Like the title says, I'm looking to do a localized phone-like system over a LAN network, but one where it's more peer-to-peer based, not having to host a PBX server. I have experience with 3CX, Mitel, etc. products, so I'm sure I could do an Asterisk/FreePBX setup, but I want to consider that as my fallback option.
I'm envisioning some sort of P2P client/software/hardware that essentially allows you to "call" another peer with the device/app open on a non-internet-connected LAN. I would assume you would just "call" the IP of the other device, or something similar. In this scenario, there is no server to run in the background or manage.
Think net send in command prompt in Windows.
Basically, my reasoning for wanting what I want is two-fold.
First reason, my folks and I live pretty close, close enough that we can beam Wifi back and forth with some PtP units. Our problem is that if we want to call one another, sometimes it's almost impossible. We have Wifi-calling on our cell phones, which sometimes won't cooperate. Outside of that working, all cell service is terrible out here, and land lines aren't an option anymore (the company that sold them before won't even fix the problems with our circuit).
Second reason, I have an obsession with what I would call "decentralized communications". Think HAM radio, DMR, CBs, etc. I have always liked messing with these things, so for me it's just another tool in the belt in that regard.
I just don't want to reinvent the wheel if someone has done something like this, but if it doesn't exist, I'd be tempted to try. I'm not much of a programmer, but I've had some experience with C# and could maybe staple & duct tape something together.
Any thoughts/feedback are appreciated, thanks!
All devices like android and ios are 100% firewalled, blocking ALL incoming, unsolicited traffic. No way around this without rooting.
So no, it's not possible as you've described where it is strictly peer to peer with no server involved.
But there is some hope. Apps like Nextcloud Talk use a server, but are 100% open source, free, and hostable on a LAN. And matches what you're after feature-wise.
At least Android devices are not firewalled in any way. Even with the latest Android 14 I can run servers like ssh/ftp/ScreenStream locally on the phone.
There's a firewall/NAT on the phone network, but in the local network it's perfectly possible to connect to other phones (unless the local network has client isolation).
It honestly doesn't have to be a cell phone app. It could be something as simple as a Raspberry PI running a special made app.
I'm just fixating on the bit that it would be something that is peer to peer. I can find plenty of hosted solutions that should work for what I want, I just thought if I could get around needing a server to handle it all, that would be cool.
Ah, love it!
Then yes I bet some great options exist then on windows and Linux. Old windows 2000's included "net meeting" did exactly this. Type an ip address, click "call" and it would ring the other person's computer on the LAN if they had net meeting open. Even had a cool ms paint based shared whiteboard, an app way ahead of its time.
Now you got me curious! In this modern world that problem "no longer needs solving" as the expectation has moved on to mobile device, and works over the internet. Fun to go back a little bit and make something basic and resilient again!
Hope you find something that works, worst case a basic app like net meeting could probly be replicated without too much coding. All the features the app would need have libraries for functionality in most programming languages at this point.