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sip url for me

I may regret this, but it seems like no one out there ever advertises SIP urls. Part of the point of the VoIP revolution is to bring web addressability/portability/flexibility into the world of person-to-person communications, right? The whole SIP spec makes addressing very easy, but no one ever advertises their SIP address, for some reason. If I were a VoIP company, shouldn't there be a SIP url that reaches the company (ok, reaches an Interactive Voice Response menu, rather than a person, just because of the spam potential) advertised right along with their normal contact phone numbers?

Well, whatever. I'm going to advertise one. You can dial me at sip:[myfirstname]@geekdom.net, or, for purposes of making it easier to copy-and-paste, here's a throwaway that I'll leave active until VoIP spam starts arriving: sip:bpvoip17@geekdom.net

Now, I'm not putting this out here for SkypeMe-like use. Don't call me unless you know me/want to talk to me for some particular reason. Just wanted to start a trend.

Update: The URL has now been used. To the nice inquisitor who tried to call at 5am local time, however, all I can say is "I don't get up that early". Try me after 10am PST, and before 10pm PST. Or, strike up the conversation in the comments below, or use the SIP url's component as an e-mail address (also temporarily enabled) to reach me directly via e-mail.

Posted by Bryan on March 25, 2005 10:02 AM |

Comments

How do I use a SIP url ?

Posted by: William | November 11, 2005 06:28 PM

Well, it depends on what you've got available to you.

  • Many non-Skype softphones allow SIP url entry. Gizmo Project, for instance, will let you type type one into the who you're calling blank. I use Gizmo all the time to test my system, actually.
  • If you have VoIP hardware, there are several ways. You can program a quick dial number of button on many SIP hard phones to dial a specific URL. On Sipura ATAs, you can make parts of the dial pattern redirect to calling a specific URL or range of URLs. Getting hardware working is really a question for a more general VoIP site, though, like http://www.voip-info.org or http://www.voxilla.com

Posted by: bp | November 12, 2005 10:02 AM

I fully agree with your comments. I am hungry to both have a decent SIP URL for myself and call others on theirs, especially my ITSP! The only problem I have is the 'decent' part. I have several SIP URLs with my sip provider and I have tried to setup one to my iPBX, without much luck. My ITSP one is nothing that I would pay to advertise as it is as unattractive as they get 8457863@somevoipco.com, which is about as sexy and or business like as what I left in the jon this morning.

Now that VoIP is something that almost everyone is aware of and increasingly using, the next step is definitely to use SIP URLs for calling. I'm well up for it and if you don't mind me calling yours, at a decent time, I'd like to give you a call and see if we can get this moving.

Posted by: Tim | November 28, 2005 07:59 PM

It's not really that tough of a problem. Through cheap, scalable tools like SER (Sip Express Router), it's apparently possible to build systems that would support SIP URLs as easily as E-mail... especially if all the server has to do is forward to another SIP location (rather than maintain an active registration for a given device).

Sure, you can give me a call, if you'd like. Best time to call me for things like this is after 7pm PST most weekdays.

Posted by: bp | November 29, 2005 04:59 PM

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