Move over X-Lite here comes LoudHush

I've recently decided to setup an asterisk server, get softphones and hardphones to reduce dependence on cell phones and more importantly on the myriad of overpriced auto-attendents. I used Angel.com for about 2 months and while the script builder is very friendly, they are way too proud of their product. It's between .10 and .15 per minute with no fractional minutes.....not to mention, they have no provision for a lesser rate for a local exchange.

I decided to host my asterisk server at GoDaddy. I purchased a shared server solution for $30 per month and went with voicepulse for a phone number with 4 channels (effectively 4 lines for a single $11 per month on the inbound and 1-2.4 cents per minute on the outbound. I'll cut my phone costs to under $50 per month to run my entire business with a slick automated attendent that is infinitely flexible.

Another major consideration is QoS at the office. I had a really kick ass Linksys RV082 which does everything apparently except for respecting the QoS or priority bit. Can you believe that? So I pulled it out of the mix and am letting my WRT54GX which has wireless QoS 802.11e do the dirty work.

I was using X-LITE with this and was thinking that QoS was the problem. After fumbling with codec order, I became frustrated and decided to do a search for OS X soft phones...again. I found a Gem called LoudHush. It's $18 and it's rock solid. It is an IAX client not a SIP client so I dropped the same config I had for X-lite in sip.conf into iax.conf instead and it works like a champ! No jitter. It sounds like a perfect toll call and this is over my Mac laptop wirelessly connected.

I never could stand X-LITE's non-standard preferences panel etc. Now I can ditch it!

To recap:

Godaddy shared server
Asterisk
Linksys WRT54GX
LoudHush Sip client
Plantronics GameCom Pro 1 USB headset