Interoperability with SIP Phones

Phone

Vendor

Comments

Setup Notes

X-Lite for Windows and Linux - Free

Counterpath (formerly XTen)

http://www.xten.com

This is a very nice phone and we have used this phone from the very beginning to test out our SIP projects. The Windows version works very well with SipExchange but we have not tried the Linux version yet. The latest version supports voice calls, IM and presence operations (buddy list) and all of these functions see to work well with SipExchange.

Counterpath offers non-free SIP soft phones that are full-featured - supports voice, video, buddy list and the works. We have not tested the server with these phones though.

Please see this page showing the configuration screens - XTEN setup.

Pocket PC Softphone for Windows Mobile

Counterpath (formerly XTen)

http://www.counterpath.com/

This is a very nice phone that works on PDAs running Windows Mobile operating system. The phone works very well with SipExchange. As with most PDA applications, the phone supports only basic functionalities compared to the offerings on a full-blown operating system. The phone supports voice calls only and does not support presence operations and instant messaging.

NOTE: It appears that Counterpath is not offering this software for sale any longer. It is a pity because the phone worked well.

From the bottom-level menu, select System Settings -> Sip Proxies.

Setup the Username entry as the name of the subscriber that was created, Domain as the domain to which the subscriber was assigned. Enter the password provisioned for the subscriber. For the SIP Proxy and Outb Proxy entries, enter the name of the SipExchange server.

Windows Messenger for Windows - Free

Microsoft

http://www.microsoft.com

Windows Messenger Version 5.1 is a very promising phone for the Windows operating system. Unfortunately, the latest versions do not provide support for SIP servers. Therefore, we are stuck with an older version. This makes it not a very viable phone for the long term.

The phone provides many nice features including voice and video calling, buddy lists and more but it "twists" the SIP specifications, perhaps, to work with Microsoft's Live Communications Server (LCS). We have tested with version 5.1 and voice calls and the buddy list works properly. We have been told, though not confirmed, that the later version of the Messenger is even less compliant with SIP standards.

However, there are problems working with SipExchange. Namely:

The phone does not work properly when an authentication challenge is sent by the server when the user logs out. We have created a work-around for this "bug". See the installation notes for details. Please make sure that the workaround has been applied prior to trying out the presence functonality.

We do not recommend this phone for SIP communications. Instead use the other SIP phones listed in this page.

From the top-level Tools menu, select Options. From the Options dialog box, select the Accounts tab. Check the "My contacts include users of a SIP communication service" checkbox. Enter the Sign-in name as subscriber@domain where subscriber is the user name and domain is the domain name for the provisioned subscriber. Click on the Advanced button. Enter the SipExchange server host name/IP address for the Server name or IP address entry and select UDP for the Connect using entry.

Here are a few screen-shots for the configuration screens - Windows Messenger setup

Also, there are additional settings that you need to have on the server to fix the logout problem. Read this section for details.

WengoPhone for Windows, Linux, MacOS and Pocket PC - Free and Open-Source

Wengo

http://openwengo.com/

Wengo is a service provider that provides services similar to Skype. But they use standard SIP as the communications protocol. Hence, the phone can be used with SipExchange and other SIP servers.

The Windows version of the phone works well with SipExchange including the presence and IM functionality. It has some cool features and nice user interface. But, it does behave strangely once in a while and may have a stability issue.

We have not tested with the non-Windows versions yet.

This is what we had to do for WengPhone version 2.1.

When the login screen appears, choose "Configure a New Profile".
When the phone prompts for connection information, select the option "Other (for power users only")
Enter the following account information:

Login/username: amit - this is the subscriber account you created from the SipConsole
Password: the password for the user.
SIP Domain/Realm: Enter the domain you created from SipConsole and assigned to the subscriber to.
Displayname: Enter your full name.

Expand the "Advanced" bullet and enter the following additional information:
Server: Enter the domain name that you configured using the SipConsole.
Proxy: The SipExchange server host name/IP address and the port number (5060)
Check the "Force Register through Proxy" check-box.

Click on "Connect" button.

SipCommunicator for Java - Free and Open-Source

Developed by the open-source community

http://www.sip-communicator.org

The SIP Communicator team offered an earlier version of the phone that worked relatively well with SipExchange. Now the team is working on a better phone and has released an alpha version but it does not work ith SipExchange. The registration function seems to work fine but it does not handle outgoing calls using the proxy. It is not usable but we are hoping that we will be able to support this phone soon.