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for goodness sake get hardphones they are always going to be much better

u will always have quality issues with remote softphones cause u normally don't have influence over the network they are connecting across. (softphone via wifi in an airport with probably 100 other users moving about google maps is never going to cut it)
if u have to.... http://www.xten.com/ is a personal favourite... but buy polycoms for the office

If you have WiFi (802.11b/g), you can make outbound long distance using any SIP client (i.e. X-Lite) communicating to any SIP provider (i.e. Voxee) at 1.1 cents per minute... Why would you want to use cellular ($0.07/min - $0.20/min) when you can make calls via WiFi ($0.01/min)?

I've had a Symbian phone for over a year now(Nokia 9500) and it's worked great, but there's nothing to add. With Windows Mobile I'll get Skype, I can use Woize if I have to, but I'd rather have Xten's PPC Phone which I can directly connect to my Asterisk box. Not to mention I can get a free AIM for it(Symbian costs, was only $30 or around there but still).

Sorry, I love my Nokia, but I need my VoIP and I need features. Not to mention MiniMo will run on it too. =)

From CounterPath (formerly known as Xten).
http://www.xten.com/index.php?menu=eyeBeam

I suppose it's SIP based.

This is clearly a free (and branded) version of eyeBeam from Xten (link) now known as CounterPath. Therefore my guess is that it's a service pretty similar to Free World Dialup (link) but with video (not sure if FWD support video).

I prefer FreeWorld Dialup as a great way to go for voip:
 
- standards based
- Free
- Windows , Linux and pocketpc clients available
- Call 800 numbers and more
- Call to/from vonage customers
- get free phone number and have people call you
- Get a wisip phone (WiFi SIP) and you have the closest thing to a IP mobile phone you can get.
 
  FreeWorld Dialup

The VoIP companies have to pay to terminate calls to the PSTN (Public Service Telephone Network), so free is difficult business model. They also have to provide servers, bandwidth, and pay their staffs.

A lot of people buy an ultra-lost cost plan, such as a BroadVoice BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) plan, starting at 5.95/mo, and use it with a free Xten softphone.

You don't need to buy an international plan to make international calls. Most VoIP companies allow free calling to other subs, so if you have a friend overseas, buy two $5.95 setups, and then talk forever, no additional charge. Also, with the $5.95 you get the full range of services - inbound calls, voicemail, caller id, so it's really not a bad deal.

Or, you could get Xten's Softphone, or SJ Labs and use it with your home VOIP.

I'd rather have something that uses standard Windows menus rather than rolling its own system, but the price is right :)

And don't forget about the SIP software for Pocket PCs, including X-Pro for Pocket PC (you can still find their 'lite' version on freeware sites).

I've just barely started playing with it, but it's pretty easy to use once you get the hang of it. It even comes with prerecorded messages such as "all members of our household are currently dealing with telemarketers", "somethings *terribly* wrong", and one that's just angry monkeys screaming for 20 seconds.

Here are some great resources for getting started:
http://www.digium.com/handbook-draft.pdf

and a good soft phone (x-lite) at http://www.xten.com/

Nikotel's X-Lite looks suspiciously like the Xten software of the same name.

Coincidence!? I think not.

As someone else mentioned - FreeWorld Dialup is a great way to go for voip:

- standards based
- Free
- Windows, Linux and pocketpc clients available
- Call 800 numbers and more
- Call to/from vonage customers
- get free phone number and have people call you
- Get a wisip phone (WiFi SIP) and you have the closest thing to a IP mobile phone you can get.

FreeWorld Dialup

I'm currently running windows and ipaq (pocketpc 2002) clients fine. And calling my home vonage service - no problem!

Your iPaq runs IAXComm?....As far as I can see it's only built for windows, linux, and mac...Perhaps you meant xpro from xten?

If you're a geek willing to put some time into learning VOIP and Asterisk, the options are endless.

How about this? Her work would give her a "desk" with an analog phone. You put an old Linux PC at the "desk" with a Digium FX0 card. You then have another PC at her home with with a VOIP phone jack or a headset with SIP software (like this Windows or this Linux) or run Asterisk on her home Linux box and run IAX between the two.

Reliability would depend on the reliability of the IP connection between home/work. Because of Internet delay (and possibly delay from your VPN encryption), there may be a noticable delay on the connections, so it may feel more like a cell phone conversation than a land line.

If you don't have time to tinker and really care about reliability, just get a $30 nationwide unlimited plan from your local phone company or long distance provider (BellSouth/MCI/AT&T), expense it to work, and be done with it.

I don't have my hands on a 7920 (feel free to send me one ;-) ).

...does voice over IP with hard encryption. I don't know of any other VoIP product that does that...

Michael, meet X-Cipher.

X-Cipher, meet Michael.

http://www.xten.com/proto/index.php?menu=products& smenu=xpro&ssmenu=xcipher

Xten Networks has a VoIP client which support 256-bit AES encryption.

Please DON'T pay attention. Many of us who read this don't have exactly the same problem. It's appropriate to talk about a wide range of solutions. Anyway, maybe he could get his GF or himself an old PC for $20 from the newspaper classified ads. Voice applications don't require much computing power. Skype, below, says 400 MHz is enough.

I just want to connect with friends in France and Brazil. I don't need any standards like SIP. I would just like to use the sound card for sound. I want to avoid use of a server for making connections, because all the companies will soon begin charging for this unnecessary service.

I've never used it, but for the MAC and PC there is the free version of the Xten software. Requires that you connect through someone's server. Free World Dialup was suggested to me.

For the PC, Skype works perfectly. The sound quality is better than regular telephones. However, there are some problems: 1) Skype is made by the same people who made KaZaa. Possibly it has hidden functions like KaZaa does. I've already found that every time it is used it keeps installing itself so that it runs every time the computer is turned on. The download page says, "no spyware, no adware". 2) Skype requires an intermediate server. I would like to connect directly to my friend's IP address. 3) I haven't verified this, but Skype seems to use a hard-coded public key, so that, even though the voice is encrypted, it would be easy for anyone to decrypt.

Skype can communicate through any firewall. If it doesn't find other ports open, it works on port 80. (For those who don't know, that's the HTTP browser port.) It would be great to find some open source software that could do that, because I don't like punching holes in firewalls. (However, if voice can go through port 80, so can absolutely anything else.)

What other "Voice Chat" or "VOIP" software have you used, and what has been your experience?

There's several old H.323 conferencing applications around, but I don't believe that there's any {0|o}pen {S|s}ource SIP applications functional yet, which is what most people mean by "VOIP" these days.

If your principles aren't so strong that they make you refuse to use stuff that's being given away for free, though, you could always grab our X-Lite softphone and sign up with Free World Dialup or the like.

http://www.xten.com/

VoIP on a PocketPC is a kludge at best for now. Forget about wardriving (warwalking?) with a PDA. The CF and internal WiFi cards are much lower power than laptop PCMCIA cards so you won't have the range you need. Battery life with the WiFi radio running is pretty pitiful too. Not a huge problem with outgoing calls, but forget about leaving it connected in standby to receive calls.

Still, if you want to try it, there's a few SIP softphones for PocketPC, Xten and SJPhone. Never tried them myself, but they're freeware, so doesn't cost anything to experiment.

Actually, what's shipping with Lindows is our X-Lite softphone version, complete details on the product line here.

http://www.xten.com/

Disclaimer: I do the OS X softphone versions and the X-Tunnels/X-Cipher/X-Vox servers, so I might perhaps be a bit biased towards assuming that our stuff doesn't suck.

Hmmmm ... aside from the fact that you seem to be making a good bit less than I thought you were, that sounds an awful lot like my co-worker Steve. Is "Jennifer" actually you, Steve buddy?

If you're not Steve, Jennifer, you should apply to work with us here immediately, we're looking for someone to split Steve's workload and you sound pretty much perfect.