Softphone possible on Vodafone VOIP landline?

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DS248

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#255988 9-Sep-2019 16:40

We have a Vodafone VOIP landline with Vodafone supplied portable handsets. Works fine but for more direct access to my Outlook contacts list and using a headset (significant hearing loss), it would be good to have the option to use a softphone from my Win10 PC.

Can this be done easily and securely?

If so, any recommendations as to good softphone software?

Any special configuration required?

gaddman

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#2313803 9-Sep-2019 19:29

Unfortunately not, it's a policy not to provide the SIP credentials you'd need to do this. Other than picking an alternative VOIP provider, maybe you can plug a headset into the handset you have (or buy one that does have this capability, if the one you have doesn't)?

cyril7

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#2313820 9-Sep-2019 20:04

Hi just port your number to 2talk, just liked you ported your clear.Net and paradise email to a specilised email provider and then be free to select whatever isp you like with no entanglement with phone or email.

Cyril

DS248

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#2314174 10-Sep-2019 11:49

Thanks for a straight, prompt answer gaddman. Not what I wanted to hear of course.

Can you explain why the policy not to provide the SIP credentials? Or at least somehow allow use of softphones?

Surely it would would add value, at least for some users, basically without cost to VF.

The ~year old digital portable handsets we have ex VF do not have a headphone jack (or Bluetooth). These replaced near new analogue handsets we already had and I have multiple other handsets / phones lying around and really do not want more! One day need a clear out but not easy to dump items still in good working order.

re 2talk. I can see the attraction but it does not appear to offer any cost advantage for our use case (from what I can make out, likely dearer) and from reading limited discussions here on GZ, there seem to be ongoing issues; eg. https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=43&topicid=255738.

To give VF credit, their landline system just 'works' (once we had ironed out an initial setup problem). My main gripe is the high charges for add-ons such as Call Diversion & 'Feature Pack' that appear to be no added cost on most VOIP systems and presumably cost very little to provide?

gaddman

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#2314670 11-Sep-2019 07:41

DS248:

Can you explain why the policy not to provide the SIP credentials?

Generally around reducing the opportunity for fraud, eg using the same credentials from the other side of the world (or just elsewhere in NZ) to avoid toll charges, a bit of protecting the network from bad SIP clients, and a little of ensuring a simple support model. Of course there are ways of managing all this, and other providers do give out credentials, but for most of our customers the provided gateway and phones do the job so I don't expect a shift in policy anytime soon. I think for business products there may be more flexibility, but it's not an area I'm familiar with and the pricing would presumably reflect a business product.

sbiddle

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#2314676 11-Sep-2019 07:52

Vodafone supply a fully managed to end end solution that guarantees it will work. Letting people configure their own hardware or software is a guaranteed support nightmare and the many threads over the years on here from people who have configured their own VoIP hardware and found a) it got hacked, b) couldn't call some numbers due to their configuration around dialplans or codecs or DTMF means it's a path most providers don't want to go down.

Many people still think of SIP as a simple thing where you need 3 or 4 settings to make it work. Unfortunately it's a lot more complex than that.