VoIP technology has surely revolutionized the way people communicate on Internet. There are number of VoIP clients available in the market which are compatible on iPhone, Android smartphones, other smartphones and computers. So, here are some of the best and free VoIP clients
Voip phone technology is perhaps the most portable communication technology ever introduced. You can use it on your iphone, ordinary phone set and also on your computer. As the internet phone service uses high speed internet for voice transfer, it works very well with your computer. All you need is a headphone, mic and a software application known as soft phone. If you Google the word “soft phones”, you would find many. Obviously, it is not possible to discuss all these windows based clients here but I like to mention salient features of top 5 soft phones that are hidden from many users.
X-Lite
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This software was built by a Vancouver based group of software engineers known as CounterPath.
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The state of the art soft phone is an all in one soft phone. Its easy to use interface provides voice calls, video calls as well as instant messaging service at one forum.
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It offers the most comprehensive address book and you can check which one of your friends is online.
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Surveys say, X-Lite is the most recommended softphone by the voip service providers.
Ekiga
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Ekiga was known as GnomeMeeting in the past.
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This voip client for windows provides voice calling facility as well as all video calling facilities.
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It is unique in a sense that it uses two protocols (H.323 and SIP).
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It works very like google talk and msn messenger where you can see a list of all the online comrades and talk to them. However, you can call anywhere in the world out of Ekiga network also.
Twinkle
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It is a sip based soft phone. Twinkle is the most popular soft phone for Linux but it works with windows also.
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It can provide you up to two parallel lines. Good thing about twinkle is that it is available as a firefox extension also.
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It provides 3-way calling facility also.
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Twinkle is providing many interesting features like missed call identification etc.
QuteCom
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QuteCom is a sip based 100% free software. Earlier it was known as WengoPhone.
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This application is made by QuteCome community under General Public Liscence.
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Its firefox extension has also been published.
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You can send SMS as well as make video calls through this Softphone.
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The software has a few limitations also. It does not provide real security features like encryption. Moreover, it is not that much friendly with other videophones.
SpeakFreely
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This is also a totally free soft phone. John Walker from Autodesk introduced this software in 1991. However, he gave up working on this softphone in 1996.
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A number of people introduced softphones after speak freely but they could not meet the high standards of speakfreely. Unfortunately, most of them are very costly.
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The unique features provided by SpeakFreely like answering machine and flexible component system are still a dream for most of the softphone builders.
Whatever softphone you want to use just keep in mind that these are all software only. Installing software does not mean that you will be able to make calls. You have to get voip service also. Same as you need internet service from an ISP besides installing Firefox and/or internet explorer.
Guest Post by Jenny Fellner is a staff writer for axvoice VoIP Service Providers and likes to share her experience regarding VoIP Technology