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Toshiba Adds VoIP to PCs

Posted by Hemos on from the cutting-out-the-telcos dept.

securitas writes "PC World/ IDG reports on the new Toshiba SoftIPT SoftPhone software that turns Windows XP-based computers into VoIP telephones. The software features call answering and forwarding, voice mail retrieval and conference calling and costs $200. Now if only Toshiba managed to come up with a version of the software that runs on 802.11 WiFi handhelds like the e800/e805 ... More details in the press release."

5 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. Uhhhh... by Talez · · Score: 4, Informative

    Ahead, the makers of Nero, have created an IP phone for the PC. It's called Sippstar and you can get a free 2 month demo.

    I was using it to talk to a friend on his Cisco IP phone. Took up a bit of bandwidth (8K/sec in both directions) but the quality was fairly good.

  2. Or.... by dirty · · Score: 4, Informative

    Or you could use X-Lite, Gnophone, SJphone, or Diax. All of which are completely free. Add about $15 / month for IConnectHere or VoicePulse account with a phone number and you're done.

    --

    -matt
  3. Re:consumer market by dirty · · Score: 4, Informative

    As far as leaving your computer on, with an IP phone you don't need to, but they cost anywhere from $70 to $500 per phone. And there are services such as IConnectHere and VoicePulse, which both will give you a real phone number and connect you to non-voip phone numbers. I think with VoicePulse for something like $25 a month you get a real phone number, voicemail, callerID and all of that, and 600 minutes of US calls per month. IMHO that's a pretty good price.

    BTW, I think VoicePulse uses a bunch of Linux boxes running Asterisk to handle the calls.

    --

    -matt
  4. Re:Something similar in LindowsOS 4.5 by Snocone · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  5. Re:Cheaper to buy a hardware phone! by buffer-overflowed · · Score: 4, Informative

    GnuPhone. Sister project to Asterisk.

    Already here, well, you need some speciality hardware, but it's already here.

    I'll stick with my POTS tho, pls nod thanx. It never has any problems, I've yet to see a VoIP service that can match it on anything other than price in my area.

    --
    The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."