Make calls on MBP?

sjinsjca said:

Besides Skype etc, you can set up an actual VoIP service that mimics a landline in every way by tracking the tips at http://unvexed.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-to-roll-your-own-with-voip-for.html

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sjinsjca said:

Basically:

1. Set up an account at http://voip.ms or a similar wholesaler. Cost, $0.50-$0.99 plus funds to pay for subsequent calls (which are super-cheap, literally pennies).
   
2. Download Whistle Phone from the App Store or Zoiper from http://www.zoiper.com/en ...or both...
   
3. Set up Whistle and/or Zoiper to talk toyour VoIP.ms account (via the SIP standard).

Now you can make and receive calls. NO other hardware is needed. (The example at the link above is aimed at people who want to keep their "landline" phones in their homes, but cut costs and improve quality by disconnecting from the phone company. To connect legacy house phones to a VoIP service requires an analog telephone adaptor, about $35-40 now. You won't need one of those.)

Of course, you'll need an Internet connection, such as a hotel or coffee-shop hotspot access. And the connection must be of good quality. Bandwidth isn't so much an issue, but dropouts and hangs in the connection will be problematic. Basically, if your browsing experience isn't responsive and smooth on a given Internet connection, don't expect much from VoIP on that connection.


...And, keep in mind that many hotels and other hotspots (and even some national firewalls) block VoIP, forcing you to use expensive in-room phones to make your calls.

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sjinsjca said:

You can get around this by tunneling through to a VPN where you have an account. Or, set up your own VPN at home on a Raspberry Pi or something of the sort (see http://unvexed.blogspot.com/2012/08/how-to-set-up-real-encrypted-vpn.html for details). This happened to me in my high-end hotel in Europe just last week. I needed to call my rental car company, and cell phone roaming and in-room calls are so damned expensive... so I booted up my preferred VoIP client (3CXPhone, available for iPhone, iPod Touch and Android). Alas, couldn't get a connection to voip.ms, so I connected to my home VPN and everything worked great. That saved me $25!

(VPNs can also allow you to use a VoIP app on a smartphone using cell data... often much cheaper than actual cell calls, and also often blocked.)

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sjinsjca said:

Incidentally, if you hate cell phones but don't mind having a nice music player, you can do all the above with an iPod Touch and any number of VoIP applications, including Whistle's iOS app or the aforementioned 3CXphone. Instructions for setting up the latter are at http://unvexed.blogspot.com/2011/07/voip-as-alternative-to-cell-phones.html.

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Cubytus said:

If you know how to use both of these programs, I may be interested in recontacting you in the future, if I may?

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