When we buy the service of a voip service provider, we are often faced with the configuration of the sip terminal such as: ip phone, sip adapter, voip mobile applications, zoiper, bria, x-lite, etc.) In this article, we will discover the Basic concepts to configure any softphone on your Windows, Mac or Linux computer, without having specific knowledge of voip. It should be noted that this article considers the general operation of sip and softphone accounts of all kinds.

Choose a softphone.

If you are looking for a softphone for your computer, I find it important to point out a few that have an excellent reputation in the voip market. I'm only talking about 2 softphones, but this article will help you set up most of the softphones on the market.

Zoiper - Provided by zoiper.com, this softphone works great and is very easy to set up. There is a free and paid version. The free version works fine, it allows setting up multiple sip accounts, but only one account can be used at a time.

X-lite - Provided by counterpath.com, this free softphone allows the use of a sip line if you have a good internet connection. The X-lite works very well and is easy to configure. On the counterpath.com site, you will also find paid softphones (Bria, Eyebeam ...) that work very well with or without an optimal internet connection.

Configuration: Basic information to consider

1 - Have an Internet connection with a minimum of 256 kbps upload and download.
2 - Contract the service of a voip service provider (Hivoox).
3- Make sure you have a headset with a microphone, connected to your computer.
4 - Choose the softphone according to your needs and favoring a free version to test its operation and see if the softphone suits you.

Download and install the softphone on your computer

The softphone may ask you to authorize certain changes. You must accept them for it to work well.
Warning: Please download the softphone exclusively from the developer's site to avoid any security issues.

Information required to configure your softphone.

Among the information provided by your VoIP operator, look for the following:

SIP user or other information representing the SIP user.
SIP password or password for your account.
Sip server (Domain, Host or sip proxy).
Authentication ID.
SIP port.
Outbound proxy.
Audio Codec.

If your VoIP operator has not given you all this information, that's fine, just use the information you have, among which I have indicated here.
In 98% of cases, if you have this information or a large part of it, you can configure most of the sip softphones available on the market.

Configure the softphone.

1 - Open the softphone you have installed and look for the button that allows you to access the settings.
2 - Look for the following fields in the configuration interface:

SIP User
SIP password
Sip server (Domain, Host or sip proxy).
Authentication ID.
SIP port.
Outbound proxy.
Audio Codec.

Enter in each field, the corresponding information provided by your provider.
The first 3 fields are required. If you don't have the others, nothing happens, you can leave them blank.
In certain softphones, this information may be in English, in this case, you must translate to understand the correspondence.
Audio codec: note that this field can also be found in the preferences or advanced part of various softphones.

You must leave active, the following audio codecs: ulaw, alaw, G729, PCMU, PCMA.
Unless your VoIP operator instructs you otherwise, you must enable the codecs listed above.
The other codecs, you have to disable them or put them completely at the end of the list.

After completing this information, click Save or another button to validate the changes.

If you have followed these instructions, your softphone has been configured correctly.

Recurring problems.

The softphone is not registering.
You or the other party cannot hear anything or the audio is poor.
Calls don't go out.

The softphone is not registering.

Check that you have entered the password, SIP user and SIP server correctly, with no spaces before or after.
Check that your internet router allows traffic on port 5060 or the port that your VoIP operator communicated to you.
Verify that your firewall is not blocking the traffic coming from your softphone.
Restart your computer and the internet router.

If in the Server sip / Domain / Host / proxy sip ... field, the information you have is for example sip.company.com, you can try to register directly with the IP address. You can find the server's IP address on your provider's website or ping the address provided by your VoIP operator (sip.company.com) to get the server's IP address.

You or the other party cannot hear anything or the audio is poor.

Check that your headphones are working well (softphones allow you to check the headphone audios)
Check that your headphones are connected correctly.
Test directly on the softphone.
Check the volume of your computer.
Check that only the audio codecs listed above are active. Change the position between the active codecs in the list.
Verify that your firewall is not blocking the traffic coming from your softphone.

Calls don't go out.

Check with your VoIP operator, that they have contracted an offer that allows you to make calls.
Check that you are dialing the number correctly using the format indicated by your provider (try to dial the number in the format (00 + country code + phone number).
Check that the softphone is registered correctly.
Restart your softphone.

If it doesn't work after these verifications, you should contact your VoIP operator, so they can verify and assist you. Be sure to inform your voip operator about possible error codes generated by the softphone.

I hope you find these tips helpful in setting up your softphone.
Feel free to leave your comments or questions.