Setup and configuration for Linphone on Android with Sipgate

Linphone is a soft phone program, as well as a SIP client. It's able to place direct calls through VoIP softswitch boxes or IP-PBX. Linphone can also send and receive short text messages (SMS). It incorporates a multilanguage GUI based on GTK or QT. The Linux version also offers a console based (text) client. It's available for Linux, UNIX, Mac OS, Windows, Android and iOS. In this article I want to have a look at the Android version of Linphone and its setup, in special to set it up for sipgate.co.uk.

Linphone for Android

While I only know the Linux QT based client otherwise, I thought it might be fun to also have it available for Android. But as with many Android versions of nice Linux programs, Android versions seem often to be neglected and buggy. That is already the case in my opinion in the case of VLC for Android, which long lacked a playlist and still lacks support for audio and video codecs the desktop version handles with ease.

Preparations to setup Linphone for Sipgate

Before you follow these steps you need to have a running account with Sipgate. You could also use the assistant to guide you through the setup. But I preferred the manual method, which also gives me more control.

Manual Linphone configuration for sipgate.co.uk on Android

The configuration for Sipgate needs at least a Username, the domain sipgate.co.uk. You don't need to enter an Auth id, unless it differs from the username.

Last thing you need is to enter the password provided by you from Sipgate. This has six letters (digits and letters), while letters are all uppercase. Then you're almost set.

Connectivity problems

It took me a while to figure out why the connection attempt hung for a while and then reported Connection failed. The reason was that I set the Transport to TLS or TCP. Neither won't work with Sipgate. You need to select UDP. The setting for SIP Proxy is set by the software; don't change it. The entry for STUN Server can be left blank or bogus.

Note

VOIP and softphones are awesome in my opinion. With some providers you don't pay base fees. But note that you often cannot use a VOIP account to add your number as recovery number from mail providers to receive a text message to verify it's you. Often you also cannot receive SMS messages at all. For that you might want to consider a service offering disposable SMS and phone numbers, which is often free of charge.