RE: Mass-market crypto phones

_______________________________________________________________________________
From: Lucky Green on Fri, Nov 22, 1996 14:52
<snip>

>quality is fine. Note that a fast IP connection may or may not suffice. 
                                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
<snip>
 
>sending UDP packets over the Internet new problems arise. One packet 
         ^^^^^^^^^^^          ^^^^^^^^
<snip>

>--Lucky

I was going to just listen to the way this thread is going because I find
it fascinating, but now that it has been spelled out, I must make a very
important distinction between my idea and PGPFone, WebPhone, etc. --
These are Web-based programs designed to speak over very long distances
for "free" (neglecting ISP charges, etc.), adding the extra functionality
of encrypting your data along the way so sniffers, etc can't listen in 
on your conversation.

My encryptophone(tm) :-) is purely a modem-modem protocol.  This way, even at
14.4k you get all of your throughput.  No TCP/IP overhead.  No busy Net.
No "Why won't my ISP hold a connection longer than TWO MINUTES!?!?".  The
idea I was tossing around was a simple modem program which takes digitized
voice, encrypts it, pumps it through the phone line directly to the modem
on the other side which undoes it all.  (Yes, I know this is a simplified
view.)  I also know it may not be as useful as the web-based products, but
I also know you don't have to worry about the aforementioned problems and
neither party has to have a Net account.  This eliminates some of the
problems which have been sent to me.  Of course, some of the problems
still apply and must be addressed.  I guess now's the time to admit that
the first and foremost problem is that I have never programmed my soundcard...

I appreciate the tips and pointers everyone has been giving me tremendously.
Hopefully, this thread doesn't do a complete reversal, because I am storing
all hints/suggestions/tips to be used when I can finally get this project
going.  (I'm stubborn.  I need to at least try it, if for no other reason
than to get the knowledge... :-)

Thanks!
PM

> I was going to just listen to the way this thread is going because I find
> it fascinating, but now that it has been spelled out, I must make a very
> important distinction between my idea and PGPFone, WebPhone, etc. --
> These are Web-based programs designed to speak over very long distances
> for "free" (neglecting ISP charges, etc.), adding the extra functionality
> of encrypting your data along the way so sniffers, etc can't listen in 
> on your conversation.

PGPfone works over POTS and IP. It was not originally designed to work
over IP.  The issues raised in my first post apply to modem/modem
connections and IP based implementations. The issues raised in my second
post apply to IP based implementations only (that's not quite true, but I
don't want to go any deeper into it). 

--Lucky

On 22 Nov 1996, Mullen Patrick wrote:

> _______________________________________________________________________________
> From: Lucky Green on Fri, Nov 22, 1996 14:52
> <snip>
> 
> >quality is fine. Note that a fast IP connection may or may not suffice. 
>                                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> <snip>
>  
> >sending UDP packets over the Internet new problems arise. One packet 
>          ^^^^^^^^^^^          ^^^^^^^^
> <snip>
> 
> >--Lucky
> 
> I was going to just listen to the way this thread is going because I find
> it fascinating, but now that it has been spelled out, I must make a very
> important distinction between my idea and PGPFone, WebPhone, etc. --
> These are Web-based programs designed to speak over very long distances
> for "free" (neglecting ISP charges, etc.), adding the extra functionality
> of encrypting your data along the way so sniffers, etc can't listen in 
> on your conversation.
> 
> My encryptophone(tm) :-) is purely a modem-modem protocol.  This way, even at
> 14.4k you get all of your throughput.  No TCP/IP overhead.  No busy Net.
> No "Why won't my ISP hold a connection longer than TWO MINUTES!?!?".  The
> idea I was tossing around was a simple modem program which takes digitized
> voice, encrypts it, pumps it through the phone line directly to the modem
> on the other side which undoes it all.  (Yes, I know this is a simplified
> view.)  I also know it may not be as useful as the web-based products, but
> I also know you don't have to worry about the aforementioned problems and
> neither party has to have a Net account.  This eliminates some of the
> problems which have been sent to me.  Of course, some of the problems
> still apply and must be addressed.  I guess now's the time to admit that
> the first and foremost problem is that I have never programmed my soundcard...
> 
> I appreciate the tips and pointers everyone has been giving me tremendously.
> Hopefully, this thread doesn't do a complete reversal, because I am storing
> all hints/suggestions/tips to be used when I can finally get this project
> going.  (I'm stubborn.  I need to at least try it, if for no other reason
> than to get the knowledge... :-)
> 
> Thanks!
> PM

There is a program out there called "nautilis" or something like that and 
it works just like the webphones but you need no web.