4) Consider this Alternative for Skype Video —

Is it just me — or have you noticed lately that Skype video conferences seem to be dropping somewhat in quality? If you feel the same, would you be willing to try out this alternative service and give your feedback? The service is

http://www.vsee.com

We heard about it last week courtesy a very kind Mission Aviation Fellowship staffer. It’s completely free, allows peer to peer screen sharing and even webinar-like features such as screen sharing — so you can even allow someone remotely to work on your laptop, while you discuss it. Should be a great “poor man’s GoToMeeting.” Did I mention it’s completely free? :-) There are add-on premium services, but it looks as if they’re most relevant in enterprise settings. Granted, for larger webinars in which you want a special speaker to be able to address a group, Vsee doesn’t seem as appropriate (there’s no way to hush all the group members; they have to mute themselves). But for smaller get-togethers and prayer sessions, it seems like an answered prayer!

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9 Comments

eric on 2012/03/11 at 11:49 pm

We used this one several years ago when it still seemed to be in development; it went off line for a while so we eventually shifted to skype.

And Yes, call quality is sometimes poor .. think about those solar storms …)

I’d give it a try again. It worked well for us, and email contact with the developer was positive.

Another option for free desktop sharing, etc, is MIKOGO DOT COM. Very nice. However you’d have to pay for their audio services.

eric on 2012/03/11 at 11:51 pm

USE THIS ONE< NOT PREVIOUS
We used this one several years ago when it still seemed to be in development; it went off line for a while so we eventually shifted to skype.

And Yes, SKYPE call quality has lately sometimes poor .. think about those solar storms …)

I’d give it a try again. It worked well for us, and email contact with the developer was positive.

Another option for free desktop sharing, etc, is MIKOGO DOT COM. Very nice. However you’d have to pay for their audio services.

eric on 2012/03/11 at 11:53 pm

quote <>

Actually the same is true for skype, and for scopia. so I wouldn’t complain about this aspect.

eric on 2012/03/11 at 11:55 pm

HMM, quoting didn’t seem to work inside angle brackets. Let’s try again
QUOTE: Granted, for larger webinars in which you want a special speaker to be able to address a group, Vsee doesn’t seem as appropriate (there’s no way to hush all the group members; they have to mute themselves).
ENDQUOTE

Actually both Skype and Scopia require multiple users to take some action if they are in noisy environments, so this isn’t something unique to VSee.

JLG on 2012/03/12 at 11:16 am

Here’s the biggest carrot for VSee, from their blog:

“VSee uses end-to-end encryption where no server, including VSee servers, has the decryption key. VSee uses public/private RSA keys to exchange a 256-bit AES session key with the property that only the endpoints have the AES session key. VSee uses FIPS 140-2 certified 256-bit AES encryption.”

This is very significant. To my knowledge, no other video collaboration package offers this level of security. VSee looks like it might even be easy to use, which would be fantastic as well. I’m giving it a shot.

Faithe Thomas on 2012/03/12 at 11:46 pm

We have been using Meetcheap as a GREAT option. Right now they have a deal where you can sign up and get a 20 member conference room for a year for $20. They have all the bells and whistles – powerpoint, drawing, video, graphics, chat, etc.
http://www.meetcheap.com/?id=vipinfo

Faithe Thomas on 2012/03/12 at 11:48 pm

Forgot to mention that Meetcheap can also conference directly in Facebook. So you give your supporters your facebook fanpage and tell them to click the button for the live conference. They stay in Facebook for the whole meeting. Sweet!
http://www.meetcheap.com/?id=vipinfo

JLG on 2012/03/17 at 12:24 pm

I can’t find any info on the security of Meetcheap, so it might not be a good solution for folks in sensitive areas. It’s definitely marketing-heavy.

I tested VSee with a friend in the ME. We used it with and without VPNs connected, tried the file transfer and app sharing features. Overall, it worked OK. AV quality was on par with Skype. The ability to reconnect after a drop (e.g. when we would connect or disconnect from VPN) was about like Skype, maybe a bit better. File transfer is simple. App sharing doesn’t work in the Mac client yet.

So…at this point, I think VSee is a great alternative for someone in a sensitive area that needs the additional security for audio/video communication, and it’s definitely worth evaluating as a secure collaboration tool, but it’s not quite ready for prime time in that arena.