Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Building a Personal VoIP System

sacredheartsc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 150 posts

Re: Building a Personal VoIP System

#121

Post by systems_glitch »

extinctpotato wrote: post #114
WesolyKubeczek wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Today you could have the same average power consumption with an Odroid H3, and probably juggle more quality codecs too. (Well, sans the Digium card; but it’s just mindboggling how far we went with power consumption these days.) I’m wondering how necessary POTS lines actually are these days (and how many connect to VoIP on the telco side). Should depend on the country.

These days POTS lines are usually only used for last mile communications so the calls get converted to VoIP on the telco side. Basically it's for backwards compatibility — the phone lines are already there, a lot of people have phone wiring in their houses and no configuration is required on the consumer's end. In general the days of having direct electrical connections between two distant telephones are long gone. T…

Metallic path between two stations that weren't terminated in the same CO has been dead for a long time! I suspect nowadays you're unlikely to have metallic path outside the frame you land on, if that, unless you're paying for dry pairs.

Re: Building a Personal VoIP System

#122

Post by kamma4434 »

agwa wrote: post #42

Nice article. Is there a benefit to using a queue for incoming calls instead of just dialing multiple extensions with the & operator?

A queue shines when it can distribute incoming calls based on it knowing agent availability. (Shameless plug: the company I work for does cloud reporting [1] for Asterisk and FreeSwitch queues - that is then whitelabelled and sold by a lot of big name telcos worldwide. Not sexy but effective!)

[1] https://www.queuemetrics.com

Re: Building a Personal VoIP System

#123

Post by cyberax »

I have a VoIP system at home as well. I first used an RPi with Asterisk, but later switched to a Yeastar box with FXS ports (to connect a couple of Old School wired phones).

One thing that is making me REALLY MAD is that there are NO IPV6 TRUNK PROVIDERS in the US. Not a single one. At least none where I can just enter my credit card and get a phone line.

Somehow, the protocol designed to restore the end-to-end connectivity is not used for the poster child of end-to-end connectivity.

Re: Building a Personal VoIP System

#124

Post by rsync »

mindslight wrote: post #87
EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using a voip number for all my sms 2fa needs for the last 5 years while living abroad. I have a dozen banks and other financial institutions plus the irs happily accepting it. Some companies, like openai, wont accept it, for those I just buy single use SMS numbers.

I've had problems with a bunch of places, so it's at least YMMV then. And I'd be wary of transferring an existing number in (as opposed to getting a new voip number and then setting it up). I'm sure specific services are hit or miss - there really shouldn't be a problem sending SMS to whatever number a user enters, but paternalistic snake oil salesmen gonna be paternalistic. I've had the least difficulty with Google…

"One of these days when I get around to it I plan on setting up a wireless modem on a $3/mo paygo plan for my SMS nag needs. With a script that automatically brings the number as close to my paste buffer as possible."

This is called a "2FA Mule":

https://kozubik.com/items/2famule/

"A 2FA Mule is a mobile phone configured to forward SMS 2FA codes via email."

Re: Building a Personal VoIP System

#125

Post by rsync »

agwa wrote: post #119
sgc wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would just port my number to twilio and use/write a really basic twilio mobile app. It's a bit risky to rely on a slightly cobbled hardware/software setup that is sitting across the world with no physical access.

Unfortunately, Twilio is no longer a viable option for sending SMS for personal use. If you want to send SMS you have to register a "campaign" and jump through a bunch of hoops that assume you're a company sending a large volume of application-generated messages (e.g. you must disclose samples of the types of messages you intend to send, and get explicit opt-in from recipients). Up until now, I've managed to avoid re…

Hmmm ... I think the July 5 deadline is specifically for UK recipients ?

Regardless, your overall impression is correct: Twilio is no longer a hacker/hobbyist/enthusiast option as you cannot (by the letter of the law, at least) send SMS without registering your business entity:

https://twitter.com/rsyncnet/status/1593384850073214976?lang...

This is very troublesome to me because I have built my own personal telco out of twilio functions and twiml bins, etc., and am heavily reliant on all manner of SMS workflows.

As of this writing (2023-05-27) everything - even SMS delivery to T-Mobile numbers - continues to "just work" but it sounds like I will just wake up one morning to have it all broken ...

Re: Building a Personal VoIP System

#126

Post by justsomehnguy »

singpolyma3 wrote: post #90
jamesmstone wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a tangentially related problem I have been battling with that you may be able to help me with. I'm moving overseas (Australia to Denmark) and would like to keep my current mobile phone number working for calls and SMS , but use it from afar. I would be able to leave a raspberry pi at a friend's house. Can you use this setup without a SIP provider? Would you need to buy a modem for the raspberry pi?what would y…

This is pretty much exactly the problem that we originally created https://jmp.chat to solve, no sip or complex setup needed these days for that use case.

I heard about you ages ago and wanted to use your service ever since. The only problem I don't need it for anything. But I'm glad you you are still there.

Re: Building a Personal VoIP System

#127

Post by PopAlongKid »

zokier wrote: post #38

People still actually make phone calls? I mean its neat that you can run your own voip, but I struggle to imagine it getting used much or being worth even $5/month

When I'm conversing with family or friends by phone using my VoIP, and the connection starts getting bad, I always volunteer that the problem is not on my end, since my connection is wired.

Re: Building a Personal VoIP System

#128

Post by agwa »

rsync wrote: post #125
agwa wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, Twilio is no longer a viable option for sending SMS for personal use. If you want to send SMS you have to register a "campaign" and jump through a bunch of hoops that assume you're a company sending a large volume of application-generated messages (e.g. you must disclose samples of the types of messages you intend to send, and get explicit opt-in from recipients). Up until now, I've managed to avoid re…

Hmmm ... I think the July 5 deadline is specifically for UK recipients ? Regardless, your overall impression is correct: Twilio is no longer a hacker/hobbyist/enthusiast option as you cannot (by the letter of the law, at least) send SMS without registering your business entity: https://twitter.com/rsyncnet/status/1593384850073214976?lang... This is very troublesome to me because I have built my own personal telco out…

The deadline is for US recipients:

> • Effective July 5, 2023, all 10DLC phone numbers used to send SMS and MMS messages to U.S. phone numbers must be fully registered to an approved campaign under your brand. Messages sent using unregistered phone numbers will be subject to a gradual increase of message blocking by Twilio, beginning on July 5, 2023, ultimately leading to a full block of all unregistered U.S.-bound messages sent after August 31, 2023.

Source: https://support.twilio.com/hc/en-us/articles/1260800720410-W...

Re: Building a Personal VoIP System

#129

Post by kevincox »

derefr wrote: post #107

> SIP was initially released in 1999, and was designed with the assumption that each device has its own globally routable public IP address. After all, the IPv6 standard was released back in 1995, and NAT would soon be a thing of the past…right? Unforunately, this did not end up being the case. AFAIK, most residential and commercial ISPs these days do assign customers both a dynamically-DHCP-leased IPv4 address , and…

A lot of people expect a stateful firewall blocking incoming connections on their local network. Applying the same NAT system that is used for IPv4 to IPv6 is probably the best way to get this layer of security.

Now in theory most devices should be safe to connect to the internet. But how many Internet of Shit devices are there in the average household that probably shouldn't be trusted? Crappy security cameras with 10 year old firmware written by the lowest bidder as well as "smart" thermostats that probably aren't much better.

So maybe keeping the stateful firewall by default is the best option.

Re: Building a Personal VoIP System

#130

Post by forgotmypw17 »

lormayna wrote: post #86
forgotmypw17 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for sharing your experience. How do you feel about it?

I am not the only sharing his experience with Asterisk in this thread. Why this criticism?

I commented because you reminded me of a similar experience I had.
Post reply on HN