Sipdroid - Free VOIP Via Google Voice

[Snow02]

This guide will have you quickly up and running making free VOIP calls in a matter of minutes using Sipdroid and Google Voice.

If it's been awhile since you've used your pbxes account, and you cannot get it to register: Log into your account at pbxes.org and change the sipdroid extension password. Even if you make it the same thing. Just re-enter it and save. It should then work.

Why would you want to make VOIP calls though? First, if you're overseas and want to call the states. This will work over wifi or cellular data. So as long as you have an internet connection you can call anywhere in the states for free. And they can call you for free on your google voice number. I've tried it and it works great. Second, you're out of minutes for the month. Admit it, it's happened to everyone. Now you don't have to not make a phone call or pay ridiculous overage charges. Or, you might happen to be in a place with no cell service, but you have wifi available. Oh yeah...you can also be on the phone and the web at the same time now.
Be aware that it is recommended that you set up a secondary google account with google voice specifically for sipdroid. The reasons for this are outlined in Post #36. If you do set up a secondary account, follow the steps below as described, then follow the directions in Post #3 to change the pbxes information to your secondary account.

Steps:

1. Get google voice if you don't have it. You do have to set this up from a computer as they don't allow account setup over mobile browsers. Make sure it's under the same account as the one linked to your phone (and consequently, market account). If it's not, and you don't want to make a new voice account, you can still get this to work, see post #3 below.
Install the google voice app from the market and sign in.

2. Download Sipdroid from the market and install it.

3. On initially starting the app, there will be a button at the bottom that says set up a free pbxes account to link with google voice. Press it.


4. It will automatically fill in a pbxes account name with your gmail account name. Change this if you wish, just write down what you enter.

5. You'll see right below that, it filled in the name of the gmail account linked to your phone. Again, this is important, and where I messed up, because I had a different google voice account than the account linked to my phone. For the password, make sure you enter the password for the google voice account listed.




6. In the Settings Menu:


Press Call Options


Press Preferred Call Type


Set it to Phone


Then, in the google voice app settings, set your Google Voice options to never use google voice. To dial using sipdroid, in the main phone dialer add a + to the end of the phone number like: 555-555-5555+. This will trigger sipdroid to make the call, but prevent you from getting a prompt every time you want to place a regular phone call. Or, you can dial from the sipdroid app by entering the number on the main screen and pressing enter.
In the main settings screen, press the SIP Account at the top, scroll down and make sure you check 3G and EDGE to enable cell data calls.

7. That's it! Make sure you write down or remember your pbxes account name in case you have to reinstall sipdroid.
Now, try it out. Dial as instructed in step 7 and make sure it works.
And if you're still not 100% sure this is actually working over data, do this.
- From the dialer, dial *#*#4636#*#*
- Choose Phone Information
- Scroll Down and where it says CDMA auto (prl), tap that and change it to EVDO only. This will keep your data connection alive and disable your cellular radio.
- Try Sipdroid again. Still works. Just don't forget to change your radio back to CDMA auto...
Also, with this configuration, incoming calls to google voice may reach your phone via cellular, and not data. If you want to remove the possibility of incoming calls going over cellular, sign into google voice, and under settings, uncheck mobile. Just leave google chat checked. Now incoming calls can only forward using VOIP. Note, this setting has no influence on outgoing calls via sipdroid, they will always use a data connection. But if, for instance, you were overseas and using this to accept free incoming calls, you would absolutely want to make sure mobile is not checked.
I'm pretty comfortable with how this works at this point, so if you have any questions, just ask.

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[Beeray]

It works. I am so excited. My skype also works. You are the best!

Rochelle

[Snow02]

To Change Google Voice Account or Password or Find Info to Set up Sipdroid After Reinstall:
In the event you need to change the google voice account or password linked to your sipdroid, or set up Sipdroid again, follow these instructions.

1) Access your pbx at pbxes.org. Your username is the pbx name you chose when you set up sipdroid (see post #1 above). Your password is the same as the google voice password you put in when you set up sipdroid.


2) The extensions tab. This has the information you need to put in sipdroid if you have to reinstall. Click Extensions to expand the category, then click on sipdroid to bring up the information. In the sipdroid app, the authorized username should match the username box (pbxname-200). The password you put into sipdroid is sipdroidpassword. If you're having problems getting sipdroid to connect, try changing the sipdroidpassword. Do not worry about the information in the "dial" box.


3) The Trunks tab contains your google voice login information. You can edit this information to link a different google voice account with your sipdroid, or correct login information. Click Trunks to expand the category, then click the GTalk entry. Enter the correct information as seen in red. Then click submit. A red bar may pop up at the top of the screen asking you to click it to apply changes - do so. That should be it.



If you would like to use CSipSimple instead of Sipdroid, you can set it up after you've set up your pbxes through sipdroid and confirmed everything works. To do so:

1: Install CSipSimple from the market and run it. Configure the first screen like this. But unless you're only making calls with csipsimple, I recommend not checking integrate with android dialer. This will prevent you from getting a popup option box every time you want to make a regular phone call.:


2: You'll then be prompted to add an account at this screen:


3: Scroll down to World Providers and press it to expand. Choose Pbxes.org:


4: Enter the username and password info. This can be found in your pbxes account as shown in the first part of this post. The username is pbxname-200 (make sure to include the -200!!!) and the password is sipdroidpassword.


That's it. Again, you have to configure everything through sipdroid first to set up the pbxes account properly. Make sure it works before attempting to use CSipSimple.

[Beeray]

Can I call for free from Europe to USA?

[Snow02]

You can call the USA and Canada free from anywhere in the world.

[IMDROID]

Hey thanks Snow02! This is perfect - now I have SIP, and I have setup Google Voice to be my default "Visual Voice Mail + Transcribe" which actually works very well. I like saving money, even if it's $2.99 a month. LOL. This should be a sticky.

[Snow02]

No problem! I'm going to add some extra info when I get some time. This is really very neatly integrated. Glad to help.

[Beeray]

I'm so happy about this. It will save me a bundle.

[nycebo]

Nicely done. Thanks.

[LexLuthor]

Works great.

Thanks!