Help Nexus Noob - VoIP, Sipdroid, mobile wifi hotspot

[lmurphy1]

Hi! My name is Linda. I just got my sleek new Nexus 5 this week and so far, I love it! Because it has no sd card slot and I'm used to having that option, I bought the 32GB model. It has more on-board memory than my Samsung tablet!

My question is about how to set up voice service on the phone. I apologize for this being such a long OP

Review of facts:

* The Nexus 5 doesn't come with a sim card or a carrier. It's unlocked. But it has the ability to jump on any nearby WiFi network

* Up until May 2014, Google supported 3rd party apps to use Google Voice. So, I would occassionally use an Android app called Talkatone, along with my Google Voice number, to initiate and receive phone calls - on my tablet. I used whatever WiFi network was handy. I bought a Native Union handset to improve the quality of the microphone. Google no longer supports this service to 3rd parties after May 2014

What I'm trying to do:
1, Make phone calls from my Nexus 5 so that they appear to be coming from my Google Voice phone number
2, When someone calls my Google Voice phone number, it will ring and I can take the call on my Nexus 5.
3, Have decent enough call quality for both of these.

What I already have:
1, A Nexus 5, unlocked, no sim card

2, A Virgin Mobile Broadband2Go wifi hotspot. I called VM and they confirmed I can use VOIP and SIP over the Broadband2Go service. The plan is $20/1 Month for 1 GB Combined 3G/*4G
See *Rationale below for why VM Broadband2Go might be the better option for me than T-Mobile's $30/month plan.

3, A Google Voice number that I've given out to a lot of folks

4, Google Voice settings pointing my gvoice number to two of my numbers (home # and old mobile phone #). When someone calls my gvoice number, it rings my home# and my old mobile phone

5, A "getonsip.com" username & credentials. But no phone number...

6, The Sipdroid App downloaded onto the Nexus 5

7, I created an account at pbxes.org , but I don't know what to do with it, and the pages at the site keep switching to German! It gave me another id that looks like email address but is actually a sip address like the getonsip address. Don't know what to do with it.

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I attempted to use Sipdroid to make an outgoing call, using the getonsip.com credentials on 'Line 1', but failed. I was using my home WiFi (Verizon), which I've used for VoIP before. In fact, I have an Ooma phone on my home wifi, in addition to Verizon's home phone number service.

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I read a bunch of confusing stuff on sipsorcery, pbxes, voip-info (.org) and about (.com) I'm afraid I'm just as confused as before.

Can someone help me figure out how to put these pieces together? I would really be grateful...

Can Google Voice send my calls directly to my sip address @getonsip or @pbxes or is there another step? Do I need ipkall? What/how does it fit in?

Then what do I do after that?

(Is it really supposed to be this complicated? Has anyone written a "...For Dummies" or "Idiot's Guide to..." ? If not, I think it'd be a seller)
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*Rationale for why VM Broadband2go is probably better for me than T-Mobile $30 plan - IF IT WORKS!

#1) I do not use very many talk minutes each month. Over the last 6 weeks, I used ~33 talk minutes.

#2) I usually have two, and sometimes three, mobile devices I take with me. The Nexus 5 phone, a Samsung Galaxy tablet, and when I travel out of state, a Windows laptop. The VM mobile wifi hot spot lets me connect up to 5 devices to the internet.

#3) The VM Broadband2Go is only $20/month for 1 GB of data. There's a second plan for $25/month for 1.5 GB of data, if the 1st one isn't enough. I think that's cheaper than the T-Mobile plan.

#4) I already own the VM hotspot device (it was between $50 and $100 when I bought it), so I've invested the $ for it. Not that a sim card is very expensive...

 

[lmurphy1]

I have learned a bunch since I posted my question(s), but I don't have time this minute to type it in. Hopefully I will later today or tomorrow...

 

[bc31]

About the T-Mobile plan:

-You get up to 5gb of data at LTE speeds, unlimited at reduced speed
-100 Minutes of talk time. This includes roaming in select parts of AT&T's network
-Unlimited Text
-The Nexus 5 can function as a hotspot

I also always prefer traditional cellular telephony over VOIP or SIP. I can talk and text just fine on a slow GPRS connection, but VOIP would be unusable, and IM would be marginal at best. Plus, I'd imagine carrying a hotspot with you everywhere would be pretty inconvenient.

Just my $.02, I think it would make things much easier.

 

[lmurphy1]

About the T-Mobile plan:

-You get up to 5gb of data at LTE speeds, unlimited at reduced speed
-100 Minutes of talk time. This includes roaming in select parts of AT&T's network
-Unlimited Text
-The Nexus 5 can function as a hotspot

I also always prefer traditional cellular telephony over VOIP or SIP. I can talk and text just fine on a slow GPRS connection, but VOIP would be unusable, and IM would be marginal at best. Plus, I'd imagine carrying a hotspot with you everywhere would be pretty inconvenient.

Just my $.02, I think it would make things much easier.

Thanks for your 2 cents

Are you sure about the tethering? I was just reading about how T Mobile shut down WiFi hotspot tethering. I was trying to find the latest news on it for the $30 plan for Nexus 5. The articles I read were just a few days old, but for the iPhone.

Thanks

 

[lmurphy1]

[August 2014]

(Moderator: please move this thread to the appropriate forum, if this is not the correct one. Thanks!)

My goals:

1. Only use WiFi connectivity
2. People should call my Google Voice number to reach me. (Not some other other.) Remember how a Google Voice number is suposed to be the only number one needs to give out to people?
3. When I call people, the Caller-ID phone number they see should be my Google Voice number. (If some other phone number shows up in caller-id, people tend to add that to their phonebooks, and it also confuses them. "Which one do I call to reach you?")
4. It should be free or almost free
5. I often bring more than one mobile device with me. I need internet connectivity for more than one device.
6. The call quality needs to be good enough

Bottom Line:

1) I achieved the first five goals, but the call quality is only fair. I'm not sure it's going to be good enough. Goals were achived using:

• Google Nexus 5 Phone running Android 4.4.4 (Kitkat)
• Sierra Wireless Overdrive Pro (WiFi hotspot device, dual 3G/4G). There are a variety of plans available here. See Virgin Mobile's Broadband2Go product

2) I've decided to try out T-Mobile's $30 pre-paid plan anyway. However, I'm concerned that when I bring my laptop and/or tablet with me, I will not be able to turn on the Nexus's WiFi hotspot for use by other devices. Pay both $30/month for T-Mobile phone AND $25/month for Virgin Mobile's wi-fi hot spot? Nope

3) After I have more experience with both of these, I hope to write up a list of pros and cons for them. If I do, I'll post it to this thread.

Steps I followed to get voip working on wifi-only android:

1. Called Virgin Mobile for my WiFi hotspot device and asked if they restricted VoIP or SIP over their Broadband2Go service. They don't.

2. Created a free SIP address using Firefox on desktop computer.

Basically, a sip address is like an email address, but for VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) not SMTP. Email is transferred using SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). The data of a phone call is transferred over the internet using the VoIP protocol. "SIP" provides a way to initiate the VoIP phone call.

To quote iareanet

VoIP is a new way to make and receive calls over the Internet much like sending and receiving emails. Phone calls are transferred into data and sent through high-speed Internet. There are four different methods of communication which VoIP offers: computer to computer, computer to telephone, telephone to computer, and telephone to telephone.

To quote about (.com)

A SIP address is a unique identifier for each user on the network, just like a phone number identifies each user on the global phone network

To Create A Free Sip Address For Yourself: Do an internet search for "free sip provider", "free voip provider", etc. After you pick a service provider and create your account, be sure to find the page that shows your authorization information, sometimes referred to as credentials.

3. On my Android device, I downloaded the Sipdroid app. I believe there are other apps in Google Play Store which will work also

4. On my computer, I opened two Firefox windows. The first window contained the instructions of how to enter the data into Sipdroid, and the second window contained the credentials (authorization) information I would be entering.

5. On Android device, I opened Sipdroid app. I clicked on the gear icon in the upper right corner. I clicked on "Sip Account, Line 1".

6. Reading the instructions and information from the Firefox windows, I typed in Authorization Username, Password, Server/Proxy, Domain, Username, Port, and Protocol. "Use WLAN" checked

7. On desktop computer in Firefox, I went to the ipkall website, created an account, got a 10-digit phone number, and associated that phone number with my SIP address from step 2.

As a result of this step, what should happen: When someone or something calls my new ipkall 10 digit phone number, it will transfer the call from the usual public switched telephone network (PSTN) to the newer internet "VoIP network".

When you ask someone for a phone number, they reply with a series of digits for a telephone keypad. You can't dial a SIP address from your telephone keypad. That's why this gateway from PSTN to SIP is needed.

8. On computer's Firefox, I logged into Google and went to Google Voice. I found the gear icon for changing settings (toward the upper right corner) and clicked it.

9. I unchecked my old cell phone. That way, when anyone (or anything) calls my Google Voice phone number, my old cell phone won't ring anymore. Actually, I've deleted my old cell phone number from the list because I'm not going to use that phone anymore.

10. I added the new ipkall phone number as a new number in Google Voice

11. Google Voice had to verify that I indeed have that phone number, so it displayed a 2-digit code and asked that I click 'connect'. I clicked 'connect' in the Firefox window. After a few seconds, the Sipdroid app rang (on the Nexus phone). I answered, fumbled to find the keypad, and entered the two digit code.

Once Google Voice was convinced I 'own' this number, then when anyone (or anything) calls my Google Voice phone number, it will route the call to the ipkall phone number, which then routes the call to my SIP address. And what is answering my SIP address? The Sipdroid App on my Android device (the Nexus 5)

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Phase One Complete! Any incoming calls to my Google Voice number will ring my Android device; the sipdroid app will ring and let me know I have a call. I answer the call in sipdroid. (I don't know if it's me, sipdroid, or this particular device, but I find I have trouble sliding that box up (or down?) in the sipdroid app's user interface.)

Now - how to make OUTGOING calls over wifi from Android with wifi-only connectivity?
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I continued researching, and tried to figure out how I could do it using the Google Voice app, Hangouts App, and the Nexus's built-in dialer. None of these worked. I was able to get the Google Voice App to hook up with my Gmail / Google Voice account, which it hadn't done earlier. But the Google Voice App doesn't have a dialer, e.g. a keypad with digits.

After further research, I read that ipkall is a one-direction gateway, from PSTN-to-SIP. (Public Switched Telephone Network to SIP address)

To call a "regular phone number" (i.e. in the US, a 10 digit number, sometimes preceded by 1) from my wifi-only Android phone, I thought would need a SIP-to-PSTN gateway. Where was I going to get that?

While reading, I saw the term "softphone". A softphone is a software program for making telephone calls over the Internet using a general purpose computer, rather than using dedicated hardware. (Thank you, Wikipedia.) That's basically what I needed.

Failing to make further progress, I decided to sleep on it.

The next day, it hit me like a thunderbolt. Why not make outgoing Google Voice calls USING GOOGLE VOICE! In the browser! I opened the Chrome browser app on my Android phone, turned on the setting for full desktop site, and logged into my google account. I went to the google.com/voice page and clicked on 'call'.

To place the outgoing call, I told Google to use the number I'd gotten from ipkall. It's in a drop-down box on the left side of the window. And I got ready to answer the Sipdroid app. Sure enough, when I placed the call in tje Chrome browser app on the Nexus, after a few seconds, Sipdroid app started ringing. I answered, and then Google Voice put my call through to the number I'd originally typed into Chrome browser app.

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Phase 2 Complete! To place outgoing Google Voice calls so that caller-id shows my Google Voice phone number, I'd used Google Voice in a browser window.
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Phase 3: My initial tests were over my home wifi. But I needed to check out call quality. So I repeated the steps of making and receiving phone calls using my VM mobile wi-fi hotspot device. Unfortunately, the calls sometimes break up. Quality: fair. Good enough? I don't know. I'm going to keep testing.
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Conclusion: Yes, it works. But the user interface ain't pretty. The call quality might not be good enough. And, I can't send MMS from my phone. I don't think Google Voice provides it. At least, I've never seen MMS on the Google Voice app or on the Google Voice web page. And though the Overdrive Pro device is small, it is one more thing to carry around & to charge. So I've decided to check out T-Mobile's $30/month 100 minutes pre-paid plan. Especially good time to order the SIM cards because the promo code SIMDEAL is good until August 6th 2014.
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