VOIP Clients for the Crescent

[Guest dodgetimmy]

I have wasted so much time on finding a decent and working client for my Crescent (San Fran II originally) that I thought I would make a quick post to advise others of my findings.

I simply wanted a client that would work reliably and flawlessly over a 3g connection. All of the tests below have been done on 3g. In most cases any apps that have connection issues will NOT have these problems on Wifi. This is what I found. (I am running FnC R7 and on GiffGaff in the UK btw). All tests were performed via iptel.org (my sip provider) and with google voice.

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Sipdroid : The latest release incorrectly routes audio through the speaker of the crescent rather than the ear-piece. This was a known problem with the Blade aswell and there is a debug version of sipdroid v1.6 on their issues site that fixes this problem, unfortunately the developers haven't taken this into consideration and made an official fix. Apart from this, occasionally some calls just wouldn't reach the app and it wouldn't ring at all.

CsipSimple : On wifi this works great. On 3g no matter what I tried I couldn't hear the other person talk at my end. This I believe is a connection problem, not audio routing problem. Since Csip compared to sipdroid, does have a configurable work around for audio routing problems and the audio test of Csip works flawlessly. Csip is a very nice program, and the support the developer gives on their google product page is great, with nightly builds being released almost every day. Same as with Sipdroid, occasionally (but less) the app would not ring until re-registered. This could probably be avoided by changing the re-registration time-frame in options.

Fring (With sip addon) : Surprisingly routes the audio correctly though the earpieces. However codecs aren't configurable and after a while in a call, delay becomes too much and the conversation can no longer be kept. This possibly may be because the codec used is too high bandwidth to be used over 3g. Fring works great and always rings, I guess because you are connected instead to the fring servers, rather than directly?

3cxphone : In my opinion, overly complicated to set up and seems to be designed more for enterprise ipxs rather than consumer voip. It works, but has no option to automatically start when you turn on your phone, plus, like sipdroid and csip it had a habit of not ringing at all sometimes. Audio however is routed correctly to the earpiece.

MizuDroid : I like this application, but unfortunately despite an abundance of config options, it routes the audio incorrectly. I didn't use for a long time, so am unsure of how reliable its connection is. Seems to be a new boy on the block compared to the others and looks like it will get better and better in the future!

Counterpath Bria (premium) : My favorite and well worth the money. The default options work with the earpiece, there is an abundance of codec and quality control and it just works. No more missed calls, no more delays, no more one way communication. Certainly the best $5 I have spent.

EDIT: 2/6/12

Seems Bria also suffers from one way audio sometimes, despite passing my initial tests.sadly leaving fring as the only reliable client.

Edit 18-06-12

Upgraded to Bria v 2 and it now roots audio incorrectly through speaker. 1.3.5 sites not exhibit this problem. seems to be updated ics apps don't seem to work well with the crescent on gingerbread.

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Google Voice Compatible Apps:

Groove IP: Unusable unless on a very fast 3g/wifi connection. Delay of outgoing audio of about 8s

Talkatone: Works on 3g, but routes audio incorrectly, unfortunately doesn't have a config fix.

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Overall its a big pain that there seems to be a bug with the Crescent, similar to the blade previously, where by default audio is routed incorrectly by some applications. It would be great to be able to fix something at a rom level. Something I believe cyanogenmod did with their Blade rom, but something I have checked with Raver that apparently cannot be fixed in FnC.

Finally, before I close, id like to mention that when you are using any of the apps to test. Make sure that in the options you have a low bandwidth codec selected for 3g. I recommend g729 or GSM as they run at around 8kbps/13kbps respectively. With g711u/a I get lag with every app I use on 3g. This may be because my connection doesn't reach its recommended 64 k/bps but I would definitely recommend, for at least testing purposes, keep to the codecs above, or if you know from your voip provider, the low bandwidth codecs they support.

The quality of each application is solely dependent on the codec used, in fring, quality is poor generally as you cannot chose the codec it uses and with Groove ip, again you cannot chose the codec. But with groove ip, the quality is good when it works without delay on a fast connection.

I hope this helps people in the future and it will be interesting to see other peoples findings. I won't be surprised to hear comments such as **** works fine for me etc!

Credit goes towards my gf for putting up so many test calls testing these methods while she is away in the USA, but also to Regis Montoya, who actively supports CsipSimple and although hasn't cracked the problem I have with Csip in particular yet, is doing a great job of making new releases and fixes based upon the feedback he receives on the issue section of his project page!

Edited June 21, 2012 by dodgetimmy

[Guest irishpancake]

Thanks for that Man....

very good review.

As a matter of interest, have you tried the native GB SIP client??

I think it does not work on 3g...but I saw a fix somewhere for this...will check again.

Sorry....I missed your reply in other thread!!

http://www.modaco.com/index.php?/topic/350159-[ROM]--[2.3.5]#entry1957385

Thanx again

Edited May 23, 2012 by irishpancake

[Guest dodgetimmy]

I believe there is a hack out there to enable 3g voip using the native GB client, but it involves modifying code, something I'm not technically astute with.

The biggest problem I have encountered (apart from the zte speakerphone bug) over 3g has been NAT traversal. Not with actually registering to the service but instead gaining reliable incoming audio. The annoying thing about that is every client and provider seems to deal with NAT differently. Some providers implement server side negotiation meaning they recommend filling in no STUN server details in the client, yet some clients seem to deal with the settings differently. On top of this, each provider may support different voice codecs.

Since writing the review, I found that also Bria had one way audio problems occasionally. I have since changed providers from Ipkall to sip2sip.info and am hoping the situation will improve.

The last remaining culprit for such problems could be the phone provider of course. So once I have tested under my new provider I will be dropping GiffGaff a line to find out if they know of blocking any Ports.

It's a long quest simply to get something working that in my opinion should be relatively simple. It does make you wonder if providers deliberately cause this trouble with fear we will start using their GSM network less. Anyway I will update the OP and get back here once I have more detail. Of course anyone else to share there experience of voip over 3g would be welcome!

[Guest irishpancake]

I think you got it in your last para.

In fact, my Samsung W [GB 2.3.6] does not even have access to the native SIP stack by default... this is in deference to their Service Provider clients, who do not want this alternative voice calling option in competition with the big networks!!