asterisk users - Jul 2007 - Best and easiest soft phone for my Dad..

Hi,

Here is the situation.. My Dad is working on contract in overseas.. He 
has internet access in his hotel.. He wants to be able to talk to my Mum 
but the calls are expensive..

I have an asterisk box setup for my business and it has a public IP 
etc.. My Mum has access to a working phone extension on this box..

I got my Dad to install X-Lite but for some reason it won't register and 
trying to talk him through working out whats wrong is proving to be 
difficult.. Also I haven't used a softphone in years.. It could be the 
NAT in the hotel, it could be a firewall or any number of things that 
can cause these issues.. It could even be X-Lite or something running on 
his PC..

So I am looking for a softphone thats really simple to setup and as 
foolproof as possible..

If SIP is likely to be problematic to setup then I have no problem 
getting him to use IAX but will need suggestions of which IAX softphone 
to use and also how to configure it in the iax.conf (haven't done this 
before)..

Any suggestions welcome and appreciated..

Thanks..

Get portsip ( www.portsip.com  ) its realtively easy to configure ( just
push in user/password and server name at startup ) .. there might be NAT
issue so make sure you have nat=yes in ur asterisk's sip.conf for the peer
definition . If it still doesnt work then you need to find a iax phone like
zoiper ( http://www.zoiper.com/  previously idefisk ).

On 21/07/07, WipeOut <wipe_out at users.sourceforge.net>
wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> Here is the situation.. My Dad is working on contract in overseas.. He
> has internet access in his hotel.. He wants to be able to talk to my Mum
> but the calls are expensive..
>
> I have an asterisk box setup for my business and it has a public IP
> etc.. My Mum has access to a working phone extension on this box..
>
> I got my Dad to install X-Lite but for some reason it won't register
and
> trying to talk him through working out whats wrong is proving to be
> difficult.. Also I haven't used a softphone in years.. It could be the
> NAT in the hotel, it could be a firewall or any number of things that
> can cause these issues.. It could even be X-Lite or something running on
> his PC..
>
> So I am looking for a softphone thats really simple to setup and as
> foolproof as possible..
>
> If SIP is likely to be problematic to setup then I have no problem
> getting him to use IAX but will need suggestions of which IAX softphone
> to use and also how to configure it in the iax.conf (haven't done this
> before)..
>
> Any suggestions welcome and appreciated..
>
> Thanks..
>
> _______________________________________________
> --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--
>
> asterisk-users mailing list
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>
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SIP has a lot of issues with NAT, I can only get it to work correctly
 on my LAN with a softphone.

 IDEFISK, now known as Zoiper, is IAX based and I have tested it
 from all kinds of hotel rooms, even the free version supports
 6 simultaneous calls :

                      http://www.asteriskguru.com/idefisk/

 good luck !

 -baji.

--

  On 7/21/07, WipeOut wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Here is the situation.. My Dad is working on contract in overseas.. He
> has internet access in his hotel.. He wants to be able to talk to my Mum
> but the calls are expensive..
>
> I have an asterisk box setup for my business and it has a public IP
> etc.. My Mum has access to a working phone extension on this box..
>
> I got my Dad to install X-Lite but for some reason it won't register
and
> trying to talk him through working out whats wrong is proving to be
> difficult.. Also I haven't used a softphone in years.. It could be the
> NAT in the hotel, it could be a firewall or any number of things that
> can cause these issues.. It could even be X-Lite or something running on
> his PC..
>
> So I am looking for a softphone thats really simple to setup and as
> foolproof as possible..
>
> If SIP is likely to be problematic to setup then I have no problem
> getting him to use IAX but will need suggestions of which IAX softphone
> to use and also how to configure it in the iax.conf (haven't done this
> before)..
>
> Any suggestions welcome and appreciated..
>
> Thanks..
>
> _______________________________________________

One I really like is the idefsk version that was a zip file, you could
extract the file configure the softphone, zip it up and email it out. Saved
the headache of walking someone through the process and even ran of thumb
drives.

On 7/21/07, WipeOut <wipe_out at users.sourceforge.net>
wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> Here is the situation.. My Dad is working on contract in overseas.. He
> has internet access in his hotel.. He wants to be able to talk to my Mum
> but the calls are expensive..
>
> I have an asterisk box setup for my business and it has a public IP
> etc.. My Mum has access to a working phone extension on this box..
>
> I got my Dad to install X-Lite but for some reason it won't register
and
> trying to talk him through working out whats wrong is proving to be
> difficult.. Also I haven't used a softphone in years.. It could be the
> NAT in the hotel, it could be a firewall or any number of things that
> can cause these issues.. It could even be X-Lite or something running on
> his PC..
>
> So I am looking for a softphone thats really simple to setup and as
> foolproof as possible..
>
> If SIP is likely to be problematic to setup then I have no problem
> getting him to use IAX but will need suggestions of which IAX softphone
> to use and also how to configure it in the iax.conf (haven't done this
> before)..
>
> Any suggestions welcome and appreciated..
>
> Thanks..
>
> _______________________________________________
> --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--
>
> asterisk-users mailing list
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>


-- 
Bruce Reeves
Nortex Networks
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> So I am looking for a softphone thats really simple to setup and as
> foolproof as possible..
>
> If SIP is likely to be problematic to setup then I have no problem
> getting him to use IAX but will need suggestions of which IAX softphone
> to use and also how to configure it in the iax.conf (haven't done this
> before)..
You don't specify if he's on Windows, Linux or OSX. But if he is on
Windows, you can try my softphone :
http://www.marccharbonneau.com/asterisk/mediaxphone.php

There is a version using INI file, so you can put all the settings
then zip it and send it to him already configured.

hth

Check this out: http://www.kapanga.net/IP/home.cfm

Very easy to create a self-installing pre-configured soft phone.

On 7/21/07, WipeOut <wipe_out at users.sourceforge.net>
wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> Here is the situation.. My Dad is working on contract in overseas.. He
> has internet access in his hotel.. He wants to be able to talk to my Mum
> but the calls are expensive..
>
> I have an asterisk box setup for my business and it has a public IP
> etc.. My Mum has access to a working phone extension on this box..
>
> I got my Dad to install X-Lite but for some reason it won't register
and
> trying to talk him through working out whats wrong is proving to be
> difficult.. Also I haven't used a softphone in years.. It could be the
> NAT in the hotel, it could be a firewall or any number of things that
> can cause these issues.. It could even be X-Lite or something running on
> his PC..
>
> So I am looking for a softphone thats really simple to setup and as
> foolproof as possible..
>
> If SIP is likely to be problematic to setup then I have no problem
> getting him to use IAX but will need suggestions of which IAX softphone
> to use and also how to configure it in the iax.conf (haven't done this
> before)..
>
> Any suggestions welcome and appreciated..
>
> Thanks..
>
> _______________________________________________
> --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--
>
> asterisk-users mailing list
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>
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It is possible that the hotel is only allowing certain
incoming/outgoing ports as well (i.e. just allowing DNS and HTTP
traffic). A VPN *might* help with that.

On 7/21/07, WipeOut <wipe_out at users.sourceforge.net>
wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Here is the situation.. My Dad is working on contract in overseas.. He
> has internet access in his hotel.. He wants to be able to talk to my Mum
> but the calls are expensive..
>
> I have an asterisk box setup for my business and it has a public IP
> etc.. My Mum has access to a working phone extension on this box..
>
> I got my Dad to install X-Lite but for some reason it won't register
and
> trying to talk him through working out whats wrong is proving to be
> difficult.. Also I haven't used a softphone in years.. It could be the
> NAT in the hotel, it could be a firewall or any number of things that
> can cause these issues.. It could even be X-Lite or something running on
> his PC..
>
> So I am looking for a softphone thats really simple to setup and as
> foolproof as possible..
>
> If SIP is likely to be problematic to setup then I have no problem
> getting him to use IAX but will need suggestions of which IAX softphone
> to use and also how to configure it in the iax.conf (haven't done this
> before)..
>
> Any suggestions welcome and appreciated..
>
> Thanks..
>
> _______________________________________________
> --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--
>
> asterisk-users mailing list
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>

-- 
________________
Mitchel Constantin
Snap - A desktop user interface for Asterisk
www.snapanumber.com

WipeOut wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Here is the situation.. My Dad is working on contract in overseas.. He 
> has internet access in his hotel.. He wants to be able to talk to my Mum 
> but the calls are expensive..
> 
> I have an asterisk box setup for my business and it has a public IP 
> etc.. My Mum has access to a working phone extension on this box..
> 
> I got my Dad to install X-Lite but for some reason it won't register
and
> trying to talk him through working out whats wrong is proving to be 
> difficult.. Also I haven't used a softphone in years.. It could be the 
> NAT in the hotel, it could be a firewall or any number of things that 
> can cause these issues.. It could even be X-Lite or something running on 
> his PC..
> 
> So I am looking for a softphone thats really simple to setup and as 
> foolproof as possible..
> 
> If SIP is likely to be problematic to setup then I have no problem 
> getting him to use IAX but will need suggestions of which IAX softphone 
> to use and also how to configure it in the iax.conf (haven't done this 
> before)..
> 
> Any suggestions welcome and appreciated..
> 
> Thanks..
> 
Thats for all the replies to my question.. I will have to check them all 
out and see what works best for him..

Can anyone post a sample of whats needed in iax.conf for an IAX UA to be 
able to make and receive calls?

Thanks..

> Can anyone post a sample of whats needed in iax.conf for an IAX UA to be
> able to make and receive calls?
[7011]
type=friend
secret=S0m3S3cur3P4ssw0rd
qualify=no
notransfer=yes
mailbox=7011 at default
host=dynamic
disallow=all
allow=ulaw,alaw,gsm
context=from-internal
callerid="Marc Charbonneau" <7011>

hth

Does anyone know a way in Asterisk 1.4 to select the options from the
menuselect menu from the command line?

Time Bandit wrote:
>> Can anyone post a sample of whats needed in iax.conf for an IAX UA to
be
>> able to make and receive calls?
> 
> [7011]
> type=friend
> secret=S0m3S3cur3P4ssw0rd
> qualify=no
> notransfer=yes
> mailbox=7011 at default
> host=dynamic
> disallow=all
> allow=ulaw,alaw,gsm
> context=from-internal
> callerid="Marc Charbonneau" <7011>
> 
> hth
> 
Thanks..