A "softphone" is a piece of software that you download to your computer, which combined with FreeVirtualNumbers enables you to experience VoIP technology and experiment with set up and call quality. You will also, ideally, need a headset such as the Plantronics 400 - however, if you have speakers and a microphone with your computer, these will do adequately (although call quality may slightly suffer as the "pickup" from a microphone isn't as good as a headset solution).
We recommend the X-Lite Softphone which may be downloaded free from Xten at: http://www.xten.com/index.php?menu=download.
When you have downloaded it (by selecting the X-Lite v3.0 for Windows file from the linked directory above), you must configure it - this is a fairly straightforward process and is described briefly below.
After installation and on running the program it will display the following screen.
This should be partially covered by the following
In which case press Add. If the screen above does not come up then Right click the phones screen which will display:
Pressing SIP account options will get you the SIP Accounts screen above.
Pressing Add or if there is one already there Properties will show the following screen
#1\a\a.T|+x.T;match=1;prestrip=2;match=2;prestrip=1;pre="00";Then click on the Topology tab at the top.
and select Use local IP address at the top. Click apply on the bottom right hand corner and we would expect it to immediately work with the Free Virtual Numbers Voice Over IP system
Dial 160 to try the echo test. You should hear everything you say echoed back to you.
Audio Problems?
If after configuring the software you get one way audio problems these can be resolved by changing the following settings:
Options... Advanced... Audio Codecs and removing all but one (e.g., G711 uLaw) from the list of enabled codecs
Dial ***7469 (SEND)
Filter for Honor: Change the value of Honor first codec to 1 save and restart the application. [by closing and saving when asked]