[INFO] VOIP on the Galaxy Nexus - Samsung Galaxy Nexus
Some of us have been discussing VOIP options over in the prepaid thread ( http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1455014 ) and thought we might as well break it off into it's own thread. While this could probably be a more general Android thread, I thought it best to remain specific for what works on OUR devices, as CPU/software do make a difference.
Let me preface by saying I am still a VOIP newb. I've got the basics down (I think) but I welcome any and all advice or suggestions on things to add. I'm sure I got some things wrong. Obviously there are quite a few variables that come into play, including software, provider, codecs, and connection.
Google Voice Solutions:
GrooveIP: ($5.00)
http://snrblabs.com/snrb/Apps/GrooveIP/FAQ.aspx
MY Comments: not working reliably when off of Wi-Fi.
Review by cyberpyr8 (Verizon Network): http://androidactivist.org/reviews/appreviews/app-review-groove-ip/
Talkatone: (Free) Routes Google Voice through their own servers. Apparently converts to 3 different codecs. See more here:
http://blog.talkatone.com/2011/06/16/talkatone-audio-compression-ftw/
Comments: still testing
SIP Providers:
VOIP.ms: Pay as you go, basically. DID numbers for $1/month, incoming calls $0.01/minute. Outgoing to the US starting at $0.0105/minute. They bill in 6 second intervals. You add funds (minimum $25), and they take them as needed. Supports G711(PCMA), G729a, and GSM codecs.
Comments: My current SIP provider. Interface seems fairly powerful when you get the hang of it. The 2 lower bandwidth codecs (G729a and GSM) seem to be fairly reliable, and G729 seems to be the better quality of the two. My WiFi calls have all been great, with very little lag time. Still testing.
ttabbal adds:
Anveo: I like the options, but the site is a little hard to get used to. It's also nearly impossible to get it to work reliably with Android directly. They are a good option for DIDs and general VOIP service though, if you have another service you can route Android calls to/from. DIDs are cheap here, US numbers seem to go about $2/mo with unlimited inbound calls. E911 is the cheapest I've found at $0.80/mo. Call quality seems quite good, though codec selection is somewhat limited. The call routing editor seems pretty cool. Flowchart looking design app for choosing what to do with calls. FAX is also an option for you business users. US calls are 1 cent per minute.
ttabbal adds:
Callcentric: They are a well known somewhat premium provider. I put $5 on them just as a backup route. They cost a little more, I think 1.5 cents/min. The gnex registers up to them fine, and calls in and out work fine. I've only used them a few times for testing, but call quality is good. Codec selection is in between. Enough options to cover most tastes though.
SIP apps:
Built-In SIP: (Free) Codec support is limited; no G729?
CSipSimple: (Free) Integrates into native dialer, lots of codec support. A lot of config options. Supports a ton of codecs. My current choice. NIGHTLY BUILDS HERE: http://nightlies.csipsimple.com/trunk/
Bria: ($8.00) Quite a few options, but then they go and force you to pay even more for things like the G729 codec. Easy interface. I thought I had convinced myself I was getting better quality than CSipSimple, but I think that was related to outside variables. Does not integrate with native dialer.
Sipdroid: (Free) The original. Seems a bit dated now; no G729 support.
Other:
Skype: reported to work well, but is not the cheapest route. I haven't purchased one of their plans to test, but for easy setup it may be the best option. Proprietary codecs?
Terms for noobs: (Thanks ttabbal!)
DID: A phone number people on a regular phone can call. You can also direct Google Voice to call this number. If you have a free inbound call DID like Anveo, it's a decent option for GV integration. Most providers allow you to link a DID to various PBX type services and route calls in various ways. Or you can just send all the calls direct to your VOIP device.
PBX: Private Branch Exchange. Basically, your own mini phone company. You can receive calls, route them to various extensions (most any VOIP device), handle voicemail, transfer calls around, hold music, all sorts of crap most people here probably don't need.
Trunk: A connection for inbound and/or outbound calls. Usually used to link a server like Asterisk to a provider for calls to/from the phone network.
Asterisk: One thing Asterisk will give you is the ability to use a different codec on the phone->server link than the one GV uses. So your server will transcode for you. A free PBXes account will do that too. Asterisk is really more useful if you want multiple extensions and providers. You can then do all kinds of crazy stuff with calls.
Troubleshooting: (ttabbal again!)
NAT. NAT sucks. It will cause pain and suffering depending on the type of NAT you have. My office network is using Symmetric NAT, which is near impossible to use SIP with. So I set up OpenVPN on my gnex and just leave it running all the time. It doesn't use as much battery as I feared it would after tuning some settings. The big win was setting "keepalive 60 120" in the server config file. Comparing graphs using the Battery Monitor Widget, I'm about the same standby drain I was getting before. But now SIP works all the time, as there's no NAT in the way.
Wifi on the gnex.... When the screen is off it seems to go into some low-power state that doesn't save much power and causes little connection glitches. So even putting the phone to my head to talk would turn off the screen, then the VOIP call would get all choppy. Telling the app to leave the screen on in calls fixed it right up. I ended up trying Franco's kernel, as he has an option to disable the wifi power save stuff. It's working much better now. I've seen threads about this causing slow downloads when trying to download stuff like Gameloft game data as well. Though others say they don't see it. No idea, but it caused me lots of trouble and it's an easy fix, so I'm posting it.
UPDATE: New tips from natesilver:
natesilver said:
1. Keep-alive.
This pretty much isn't important on wifi because a home router will usually keep the NAT entries long enough to never lose registration. However on 3/4G the cell carrier will usually cut UDP entries very quickly (my provider cuts them as early as 20 seconds. Unfortunately most VOIP providers only use UDP protocol. This means that if you are using the standard ICS VOIP client, you WILL miss some calls without even knowing that you have become unregistered.
There is an easy solution: go with a VOIP provider that supports TCP protocol. Why? Because cell carriers keep TCP connections open much longer. Personally, I'm very happy with VOIP.ms even though they are UDP only. What i did was create a free account at Sip2Sip.info (because they support TCP and allow free internet calls). My VOIP.ms DID is then forwarded via sip uri to my free Sip2Sip account so i can always receive incoming calls while on mobile, for no extra cost than VOIP.ms alone.
The other benefit to this is that now while using CSipSimple, you can change the TCP keep alive interval to a longer time (think 600 s), to allow the phone to be in deep sleep longer and greatly save on battery usage. IMO this if a must if you are using VOIP on a mobile connection for incoming calls.
The other topic is latency.
Even with a very fast wifi or mobile connection, there is noticeable latency introduced by the Android OS when using VOIP. The playback buffer seems to be unnecessarily high so there is a delay from the time the phone receives a word until it is played through the speaker. This makes for a bizarre pause during conversation, especially if two people begin to talk at the same time. Don't believe me? Try an echo test with your VOIP provider. On a good connection, you should hear yourself back essentially at the same time you speak. With stock Android, you will not experience this. There will be a delay. Add even a small bit of network latency and the problem multiplies.
I have a solution for you if you are using CM9 or AOKP or some other twist of these ROMs.
Install the patch from this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1674836
Then to make it even better, use CSipSimple (nightly version) with OPENSL-ES enabled as backend implementation method for audio (somewhere in advanced media settings).
With this setup, latency is reduced to almost nothing which you can verify with another echo test, or just simply from the improved call conversation quality you will experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My 2 main requirements:
- Cheap. Trying to stay under $10/month, with an incoming 808 area code phone number.
- must be reliable enough to make and receive calls in most outdoor locations. Since I'm on an island, coverage is actually decent in most areas, but GrooveIP seems to be a bit too bandwidth intensive. Still testing with Talkatone, seems hit or miss. Low bandwidth codecs for SIP seem to be most reliable (as they should be) but you sometimes sound like a robot.
A few years ago, I had tried out Sipdroid back on my CDMA Hero with poor results, and abandoned my quest fairly quickly as I was on Sprint with plenty of minutes.
My interest renewed with the $30 T-Mobile Prepaid plan that gives 5gb of data but only 100 minutes. I don't need many minutes, but 100 isn't quite going to cut it. I'm still testing and will be updating this post and adding additional info as I try new solutions. I have not yet decided on a single solution.
My requirements are probably very different from most. I'm looking for it to play well with my prepaid ambitions. What I really wanted is to have Google Voice forward to my VOIP number and whatever prepaid number I was using that month. Google Voice is great, but I live in Hawaii, and the 808 area code is not eligible for Google Voice numbers. Can't get a new one, can't port one in.
While in many places this wouldn't be an issue, people take the 808 area code very seriously around here. If you are giving out your number for business reasons, it is a serious disadvantage if you do not have that 808, and you are looked at as an outsider. Stupid? Yes, especially when anyone can just pickup a $20 prepaid phone at Wal-Mart and have one, but it isn't something that will change soon.
My new plan is to use my VOIP number as my main number, and have any calls that go unanswered forward to the prepaid number. (EDIT: Just realized I could have this forward to a Google Voice # with any area code and maintain my 808 illusion... This might work!) VOIP.ms interface allows for this, however you are charged both the incoming rate as well as the outgoing rate for all forwarded calls (about 2.5c per minute total for Hawaii). This is still cheaper than getting seperate forwarding number from somewhere like hostednumbers.com
As always, if anyone has any suggestions, please share.
GVoice and Groove IP user here. I love it! I was using SipDroid with a SIP provider but it wasn't very reliable. Kept missing calls, etc. Never heard of Talkatone untill this thread. It seemed interesting so I looked them up but they display ads. No thank you. For a one time fee of $5 (I paid 2.50 as it's on special often) I recommend Groove. Use it on Wifi and 3G with no issues. I'm in Vietnam calling back home in SoCal.
Great info. I've used GrooveIP extensively for about the past year and was over all quite pleased. The only issue I have with it is the lack of support for different (lower bandwidth) codecs. On wifi at my work, GrooveIP seems to really struggle at making calls clearly. That said, GrooveIP is far more configurable than the other straight Google Voice solution (Talkatone) and the extra configuration options are what kept me on GrooveIP for so long.
I've been using Talkatone for about the past week, and the calls have been much better - no more stuttering. Talkatone does display ads, which can be a bit of a turnoff. My other complaints about Talkatone were actually resolved in an update yesterday when they added the option to disable notifications for Google Talk messages and also an option to restrict to wifi. Now that those features are added, I went ahead and purchased a 1-year premium subscription for $20 which eliminates the ads and adds features - like the ability to automatically toggle your Google Voice settings based on your connection to the Talkatone service. It still has a few minor bugs but I'm sure those will be resolved soon.
I bought GrooveIP when it went on sale a while back for $2 or $2.50. I only used it to make a few calls while on Verizon's 3G, worked rather well. I have talkatone but haven't used it yet but I hear good things about it.
I have been using Skype for ages. Most of the day my phone is on WiFi and I have the T-Mo 10GB plan so I am not concerned about the amount of data.
Most of the time, I do Skype to Skype so no cost there but I do need to do Skype to phone (mostly mobiles) from US to Europe.
Does anyone knows what gets me better rates than Skype on US to Europe (mobile)?
I am using the build in SIP client in combination with VoipAlot, which has very good rates both to landlines as mobile. I used to use Nimbuzz or Fring in the past in combination with VoipAlot, which also worked fine.
I been a GrooVe IP user for a while now. Whenever my phone is connected to wifi at work or home it goes into airplane mode w/ wifi enabled and changes my google voice # to forward to gtalk and use GrooVe IP.
Just downloaded Talkatone to give it a try to see which I like better. I like the fact that GrooVe IP was more integrated into android more (you don't have to use their app to make calls, or view call logs, ect). Hopefully Talkatone follows.
In my apartment, cell signal is rather poor for both AT&T and T-Mobile—as such, I can’t use the phone in most places in my apartment. Therefore, I looked into VoIP options and have currently settled on VOIPo (voipo.com) and Internet calling using the stock firmware. This, in total and combined with T-Mobile’s prepaid 30USD/5GB plan gives me unlimited calling for under 40USD a month (though I had to pay VOIPo two years in advance to get this).
I am almost satisfied with this solution, but just barely.
Pros
I can call from anywhere in my apartment and call quality is better than cellular.
Unlimited minutes with 5GB of data for under 40USD
All voicemail comes in via email (but Google Voice does this as well)
Lots of call routing options (but I don’t really use these)
Cons
VOIPo only has one codec, which requires 80Kbps in both directions, so calls using anything less than a stellar 4G connection are quite poor or impossible (so I often need to make calls—or make the call again—using the 100 minutes available on the T-Mobile plan).
VOIPo’s BYOD servers appear to be less reliable than their non-BYOD ones
The Internet calling client appears to stop registering with the SIP server at least once a week, so I miss calls.
Fairly frequently callers complain of their voices being echoed back to them—and this seems to be more of an issue with the Internet calling client versus VOIPo, or some slight incompatibility between the two
I assume due to short NAT timeouts and possible packets loss, I need to configure the Internet calling client to Always Send keep-alive or I miss calls when on 3/4G—and I assume this also negatively affects battery life.
VOIPo does not do text messaging—so I have to make calls with one number and text with another
All said though, sadly it seems this stuff is still bleeding edge, even today (even though my legacy Nokia E51 does VoIP/SIP better than Google’s finest), and does not Just Work.
Great thread. I'm on Verizon with only 50 minutes and unlimited data. Total is $50 a month.
I was using skype, but I am going to give voipalot a try.
Edit: Looks like voipalot does not update their ios and android apps very frequently. They also have pretty bad reviews. I guess I will look for another SIP provider.
Edit2: I decided to sign up for callcentric. Just added $5. Will report back.
I use google voice and my own asterisk server at home for free VOIP whenever I'm on wifi.
Q.Entity said:
Does anyone knows what gets me better rates than Skype on US to Europe (mobile)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check out www.voip.ms and CallCentric for international rates; both seem to be pretty similar.
I'll try to update tonight with some of the other VOIP providers discussed. Glad this is useful for other people too, thanks guys!
nomisunrider said:
I use google voice and my own asterisk server at home for free VOIP whenever I'm on wifi.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you give a quick run down on why setting up Asterisk is beneficial in this situation? I've been looking into it and don't really see a need unless you have multiple extensions going, but the geek in me really wants to find a reason to set one up!
I was wondering if I was the only one interested in this.
Apps:
I'm currently using a nightly build of CSipSimple. It has some advanced settings in "expert" mode that let you tune things like the frequency of keep-alive packets. It also seems better than the others at realizing it's lost the registration and re-connecting.
I also tried SIPDroid, built-in SIP client, 3CX, and one other one I can't remember. All had some issue or another that made me go back to CSipSimple.
Services:
I tried PBXes, it works ok, but it's just Asterisk re-directing to Google Voice. Not bad for what it is, and it's free, so that's worth something.
Anveo: I like the options, but the site is a little hard to get used to. It's also nearly impossible to get it to work reliably with Android directly. They are a good option for DIDs and general VOIP service though, if you have another service you can route Android calls to/from. DIDs are cheap here, US numbers seem to go about $2/mo with unlimited inbound calls. E911 is the cheapest I've found at $0.80/mo. Call quality seems quite good, though codec selection is somewhat limited. The call routing editor seems pretty cool. Flowchart looking design app for choosing what to do with calls. FAX is also an option for you business users. US calls are 1 cent per minute.
Callcentric: They are a well known somewhat premium provider. I put $5 on them just as a backup route. They cost a little more, I think 1.5 cents/min. The gnex registers up to them fine, and calls in and out work fine. I've only used them a few times for testing, but call quality is good. Codec selection is in between. Enough options to cover most tastes though.
Terms for noobs:
DID: A phone number people on a regular phone can call. You can also direct Google Voice to call this number. If you have a free inbound call DID like Anveo, it's a decent option for GV integration. Most providers allow you to link a DID to various PBX type services and route calls in various ways. Or you can just send all the calls direct to your VOIP device.
PBX: Private Branch Exchange. Basically, your own mini phone company. You can receive calls, route them to various extensions (most any VOIP device), handle voicemail, transfer calls around, hold music, all sorts of crap most people here probably don't need.
Trunk: A connection for inbound and/or outbound calls. Usually used to link a server like Asterisk to a provider for calls to/from the phone network.
What I'm doing now:
I am trying to set up a replacement for all our services. So I want some PBX type features. The various providers love to charge by the phone and such, so I decided to set up my own Asterisk server with FreePBX to configure it. And I thought it would be funny to be able to transfer calls to my wife's cell and such. I set up the above providers as "Trunks" and my gnex and a softphone as extensions to test calling and such. So far, it's working pretty good. I had trouble getting the Asterisk Google Voice stuff to work reliably, and others online have reported it as well. So I'm just using PBXes to deal with that right now. For our home line, I'll probably pick up an Obi 100 and bridge a new GV account to it and connect it to the Asterisk server. The Obi has a regular phone port so the house cordless phone setup will just go on the way it always has.
Issues:
NAT. NAT sucks. It will cause pain and suffering depending on the type of NAT you have. My office network is using Symmetric NAT, which is near impossible to use SIP with. So I set up OpenVPN on my gnex and just leave it running all the time. It doesn't use as much battery as I feared it would after tuning some settings. The big win was setting "keepalive 60 120" in the server config file. Comparing graphs using the Battery Monitor Widget, I'm about the same standby drain I was getting before. But now SIP works all the time, as there's no NAT in the way.
Wifi on the gnex.... When the screen is off it seems to go into some low-power state that doesn't save much power and causes little connection glitches. So even putting the phone to my head to talk would turn off the screen, then the VOIP call would get all choppy. Telling the app to leave the screen on in calls fixed it right up. I ended up trying Franco's kernel, as he has an option to disable the wifi power save stuff. It's working much better now. I've seen threads about this causing slow downloads when trying to download stuff like Gameloft game data as well. Though others say they don't see it. No idea, but it caused me lots of trouble and it's an easy fix, so I'm posting it.
---------- Post added at 02:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:20 PM ----------
urinsane said:
Can you give a quick run down on why setting up Asterisk is beneficial in this situation? I've been looking into it and don't really see a need unless you have multiple extensions going, but the geek in me really wants to find a reason to set one up!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One thing Asterisk will give you is the ability to use a different codec on the phone->server link than the one GV uses. So your server will transcode for you. A free PBXes account will do that too. Asterisk is really more useful if you want multiple extensions and providers. You can then do all kinds of crazy stuff with calls.
---------- Post added at 03:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:27 PM ----------
Luxferro said:
I been a GrooVe IP user for a while now. Whenever my phone is connected to wifi at work or home it goes into airplane mode w/ wifi enabled and changes my google voice # to forward to gtalk and use GrooVe IP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How are you changing the GV settings? I looked around a bit, but the only references I could find to plugins for Tasker/Locale were dead.
Wow. Awesome post, thanks. I will steal some of this for the OP with credit to you if you don't mind.
Should have reserved a couple more posts! : )
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
i got myself a flat for internet only, 10 euro plus 20 for nexus and thats that. for calling i use voip/sip and it's pretty nice actually. i pay almost nothing, a couple of cents for long calls, even on mobile networks. like months ago i once paid 10 euro to intervoip, the provider im using right now, and i still have most of it left - its crazy that i learned of this so late, years and years i paid craploads of money for nothing, silly vodafone stole like 50 euro each month just for calling. the prices they are asking for are almost criminal compared to voip, i pay 90% less now, yet the quality through 3g, hspa and wifi is perfectly alright.
as a client i used csipsimple and since i couldnt get it to work anymore i use mobileVOIP. not the best app but it does the job, has call integration and i can see how much my calls cost and how much money i have left, which is nice.
First I want to say that my google voice # is my main phone number. I ported my # to google voice a few years ago, and it has been working great.
After looking for a SIP provider, I signed up for Callcentric.
I am using the built in SIP, and setting up the account was very easy. I just had to enter the username, password, and server. Callcentric has a tutorial when you sign up that is very helpful.
Did a few test call and it works great. Call quality was pretty good over LTE.
My issues:
-My outgoing # is some random callcentric phone number. I tried to set it up so that it shows my google voice # to people I call, but was not able to do this.
-It's easy to have Google Voice forward calls to my callcentric number, but there is a monthly fee for this from callcentric. It's only $2, so it might be worth it to some people. Other SIP providers might not charge to receive calls though.
So my biggest problem is the caller ID not showing my Google voice # to people I call. If anyone knows of a fix for this, it would be great.
In the meantime, I decided to purchase SIPdroid, and it works quite well. The integration with Google Voice is great.
@ttabbal
I'm using a tasker/local plugin called locale Google voice plugin. I didn't even realize it was dead till you mentioned it.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2 Beta-5
edit: if you want the app let me know. I'll host it somewhere for ya. It's not like the creator is losing money if they took it off the market.
edit2: just found out what happened to it https://groups.google.com/a/googleproductforums.com/forum/#!topic/voice/yGB1btViZi4
Thank you for contacting me. I am working hard to restore the listing. Google disabled it because I did not make it clear enough that the software is not affiliated with Google. But the Market team is known to be slow to respond to emails. Will keep you updated. I might have to release it under a different name/package name.
Toby
Steelgirder Developement -
Website
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NCRoadster said:
So my biggest problem is the caller ID not showing my Google voice # to people I call. If anyone knows of a fix for this, it would be great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i know once i tried to figure it out in csipsimple and it wouldnt do, but i overlooked a field for it in my account details on the webpage where i bought the service. it worked fine after i filled in my number there.
molesarecoming said:
i know once i tried to figure it out in csipsimple and it wouldnt do, but i overlooked a field for it in my account details on the webpage where i bought the service. it worked fine after i filled in my number there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
voip.ms also lets you set outgoing caller id through their settings. I think you can actually spoof any number you want in there... kinda crazy.
Related
[Q] Native VOIP (Internet Calling)
Evening folks. Currently utilizing native internet calling via dialer -> sip accout (pbxes.org) -> google voice. The grand question is, does an app exist or is it a configuration hiding out somewhere that can edit the configuration/qualities of half/full duplex and mic noise reduction? Is that even the place to be looking? Have calls inbound/outbound with no problem, however, a few seconds of me making noise kills the incoming audio completely (the problem rears its head in outdoor situations, where wind can overpower the mic and I lose all incoming audio). Bandwidth/latency isn't the issue, and it's really effecting the quality of the calls. For sheer simplicity, I'd like to keep it to the native dialer/etc, so sipdroid/grooveip/etc are out. The function exists, it just feels like it needs to be honed down and honestly, there's not enough configuration options I'm seeing to deal with the problems. Cheers
GrooVe IP can use the native dialer.
nmprodan said: GrooVe IP can use the native dialer. Click to expand... Click to collapse Absolutely right. I think a lot of people don't realize it. I just dial like normal and then a small pop-up appears asking which network I want to make the call over. Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
jonathan3579 said: Absolutely right. I think a lot of people don't realize it. I just dial like normal and then a small pop-up appears asking which network I want to make the call over. Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium Click to expand... Click to collapse And you can set GrooveIP to automatically use the 3g/4g connection and default to the native network if no internet is available. Loving it so far.
i tried a whole bunch of them, the one that worked best for me was csipsimple, also one of the few with clear sound and echo supression. its free and uses native dialer (after you click 'phone' a box pops up asking for permission to use VOIP). i just wish i could use the native client. i hated to install something extra when ICS has it built right in. unfortunately, like you said, it is crippled by too few options, won't accept many providers as it is right now. im on voipcheap for instance, phone cancels call or crashes.
nmprodan said: GrooVe IP can use the native dialer. Click to expand... Click to collapse Anything like this without needing Google Voice?
PLEASE HELP-DEV NEEDED-Bluetooth Voice Command/Dock Audio
PLEASE, help me. I've looked around and only found a couple of post within threads that specifically target these two issues. Most people are concerned about voice dialing over bluetooth which is answered by several apps, Voice Command included. But, I'm pretty sure a lot of people have been frustrated by or are curious about this: It seems REALLY dumb of Samsung to disable or remove the ability for bluetooth voice input in stock apps. I know there's Voice Command, but I have 2 problems with that - 1. it just kinda totally sucks, IMHO; 2. If you launch something like Google Navigation, but it or you get the address wrong, you cannot use voice commands to input the new address within the application, you have to back out an try again. If I tell it to navigate to "Alewife Station" and Navigation comes back with a list of wrong guesses, I have to back out. Also, no voice-to-text once you are in your messaging app. It's fine for the initial message out, but not your reply if the app is open. No 3rd party voice assistant apps. No Google search outside of Voice Command. Essentially, no bluetooth voice input outside of their precious little app that is not as all inclusive as they'd like to make it seem. My second gripe is using the audio out for only media/notifications, but not phone calls. The audio quality is markedly better when using the audio out on the car dock verses an FM transmitter, especially in the city where it's hard to find an open frequency. But if I receive a phone call while docked the audio switches to the phone's speakerphone. And even with a bluetooth paired it takes the input from the phone (the mic is blocked by the dock) WTF?! So I have to dismount my phone (which is illegal in some states) or fumble through the menus to turn off the audio out setting, then switch my radio to FM and hope I'm in a clear area, just to take/make a call? So much for 'eyes on the road'. These two decisions seem counter intuitive and odd oversights for a flagship smartphone. ANY suggestions or solutions are welcome. If you'd like to build an app to address one or both of these issues, I'll test it all day on my phone (that's why I pay $8/month for insurance) and support your development time. I'm sure many, many people would be happy to have this function. Sorry about the rant, but the fact that this is not a standard function irks me.
Nothing?...
How do I turn my deactivated Dinc to a working internet phone?
So I have an SGS3 on the way and a deactivated Incredible soon Do you guys know how I can use my Dinc on wifi or tethering from my SGS3 to still be able to make internet calls? I don't want to just demote this bad boy to an mp3 player because this phone is too awesome to just put back in its box. I believe I saw some people using their tabs to make calls, so I would imagine it would be a similar setup. So if you guys can point me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated!
Just flash a custom ROM, bypass the activation screen, put it in airplane mode and turn on wifi. Then use something like Groove IP to make data calls through your Google Voice number. There is also an app called Desk SMS (I think that's what it's called) by clockwork mod (aka koush) which will allow you to send texts over wifi. People use that one to send texts from their wifi only tablets. There is also a script somewhere in the Inc dev section to which converts the Inc to a wifi only device. That should be enough to get you started.
KrisPeezy said: So I have an SGS3 on the way and a deactivated Incredible soon Do you guys know how I can use my Dinc on wifi or tethering from my SGS3 to still be able to make internet calls? I don't want to just demote this bad boy to an mp3 player because this phone is too awesome to just put back in its box. I believe I saw some people using their tabs to make calls, so I would imagine it would be a similar setup. So if you guys can point me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated! Click to expand... Click to collapse this is what I used on my Lenovo ideapad a1... http://thedroidguy.com/2010/12/voip-for-android-devices/
I use groove ip https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gvoip with google voice http://www.google.com/voice. Works great, easy setup, and you can still text thru the google voice app. With the paid version of groove you can even use the phones native dialer and call log. And you can use google voice for voicemail.
Full VoIP video tutorial out if you want unlimited GV calling.
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I thought you might be interested in a complete step by step tutorial on how to get your own FreePBX/Asterisk server up and running with Google Voice I just uploaded. I worked pretty hard on them.
Nobody else has done it with PBXes/Google Voice/CSipSimple/Android and recent versions of PBX In a Flash until now. Some people on these forums asked me to create the tutorial because they are struggling and although there is good information out there, it's spread across multiple sites, and many don't have the time to research it all. All videos in the series are viewable in 720p, 1080p, and 1200p.
I was inspired to make them because I see a lot of frugal people struggling with setting it up despite all the tutorials here. I think many people learn better visually and aurally, so I hope many will benefit from this.
Feel free to check it out.
Have a nice weekend.
FreePBX VoIP Tutorial
12-part YouTube playlist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9DzN1Pu6-Q&list=PLE_de-PBwrTSUMm-Y48aiOOHt_YyT69t0
I can't believe how good my battery life is now on top of how good the calls sound. Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/DmR4KAn.png
Updates and additional notes
5/22/2014: GV still works and new versions of Incredible PBX
Since Google Voice is still working, you might as well take advantage of it and set up a PBX server for free unlimited calling in the US and Canada. You can even use softphones like Jitsi or Zoiper to connect to your PBX server and make calls through your PC instead of your Android device if you like.
FreePBX/IncrediblePBX has been on a bumpy ride lately. They went from using CentOS to some other Linux distribution called "Scientific Linux"
or something and now it seems to be back to CentOS--or some version of it. In my tutorials I recommend installing the .ova file of PIAF 2.0.6.4.3, but now it's up to 3.6.5.64. I just installed it and it's virtually identical. http://sourceforge.net/projects/pbxinaflash/files/PIAF-3.6.5-VirtualMachine/
5/22/2014: QoS
So it turns out there isn't a single video tutorial on YouTube that shows you how to set up Quality of Service (prioritized bandwidth in your router), so I think I may slap one together. We're at the point where QoS is almost a necessity, because when you're running a VoIP server and someone else on your network starts uploading to YouTube or watching Netflix, your VoIP calls are going to become jittery and your VoIP will be rendered useless for that time. Setting up QoS completely mitigates the hogging of bandwidth by any one service, port, protocol, or device--depending on how you set it up. I envision a tutorial that will take multiple real-world scenarios into consideration such as Xbox Live, Netflix, YouTube uploading/download, Usenet, Torrents, and big file transfers and show you how to configure it so that you maintain a 20ms ping to Google or your online game while your roommate is torrenting his rear end off.
12/8/2013 Update about XMPP coming to an end on May 15, 2014 and effectively rendering these tutorials almost useless.
Read more on page 11 of this thread because I posted some links.
6/10/2013: Verizon and the NSA
In light of the Verizon security issues with people getting very angry about the collection of metadata, I want to remind you that the Android app I recommend in my video tutorials, CSipSimple, supports ZRTP encryption. Assuming both parties have it enabled on whatever calling software they're using whether it be CSipSimple or Jitsi, you will be able to establish an actual secure call.
More info here: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r28352878-U.S-VoIP-Privacy-Concerns
and here: https://guardianproject.info/2012/02/22/free-sip-providers-with-zrtp-support/
and here: https://jitsi.org/
Secure VoIP FAQ: http://wiki.ictd.asia/Secure_VoIP_Discussion_and_Tips
5/29/2013: Google Hangouts
Do NOT upgrade Google Talk on your device to Google Hangouts. It will screw up your ability to make calls.
Source and more info: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r28309379-General-Google-HangOuts-vs.-XMPP
5/10/2013: Correction in the tutorials
When adding an extension in FreePBX, set "nat" to YES from the default. I made an annotation of this but it seems many people have annotations disabled.
Following along with your tutorial and I've hit my first snag. Trying to install VirtualBox 4.2.12 seems to hang towards the end of the installation and it seems to have cut off my local area connection as well. Any insight on how to resolve this issue?
Virtualbox sets a bridge up of whatever network card is in the computer and adds a "fake" one in your Windows Device Manager. It sounds like a driver issue, but it could be a lot of things. If you've kept up to date with all bios, drivers, firmware, Windows updates, and don't have any viruses or malware, your computer shouldn't blow up for installing a single network driver, but I bet you're not the only one that's happened to. I don't have a quick answer because I've never experienced that. Sorry.
HowDoIVoIP said: Virtualbox sets a bridge up of whatever network card is in the computer and adds a "fake" one in your Windows Device Manager. It sounds like a driver issue, but it could be a lot of things. Click to expand... Click to collapse Fixed it. For users with the same problem, exit Dropbox or disable your internet connection before you install. I did both and the installation completed successfully.
Part 11 is up: Setting up multiple Google Voice phones
HowDoIVoip, Last night I followed all your video tutorials and this morning went through them all to see if I missed anything. The one thing that has not worked is incoming calls when my phone is connected to Wifi. The call comes in but when I pick up the call the info status just says CONNECTING. The caller eventually goes to voice mail. When not connected to Wifi the phone receives and make calls with no problems. On Wifi outgoing calls work perfect. Picking up on Wifi is the only problem I am having. Any ideas what it might be? Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2
I think it works good..Thanks for all share
luisenriquereyes said: HowDoIVoip, Last night I followed all your video tutorials and this morning went through them all to see if I missed anything. The one thing that has not worked is incoming calls when my phone is connected to Wifi. The call comes in but when I pick up the call the info status just says CONNECTING. The caller eventually goes to voice mail. When not connected to Wifi the phone receives and make calls with no problems. On Wifi outgoing calls work perfect. Picking up on Wifi is the only problem I am having. Any ideas what it might be? Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2 Click to expand... Click to collapse It's hard to just guess without being able to see the screen/settings. One thing you could try is log into PuTTY, type asterisk -r and then type xmpp set debug on you will see all of the google voice activity in the window in real-time. This is different than asterisk -rvvv that I talk about in video #11. Make sure the ports I mention in video 5 are set correctly. Those all have to do with NAT/Routing. Hopefully your server machine isn't blocking ports if it has a software firewall. You could try adjusting the Static IP to Dynamic IP in Asterisk SIP Settings in FreePBX. If nothing works, then I guess it's time to install a screen-sharing program like Skype or Jitsi so I can find the problem in 10 minutes. It's hard to guess without actually being able to see everything going on. That's why I hate text so much and prefer voice/video for technical support and tutorials.
Thank you for the hard work Buddy, thank you so much for these videos believe it or not I was able to take the ISO given from FreePBX and apply all the settings you did from out of the box and apply them in the same fashion to get my PBX server running all within 4 hours if there is anything I can do I am going to subscribe to this tread I work in the IT field and worked with EXSi servers and VirtualBox Hosts for 3 years now so when I saw the videos from the start that is what started it for me let me know if we can get some more users off the ground and working with this GREAT STUFF!
I just wanted to say thank you for putting this tutorial together. 95% of the problems I was having were exactly because all of the information was so fragmented. I'm up and running and will keep an eye on it as I make sure it works everywhere but seriously, my hat's off to you good sir!
HowDoIVoIP said: It's hard to just guess without being able to see the screen/settings. One thing you could try is log into PuTTY, type asterisk -r and then type xmpp set debug on you will see all of the google voice activity in the window in real-time. This is different than asterisk -rvvv that I talk about in video #11. Make sure the ports I mention in video 5 are set correctly. Those all have to do with NAT/Routing. Hopefully your server machine isn't blocking ports if it has a software firewall. You could try adjusting the Static IP to Dynamic IP in Asterisk SIP Settings in FreePBX. If nothing works, then I guess it's time to install a screen-sharing program like Skype or Jitsi so I can find the problem in 10 minutes. It's hard to guess without actually being able to see everything going on. That's why I hate text so much and prefer voice/video for technical support and tutorials. Click to expand... Click to collapse I was about to follow your recommendation to troubleshoot but it works now without having done a thing. How weird. Hopefully it stays that way Question, in your Tutorial Part 5 - Router Settings you talk about setting the Conntrack / Netfilter UDP Timeout Unreplied to 10 and Assured to 300. My routers (a Netgear R6300) software does not have these settings to configure. Do you think it will cause problems not being able to configure these settings? Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2
HabibTMN said: I just wanted to say thank you for putting this tutorial together. 95% of the problems I was having were exactly because all of the information was so fragmented. I'm up and running and will keep an eye on it as I make sure it works everywhere but seriously, my hat's off to you good sir! Click to expand... Click to collapse Glad you got it working, man. So I've had enough people get it up and running to verify that the information is accurate, but as with anything, there are some changes and improvements that could be made. Not sure other than annotations how I'll go about it, though.
luisenriquereyes said: Question, in your Tutorial Part 5 - Router Settings you talk about setting the Conntrack / Netfilter UDP Timeout Unreplied to 10 and Assured to 300. My routers (a Netgear R6300) software does not have these settings to configure. Do you think it will cause problems not being able to configure these settings? Click to expand... Click to collapse If I were to guess, no. I'm not 100% sure, though. Those timeouts seem to be mostly if you have "qualify" set to "yes" on your Extension. If you log in through PuTTY, type asterisk -r then type sip show peers at the Asterisk CLI, you will see a screen that looks like this: http://i.imgur.com/4gpHrk0.png When your extensions are unmonitored like that from setting qualify to no, it doesn't seem to timeout the way it would if you had qualify on. As I specified in the video, qualify off works best for my specific phone, but it could vary for others.
Perhaps a combination of annotations and maybe getting this thread set as a sticky? It would seem that at the very least as long as we keep this thread alive and near the top that we can funnel any updated information through here and your videos which at the very least still serve as a perfect baseline for getting servers up and running. Anything after that really strikes me as minor tweaks and whatnot.
HowDoIVoIP, do you know what the minimum requirements are to run PIAF? I saw this (from here): Here’s what we recommend to get started properly: ... $150 Single or Dual-Core Atom PC, 4GB RAM, 60GB SSD (no moving parts!) Click to expand... Click to collapse But I don't take that as a minimum. I've got an old Windows XP box, but I don't think it has enough RAM for both the OS and VM. Alternatively, I have an Atom netbook with 2GB RAM, and it may actually be faster than the XP box. At this point, this is just an experiment for me, and I'm not willing to put money into this project until I can get it working. If I figure this out, I may change my mind. Also, what do you think of this (from here): If you’re not in the Eastern U.S. time zone, then you’ll want to adjust your timezone setting so that reminders and other time-sensitive events happen at the correct time. While logged into your server as root, issue these commands to download and run the timezone-setup script: Code: cd /root wget http://pbxinaflash.com/timezone-setup.tar.gz tar zxvf timezone-setup.tar.gz ./timezone-setup Click to expand... Click to collapse Is that necessary?
post-mortem said: HowDoIVoIP, do you know what the minimum requirements are to run PIAF? Also, what do you think of this (from here): Is that necessary? Click to expand... Click to collapse Wouldn't the minimum requirements be the Raspberry Pi? But that's for running PIAF-Purple (which is all manual configuration from what I've seen) and that SUCKS. We on XDA forums are all about GUIs. It's 2013, and not all of us are so geek'd out that we're coding everything manually in our mechanical keyboards. I'm unsure about the system requirements, but since it's all free, you might as well try to see if you can run it. Make some phone calls and if you don't sound like a cat drowning, I think you're fine. Hopefully your hardware is reliable, though, and that takes a bit of work. If you're bluescreening and overheating, forget about it. As for the time thing.... I actually went through the timezone thing in my initial setup (but not the videos), but then I found if you go to Webmin, it seems you have full control of the system clocks there. http://192.168.1.125:9001 (or whatever your server IP is, put :9001 behind it) login with root, and click the time. You'll see a screen like this: http://i.imgur.com/taez1fB.png I don't see why you can't set all the time there. I have to do some research before I make a video about Webmin settings, though. I'm not an expert.
HowDoIVoIP said: I'm unsure about the system requirements, but since it's all free, you might as well try to see if you can run it. Make some phone calls and if you don't sound like a cat drowning, I think you're fine. Hopefully your hardware is reliable, though, and that takes a bit of work. If you're bluescreening and overheating, forget about it. Click to expand... Click to collapse LOL, I'm totally not even that far. My XP machine only has 760MB of RAM. Yeah, it's old; I swear to God it has cobwebs on it! I gave it a big swap file, but VirtualBox won't let you assign more than 75% of physical RAM to a VM. Apparently, the PIAF VM won't boot with only 565MB RAM. After living with recent memory-hogging OSes, I'm impressed that Windows XP can get by just fine with <200MB RAM. Anyway, I had fun setting up an RDP connection to the old clunker. If I can find my netbook, I'll make that my next project.
Okay i am using Groove IP app on my note 2 to make calls using Google Voice number, so can somebody tell me why would i want to go to thru all that, instead of using Groove IP.
mha1021 said: Okay i am using Groove IP app on my note 2 to make calls using Google Voice number, so can somebody tell me why would i want to go to thru all that, instead of using Groove IP. Click to expand... Click to collapse One thing you learn in life is that often pressing one big green button on everything isn't the best option. You can purchase an Android app that will emulate console games like SNES or Genesis (one big green button), but you'll run into bugs and issues, and it isn't per-scanline accurate like higan is. Many people will be fine with that. "Oh, it's cool bro it works." You can get a Netflix account and stream HD movies on your phone or television (one big green button), but you'll realize that setting up your own HTPC using GOOD codecs will yield a much better HD movie experience. You don't get to watch any movie you want with Netflix, and they don't have everything available. Some people will settle for that. "Oh, it's cool bro it works." The same logic applies for this. If you're fine with low quality and inconsistent calling, go with GrooveIP (one big green button). If you want the best, you'll have to invest.™
HowDoIVoIP said: One thing you learn in life is that often pressing one big green button on everything isn't the best option. You can purchase an Android app that will emulate console games like SNES or Genesis (one big green button), but you'll run into bugs and issues, and it isn't per-scanline accurate like higan is. Many people will be fine with that. "Oh, it's cool bro it works." You can get a Netflix account and stream HD movies on your phone or television (one big green button), but you'll realize that setting up your own HTPC using GOOD codecs will yield a much better HD movie experience. You don't get to watch any movie you want with Netflix, and they don't have everything available. Some people will settle for that. The same logic applies for this. If you're fine with low quality and inconsistent calling, go with GrooveIP (one big green button). If you want the best, you'll have to invest.™ Click to expand... Click to collapse Thanks for your time explaining but the (one big green button) is for backup in case i use 100min before the end of the month and whenever i use groove ip, it works perfectly and as long as its free and works that's i care about.
What's with Hangouts/ GV Carrier Limitations? What's your solution?
I have a Sprint SIII with cancelled service, but have been able to get free phone and text service (provided I have connection to a wifi hotspot.) I use Groove IP for calls and Ring.to and Google Voice App for text. I also installed Xvoice+ to receive GV calls through Groove IP. [ B]Please note,[/B] I am well aware of the vast threads and blogs regarding the limitations of Hangouts/ Google Voice being implemented on devices like my SIII because of greedy carriers like Sprint. I know that Google Voice is not a VOIP carrier. I also (partially) accepted the fact that, although "True WiFi-calling" using GV can be achieved on Win7, iOS and even Linux, it seems it is something no developer can implement (for what ever reason) a Apk or work around on any Android Phone, en less functionality is permitted by the Carrier. I have seen the topic and its variations of "How can I make true WiFi calls through Hangouts," beat to death. Though I have grown comfortable using the methods above for free phone service, I am still unsatisfied with the vague responses seen on many threads and reputable sites regarding the issue of limitations set by carriers. I feel the community (including me) deserves to be educated on how Wifi/ Internet Calling, Mms, Sms can be independent from phone carriers. I am hoping to make a sticky out of this thread by asking the Android Community: - Why the best and brightest of the Android community have not been able to overcome the GV and Hangouts limits set by carriers? (Have our top developers been paid to counter a solution? Is it really determined by our carrier? Is a fully functional workaround considered illegal? Why are there solutions for other OS?) - If I'm wrong about the nonexistence of a work around, then what is it? (I have seen none that allow making a GV direct call or Mms.) - What is your method for utilizing services through Wifi? - Besides Boost or Virgin Mobile, what other services have you replaced your SIII or Android with? I feel if the best and brightest of XDA /can respond to the questions, we can consolidate all the concerns about Google Voice, WiFi Internet service and what carriers control into 1 thread. There is something wrong with $100 month for service. I feel my concerns are all part of 1 BIG underlying question, "How can I spend less in a time where they force me to spend more?" When I saw that a majority of my friends were not aware of the ability to make free calls through WiFi, I thought of the community and what I didn't know or thought I knew. If all responses are answers or solutions I know of, at least the rest who don't know can learn off this one thread.
You can hook your phone up to Freedompop with their BYOD program and use Sprint towers, have 200 calling minutes, 500 texts and 500MB of data for free. Then you can add the Hangouts Dialer and if you have wifi use Hangouts to make calls without using any minutes or data. Plus you will then have a phone number to forward your Google Voice to.
stevenp1200 said: - Why the best and brightest of the Android community have not been able to overcome the GV and Hangouts limits set by carriers? (Have our top developers been paid to counter a solution? Is it really determined by our carrier? Is a fully functional workaround considered illegal? Why are there solutions for other OS?) Click to expand... Click to collapse What problems are you having with GV and Hangouts? It seems like most of the issues are being worked through. I have Hangouts configured on three different phones on Airplane mode (no service) and they work fine with WiFi. My main phone (now an AT&T Galaxy S5) works with Hangouts on mobile data (LTE) without issue. I think the FreedomPop with Hangouts is a great idea, it should work fine as a free, limited extension to your existing WiFi-only service.
KennyG123 said: You can hook your phone up to Freedompop with their BYOD program and use Sprint towers, have 200 calling minutes, 500 texts and 500MB of data for free. Then you can add the Hangouts Dialer and if you have wifi use Hangouts to make calls without using any minutes or data. Plus you will then have a phone number to forward your Google Voice to. Click to expand... Click to collapse Alternatively, if you have an incompatible phone you want to keep, you can get their hotspot and carry it around so that you have the ability to connect to wifi wherever there is Sprint Towers. They have had a few free device giveaways on slickdeals and they have a plan where you can get up to 1GB free a month. I own one personally, but being that I am on T-Mobile 5GB plan, I don't really have a use for it. It would work well as an alternative for those looking to save pennies though