Using VoipBuster on Linux / Mac OS X / Solaris / FreeBSD

Página original: http://david.dw-perspective.org.uk/VoipBuster-Linux-MacOS-Solaris-FreeBSD.html

Last update of this document: 11th July 2005
French translation available at: http://play.m0k.org/index.php?2005/04/20/122-voipbuster-on-mac-os-x-linux-free-bsd-free-phone
Italian translation available at: http://gift.altervista.org/index_ita.php?section=30
For some months now this page has been top on Google when you search for “IAX Linux”, which is interesting…

VoipBuster Homepage: http://www.voipbuster.com

Reasons to use VoipBuster:

1. Free calls to landlines to many European countries (also US)!
2. If you buy credit (for non-free calls), you get a free inbound number.
3. Uses IAX protocol – “just works” from behind NAT/firewalls.

Currently, VoipBuster is in beta. When they’ve finished the Windows version, they say they’ll produce a Linux version. For the moment, though, you’ll need to use something different. As they use the IAX protocol, there are a few choices for clients. Maybe when they come out of beta, free calls will end; but they haven’t announced their long-term plans yet.

Who are VoipBuster?

1. They are: Finarea SA, Po Box 5648, Lugano 6901, Switzerland, telephone +41 91 9335412
2. They are the same company as is behind https://www.call18866.co.uk and https://www.call1899.co.uk and http://www.dialwise.co.uk/ – providing cheap calls from landline telephones in the UK. If you sign up with them, make sure that when you hand over your credit card details you are secured. When I signed up they had errors on their website such that you were presented with a credit card form not sent secured (over https) – fix this by changing the URL from http to https (this was in April 2005). If you don’t know what this means, find a technically-minded friend who does!
3. At least some of their programmers and support are working from the Netherlands; their VoIP server is currently in Germany… so we have a Swiss company with workers in Holland providing telephone services to the UK from Germany… we live in a small world!
4. Don’t send the VoipBuster contacts questions about 18866 or 1899 – they are the same company, but please respect their mode of operation.
5. I have no connection with these companies, apart from using their products.

Windows:

1. You don’t need to read this document. Just go to http://www.voipbuster.com and use their provided program.
   

Linux:

1. The current Windows binary doesn’t work under the latest Wine (at 24th May 2005). So don’t try! However, I have received a report that it does work with CrossOver Office 4.2 – at least as far as the point where you create your username and password.
2. You’ll need to install and run on Windows once in order to set up a username/password. Maybe they’ll make this possible from the website soon.
3. I recommend the IAX client (a.k.a. soft phone) “Kiax” – get it from http://kiax.org. I did some of the work on packaging RPMs. They have static binaries, RPMs and .debs available. Kiax is a pure Qt application – that is, it doesn’t require KDE to work, despite the “K” at the beginning. If you don’t know what that means, don’t worry about it!
4. Don’t run kiax through artsdsp – it will cause latency which makes it unusable for normal usage. If you don’t know what artsdsp is, then don’t worry about it – in the default, you’re not using it.
5. To call, you will need to use full international dialling code – e.g. for the UK, 0044 followed by the area code (minus the leading 0) followed by the rest of the number.
6. Kiax 0.8.4 and later, you can integrate into your address book program (e.g. kabc / kontact) to do direct dialing (but not yet to actually import that address book into Kiax itself). Command line syntax is: “kiax dial [--account-id] –extension “.
7. In Kiax (or whatever IAX client you use), use the username/password you set up in 2., together with iax server “iax.voipbuster.com”. In the audio settings, just play with them and use whatever works best for you! For the codec, U-Law needs 64kbps; the others need less. Voipbuster’s Windows client apparently needs 128kpbs, so they must be using a codec not available in Kiax (and other iaxclient-based softphones). For the caller id, put in whatever you like.

   

Mac OS X / Solaris / FreeBSD:

1. See the first two points for “Linux”, above.
2. I recommend the IAX client iaxcomm from http://iaxclient.sourceforge.net/iaxcomm/. There are only binaries provided for Mac OS X, Linux and Windows – so for FreeBSD / Solaris you will probably need to compile the source yourself. http://iaxclient.sourceforge.net/ states that it will run on FreeBSD / Solaris.
3. See 5. for “Linux”, above.
4. The IAX server to configure your client with is “iax.voipbuster.com”.

Links:

1. VoipBuster – http://www.voipbuster.com
2. Kiax (IAX Linux client) – http://kiax.org
3. IaxComm (IAX Windows/Linux/Mac OS X/FreeBSD/Solaris client) – http://iaxclient.sourceforge.net/iaxcomm/
4. Call18866 (calls from UK landlines) : https://www.call18866.co.uk
5. Call1899 (calls from UK landlines): https://www.call1899.co.uk
6. Dialwise (calls at cheap rates via dialling 0844): http://www.dialwise.co.uk/

Feedback / E-mail / Anything I forgot to mention?: voipbuster-feedback@dw-perspective.org.uk