Call from Google Talk with Tringme VOIP

Is Web based or Soft phone based calls stopping you from using VOIP? are you

going mad at downloading large SIP softphones to make free voip or cheap calls? The time has come, now you can make calls via your Google Talk. There is no need to download any additional softphones or add-ons to make calls.

TringMe now allows making calls from Gtalk. Gtalk doesn't have native support for making phone (PSTN/Mobile) calls. This is yet another feature which underlines TringMe's core philosophy of not requiring any software installation for purposes of using TringMe. If you already have Gtalk installed, then with this capability, making a worldwide call to any phone or SIP URI from Gtalk is as simple as sending a message using Gtalk. Calls made from Gtalk can be terminated on all devices that TringMe currently supports.

Although this feature is currently under test and is scheduled to be commercially released by February end, it's available for you to try it. Please note that you will need to sign up at TringMe with a gmail ID so that we can associate a TringMe account when you make a call from Gtalk (signup with TringMe using same email id as Gtalk). As you may already know, worldwide calling rates offered by TringMe are very competitive and almost half than Skype or other VoIP providers.

Lets see how you can use TringMe from Google Talk.

Note: This will only work for Tringme users signed up with gmail.com IDs. This wont work with Yahoo/AOL userids. You need to have a Tringme Account in order to use Tringme service. Go get a TringMe account if you don't have one.

1) Sign in to Google talk and add tringme@gmail.com as friend. Within 10 seconds, you would notice a new friend Tringme@gmail.com in your google talk contact list.

2)To make a call, all you need to do is send a message to tringme@gmail.com from Gtalk. To make a call to a number, merely send a message - call - to tringme@gmail.com. For e.g. call 18585551212 would initiate a call to 1-858-555-1212.

3)You can also call other TringMe users by merely using their email address. For e.g., call abc@xyz.com would connect user abc@xyz.com to whatever destination the user has chosen to terminate upon.

4) You can reach more than 40 million worldwide SIP users using Gtalk just by typing their SIP URI. For e.g call greg@somesipserver.com will connect you to Greg’s SIP server.

In all cases, you will get an inbound call from TringMe and once you answer, the call to the intended party will be initiated. This also opens a new way for developers to integrate core TringMe functionalities using Google or Jabber APIs.

Tringme offers industry leading Softswitch solution which is core engine behind Tringme VOIP service. TringSwitch is a commercial product available to small, medium and large businessed to integrate VOIP into portals, voip businesses and you can kick start your own VOIP business within a short timeframe.

To know more about TringSwitch for Business, you can email me at vinay (AT)tringme.com. I officially handle marketing at Tringme.

Free Virtual Hosted PBX systems

Yesterday we discussed about SIP Softphones and how some of these softphones are making your life easier with multiple SIP providers. It will be increasingly difficult for users as FREE VOIP becomes a key feature or its hard to manage multiple VOIP providers.

Today, we are going to discuss about Free Virtual Hosted PBX system which gives you hosted PBX features for FREE. Isn't it great to have a FREE PBX system hosted online for you and you manage it with a few clicks.

This article is sent in by our regular reader, Wilson Lacerda (from Brazil). William is expert in PBX system and runs a Orkut community in Portugese. I have added more description to the original article so it's helpful for everyone.

William has compiled some of the best FREE Virtual Hosted PBX systems list (not in any particular order):

Quick Notes:
- All of PBX services are Virtual/online: that means no need to install anything!
- All are free or offer free plan.
-Some of them are very simple (good for newbies), other more feature rich and powerful: multiple trunks/extensions, complex dial plans, callback, pstn gateway, skype/MSN/Gtalk/other integration, callme widget, etc.
-For SOHO use usually they are more reliable, easier to use, powerful and cost saving than have a PBX running in your own machine.
-With some smart settings you can combine 2 or more of them and this way have a free and very powerful virtual PBX.

1) PBXes: PBXes is a hosted PBX service which runs like a voicemail service or an email server in a data center. PBXes provider a Free and premium PBX service. The free PBX account has limitation of 10 GB traffic and up to 2 con-current calls. PBXes has gained a lot of attention lately. One of our regular reader Emoci loves it :-)

2) VoXaLot: Perhaps the most popular Free PBX system online. However after they went into premium membership, they lost a lot of users to other free pbx systems. They still offer a compact version of Free PBX. It users SIP broker service to so you can use 200+ access numbers around the world to call Voxalot and over 2000+ SIP Networks (millions of VoIP users) for free!

3) MySipSwitch: Another excellent PBX service available in the market. it allows you to route multiple SIP accounts from different suppliers through a single SIP login. Simply put this means you can channel phone calls from several different VoIP providers through to one piece of hardware like an IP phone or an ATA.Its a KISS (Keep it simple stupid) system. However lately, I have seen some internal pages throw exception errors. I really wish they could fix it. MysipSwitch has great potential.

4) LiberaILVoip: Their website is all italin. However, the best i could figure out was, they offer a commercial network by increasing your ability to communicate without any extra cost. You can enjoy all the benefits and functionality of a PBX IP specifically designed to be used by a residential needs.

5) simplyConnect: Anoother non-english provider. It's a german PBX service. I seriously couldn't figure out much. I am leaving this here for your experiment sake. Maybe our german readers can confirm if this indeed is a Free PBX service.

6) Oigaa: This really look interesting at first look and definately a good find. There are no limit on number of PBX extensions. You can map your extensions into your IP Phone and they also offer 60 minutes of free calling for new users. They are also throwing in one free DID number :-)

7) GTalk2Voip: One of my all time favorites, another Keep it simple product. One of the older bunch of online PBX system, which have stabilised over time. One of the serious missing features, people often don't understand how to get to the account page. The command line usage is complicated for below average newbie users. Hope they simply the interface. Works absolutely great and highly recommended.

8) FlashPhone: A new entrant in the industry and does the dirty work for online PBX. Nothing fancy about it just good old PBX stuff.

For more professional users who want more control over PBX, there are lots of Asterisk based ones that runs under Linux (or under Windows with a little help of VMWare or MS Virtual PC). One of the leading windows based PBX system is 3CX PBX system.