At 13:11 02/08/96 -0700, Lucky Green wrote:

The sound quality really isn't there, unless you have a fast machine or a fat pipe. In addition, the vast majority of Intel based computers lack the crucial (for user acceptance) full-duplex soundcard. Add to that the physical impossibility of getting decent real time services over a non-isochronous network, such as the Internet, I'net phones just don't provide suffcient speech quality for business/serious personal use even without the added overhead of crypto.

What I'd like to see -- for which technology is all in place, and none of the shortcomings you mention apply -- is voice mail that functions seamlessly between people who only have a phone, and those with Internet connections on computers with a sound card. Many companies practically use voice mail as an alternative to long phone conversations. This might also help the Internet spread, because with a connection you would be able to save on long-distance charges -- and strong crypto could be used. I'm sure the software for this exists too -- the ISPs only have to run it on their servers. It would be nice, though, if the ISPs had a facility that when there is a voice message for you, it either phones or pages you... Arun Mehta Phone +91-11-6841172, 6849103 amehta@cpsr.org http://www.cerfnet.com/~amehta/ finger amehta@cerfnet.com for public key