Which Software To Use For Free Telephone Calls

PC Telephone
PC Telephone offer their own software telephone. It is available in a free limited-functionality evaluation version as well as a paid-for full version. MS Windows only.

The software offers a range of nice features, such as call forwarding, call waiting and audio conferencing. As well as voicemail and full duplex recording of phone conversations, the software can also handle faxes.

Setup is pretty straightforward, but if you’re behind a NAT router you will need to configure it to map port 9084 (UDP).



Firefly from Virbiage
It’s a Windows softphone that supports IAX and SIP, but it comes packaged with Virbiage’s own ‘enhanced IAX’ VoIP service, Worldvox, an Australian provider. (At present this VoIP service is Internet-only, though they are apparently planning to open gateways to the PSTN eventually.)

However, Firefly can also be used as a stand-alone SIP or IAX softphone. Although it’s definitely aimed at the naive internet user, and has a simple user interface, it does support multiple codecs ( iLBC, GSM and G.711u/a). It also supports text messaging.



Lipz4
A free SIP softphone for Linux, Lipz is based on the code for the ZIP 4x4 IP Telephone (a hardware phone) but is designed to be used as a software phone.

Thankfully, there is a quickstart guide, though users are also encouraged to download the monster ZIP 4x4 User’s Manual as well. As well as the usual forwarding, voicemail, hold, transfer and address book functions, Lipz also includes an instant messaging function, though for conferencing, do not disturb, AES encryption, compression (G.729), and the ability to specify a backup server, you’ll need to buy an additional licence from the manufacturers, Zultys.



Asterisk PBX
Asterisk an Open Source PBX for Linux.

Asterisk is the PBX software of choice for those who need a private exchange and either don’t want a hardware PBX, or have a spare Linux box sitting around and are wondering what to do with it. (Or OpenBSD, FreeBSD, or Mac OS X Jaguar. We even hear reports that it’s been made to run on an Xbox.)

It does pretty much everything you’d expect from a PBX. Call conferencing, queuing, parking, caller ID and voicemail are all supported. With a PSTN gateway or card, Asterix lets you take voice calls from the PSTN and route them locally using VoIP.

That gives it a lot of potential for use with remote office setups where users need to be able to talk to each other, transfer calls, and use voicemail and speed dialling, though it’s also widely



SJ Phone
Available for Pocket PC 2002, 2003 , Windows CE, MS Windows XP, 2K, Win98 and ME, Linux and Apple MAC OS X, SJphone from www.sjlabs.com is definitely one of the more multi-platform softphones on the market. Admittedly the Linux and OS X flavours are still in beta, but they are widely used. The Windows version offers a 30-day free trial.

As seems to be compulsory with all softphones, there’s no web quickstart guide, only a vast PDF manual to download. But the manual is both clear and comprehensive, so I can forgive it its size.

SJphone is very configurable, and supports both SIP and H323. You can download extra codecs from the SJlabs website if you need them, and although the software doesn’t have as attractive an interface as the popular Xten software, custom skins are available.



Xten
Xten offers two SIP compliant VOIP softphone options: Xten and Xten Lite, available for Windows, Mac and Lindows OS.

Both versions can handle NAT, so your local firewall shouldn’t be a problem.

Xten does its level best to make you think it really is a telephone, with its cute phone-shaped interface, though if this is your first experience with a VOIP softphone you may initially find yourself wishing they’d given you something a bit more familiar.

The Lite version is a free download with a few of the more sophisticated functions removed. But you still get a lot of functionality for a free program, including hold, redial, recent number list, caller ID and the ability to use up to three ‘lines’ simultaneously.

There’s even a customised version that integrates directly with the popular Freeworld Dialup VOIP service, though we had a few difficulties installing this.

The Pro version adds even more functionality, supporting up to 6 lines, blind and supervised call transfer, conferencing and call transfer.