VOIP help wanted please

[Kit Jackson]

I am currently in New Zealand and would like to call people in the UK. I have an ASUS laptop running 32 bit Debian 9 and a Huawei phone running Android 4.4.2 with a New Zeland phone chip. I generally have wifi access.

I can ask people I phone regularly to install some software at their end but I also want to make phone calls to regular UK landline numbers and UK mobile phones and of course the cost of calls is a factor. Can you suggest what software to get please? Skype is an obvious possibility but you seem to have to give your life history to Microsoft to sign up and the Linux version seems to be 64 bit only.

Finally if the software could record the conversation that would be an advantage but not essential.

Thanks.

[Graham.]

On 25 Oct 2017 00:09:40 GMT, Kit Jackson coalesced the vapors of human experience into a viable and meaningful comprehension...

Lots of possibilities here. I suggest you put CSipSimple on your Android phone, and sign up with a SIP provider, my favourite, based on call cost is discountvoip.co.uk

You don't mention if you need a UK, or Kiwi VoIP number for incoming calls.

[spuorgelgoog]

Zoiper on Android has a record calls option, but I've never used it so can't saydefinately that it wiorks.

If you sign up to Sipgate Basic you can download a pre-configured Zoiper from them. 1.2p/minute to most UK numbers and a free UK number for incoming.

Owain

[Theo]

There's lots of pseudo-brands run by the same company. Pick whichever is cheapest for the destinations you call:

Also worth knowing that you don't need to carry calls over the internet, you can use a local landline or mobile. These services do 'phone to phone' - you type your local number and the number you want to call into a web form. First your phone rings and you answer, then you hear it ringing at the other end.

This is handy if you have a local SIM so can receive calls OK, but no data plan and no sensible tariff for international calls.

Theo

[Dave Liquorice]

Or take a look a Zoiper.

Geographical number isn't overly relevant to the person being called, provided they have a suitable 'net connection they can be anywhere on the planet.

It's relevant to the people making (paying for) the call but just have two SIP accounts one with a UK number, one with an NZ.

[Kit Jackson]

I hadn't even thought about that but if I sign up to a UK provider I get a UK phone number, do I? I was thinking of making outgoing calls from my end. Is it an extra cost to get a UK number or is that always included? Then somebody else can ring that number and my phone will ring here but they just get changed their normal rate for a call to a UK landline number. Have I understood that right?

[Kit Jackson]

So looking at

I can get a monthly package for 9.95 per month including all calls to UK landlines and mobiles. Alternatively I can pay 1.18p per minute to UK landlines and 9.9p per minute to UK mobiles on a pay as you go basis. Either way I install Zoiper on the Android as the software to make and receive calls and I get a UK phone number for people to call me. Have I understood that correctly?

[Theo]

There are two kinds:

The pseudo-landline providers to whom you (usually) pay a monthly fee and you get a number for incoming calls. To do that you want to be logged in all the time you might receive calls. Many people plug these into some kind of hardware phone or mobile app so you don't have to have your laptop on at all times. Obviously outbound calls are also possible, like any normal phone.

The 'calling credit' providers who provide something a bit similar to those calling cards in newsagents windows: Xp per minute to destination Y, buying credit in lumps of 10 pounds (or whatever). They only do outbound calls, but can often join two outbounds together to use a phone near to you as your end instead of the internet. For these you only need to login/run the app when you want to make a call.

If you don't need to receive incoming calls the latter are usually cheaper. VOIP is international: you don't need a UK company to give you a UK number if you want one.

Theo

[spuorgelgoog]

Yes, and when you're not running Zoiper your calls go to voicemail, which you can retrieve through Zoiper (press and hold 1 or dial 50000) and you get the messages emailed to you.

Your UK number is presented as your outgoing CLI so people can call you back on it.

Owain

[John Rumm]

Although a UK SIP provider will probably give you one by default.

[JoeJoe]

Probably the easiest way is to install Skype on your phone. Skype to Skype calls are free. Create an account, and put a few £'s in it for the cases where you need to call someone who doesn't use it. Calls are pennies/minute.

[Kit Jackson]

Yes, there's a huge difference in price - 0.1p/min to call landlines from Discountvoip and 0.3p/min to call mobiles compared to Sipgate costing 1p/ min to landlines and 9p/min to mobiles. How do Discountvoip do it? Is the quality of the call that's not so good?

Do you know what controls the quality of calls anyway? Is it the application on the Android or is the provider the call goes through? Discountvoip seems to use an app called MobileVOIP. Is this just another Android program like Zoiper or CSipSimple? Can any of these Android apps be used with any SIP provider or are there some restrictions?

[Jethro_uk]

For reasons I have forgotten, I could not get Zoiper to work satisfactorily.

But

works fine - and can record calls.

[Dave Liquorice]

Not overly surprising, easy to get, hard to trace, phone numbers are very useful to drug dealers to international terrorists

Sipgate at 1p/9p minute is still a damn sight cheaper than BT and there isn't a connection charge plus the per minute cost.

How do Discountvoip do it? Is the quality of the call that's not so good?

Gawd knows but it's either a hook to catch you on then sell other services or they scrimp on servers and/or size of the pipes.

Should be able to if you can get the server names, IP address's, ports etc to use. VOIP can be a bit tricky to set up particulary if you are running it behind NAT.

[John Rumm]

That depends on if you go for a flat rate calling package though. If you make a fair number of calls, then stumping up a few extra quid on rental for "free" local and national calls can swing it the other way.

It certainly poorer than a good landline connection, and not as good as a resonable mobile one. However its usable from my limited experience with someone who used it.

Many of the VoIP apps are affilated to the same parent company (Delmont IIRC) and you can chose which "flavour" you are using from a drop down. You can also usually configure manually. Some handsets also support VoIP natively.

[Dave Liquorice]

We don't have a phone glued to an ear like some people seem to have. SWMBO'd uses it the most and a £10 SIPGate top-up lasts her at least

6 months...

"... not as good as a reasonable mobile ..." flipin 'eck that's BAD!

SIPGate VOIP here is better than the landline (3 km of twisted pair means the level is a bit low and the bandwidth is lower). It knocks the socks of all mobile calls, much less delay and no Donald Duck codec artifacts. Just occasionally it'll suffer lost packets but that just produces holes, not donald duck. Such packet loss is normally down to some one else using the 'net.

[John Rumm]

Depends on the mobile call - I get some where it seems to switch into a almost "hifi" mode, and the voice quality is far superior to a normal

3Khz telephony channel. However that only happens mobile to mobile, and both parties need to be in the "right" place.

Given decent broadband the (discount) voip is ok - however in a poor or congested link then its less usable IME (more drop outs, delay, breakup etc)

Full fat voip using a sip provider is better than the discount international voip services, and as you day can be better than conventional land line (as can skype etc)

You can mitigate that a bit if you have a router that can traffic prioritise, or reserve bandwidth for voip.

[Dave Liquorice]

And have the "right sort of phone" that supports than mode. In my experience calls involving a mobile are normally hard work with the delay, dropouts and codec artifacts.

My ISP allows some bandwidth to be reserved but I think that is based on packet size rather than any packet inspection. Having thought about it a bit I suspect it's the "storm" of small DNS lookup packets that occurs when some one loads a new (uncached) page. File downloads that are effectively filling the pipe don't mess up the VoIP, but they will be using packets of maximum size.