SIP - A Flexible Skype Alternative - Twinkle Install Howto

Introduction
No doubt about it, Skype is great for online calling from PC to PC but it has its drawbacks. One is that the protocol is proprietary - when making PC to PC calls you can only talk with other Skype users and also, when it comes to calling regular phones, it is definitely not the cheapest option out there.

Enter SIP, an open communication protocol. Because it is open many different software applications can use it so you can choose what software and indeed hardware best suits you when making your calls. SIP to SIP calls are usually free and many providers offer SIP to regular phone calls at substantially cheaper prices than Skype. Many SIP providers will give you a regular incoming phone number so others can call you from regular phones. In fact it is possible even to get a local phone number in many places throughout the world which is mapped back to your SIP account enabling people abroad to call you from regular phones at local rates. If you want to get really adventurous you can even hook up your SIP service to allow calls to and from GTalk, MSN and Yahoo.

This howto covers installing just one of the more common applications which enable you to make SIP calls (usually called a SIP client) and some of the better SIP providers out there who give you the ability to call regular phones.

Choosing a SIP Provider
First you need to set up a SIP account with a service provider. The choice of provider depends a lot on the types of calls you think you will make most.

If you think you will mostly call other PCs most SIP providers will allow you to call any other SIP user's computer for free and will let you set up a free account to do so. One popular service which allows you to do this can be found at www.sipphone.com. Sipphone offer their own SIP client called Gizmo 5 which also supports text chat and it runs fine on the Aspire in my tests but this client only allows you to use their SIP service and their phone service is only really good value for calls to regular phones if you are calling other Gizmo users. Getting everyone you would like to call to sign up is a job in itself.

Therefore, if you think that you will mostly be calling people on conventional phones a better choice might be to sign up with one of the Betamax sites like [url href=http://www.voipbuster.com]VOIPBuster[/url], VOIPStunt or SIPDiscount. These sites offer great deals for calling landlines and even mobiles in some countries. While there are small differences in the ways these sites operate they all have systems that operate basically the same. You buy credit in chunks starting at about €10 (yes my American friends, these are European based services). When you purchase this credit you are given a number of freedays - normally 180 or so. Each service has a list of 'free' countries which you can view on each site. Calls to landlines in these countries (and for some of the countries, mobiles too) are free during your freedays period - the credit you bought will not be used. However, calls to destinations outside of this list will be charged to your credit. Also, calls made even to the free destinations will be charged when your freedays have expired. Call charges are generally lower than Skype and also there is no call setup fee. Terms of use apply but they are generous enough to meet most user's needs I am sure.

These sites also offer their own client but it once again restricts you to using their service alone and in any case it is Windows only software so not much use to Aspire One users. This is where Twinkle steps in.

Twinkle is an open source SIP client which runs happily on the Aspire One and allows you to use multiple SIP accounts with multiple providers so you can mix and match between providers to get exactly the service that suits you. Installing Twinkle is relatively painless. Assuming you are in basic mode (if you don't know what this is then you most likely are) then the steps for installation would be as follows.

Installation
First we need to open a command terminal. there are a few ways of doing this but the quickest way is probably to press your Alt key and keeping it pressed down, hit your F2 key simultaneously. This should open the 'Run Program' window. Type the 'xterm' (without the quotes) in the box and click the 'OK' button. This will cause another window to open which is your Terminal, a place to enter commands for running programs and conducting other tasks with your operating system.

We will use an application called Yum to install Twinkle. Yum is one application you can use to manage the software installed on your machine. To have Yum install Twinkle type the following command in the Terminal window.

Code:

sudo yum install twinkle

The 'sudo' portion of this command instructs Yum to carry out the installation with administrative powers rather than just user ones which are more restricted.

It will take some time for Yum to conduct some checks to see what software you have already installed and what additional packages you may need to install Twinkle successfully but before long you will be asked if you wish to proceed so just type 'y' (without the quotes) after the 'Is this OK?' prompt and hit your Enter key. Yum will then download and install all required packages. During this process you may receive another prompt or two depending on the packages you have already installed. Simply enter 'y' as above and hit 'Enter' each time until you see a message saying 'Complete' in your terminal window. At this point Twinkle is installed. Leave your terminal window open as we will use it to start Twinkle for the first time.

Configuration
To run Twinkle for the first time simply type 'twinkle' (yes, without the quotes) in the terminal window and hit your 'Enter' key. The first time Twinkle runs you will be asked to set up a profile. Each profile stores the account settings for each account you have with a SIP provider. Here I am going to assume you signed up with VOIPBuster but creating profiles with other SIP providers is very similar, only the setting values will change such as username and password, SIP proxy etc. All of this information can be found on the provider's website. So, click the 'OK' button on the first prompt. You will then be offered the choice of setting up the profile via a wizard or via the profile editor. For those new to SIP I would definitely recommend the wizard.

You will be prompted to enter a name for your profile. This is to help you discriminate between profiles should you set up multiple accounts so I guess calling it after the provider isn't a bad approach. In this case VOIPBuster.

Next you will be prompted to enter the account specific information. At the top of this screen, Twinkle shows a drop-down list of providers it knows about - you'll see Sipphone is one of them. If Twinkle knows about a particular provider it will pre-populate some of the settings fields for you. Currently it doesn't seem to know about any of the Betamax sites but the settings are relatively easy. Choose the 'Other' option from the providers list and go ahead and enter your name or nickname and the username you chose when setting up your account. In the domain field enter 'voipbuster.com', The username you entered already should be in the 'Authentication name' field and this is correct. Enter the password you chose when setting up your account with VOIPBuster in the 'Password' field and enter 'sip.voipbuster.com' (without the quotes) in the 'SIP proxy' field. Finally, to enable Twinkle to work properly behind a router add the STUN server - in this case 'stun.voipbuster.com' though actually a stun server from any provider will work here. Finally click 'OK'.

You will then be prompted to view your system settings. You may wish to make the profile you set up the default profile and have it used automatically when you start Twinkle but all other settings should be fine as they are. When you click 'OK' Twinkle should sign into your VOIPBuster account immediately and the main Twinkle window will be displayed. You can now make a test call to make sure all is working as it should.

Testing
One of the nice features of SIP for those outside the USA is that you can call US 1800 numbers for free. A nice way to test your Twinkle setup is to call the automated US information service Tellme (411) which you can call by dialing 1800 555 8355. This is a nice testing method as you don't have to bug a human to make sure you can hear and be heard correctly.

System Integration
If you are using your Aspire One in advanced mode then you will find an entry for Twinkle in your menu under Internet. Otherwise you will need to manually add the icon to the Connect section on your desktop just as you do with Skype or other applications. You can find more information on this here so I won't go into detail but it will be useful to know that there is a desktop configuration file in /usr/share/applications called fedora-twinkle.desktop which saves you having to make one and the icon file, called twinkle.png, can be found in /usr/share/pixmaps.

Enjoy your calls!