softphone software doesnt work well

[tb87]

Hi,

I've been using your service since some time. However, the soft phone software seems to crash all the time, and takes an enormous 224 MBs of RAM.

Is that normal? I'm using Windows 7.

Alex

[FONGO_steve]

Hi,

I've been using your service since some time. However, the soft phone software seems to crash all the time, and takes an enormous 224 MBs of RAM.

Is that normal? I'm using Windows 7.

Alex

That's definitely not normal.
Try uninstalling the softphone and then java. Then reinstall in reverse order. Update me if that had any positive or neutral affect on this.

[tb87]

By "uninstalling Java" what do you exactly mean ? I can uninstall the Java update I have in "programs". Is there anything else?

[FONGO_kris]

Uninstalling Java would mean uninstalling the entire Java Runtime Environment, it should be in your Add / Remove programs but if not you could delete the entire Javasoft key tree in LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE (regedit); Then reinstall, and it should be ok.

[tb87]

Update :

I installed the newest version (which has a totally different GUI than the one I was using).

1) Still takes 121 MBs of RAM as of now
2) Although I don't use it often, seems to run a bit better than the old one
3) There is one problem although : when I come back to my computer after being away, sometimes the software would hang at the "555-555-5555 is calling you" (Accept|Reject) prompt. People also tell me often they only hear a busy signal when calling me.

Is there some way to generate a bug report on the software that would help you with those problems?

Thanks.

PS I tried uninstalling java/reinstalling to the newest version.

[FONGO_steve]

Is there some way to generate a bug report on the software that would help you with those problems?

Yep
In the Menu > feedback option. Using this will send us a full dump of settings and debug info from in your softphone. Also be sure to include a detailed report of the trouble in there too because it goes right to the developers and not our regular support department.

I'm curious about this myself though. When you're away from the PC, does any screensaver, power saving settings, etc. come into affect? This is the first I've heard of this type of issue.

[tb87]

Okay submitted feedback through the software. Please note that I have already done this step in the past...

By the way, no screensaver or power schemes are on. I've had this idea too.

Could you update me when you have feedback from the developers? I look forward to seeing the updates!

Thanks so far for your help Steve.

[tb87]

Any news for this problem ???

[FONGO_steve]

Any news for this problem ???

There's a new build of the softphone being released next week - let's see if that has any affect.

[tb87]

I'm becoming discouraged at this software.

I'm silently working on my computer, when I suddently hear in my speakers : "The person you are trying to reach is not available. Please leave a message."

What the heck is that? Someone trying to call me? And the software tells me to leave a message?

God. I've already done enough computer programming in my life to see there's some work that's being done clumsily there. Too bad your software was really a great idea, it's too unstable for every day use in my opinion.

[laurent]

Quick question: How frequent do you use your FreePhoneLine account to make or receive a call? How important is this to you?

[tb87]

Well right now I don't use it very often, because I've had so much difficulty placing and receiving calls that I prefer using my regular line.

However needless to say I'd be glad to use it if it worked better. And that's not because I didn't try to make it work!

[laurent]

I am not saying that FreePhoneLine should not be bound to deliver stable and usable software. However, if you're serious about using your account to make and receive phone calls, I strongly suggest you purchase the SIP configuration, and then use one of the numerous ways of connecting it via either:
- an SIP WIFI phone (they're considerably cheap and work great)
- an ATA adapter to plug in an old style regular phone
- an SIP software phone for your PC or other device (iphone, ipod, etc.)

[tb87]

I would be glad to do that. Honestly, it's been a long time since I didn't see such a great idea as FreePhoneLine's software. If I had more time/skills in computer programming/will I'd even contribute to it. Trust me, my disappointment is equivalent to the enthusiasm I had put in this idea.

I do also understand the idea of paying for the service. However, I like to get an idea beforehand of what service I'm going to receive. If the software doesn't work well right now I don't see what the SIP configuration file would change. And given the fact that I only use the PC softphone, I wouldn't really need one neither.

Thanks for the idea though.

[laurent]

The whole point of the SIP configuration is that you do not need to use the buggy softphone anymore. This software exists pretty much only to deliver ads while you use it, which in turn pays for the service.

But if all you wish to use is a softphone, then indeed moving to SIP will not help you case.

[bridonca]

Frankly, the softphone gives one a pretty poor idea of how good Freephoneline is. Curiously, if the soft phone works decently with your Internet setup, the SIP settings will work better. If you do have problems with the soft client, you need to do things on your end to make it work. It is extremely rare that the problem is on freephoneline's side, not like that helps you much! By far, the biggest problems with Freephoneline is the poor quality of the customer's Internet connection, and NAT and QOS issues dealing with the customer's usually awful router. Sadly this is a problem with most SIP VOIP providers and pretty much impossible for them to be able to do anything to fix on their end.

Why is the Freephoneine soft phone client not that great? My take is that most of the fault is the programming language they chose, JAVA. I do not deride their choice of JAVA as a development platform because it allows for quick code at a relatively cheap cost. The downside is that JAVA has pretty poor audio and codec support, and the code is a bit bloated with high potential for memory leaks, so it is a bit of a trade off.

[tb87]

Well the only thing here is that until your post bridonca I was under the impression I was the only one having problems with the software. Maybe the majority of you have purchased the config file, and I'm the only one desperately trying to use the free software

The problems I'm facing are not connection problems, though. I'm facing what seems to be real bugs in the software : as you mentioned, HUGE (!!) memory leaks, etc.

By purchasing the config file would I still be stuck with the same software?? And how does it cost?

Thanks all for your answers so far. Very helpful.

[laurent]

Well the only thing here is that until your post bridonca I was under the impression I was the only one having problems with the software. Maybe the majority of you have purchased the config file, and I'm the only one desperately trying to use the free software

Correct. Most of us (at least, most of us here in the forums) have purchased the config file which allows us to ditch the softphone application, and use real telephone equipment, such as purpose built Analog Telephone Adapters (a box that connects all my regular home phones to my FPL account) or actual SIP phones.

In fact, I installed and used the softphone only for a few days, enough to convince me that the underlying service was reliable and of good quality. I then removed it, and installed a Grandstream ATA in my house, connecting all the phones I already owned to my FPL account.

The problems I'm facing are not connection problems, though. I'm facing what seems to be real bugs in the software : as you mentioned, HUGE (!!) memory leaks, etc.

Just to mention here that large numbers in the task manager don't translate to memory leak. I know this is programmer's pedantic, but technically, the large memory consumption of a Java application on windows or Mac is normal. If it grows continuously up to the point where it consumes the whole system and crashed, then *that* is a leak.

With bytecode style application frameworks now, such as Java or .Net, it is extremely difficult to have memory leaks. More often that not, we're left with improper object disposals or inefficient uses of the garbage collector.

This ends the part of my post that you don't really care about Sorry, I'm a programmer! I love those things.

By purchasing the config file would I still be stuck with the same software?? And how does it cost?

[bridonca]

When you purchase the freephoneline sip config settings, you can use pretty much any SIP device out there, from hardware, like the PAP2, or software like Counterpath's xlite. I personally never saw a software SIP program I liked, but that is clearly a prejudice of mine. You do not need to continue to use freephoneline's soft phone, though it will still work.