I make many long distance phone calls between my office and a client
in Australia.  I am running windows xp and he is running Mac OS X.

We both have good speakers and microphones on our computers.  We both
have DSL.  What is a good program to do voice chatting on?

We both have NAT routers/firewalls so I need something that can get
around firewalls (like AIM or MSN IM does).   If that is not possible,
I need something that uses a single TCP port (not dynamic UDP ports
like the Audio/Video thing in MSN Instant Messenger does).

What software options do I have?

P.S.  Need solution as soon as poss.

Haxial Netfone
http://www.haxial.com/products/netfone/

i suggest <a href="http://www.RogerWilco.com">Roger Wilco</a>, it's a
simple applet that runs on both pc and mac (although the mac version
is a beta).

It's mainly for when people are playing games online and they want to
communicate to the rest of the team but alot of people on irc use it
just to have an actual chat.

OS X: ohPhoneX

info
   http://xmeeting.sourceforge.net/
description
   http://xmeeting.sourceforge.net/ohphoneX-docs/ohphoneX.html
download
   http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=74721&release_id=149511

It's an H.323 protocol phone for OS X. I've used it, it works great.

Windows: Get netmeeting from microsoft. It supports H.323 through a
feature called "Voice Chat" that can be used to connect directly to
another H.323 connection. I have heard that the latest NetMeeting
removes Voice Chat so you may need to get an older version.

There is plenty of info on how to connect them through NAT and
firewall. For information on how to connect ohPhoneX to netmeeting
consult this document first:

   http://xmeeting.sourceforge.net/ohphoneX-docs/H323Tutorial.html

and then consult that document and this one:

   http://www.gnomemeeting.org/index.php?rub=3&pos=0&faqpage=x260.html
for information on how to make it work through a firewall. I've done
it and it's not exactly a picture of simplicity but it can be done,
using port forwarding. An easier solution though is to put one of the
machines in the firewall or NAT box's DMZ (demarcation zone) for the
duration of the call. Use the computer in the DMZ as the receiving
computer. That'll make it a lot easier to connect, and in many
firewalls the DMZ is a simple configuration to make and change, simply
by entering your IP address.

HTH,

simon

If you use a mic and speakers (at either end!) you may experience
annoying "echo". This is actually a feedback loop as the mic picks up
the speakers and repeats the signal back through. Use headphones to
eliminate the feedback (at both ends)

simon