Speak Freely
is an application for Windows machines and a variety of Unix
systems which lets you talk to other people across a
local network or the Internet. A variety of audio compression
modes are supported, including GSM, as used by digital cellular
telephones, and CELP, which provides excellent fidelity on the
slowest of network connections.
Sound packets can be
encrypted with AES, Blowfish, IDEA, DES, a binary key supplied in a file, or any
combination. Speak Freely cooperates with a copy of GPG or PGP
installed on your computer to automatically exchange session keys with
users on your public keyring. Windows and Unix
machines can intercommunicate, and Speak Freely can communicate
with other Internet voice programs which support RTP or VAT protocol.
The Windows help file explains
how Microsoft Windows users can install the program on their machines.
Unix workstation users can consult
the manual pages, which
explain how to download and use the program.
New release 7.6 adds CELP compression (2.5 times greater than GSM with
comparable fidelity), 256-bit AES encryption, extended robust mode transmission
for lossy network connections, fixes for the long delays encountered when
connected to sites which transmit continuously, and support for GPG as
well as PGP session key exchange. The Windows version now
includes conference and echo modes, remembers window placement and size,
allows call-back from the answering machine, uses HTML Help, and allows
minimisation to the system tray. A new Web-based
Speak Freely Forum
is open for discussion among users and developers, and is automatically
mirrored to the Speak Freely
mailing lists.