Nathaniel Borenstein wrote:
Pardon me if I'm missing something obvious here, but
couldn't one just use either XMPP or Simple for presence,
associate your "server name" with a Jabber/Simple ID, and
automatically have your "server" findable via these
general presence protocols?
One not only could, but does.
http://www.pulver.com/fwd/index.html
Nice IP phones are quite inexpensive these days too.
https://secure.pulver.com/pulverinnovations/order_grandstream.html
Why isn't that a reasonable approach to peer to
peer in a NAT world?
It is, although it could use some polishing. That's not the issue; you
still don't have a free bridge to the PSTN, there is no way to regulate
telemarketers, does not work when the power fails, if your kids have
kazaa open voice quality stinks because kazaa gobbles it all.
I pay 5 bucks for long distance a month, explain me why I should bother?
Michel.