120 free days of calls to major cities, then rates at cheaper than SkypeOut

What a win! I've blogged about this before and even managed to get my DECT cordless phone to connect to the Internet and use this VoipBuster service



But really, if you aren't using VoipBuster to make international calls then you are paying too much. Free for 120 days then cheaper than SkypeOut rates.



Here's the freedays page that I always battle to find: http://www.voipbuster.com/en/free.html

Amplify’d from www.voipbuster.com

Free* calls with VoipBuster

Home| Rates| Download| Buy Credits / Login| Features| Instructions| Feedback

Not only can you call your online friends for free, VoipBuster also offers free* calls to any regular land-line in various popular destinations (see panel). To counter misuse of our network we have limited these free* calls for our trial users. If you want to enjoy longer free* calls to these destinations, just top up your account by buying credit. VoipBuster Freedays Buying credit entitles you to 120 Freedays (unless stated otherwise). This means you can call all countries marked as "Free" in our rates list for a period of 120 days at no costs. When the 120 days are over, the normal rate will be charged for these destinations. You can get more Freedays by topping up your account with credit. Fair Use and Restrictions New users can try VoipBuster out for free for a total of 60 minutes. During this trial period you can only call the destinations marked as free. Register your account by buying credit in order to extend your free calls. Registered users get max 300 minutes per week of free calls, measured over the last 7 days and per unique IP address. Unused free minutes cannot be taken to the following week(s). If limit is exceeded the normal rates apply. During your Freedays you can call all destinations listed as "Free" for free. When you have run out of Freedays, the normal rates apply. You can get new Freedays by buying credit. Read more at www.voipbuster.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/ay6t

Using my BlackBerry 9700 Bold phone to make SIP VoipBuster calls

As you know I’m an avid VOIP user, and have successfully used the VOIPbuster service to make extremely cheap (free for 120 days) international calls.  See my previous posting “Using my cordless DECT phone to make Skype and SIP VoipBuster calls”.

Since I got my new BB with Wi-Fi I have been trying to find a way to also make calls over my WiFi connection. 
I thought that I could use the same programs that I was using on my Nokia 6110 Navigator: Fring and NimBuzz – both of them allowed me to configure the VoipBuster SIP settings and I could make calls using my phone’s data connection (at R2 per MB).
I hoped that now, with the BB, I could use its WiFi capability – but, I was (very, very) disappointed that NimBuzz for BB doesn’t have the voice functionality; and there isn’t a Fring for BB app :( :(

I was looking for a SIP soft-phone client that I could load onto my BlackBerry – eventually I found one: BlackVoib from “Black Communications”.

BlackVoib is a generic SIP client for  GSM BlackBerry devices. It allows the user to make/receive SIP calls on the internet via WiFi or OTA (in other words, over GPRS/Edge/3G).

It’s currently in beta, and the beta version will expire on 15th Sept 2010 when a production version should be available (as stated on the web site). 
See here for their FAQ page: BlackVoib FAQs

Here are the settings that I used to connect BlackVoib to the VoipBuster SIP service:
Settings:
    a) Display Name: HTTvoipBuster [can be anything]
    b) Username: HTTvoipBuster@voipbuster.com
    c) Password: <voipBusterpassword>
    d) Domain: 77.72.169.134   <<--- sip.voipbuster.com didn’t work (I was getting this: “start network fail 1..2..3.....”) so I used the IP address which solved that problem
    e) Register with Domain: – Checked [needed for incoming calls]
    f) Outbound Proxy: <blank>
    g) APN: <blank>  [internet can be used if WiFi is not available]
    h) Use WiFi: Checked
    i) STUN Server: 77.72.169.160  <<--- stun.voipbuster.com didn’t work so I used the IP address

If you have problems, then tick the “SIP debug” item and then make a call and hang up – the log file can then be analysed.  It’s stored on the phone here: Applications->Files->"Device memory" -> home –> user  -> SIPDebug.txt

Note: I don’t get sound on my BB – but I think there’s currently a problem with the VoipBuster service… so, yes, it’s pretty useless unless I get sound!  But, I have faith… I’ll report back as soon as I get it working. 

Please let me know if you have found any better solutions to using a configurable SIP client over WiFi on your BlackBerry phone – add your comment now.

See here for more articles: making cheap international calls

BlackBerry Bold WiFi connection problems solved

I have been looking all over for solutions to my problem connecting my BlackBerry 9700 Bold to my wireless router at home (using WPA2 security). 

I checked the BB Bold’s specifications here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry_Bold and found that it could support a lot of WiFi security: Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, WEP, WPA-PSK (TKIP or AES), PEAP, LEAP, EAP-TLS, EAP-FAST, EAP-TTLS, EAP-SIM

I tried a lot of settings but I kept on getting the error: “failed to associate with the network”.

Eventually, I found the problem by chance – I tried playing with the router’s wireless mode (thanks to a posting on the CrackBerry forums).  I changed it from 802.11b+g to 802.11g.. in doing that the Channel changed from “Channel 13 (2.472 GHz)” to “Channel 1 (2.412 GHz)” and all of a sudden it started working!  Problem solved :)

So, here’s the solution in case anyone else has problems connecting the BlackBerry to a wireless router.

I have a Billion Bipac 7300GA modem/router and I have set it up as follows:
Wireless Parameters tab:
Mode: 802.11b+g
ESSID: MyWirelessSSID [can be anything]
Hide ESSID: Enable [I don’t want to let my neighbours know that I have a router]
Regulation domain: Europe
Channel ID: Channel 1 (2.412 GHz) <<--- that was the problem as I had it set to “Channel 13” initially
WMM (QoS): Enable
WMM-APSD: Disable

Wireless Security tab:
Security mode: WPA2 Pre-Shared Key
WPA2 algorithm: AES
WPA2 shared key: mypassword [remember, this is case sensitive]
Group key renewal: 3600

I then used the BB’s WiFi manual setup menu: Options->WiFi->New->Next->Manually add network->Enter your SSID->Add->Security type: “Pre-shared key (PSK)” (this works for WPA and WPA2 since there is no WPAx option)
Then enter your “Pre-Shared Key”: mypassword  [this must be the same as router’s “WPA2 shared key”]
Then click the “Connect” button.