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Calling with a softphone

A softphone is a computer program which allows you to make telephone calls using your computer. This is useful for example when your chosen calling card supplier does not have Local Access numbers in your country. You'll need a reasonably fast Internet connection (DSL or faster) and of course, you'll need a sound card, microphone and speakers (or suitable headset).

The instructions provided here are for an application called Ekiga although the account configuration information could just as well be used for other softphone applications. If you are using MAC OSX, you may wish to use the softphone 'Telephone' available at http://code.google.com/p/telephone/. For more information on softphones you may wish to see the Softphone Wiki page.

Ekiga is a very competant open-source softphone which provides facilities for most types of calls including SIP based audio and video calling.

Essentially, the steps required to get Ekiga working with your Comms-Lab account are:

  1. Download Ekiga
  2. Execute the downloaded binary
  3. Run through the Ekiga setup process (You can skip this if you already have Ekiga installed and working)
  4. Enter your Comms-Lab account information

Ekiga is available for both Windows and Linux users.

From within the main Ekiga window (Shown right) select 'Edit' then select 'Accounts' from the drop down menu to access the accounts window shown below.

Select 'Accounts' then select 'Add a SIP Account'. This will give you the window shown below where you can enter your Comms-Lab account information.

Name: Comms-Lab
Registrar: sip.comms-lab.com
User: 1234567
Authentication User: 1234567
Password: 12345
Timeout: 3600
Enable account Ticked

Enter your calling card number for both 'User' and 'Authentication User'. For the password enter your calling card password. Both your calling card number and password are viewable in the right hand column of the Comms-Lab website when you are signed-in.

Go back to the Accounts window and ensure that the 'Status' column displays 'Registered'. This confirms that your Ekiga softphone is able to communicate with the Comms-Lab telephone network and that your username and password entered in Ekiga are correct.

You are now ready to make calls. Enter the full International telephone number on the SIP url as shown here. (Ekiga automatically adds the appropriate domain name for you when you hit enter or the green dial icon.)


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