Cubix Softphone

Download link: http://www.virbiage.com/cubix.php

Cubix is Virbiage's rebrandable IAX and SIP softphone for Windows. It is evailable under license (full version). Licensed versions are customised with the client's chosen look and feel and functionality. An example of such a rebranded licensed version is Freshtel's Firefly softphone.

This softphone used to be called Firefly. It was renamed by Virbiage awhile ago. Note that the page content below is copied from the Firefly page and should be evaluated to ensure the content is accurate with the new version.

The Windows IAX & SIP softphone by Virbiage works also under wine (20050310 tested). OEM licensing available for CTS providers.

Cubix Features

• Voip Protocols: SIP, IAX
• Codecs: ulaw, alaw, iLBC, speex, GSM, G.729 (via DLL)
• Up to ten networks at once (either SIP or IAX, not available in Freshtel version)
• Music on Hold
• Skinable Interface

Dialling methods

• 123 - Firefly will find the network marked as internal and dial 123 on that network
• +123 - Firefly will find the network marked as external and dial 123 (note no plus) on that network
• 123@blah - Firefly to find the network named blah and dial 123
• sip/123@some.domain.com (Firefly will try and find the network for this one as well, otherwise make the call as 'guest')(sip:// also works)

Otherwise you can use full Asterisk urls e.g.

• iax/user:pass@domain.com/extension
• sip/user:pass@domain.com/extension

Third party version

Current release v1.9.5
The main release has now been made Freshtel-only.
If you need a version which works with 3rd party IAX & SIP networks, then use:
http://www.virbiage.com/firefly/download/firefly-thirdparty.exe <<<This link no longer works
http://www.freedomphones.net/files/firefly-thirdparty.exe <-- Working Link

Added by 'msg' SIP:9202@cybertheque.org on 05-22-2005
— building the g729.dll using open source tools --
— thanks to the developers for the opportunity to evaluate G.729 on firefly --

  (We don't have MS VC (but we do have a working MS Win32 version of 'lib.exe')
  The build host was Win2k Server sp3/Cygwin 1.3.22/gcc 3.2;

    1. create a target directory for the build and create a subdirectory under it called  'ms-obj.dir' 
    2. download 'g729.zip' from http://www.virbiage.com/firefly/download/g729.zip;
        download 'G729.zip' (be sure to not clobber the previous download) from
        http://www.voiceage.com/codecsite/media/G729.zip
        and unzip them into the target directory
    
  *** build the library ***
     — at a 'cmd.exe' shell:
    3. cd to the target directory
    4. lib /NOLOGO /LIST .\va_g729.lib > lib.lst
     — at a 'bash' shell:
    5. sed 's+\\+\\\\+g' < lib.lst > lib.list
    6. cd ms-obj.dir
    7. while read name
        do
        lib /NOLOGO /EXTRACT:$name ../va_g729.lib
        done < ../lib.list
    8. (convert all uc filenames to lc ; eg. use the following script:)
        ls | while read fname
        do
        lowname=`echo $fname | tr "A-Z" "a-z"`
        mv $fname $lowname
        done
    9. ar r ../libg729.a *

  *** compile and link ***
   10. cd ..
   11. mv G729.C g729.c
   12. gcc -mno-cygwin -shared -I ./ -c -o g729.o g729.c
   13. gcc -mno-cygwin -shared -I ./ -L ./ -shared -o foo.dll g729.o -lg729
         — (ignore the many messages: Warning: .drectve '%.*s' unrecognized)
         — output filename cannot be 'g729.dll' or linking fails with message: './/g729.dll file not recognized: file truncated'
   14. mv foo.dll g729.dll

The dll worked well when tested with the third-party cubix/SIP on a P166/64MB/Win2k laptop with USB headset; I am quite
impressed with the performance of firefly (especially on this older platform) as it eliminates unresolvable echo and
chopping problems we had with X-Ten lite. The G.729 codec is wonderful over dial-up.

Introducing Cibix and Virbiage

Cubix is a Softphone - The term softphone is short for software telephone and that's just a fancy way of saying Internet telephone. Cubix is essentially an Internet telephone that allows you to make free phone calls to other people who are also running the same software on their computers.

Traditional telephones use phone lines that run back to your local telephone exchange to make phone calls. When you call someone, your local phone exchange sends the call to the phone exchange nearest the person you are calling and the phone company charges you for the call. When you make a call using Cubix and VoIP, your voice is first turned into digital packets which can be used by your computer. These packets are then sent over the Internet from your computer to the computer of the person you are calling where the packets are turned back into voice. The wonderful thing about this is that it does not cost you anything beyond your normal ISP costs!

You will of course need to be connected to the Internet to use Cubix and VoIP, but the actual softphone call costs nothing! And it does not matter if the person you are calling is across the road or on the other side of the world, since the call is sent over the Internet.

Dialling asterisk system extensions using Cubix

When connecting to asterisk using the Cubix softphone, you need to a profile in order to dial the asterisk character *. E.g. Create a profile called "voicemail" and right-click, Edit and change the Default number to *98 or *97 (depending on your preference).

Microphone detection problems

On occasion the Cubix softphone does not detect the microphone correctly. If this happens, try restarting the client. It works for me and I haven't found a better solution.

Howtos

• Howto on connecting firefly to Asterisk

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