The Nokia E61 is probably the most sophisticated smart phone on the market. It’s packed full of features including the ability to connect to Microsoft Exchange and Blackberry Enterprise servers.

One of the features which have been promised (but never really worked) since the release of the phone was the ability to connect to SIP servers or in more lay-terms, VOIP.

Well, with the latest Firmware update from Nokia, they’ve done it! I’ve now successfully registered my phone to both Vonage (using the Vonage softphone service) as well as Sipphones.

I can’t reccomend Sipphones, their service doesn’t seem to work with calling PSTN phones in North America (trouble ticket currently open) but Vonage works like a gem. Finally, I can do away with all the expensive long distance when I’m travelling and use Vonage, so long as there’s a WiFi access point nearby.

So what does all this mean? Cheap long distance while on the road! BTW – the phone itself is behind the NAT so a normal home connection with no tweaks to the firewall is okay to use.

The technical (what to enter into your E61 configuration):

You must have a Vonage softphone account. I haven’t figured out how to do this to a standard or primary account and I suspect that Vonage won’t let you do it (they don’t easily allow you to bring your own device to their service).

Profile name: Vonage
Service profile: IETF
Default access point: your wireless router (NOTE: you need to specify an access point, it will not ask for one)
Public user name:sip:your_vonage_softphone_number@sphone.vopr.vonage.net
Use compression: no
Registration: When needed or Always
Use security: no

Proxy server:
Proxy server address: none (leave this blank)
Realm: 216.115.20.41
User name: your softphone number (including the 1)
Password: your softphone password
Allow loose routing: yes
Transport type: UDP
Port: 5060

Registrar server:
Registrar serv. addr.: sip:sphone.vopr.vonage.net
Realm: sphone.vopr.vonage.net
User name: your softphone number (including the 1)
Password: your softphone password
Transport type: UDP
Port: 5061 (or 5060)

After that, you should be good to go! If your phone numbers are programmed with ther + sign before them for easy international dialing, Vonage may not work as planned. Make sure to start off any phone call with a 1 and omit the + symbol.

Happy VOIPing.