For almost a decade now, the VoIP and SIP technologies have been in use for making phone calls over the internet bandwidth. Some of the latest mobile devices, specially the ones running on Android operating system, have in-built options to enter your SIP account details so that you can make cheap or free phone calls over the internet. But the Windows users are not so lucky – Windows does not have any in-built application or settings to quickly start making calls over the VoIP or SIP protocols. The Windows users have to depend upon third party programs like MicroSIP and PhonerLite to make calls using their VoIP/SIP accounts.
PhonerLite is a free program for Windows that allows you to make free or cheap phone calls over the VoIP and SIP protocols. It is available as a portable application, so you do have to install anything. When you launch it for the first time, it starts a setup wizard which allows you to enter your VoIP or SIP account information easily. If you do not have any SIP account, then you can get a free SIP account from callcentric or other providers listed in the PhonerLite setup wizard itself.
The setup wizard has many presets for some popular VoIP/SIP providers, but you can also enter this configuration manually. Typically the setup wizard is completed in three steps – choosing a VoIP/SIP provider, enter your account details (username and password) and selecting your default microphone & playback devices.
Once the setup is complete, you are all set to make and receive phone calls. You have to enter the destination phone number in the text box either through the numeric keys on your keyboard (much easier) or by clicking on the small numeric pad buttons in the PhonerLite window. In order to make a call, you can click on the green phone icon in the toolbar. During a phone call, it automatically reduces the volume level of any background music being played on your computer which is very nice.
If at any later stage you have to change the configuration or VoIP/SIP account settings, then you can choose the Configuration tab at the bottom. Under this tab, you can easily change the settings for the user, VoIP/SIP servers, network options, codecs used etc. You can even set it to automatically answer the calls, so you do not have to click on the call-answer icon every time you receive a phone call.
Conclusion: PhonerLite is a simple, easy to use and highly configurable VoIP and SIP client for Windows. It comes with preset configurations for many of the popular VoIP/SIP providers and you can start using it by just entering your username and password.
You can download PhonerLite from http://www.phonerlite.de/index_en.htm.