and it's started working. I think there may have been something up with the release of flash I was using as other sites using similar tech didn't work either.

First impressions: Tokbox is a very interesting idea with a lot of potential. I especially like the video mail feature, could be very useful. My only gripe is that there is a lag in the audio syncing to the video, but it's not an app-killer. More on this as I play.

Technorati Tags: Tokbox, webcam, flash

And it starts badly for TokBox

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Stevens) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 01:16:00 +0000

I've set up my account to start testing TokBox, but my immediate impressions aren't good. The site and product looks good. Lots of good ideas on there and it was easy to sign up. My complaint is that I can't seem to record sound. The webcam works, and the settings are pointed at the right mic, but no sound on the recorded videos. I know the mic is set up properly as it works fine on both Skype and the video recording program that came with it.

Guess I'll have to have a play and see what happens, but not a very impressive start.

Kit

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Stevens) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 14:56:00 +0000

I think everything is pretty much sorted with the TOR and schedule. A little tweaking left, but not much.

The client has provided me with the equipment that I've asked for - 2 webcams and a computer to use as a test server. I should be able to get the computer driven back to my house from the uni this week, so I can start testing the various 'self-hosted' solutions that I've been looking at. I've already started looking at hosted services (things like Skype and Tokbox) that won't be any part of my final solution, but are relevant to my research.

Finally I feel like things are moving...

Tor and Scheduling

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Stevens) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:23:00 +0000

OK, I've re-done my TOR and my scheduling, as per the instructions from the module lecturer, so hopefully that's that more or less done with. I still need to go into the next project surgury for my group to run it all by him again.

Now that that's out of the way I should hopefully be able to press on with my research and testing and make up some of the delay that I've incurred in the last couple of weeks. I've arranged with my client to collect a test server machine and a couple of webcams later on this week. I should also (hopefully) be picking up the sponsorship letter that the uni is asking for.

Behind Schedule

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Stevens) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 21:49:00 +0000

It's been a rather hectic couple of weeks in my non-computing life (yes, it does happen...) so the project is running a little behind schedule.

The review did not go desperately well. Despite having done what I was told to do with my TOR and scheduling the marking lecturer felt that there was some gaps, so I need to review both of these pieces of work and then start putting some serious time into my research and testing.

References and Reasearch Materials

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Stevens) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:24:00 +0000

A link to this has been created on the project web page.

As I have stated there, if any of the authors/owners of the papers being hosted have a problem with this they should contact me and the content will immediately be removed. All of the material that I'm hosting was freely available to me so I'm assuming there should be no problem with me gathering it together into one convenient place.

Research and Scheduling

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Stevens) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:03:00 +0000

The project is starting off slowly, as these things always seem to. I've just about got the terms of reference finished, although I need to find a few more references to include. I also need to finish off the scheduling. I'm starting to get the hang of MS Project, I just need a little more practice. I also started looking at the research papers that I've collected, starting with a paper called Video Conferencing Best Practices. I'll put this and any other papers I include in my research in a directory on the main website, probably later today.

First review is tomorrow, so fingers crossed that'll go well, although I'm not entirely sure how much I'm supposed to have produced for it. Guess I'll find out tomorrow.

Greetings and salutations...

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Stevens) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:59:00 +0000

For my final year project at university I've been asked to research and build a video conferencing server. The requirements are that it be low cost (If the uni wanted to just throw money at the problem there are several commercial solutions, which I'll talk about in due course), low bandwidth (my reasons will be explained in a moment), and be able to use a web browser as a client.

The reason they want this server is so that they can communicate with distance learning students in other countries. Here's where the low bandwidth specification comes in. A lot of the universities distance learning students (referred to as DLSs from here out) reside in less technically developed countries where the internet infrastructure is even more primitive than it is in this country.

The web browser specification is for a few of reasons. First, everyone has a web browser on their machine. No one needs to mess around installing one, which removes one of the hurdles of this working. If someone who is totally non-technical can just navigate to a page (the link for which could be emailed to them or whatever) then they will be able to make use of this tool and participate in a conference. A second reason is to circumvent any firewalling that may be in place. If the conferences can be streamed straight into a browser via port 80 using http then there will be no need for any party participating in a conference to start putting holes in their firewall. This leads into another reason for using a web browser. Access privileges. This method will potentially allow a DLS to go into any webcam equipped web cafe, or whatever, and without any need to install software or adjust security settings they can just get on with the conference.

As I've mentioned already, there are several solutions to this out there at the moment. There are hosted solutions like TokBox, and there are self-host solutions such as Adobe Acrobat Connect. The problems with these is that the former allows the uni (hereafter referred to as the client) no control of the server itself and no opportunity to make configuration changes and optimise the system for their own use, and the latter, and its ilk, are prohibitively expensive for a service which would probably not see enough use to be worth the large investment.

The reasons for this blog are mostly selfish. It's an attempt to document the project as I go along, thereby making the writing of the final dissertation a little less stressful. A less selfish knock on of this is that my progress will be documented here for anyone attempting a similar project to refer to and hopefully avoid running into the same issues that I inevitably will.