Recommendable SIP VoIP providers?

For interesting topics. But remember this is a Linux Forum. Do not post offensive topics that are meant to cause trouble with other members or are derogatory towards people of different genders, race, color, minors (this includes nudity and sex), politics or religion. Let's try to keep peace among the community and for visitors.

No spam on this or any other forums please! If you post advertisements on these forums, your account may be deleted.

Do not copy and paste entire or even up to half of someone else's words or articles into posts. Post only a few sentences or a paragraph and make sure to include a link back to original words or article. Otherwise it's copyright infringement.

You can talk about other distros here, but no MX bashing. You can email the developers of MX if you just want to say you dislike or hate MX.
Message
Author
User avatar
MX-16_fan
Posts: 331
Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2017 12:09 pm

Recommendable SIP VoIP providers?

#1 Post by MX-16_fan »

@all:

Now that development of good SIP (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Session_I ... n_Protocol) applications has once more received increased attention, open source SIP clients again become a telephony alternative to closed-source Skype.

Hence I'd like to discuss in this thread experiences with SIP providers that
  1. offer connections to landline and mobile phones,
  2. provide Direct inward dialing (DID) phone numbers (i.e. "normal", "real" phone numbers).
I did a little research myself, and here's what I've found so far:
  • https://www.callcentric.com/: U.S. provider. Has an imprint on its website. Apparently no contact e-mail address on website. Offers "Fax to E-mail" service.
  • https://www.diamondcard.us/: Provider headquarted in Thailand (formerly USA). Contact e-mail address on website. Supports various open source projects. Support wiki. Apparently no "Fax to E-mail" service.
  • https://www.localphone.com: British provider. Friendly website. Apparently no contact e-mail address on website. Apparently no "Fax to E-mail" service.
  • https://www.voip.ms/: Parts of their website don't seem to work with the Pale Moon browser. Apparently no contact e-mail address on website. "Fax to E-mail" service restricted to U.S. and Canadian DIDs (cf. https://wiki.voip.ms/article/Virtual_Fa ... ax_Service).
If you're interested in SIP-based VoIP, please help to expand this list, and report on your own experiences with SIP providers :number1:.


Greetings, Joe

xali
Posts: 96
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2016 6:14 am

Re: Recommendable SIP VoIP providers?

#2 Post by xali »

i have heard good rewiews about https://zadarma.com/en/ but never tried it myself so far...

User avatar
timkb4cq
Developer
Posts: 3186
Joined: Wed Jul 12, 2006 4:05 pm

Re: Recommendable SIP VoIP providers?

#3 Post by timkb4cq »

I switched to Callcentric from Callwithus.com a few years ago. They have been very reliable through my call adapter.
Callcentric responds to queries made on the Contact Us tab on the website through a trouble ticket system which does send email notification with a link for each update.

Callwithus.com was also good quality & very responsive to issues, but had trouble with the exchange where my DID is hosted so every few months the exchange would change settings which broke the forward and they'd have to file a trouble ticket with the exchange to have them fix it. Callcentric works fine with the same DID.
Callwithus.com does not offer 911 or SMS service.
HP Pavillion TP01, AMD Ryzen 3 5300G (quad core), Crucial 500GB SSD, Toshiba 6TB 7200rpm
Dell Inspiron 15, AMD Ryzen 7 2700u (quad core). Sabrent 500GB nvme, Seagate 1TB

User avatar
dreamer
Posts: 738
Joined: Sun Oct 15, 2017 11:34 am

Re: Recommendable SIP VoIP providers?

#4 Post by dreamer »

I have read good things about Callcentric on the PCLinuxOS forum, but I have no personal experience.

Sorry if this is off-topic, but do you have experience with SIP software on MX Linux?

There is an old version of Linphone in the repos that is using GTK, while the newest version seems to be using Qt. There is also Ekiga, but Ekiga development seems to have stalled.

SIP clients seem to be slow to adopt PulseAudio, but they should work well with direct ALSA which I think is preferable for VoIP.

We could make a separate thread about SIP software, but I don't think there are many SIP users here. I have never seen a thread dedicated to this topic before.

I can hardly call myself a SIP user. I have mostly used Skype, but I'm looking to get away from that.

User avatar
MX-16_fan
Posts: 331
Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2017 12:09 pm

Re: Recommendable SIP VoIP providers?

#5 Post by MX-16_fan »

@xali:
xali wrote: Fri Jul 05, 2019 4:31 pm i have heard good rewiews about https://zadarma.com/en/ but never tried it myself so far...
Thanks! I'll add that one to the list as follows:

  • https://zadarma.com: Headquartered in Bulgaria. Rather confusing website. Has an imprint on website. Has contact e-mail address on website. Apparently no "Fax to E-mail" service.

Greetings, Joe

xali
Posts: 96
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2016 6:14 am

Re: Recommendable SIP VoIP providers?

#6 Post by xali »

MX-16_fan wrote: https://zadarma.com: Headquartered in Bulgaria. Rather confusing website. Has an imprint on website. Has contact e-mail address on website. Apparently no "Fax to E-mail" service.
you can receive only fax at the moment it says https://zadarma.com/en/support/faq/pbx/get-fax-faq/

User avatar
MX-16_fan
Posts: 331
Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2017 12:09 pm

Re: Recommendable SIP VoIP providers?

#7 Post by MX-16_fan »

@dreamer:

dreamer wrote: Fri Jul 05, 2019 5:57 pm (...) There is an old version of Linphone in the repos that is using GTK, while the newest version seems to be using Qt. (...)
I'd recommend that you file an update request for Linphone. The version we have in the repos has shown to be extremely buggy.

jami – A GNU package (formerly Ring – A GNU package) also is a promising client. Besides, it offers Skype-style core functionality. You might want to file a package request for it also.

Apart from that, we're also missing Jitsi (which also is under active development) in the MX-17/MX-18 repos.

dreamer wrote: Fri Jul 05, 2019 5:57 pm We could make a separate thread about SIP software, (...).
I guess you'd rather make individual threads about each piece of client software tested. Otherwise the discussion is likely to get confused.

dreamer wrote: Fri Jul 05, 2019 5:57 pm I have never seen a thread dedicated to this topic before.
Here you go :number1::

viewtopic.php?f=134&t=43901
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=44492
viewtopic.php?f=97&t=42240



Greetings, Joe

User avatar
galen
Posts: 270
Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2016 1:37 pm

Re: Recommendable SIP VoIP providers?

#8 Post by galen »

a big hurdle to running your own solution is firewalls NATS
STUNserver is needed

hats off to
https://meet.jit.si/
they provide a desktop client for linux
video & voice
their web based GUI is quite good

http://zoom.us
provides video / voice chat one on one with a dial in number if your register for free
they have good rates for small team as well

mumble
simply great voice chat abilities
with some configuration and router port forwarding you can run your own private server
antiX includes a good custom server & client package


I think twinkle has been abandoned

ring
I could not get it to install on MX16
I think you need to install

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install dirmngr
notes on jitsi
the client has been very buggy on my MX17 & 18s

To use our debian/ubuntu nightly repository:
install the Jitsi repository key onto your system

wget -qO - https://download.jitsi.org/jitsi-key.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb https://download.jitsi.org stable/' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jitsi-stable.list"

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb https://download.jitsi.org unstable/' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jitsi-unstable.list"

sudo apt-get -y update
sudo apt-get -y install jitsi
Linux user since 1999, on-line 1993
Dtop#1: XU20 AMD-FX6300, GT730
Dtop#2: MX19 AM3ATH2X2, GT218-8400
Ltop#1: MX21 T500
Ltop#2: MX19 T440
Ltop#3: MX19 NC6400
Ltop#4: XU18 NC4400
Ltop#5: Sparky32 T30 :turtle:
Ltop#6: MX21 Acer E5

User avatar
MX-16_fan
Posts: 331
Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2017 12:09 pm

Re: Recommendable SIP VoIP providers?

#9 Post by MX-16_fan »

@galen:

galen wrote: Thu Jul 25, 2019 1:16 pm a big hurdle to running your own solution is firewalls NATS
STUNserver is needed
This is no obstacle. Modern SIP software always offers to work with STUN servers, often by default. In its generic mode, jami – A GNU project doesn't even need a STUN server named at all.

galen wrote: Thu Jul 25, 2019 1:16 pm hats off to
https://meet.jit.si/
they provide a desktop client for linux
video & voice
their web based GUI is quite good
You'd rather forget about web-based services unless you want to be fully dependent on the reliability of the service provider in question.

galen wrote: Thu Jul 25, 2019 1:16 pm http://zoom.us
provides video / voice chat one on one with a dial in number if your register for free
they have good rates for small team as well
AFAIK that is not a SIP provider.

galen wrote: Thu Jul 25, 2019 1:16 pm mumble
simply great voice chat abilities
with some configuration and router port forwarding you can run your own private server
antiX includes a good custom server & client package
Dito.

galen wrote: Thu Jul 25, 2019 1:16 pm I think twinkle has been abandoned
What you think doesn't match with reality here: "Stable release: 1.10.2 (February 14, 2019 ...)". (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinkle_%28software%29)

galen wrote: Thu Jul 25, 2019 1:16 pm ring
I could not get it to install on MX16
As mentioned before, you'd need the most current version, and the name is now jami – A GNU package. Cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jami_%28software%29.

galen wrote: Thu Jul 25, 2019 1:16 pm notes on jitsi
the client has been very buggy on my MX17 & 18s

To use our debian/ubuntu nightly repository:
install the Jitsi repository key onto your system

wget -qO - https://download.jitsi.org/jitsi-key.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb https://download.jitsi.org stable/' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jitsi-stable.list"

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb https://download.jitsi.org unstable/' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jitsi-unstable.list"

sudo apt-get -y update
sudo apt-get -y install jitsi
Alien packages tend to make your system unstable, and are a potential security risk. Besides, testing them is to some extent pointless as far as testing results are concerned. What we would need would be a generic package in the MX Test Repo.



Greetings, Joe

User avatar
MX-16_fan
Posts: 331
Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2017 12:09 pm

Re: Recommendable SIP VoIP providers?

#10 Post by MX-16_fan »

xali:
xali wrote: Thu Jul 25, 2019 11:13 am
MX-16_fan wrote: https://zadarma.com: Headquartered in Bulgaria. Rather confusing website. Has an imprint on website. Has contact e-mail address on website. Apparently no "Fax to E-mail" service.
you can receive only fax at the moment it says https://zadarma.com/en/support/faq/pbx/get-fax-faq/
Thanks for the hint. I have corrected this piece of information in the updated list, which then would be as follows:

  • https://www.callcentric.com/: U.S. provider. Has an imprint on its website. Apparently no contact e-mail address on website; but at least, according to Forum Veteran @timkb4cq, they respond to queries made on the "Contact Us" tab through a trouble ticket system, which sends an e-mail notification with a link for each update (cf. viewtopic.php?p=513327#p513327). No outbound SMS to international numbers. Offers "Fax to E-mail" service. Successfully tested over several years by @timkb4cq.
  • https://www.diamondcard.us/: Provider headquarted in Thailand (formerly USA). Contact e-mail address on website. Supports various open source projects. Support wiki. Apparently no "Fax to E-mail" service.
  • https://www.localphone.com: British provider. Friendly website. Apparently no contact e-mail address on website. Apparently no "Fax to E-mail" service.
  • https://www.voip.ms/: Parts of their website don't seem to work with the Pale Moon browser. Apparently no contact e-mail address on website. "Fax to E-mail" service restricted to U.S. and Canadian DIDs (cf. https://wiki.voip.ms/article/Virtual_Fa ... ax_Service).
  • https://zadarma.com: Headquartered in Bulgaria. Rather confusing website. Has an imprint on website. Has contact e-mail address on website. Fax messages can be received, but not sent (cf. https://zadarma.com/en/support/faq/pbx/get-fax-faq/).


Greetings, Joe

Post Reply

Return to “General”