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VOIP over Wifi difficulties, please guide me ??

V

vtsnaab

Lurker
I am a total newbie to Android with my 1st ever Android phone - an LG L38C.
It is very nice and I rooted it already with no problems.

Given that there is absolutely zero cellular service where I am most of my time I bought this nice, cheap phone to learn on (no fear of beating it up), and with the firm intention of using VOIP over Wifi here.

I am not a total newbie to VOIP and have used it for about 2 years now as my main home phone source.

Anticipating this new adventure I set up an IPKall DID which points to PBXes.org and thus far have it working for incoming calls via Sipdroid.

I also have an account at Localphone with a few bucks credit in it for making outgoing calls using this device as cheaply as possible.

That is where I am having problems - I have yet to get an outgoing call to go through at all.
I've wasted alot of time today trying to get ANY Android phone app to make a simple, in-state (US) call via Localphone.

The service seems to register - when I try a call it un-registers somehow...

I've tried Sipdroid, SipSimple, and Vimphone in addition to the Localphone app.

It seems to only need a few bits of data for setting it up - but still it fails reliably to make any call every time.

Before looking for help from others I have searched as well as I am able, generally, tried all the info I found, and emailed Localphone's support - but thus far they have been zero help.

Once I found this forum I used it's own search and did not find anything specific enough to what I am trying to do.

I will greatly appreciate any guidance that anyone here may provide.

Thanks.
 
Been there - done that, as already mentioned quite clearly in the OP here - and got no help from them yet.
This is not unusual as others have posted at various places about their less than stellar 'support'.
In my opinion, the problem is likely ME and not getting the outgoing app set up correctly and/or the need to have separate services for incoming & outgoing combined with my unfamiliarity with this device and its OS.

I will greatly appreciate any replies giving me info that is beyond what I've already done; I came here to find help and education and I hope I chose well in doing so ?!?

Thanks.
 
I've tried some of these SIP type things myself from time to time, but I've always given up in frustration, and end up going back to Skype or WeChat. Think the main problem is they rely on being able to setup port forwarding on your NAT router, and maybe having a fixed IP address. So one SIP app can directly call the other one. I have neither. Also I think that the Great FireWall of China doesn't help much either with this kind of thing.

I've never heard of LocalPhone, but if it's not working and they're not helping you, sounds like a crap service then. There's also VoIP like Vonage and MagicJack, I've heard of those and I know of people who have used them as well, even in China.
 
My motivation at the start of this adventure has been to get free of Google Voice, but has also branched out to include a mobile phone via Wifi...

I have found what will work for me in using my VOIP post-GV, as well as improving things by replacing the cellular that I allowed to run out of funds due to zero service in this area.

This has been a very time-consuming process and I'll include as much info here as possible so as to save others from the trials & errors that I had to endure to reach where I'm presently at...please bear with me as it's bound to be lengthy.
(Side-notes=> All I have is VOIP and I am not planning to port my GV # at all.)

My goals:
1. Keep my GV number as-is for at least a while so as to help others adjust to my new #.
2. Have services all set up and ready for continued home phone service via VOIP.
3. Get & use the cheapest possible Android phone with VOIP over Wifi only.
4. Have #3 ready to get GV calls using VOIP over Wifi, if/when needed.
5. Be able to make cheap or free calls using VOIP over Wifi only.
6. Be able to get & send SMSs using VOIP over Wifi also, preferably for free.

Thus far all but #6 are all set - I'll work on that one at my leisure.

My 1st attempt was using a cheap Huwaie phone with Android 4.x - and that failed as it was too restricted and absolutely refused to use Wifi (apparently newer versions of that OS commonly have this unsolved problem).
That one went back pronto.

Instead I got an LG Optimus Dynamic (LG-L38c) with Android 2.3.6 made for Net10 which included a 4GB SD card - for all of 19.99. (And I did NOT activate any account with Net10 at all.)

Rooted it immediately so that anything can be done to it as I please, turned off the cellular via 'airplane mode' and it connected perfectly to several different Wifi sources very quickly & easily.

Given that I need to use separate incoming & outgoing connections I tried way too many softphones only to find that there are LOTS that will not work as well as the sad fact that this phone has the native SIP function disabled (probably in order to force users to pay Net10 for any voice calling...).

The ultimate solution (thus far ??) was to find a softphone that enables SIP and also it is a MUST to correctly handle 2 different accounts.
That has turned out to be the very nice & free Sipdroid.

What I've learned in trying to set it up is that in Sipdroid the 1st/top account MUST be the outgoing, so that one is my CircleNet account which had to use outbound.circlenet.us & port 5060 & now works to make calls perfectly.

Since Sipdroid is incredibly PBXes-friendly that was very easy to set up as the 2nd account AFTER following the really good info I found here:
How to setup PBXes, step by step | VoIP Forum

Final result for the lower/2nd account is Google Voice => IPKall => PBXes => Android.

Altogether now:
When I dial out I use CircleNet with it's wonderfully low pricing; and when someone calls my GV number and I am at home it rings on both my POTS phone & my Android phone.

Things that did not work and which I consider a total waste of time via the Android phone:
- Callcentric's Android app - useless for their free number unless funds are added as it MUST call out before it will work for incoming calls at all; sure, OK, whatever...never mind.
- Localphone either via it's own app or any other method I tried - total, absolute waste of time and even worse, their support is totally useless & non-helpful.

Lastly, for the Android - I did not get to check out Zoiper or Bria so I do not know what they can do, but maybe those are also able to get around having restricted SIP as well as handling different in/out accounts - perhaps someone here will reply with those helpful details ?!?

As to my home phone stuff, it is worthy to note that I do have CC set up as a backup incoming route with a free NY DID as a backup for 'just in case' so it is not totally useless, and I did get a VOIP.ms account for their cheap rates, but have not used it for anything at all as yet.

I am also holding onto a 100% ready to use Future Nine account for the moment of ultimate GV divorce as well as my CircleNet for outgoing when that becomes needed...

Hopefully some of this info may be helpful to others in some manner.

If anyone has info about using an Android phone to get & send SMSs at zero cost somehow via Wifi, please share that info ??

Thanks.
 
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