Virtual IP Telephony with Cisco IP Communicator

Posted on November 29, 2008 at 5:01 am

Free IP phone software are abundant nowadays. But them being free means there are many things that you can’t do with it like calling numbers that you can call using your ordinary phone. With Cisco IP Communicator you can call both IP and non IP phone numbers depending on your configured phone policy.

The Cisco IP Communicator looks like the real thing. The interface completely resembles the real IP Phone:

Since it is a virtual phone it has all the features of a real phone, you could get more from than the real thing. The best benefit will be mobility, you won’t have to depend on physically having an IP Phone – just open it on your computer and start dialing. Once it is open you can receive and make calls.

A complimentary Audio Tuning Wizard is included in the package. It allows you to calibrate your soundcard properties (i.e. output volume and mic) using a step by step guide:

Any working mic and headphone equipment will do to capture your voice and then hear what the other person on the line is saying. I use a cheap but high quality A4 headset with a mic connected to the sound card’s audio out and mic ports. That should be the ports with the green and pink color:

Directory searching is also very easy, it can connect directly to your LDAP directory. Accessing the directory is just a button away:

Here are some more of the advertised features of this software:

• Easy access to your User Options web pages and phone services – this is a clear advantage over the physical IP phone.

• Changing the look of Cisco IP Communicator – in theory, this software is skin-able. There are at least 2 predefined looks that you can play with on my package. I will look out for more skins in the future but now I want it to look like my real IP phone.

• Drag-and drop and cut-and-paste dialing – this is great since you are leveraging your OS’s clipboard ability to easily use numbers coming in from other applications like Outlook or messenger.

• Pop-up incoming call notification – helps a lot to see if someone is calling you even when IP communicator is minimized.

Overall I think IP Communicator is a great corporate tool. It can easily be configured to use your own corporate phone policy and you won’t have to maintain any physical LAN cables (and power) for the phones. It is listed as about $60+ on Google for a single software license. New features are deployed via automatic software updates. This easily beats the price per unit of the real phone which lists at a range of $200 to $600.

If you are looking for a serious phone alternative or even a cost effective primary phone, the Cisco IP Communicator is worth considering.

Ben Carigtan writes about software, computers, technology and how to get the best out of them.

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Comments

2 Responses to “Virtual IP Telephony with Cisco IP Communicator”

Nelson said on : November 29th, 2008 at 9:58 pm

IP phones are very convenient when it comes to portability. we have many remote staff using IP phones connected to our PVX, and people love them. we have physical IP phones as well as soft-phones around the world, and people seem to feel more comfortable with the physical phones instead of the soft-phones. but anyhow, the idea is to keep people connected and make them feel they are part of the bunch.

this seem to be a good piece of software, and cheap. I will look into it.