After wasting many hours messing around with VoIP solutions, I’ve finally decided that Tesco Internet Phone is the way to go. There’s a few good reasons why I think this, it’s easy for anyone to obtain and install. This was one of the main factors in my decision. With Tesco Internet phone, you don’t have to open ports on your router, it comes with a USB handset, so no need to get one of those, and you can just pop down to tesco and pick one up for really cheap (£15 I think) WITH a £5 calling credit thing.

Anyway, on to setting it up on linux. You’ll need to install kiax or some other IAX capable client. Unfortunately, Ekiga CVS still doesn’t support IAX (as far as I can see) so you’ll be stuck with a qt or kde client.

You’ll probably have to set up on a windows machine unfortunately, but basically, the main thing you’ll need to know is the Tesco IP server address, which is:
vrv.lon.uk.voicestream.net.au
Use your phone number as login and the password you set up. Then under Kiax’s settings you should be able to choose /dev/dsp1 to use the handset. There’s a few little quirks. The hash key doesn’t work, as don’t the volume controls, although there’s probably a way of getting these to work. More later!