How Do You Make International Calls?

Futurepower(R) asks: "How do Slashdot readers make international calls? I know about OneSuite, Vonage, Skype, and iConnectHere. I know that BigZoo is quitting business. What other telephone, VOIP, or other kinds of services are available? Is there any open source VOIP software that can connect directly through port 80, bypassing firewalls?"

Comments

I use www.mywdt.com

[Mourgos]

www.mywdt.com They even provide you with an 800 number to use for free.

Asterisk and a VOIP provider

[sprior]

I have a linux based Asterisk PBX at home and sign up with nufone.net to provide calling to POTS lines both US and international. nufone is a purely pay as you go so it costs very little to try them. The key is Asterisk, then there are a few options for the VOIP side.

Re:Asterisk and a VOIP provider

[jaredmauch]

Funny I should read this thread. I just finished converting my home over to mostly VoIP. Now, i don't have comcast or other residental providers, so YMMV as my situation is unique:
I have a T1 at home, where I do various policing on my router to insure that my VoIP traffic is able to take that extra little bit over the top that TCP will normally try to stomp all over. (I'm rate limiting inbound tcp from my upstream). I also have LLQ (low latency queueing) configured to insure that the voip packets are the first that are sent out.

I have a setup with a few 7960's, and a cisco 2610 with NM-2V, VIC-2FXO-M1= and VIC-2FXS. These handle taking my PSTN service (which is actually ISDN going through a Motorola BitSurfr Pro) and passing it out the FXS ports to ring throughout my house, as well as using asterisk I have it ring some of the IP phones as well.

This allows me to:

Use my own caller-id database in asterisk

Buy unlocked ata-186's for family so they can call me and my wife for free

Use nufone for outbound LD

Be dependent upon electricity for my phone service (get a small UPS and you can keep yourself up for a day or so powering the BitSurfr, since that's all i need to be able to call 911, etc..)

Route calls the lowest cost (local goes out one of the POTS/Bitsurfr ports)

Log both outbound and inbound call times, so you know exactly when you ordered that pizza

Be geeky and increase my slashdot karma ;-)

Now, this is an overly complicated setup, but the point is that it's possible to set up a functional SIP/Asterisk solution for your home. You may be able to get one of the Soekris PCs and install your favorite free unix (yes, Asterisk even works on the dying *BSD ;) and keep your power requirements a lot lower (so you can do all that E911 foo).

Nufone works nicely for my setup, and i cancelled my vonage (and gave the ata-186 to my wifes sister for christmas after paying $40+$15) so my overall costs are lower (except for the geeky maint part, and i still need to stick the cdrs into a database so they can be viewed on a webpage).

YMMV if you do something like this, since most carriers are transporting the calls as IP on their own networks, expect the quality to be the same or only slightly degraded (watch the codec being used, you really want something like g711ulaw for the best quality sound) for your calls prior to reaching the foreign countrys PSTN.

Varies by country....

[DisasterDoctor]

I make quite a few international calls.

The cost depends on two major factors....
1. Which country you are calling
2. Where the calls are originating

I was a big fan of BigZoo, especially for calls from the U.S. into Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and most of the stans.

Though I don't know why, most of the indepent resellers seem to be ditching the business.

Your local company (AT&T, etc.) always seem to have the cheapest price into neighboring countries (Canada, Mexico, England, and now even Japan.)

For calls originating outside of the US and calling in, callback services always seem to work best, though there doesn't seem to be much difference between them. The internet call back service are tolerance for voice communications.

phonecard tip

[Lux]

My mom uses those, but she got frustrated about all the bizarre extra charges that you get just for dialing a number, even if no one picks up.

So she started probing with her normal phone service.

If no one picks up on the normal phone call, no charge. If someone does pick up, it's a quarter or so connection fee for a 15 second call consisting of "Ah, you're home. I'll call you right back." Then she calls back on the card, and juices it for every single minute it's advertised to get. :)

Yahoo Messenger

[dallask]

They have integrated support for VOIP and if you can chat you can talk assuming that the other party has a mic.

'Course, I think I loose my geek card or somthing for recomending somthing like yahoo over skype... but hey, it works... so long as you run Windows... I guess I lost my geek card along time ago. :)

Skype

[bhima]

I use Skype but only because it was the only VOIP package the people I want to talk to in the US could figure out how to install and use.

However Skype has a few issues that really piss me off. One: you can't set the port in the OS X version (All version pick the port randomly). Two: It sounds weird on Mac but not on Win32. Three: Their FAQ dealing with this is ridiculous full stop: Ideally, outgoing TCP connections to all ports (1..65535) should be opened. This option results in Skype working most reliably.