Setting Up a Softphone

In order to make calls to the RSS, you must have phone hardware or a softphone. If you have phone hardware with a configured route to the ISR, you can skip the procedure in this section and go directly to the procedure Verifying Call Recording/Playback Using the Dashboard to verify connectivity to the RSS.

A softphone is software that allows you to talk using VoIP without having a physical phone set. It acts as an interface allowing you to dial numbers and carry out other phone functions using your computer screen and your mouse, keyboard or keypad.

If you would like to make a call to the RSS using a softphone, use the procedures in this section to install a SIP Softphone onto your computer. You can use any SIP Softphone application that supports G.711a/u. The following example installs the PhonerLite SIP Softphone application.

Installing the Softphone

Use the following procedure to install the Softphone.

To install the softphone:

Note:

You must install the Softphone onto a computer with network access to the RSS server and the computer must have audio input/output (microphone/speakers).

1. Open a Web browser and enter the following URL in the URL field to access the download page for the PhonerLite application: http://www.phonerlite.de/download_en.htm
2. Click on the PhonerLiteSetup.exe file in the download box to download the application to your PC.
3. Double-click the application and follow the instructions to install PhonerLite to your PC.

Configuring the Softphone

Use the following procedure to configure the Softphone.

To configure the softphone:

1. When PhonerLite is installed, double-click the PhonerLite icon on your desktop to open the application.
   
2. In the PhonerLite window, click the Configuration tab.
3. Click the Server tab.
   
4. Verify that the Register box is disabled (unchecked).
5. Click the User tab.
   
6. In the User name box, enter your user name. Your user name is your outgoing caller ID (SIP URI).
7. In the Displayed name box, enter a name to display to the recipient of a call. Valid values are alpha-numerical characters.
8. Click on the Network tab.
   
9. In the Local Port box, enter the value for an open port on your computer. Default SIP port is 5060. This port value should be available if you have no other SIP devices running on your computer.
10. In the Preferred connection type field, click UDP to enable it. The RSS requires the UDP transport protocol. All other network parameters can remain at default values.
11. Click the Codecs tab.
    
12. In the codec list, select "G.711 A-Law, 64 kbps" and/or G.711 u-Law, 64 kbps. At least one of these codecs must be selected.
13. In the drop-down box, select blank silence packets.
14. Click the <Save> icon. Do not close this Softphone application as you will be using it to make your first call. Go to Making the First Call to make the first test call to the RSS.