Calling an IP phone from a computer

I don't know anything about windows machines or if that is a SIP phone program so I can't give you an ack/nack on that. Even if that program won't do the trick for you there are plenty of free SIP phone programs kicking around, that won't be your sticking point. The big problem will be to get your provider to allow you to make inbound calls to them via SIP. Many of them have a policy where the only thing they allow is incoming calls via the telco. I would call them up and ask if they do allow inbound SIP calls and what the hostname of the sip machine is and what phone number to use in the SIP address to make a certain phone ring. Usually it will be the full 10-digit phone number (without any leading "1"), but it could really be anything ranging from just the trailing 4 or 5 digits to the 10-digit number with "+1" prefixed. Then with that hostname and phone number in hand you get your SIP phone program to call phone_number@full_hostname.

I've got a SIP server running here, and one of the handiest things is being able to call other folks directly via the internet with no telco voice lines involved.

(If you do need to find a SIP phone program, Google for "soft phone". You'll find more than you can shake a stick at.)

-wolfgang

Wolfgang,

Thanks for the feedback.

Once again, please forgive my ignorance (please feel free to educate me as much as you see fit)

From the looks of it, I should be able to use Windows Phone Dialer to make a PC to PC call using ?H323? (have not yet tried to do this)

I was hoping that I could make a PC to IP Phone (Cisco Systems 7960 series) (which I THINK is on the same network (?subnet?) as the computers) call using the same method.

From your resp>> I was wondering if it is possible to call one of our IP phones from one >> of

As for H323, that's not the right protocol. You want SIP/RTP/ulaw.

-wolfgang

Conan:

I know there was a programme included with Windows called Windows Dialer that just controlled the computer's modem. This may be different than what you are referring to, but I know that a super simple modem dialer called "Windows Dialer" did exist.

There are many SIP based Softphones out there. Gizmo seems alright so far, although I admit I have not used it much. It is free and I have one friend who really likes it.

"Wolfgang S. Rupprecht" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@ancho.wsrcc.com...

Wolfgang,

Thanks again for all of your help.

Is there any way to get to get the info you listed above by looking at the phone's settings (Cisco Systems 7960 Series)?

Conan

You're welcome.

You can probably get the phone's IP address from the phone itself -- but if it is assigned by dhcp, it may not be constant. A few day's later it may be something else. The "right" way to do this is connect to the phone's sip server.

-wolfgang