Managing VOIP Accounts

From Ekiga

You can register to as many VoIP service providers as you want using Ekiga.

None of those providers is mandatory to have Ekiga behaving properly. But having at least one VoIP service provider will greatly enhance the softphone Ekiga as explained here: Ekiga.net VoIP service subscription.

Contents 1 Registering Additional Accounts 1.1 The accounts window 1.2 Adding a SIP account 1.3 Adding an H.323 account 1.4 How do I choose the default account ? 2 Can I manually register Ekiga to a VoIP service ?

Registering Additional Accounts

The accounts window

You can open the accounts window by selecting Edit → Accounts. This will open the Accounts Window.

The Accounts Window will allow you to add SIP and H.323 accounts and to register to them.

An account descibes the user login and password parameters to register to SIP and H.323 services. Those services can be an Internet Telephony Service provider (like Ekiga.net), or an IPBX (like CISCO, Nortel, or Asterisk).

Adding a SIP account

To add a SIP account, simply click on the Add button. A dialog will appear and allow you to enter several parameters:

Account Name:	You can enter the account name.
Protocol:	You can choose SIP.
Registrar:	The registrar to which you want to register. This is usually an IP address or an host name that will be given to you by your Internet Telephony Service Provider, or by your administrator if you are trying to register to a SIP IPBX.
User:	You can enter your login.
Password:	You can enter your password.

Ekiga will do a best guess concerning the identity that will be used when calling out. Sometimes, you will need to force that identity. You can do this by specifying the identity in the user field. e.g.: dsandras@ekiga.net to force dsandras@ekiga.net to be used as outgoing identity for that account.

You can also control some advanced parameters. Like the Registrar, User and Password, they will be given to you by the ITSP you are using or by your administrator. Those parameters are:

Authentication Login:	If it is different from the user parameter you provided above. In that case, the user field will be used to control the outgoing identity for the account you are adding, while the login will be used during the authentication phase.
Realm/Domain:	It is globally unique and dependant on the ITSP or the IPBX. It is generally identical to the registrar domain.
Registration Timeout:	The timeout after which the registration should be updated.

Adding an H.323 account

To add an H.323 account, simply click on the Add button. A dialog will appear and allow you to enter several parameters:

Account Name:	You can enter the account name.
Protocol:	You can choose H.323.
Gatekeeper:	The gatekeeper to which you want to register. This is usually an IP address or an host name that will be given to you by your Internet Telephony Service Provider, or by your administrator if you are trying to register to an H.323 IPBX.
User:	You can enter your login.
Password:	You can enter your password.

You can also control some advanced parameters. Those parameters are:

Gatekeeper ID:	The gatekeeper ID, if any.
Registration Timeout:	The timeout after which the registration should be updated.

How do I choose the default account ?

NEEDREVIEW

Usually, when calling someone, you type the SIP address which contains the registrar of one of your VoIP account, e.g. sip:dsandras@ekiga.net may refer to your account Ekiga.net as you can see at the end of this particular address. Ekiga will choose which account to use depending on the end of the SIP address if it is the same as one of the registrar you have in your account list to place the call.

The default account is the one used when you type or dial a SIP address without the end of the SIP address (what is on the right of @), or the account used if you call a sip address which do not refer to any of your registrar in your account list. It is your own address at this default account which will appear on the SIP client of your friend as the source of the call.

In the Accounts Window (Edit → Accounts), the bold font represents the Default Account. You can change the default account simply by highlighting the account you want, then clicking the "Default" button on the right side.

If your default account is Ekiga.net, for example, you do not need to add "@ekiga.net" to the sip address or number you are calling.

Can I manually register Ekiga to a VoIP service ?

Yes. In the Accounts Window (Edit → Accounts), you can check (register) or uncheck (unregister) the box in front of the account name.

Ekiga will try to automatically register to all checked accounts at startup.