Calling cards & FWD

Hi there all.

Been doing a bot of research into VoIP, and read in an old usenet post, the
idea of using the 0800 gateway from FWD to access calling card services, and
thus make cheap phone calls.

I am interested to know if anyone out there is doing this. Also, there are
lots of phone cards around in the UK, which ones do folk recommend?
Obviously I am paying only 0.5p per minute to call via my landline, and
although call18866 offer freephone access, it is CLI based. So what options
have I got? Who are the cheapest phone card people in the UK? Or come to
that, in the Netherlands or USA (as freephone calls are free from FWD to
those countries too)?

Many thanks for your responses.

Robin

On Tue, 20 Jul 2004 16:31:18 +0100, "Robin" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Hi there all.
>
>Been doing a bot of research into VoIP, and read in an old usenet post, the
>idea of using the 0800 gateway from FWD to access calling card services, and
>thus make cheap phone calls.
>
>I am interested to know if anyone out there is doing this. Also, there are
>lots of phone cards around in the UK, which ones do folk recommend?
>Obviously I am paying only 0.5p per minute to call via my landline, and
>although call18866 offer freephone access, it is CLI based. So what options
>have I got? Who are the cheapest phone card people in the UK? Or come to
>that, in the Netherlands or USA (as freephone calls are free from FWD to
>those countries too)?

One configurational thing I found:

The DTMF tone length in a softphone client like x-Lite often needs to
be altered (lengthened IIRC) to get reliable digit interpretation. I
used to get PIN errors with default values.

You may also end up with intolerable latency, especially if you
trombone your call across the Pond. But try it and see.

Hi,

You could try:

- stanaphone
- gossiptel
- your suggestion here

.... which (I believe) all present a proper length unique CLI of your voip
account telephone number, if you are happy with the security of such a
configuration.

If you try this please let me know your results (e.g. with call18866) via a
suitable post in this newsgroup.

Best wishes,



News Reader


"Robin" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:40fd3acb$0$6451$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi there all.
>
> Been doing a bot of research into VoIP, and read in an old usenet post,
the
> idea of using the 0800 gateway from FWD to access calling card services,
and
> thus make cheap phone calls.
>
> I am interested to know if anyone out there is doing this. Also, there
are
> lots of phone cards around in the UK, which ones do folk recommend?
> Obviously I am paying only 0.5p per minute to call via my landline, and
> although call18866 offer freephone access, it is CLI based. So what
options
> have I got? Who are the cheapest phone card people in the UK? Or come to
> that, in the Netherlands or USA (as freephone calls are free from FWD to
> those countries too)?
>
> Many thanks for your responses.
>
> Robin
>
>

"Robin" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:40fd3acb$0$6451$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi there all.
>
> Been doing a bot of research into VoIP, and read in an old usenet post,
the
> idea of using the 0800 gateway from FWD to access calling card services,
and
> thus make cheap phone calls.
>
> I am interested to know if anyone out there is doing this. Also, there
are
> lots of phone cards around in the UK, which ones do folk recommend?
> Obviously I am paying only 0.5p per minute to call via my landline, and
> although call18866 offer freephone access, it is CLI based. So what
options
> have I got? Who are the cheapest phone card people in the UK? Or come to
> that, in the Netherlands or USA (as freephone calls are free from FWD to
> those countries too)?
>
> Many thanks for your responses.
>
> Robin
>
I think you will find that the 0800 gateway is down. The numbers I used to
use now are barred.

Ian

>

On Tue, 20 Jul 2004 22:56:41 GMT, in article
<JqhLc.345$(E-Mail Removed)>, "News Reader"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>
>Hi,
>
>You could try:
>
> - stanaphone
> - gossiptel
> - your suggestion here
>
>... which (I believe) all present a proper length unique CLI of your voip
>account telephone number, if you are happy with the security of such a
>configuration.
>
>If you try this please let me know your results (e.g. with call18866) via a
>suitable post in this newsgroup.
>
>Best wishes,
>
>
>

I have tried to do this with Gossiptel but call18866 did not want to
accept my 0870 number in order for it to recognise CLI.

"News Reader" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<JqhLc.345$(E-Mail Removed)>...
> Hi,
>
> You could try:
>
> - stanaphone
> - gossiptel
> - your suggestion here
>
> ... which (I believe) all present a proper length unique CLI of your voip
> account telephone number, if you are happy with the security of such a
> configuration.

You can't use 18866 from Gossiptel because they give you an 0870
number which call18866 won't let you register on their system.

The only VoIP services I have found that give numbers you can register
with 18866 are BT BBV and Gradwell.net. Both have a monthly fee so for
most people it won't be worth it.

On the original subject, I doubt you'll find an 0800 calling card that
allows calls to the UK at 0.5p or less.

dave

On 21 Jul 2004 03:22:52 -0700, dave <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> The only VoIP services I have found that give numbers you can register
> with 18866 are BT BBV and Gradwell.net. Both have a monthly fee so for
> most people it won't be worth it.

BT Communicator chucks out the CLI of the associated line.

Well, I've tried Stanaphone. Superb service! Granted, I've only made a
few calls this morning with them, but so far the service seems to be
excellent. The people I spoke to were on landlines, and were not aware
I was not on my normal home phone! I could hear a slight reduction in
quality, but not significant.

My next mission is to get Xten's XLITE software to allow me to use the
Stenaphone network. I have followed the instructions on their website,
but have not managed to get it to connect....it still shows my FWD
number and details. When I try to dial through Proxy1 (which is the
Stenephone setup), nothing happens.

Anyone been able to make it work?

And what are good 0800 calling card rates in the UK? 5p per minute is
the Post Office charge. What are others charging?

Robin

Robin wrote:

> Hi there all.
>
> Been doing a bot of research into VoIP, and read in an old usenet post,
> the idea of using the 0800 gateway from FWD to access calling card
> services, and thus make cheap phone calls.
>
> I am interested to know if anyone out there is doing this. Also, there
> are lots of phone cards around in the UK, which ones do folk recommend?
> Obviously I am paying only 0.5p per minute to call via my landline, and
> although call18866 offer freephone access, it is CLI based. So what
> options
> have I got? Who are the cheapest phone card people in the UK? Or come to
> that, in the Netherlands or USA (as freephone calls are free from FWD to
> those countries too)?

My VoIP is free between phones, perhaps this is the cheapest?

I have a Greentel VoIP Broadband phone, where you can phone anyone with
another greentel phone for free anywhere in the world. X(You only pay the
initail cost of the phones, I sent friends in Aus and Spain one each.

If you call any other type phone a charge is made per minute according to
the called country mobile etc. The call charge cards are reimbursed on line
with Greentel.

You can compare the call costs on their site at www.greentel.cjb.net.
Is this the VoIP call charges you are referring to or is there another
provider I can use for my Greentel phone?

Are the charges you use cheaper than the Greentel phones call list, as I
would be interested if yours are cheaper?


--
> Many thanks for your responses.
>
> Robin

--
Lioncom adsl 4 port router, Nildram adsl running on Redhat 7.3. You can see
and hear me and my pal Joe Longthorne on uktalent.org.

On 21 Jul 2004 10:37:32 GMT, in article
<(E-Mail Removed)>, Gareth Babb
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On 21 Jul 2004 03:22:52 -0700, dave <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> The only VoIP services I have found that give numbers you can register
>> with 18866 are BT BBV and Gradwell.net. Both have a monthly fee so for
>> most people it won't be worth it.
>
>BT Communicator chucks out the CLI of the associated line.

and we can get BT Communicator from where?