TUTORIAL Free DID from Pinger/TextFree

tycho

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This came up in the old-ish "IPKall" thread which was recently reopened by a comment about the cessation of the IPKall service.

I claim no ownership of the technique described in the post linked to below by dslreports.com user "idan". Several months ago I took advantage of the methodology that idan describes (which involves installing the TextFree Android app on a rooted phone and then pulling some SIP credentials out of the installed app files) . It worked for me; rather easily in fact. Certainly a lower difficulty-level than many of the Nerdvittles projects that I have successfully completed. Following this technique netted me a free 312 A/C number that is humming along as an inbound trunk on my Dockstar (Pogo PIAF image) PBX. Perhaps the only "gotcha" is that you need a rooted Android phone to pull this off.

Here is the link: https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r30594112-

Caveats: Pinger/TextFree* requires activity every 30 days, or they will reclaim your number. They send you an email (or maybe a text; I forget) after 2 weeks of inactivity. "Activity" = sending a text message. Only. Sending and receiving texts are free. But, per their FAQ: "What won't keep your account active: receiving texts, sending picture messages, and placing or receiving phone calls." "Activity" qualifying texts can be sent from the android app on your cell phone, or from your account on their web portal. I just tested that and it works great.

TextFree can be used for outbound calling, but you are given a very limited pool of outbound minutes to start and more will either cost you or you will have to do app-crap like "install an app" or "watch this video." I seem to have accrued 42 minutes somehow. I think I installed solitaire and some other app, that I then promptly uninstalled. :)

Anyhoo, it works for me as a local DID. YMMV.

_____
*"TextFree" is the name of this particular app created by Pinger. Pinger also has created "sideline," an app that creates a second DID that can work along with the native DID on a cell phone.
 

wardmundy

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Just to document a few pieces for posterity. First, you'll need a jailbroken/rooted Android phone to decipher your Pinger credentials. Reportedly, you can use the Android emulator Bluestack on Windows and root it using KingRoot. Second, you'll need to install BOTH the Pinger app and an app such as Root Explorer on the Android device to decipher your SIP credentials.

Once you've registered your assigned number using the Pinger app on your phone, use Root Explorer to navigate to the /data/data/com.pinger.textfree/shared_prefs folder. Then open com.pinger.textfree_preferences.xml.

You need to find three pieces of information:

(1) Decipher your SIP username which starts with an underscore character, e.g. _857123456

(2) Write down your 8-character HEX Password, e.g. 0abcd123

(3) Decipher your SIP server by looking for DefaultPVN1, e.g. sj2-pvn06.pinger.com

Once you have these, create a SIP trunk in Incredible PBX with the following PEER Details:
Code:
username=_857123456
type=peer
secret=0abcd123
nat=yes
insecure=port,invite
host=sj2-pvn06.pinger.com
fromuser=_857123456
fromdomain=sj2-pvn06.pinger.com
disallow=all
context=from-trunk
canreinvite=no
caninvite=no
allow=ulaw

Registration String: _857123456:[email protected]/_857123456

Finally, create an Inbound Route using your SIP Username for the DID entry. Point it to the desired incoming call destination.

As noted, incoming calls and outbound toll-free calls are free. Everything else is expensive.

You must send at least one text message from your Android phone or Pinger.com every month to keep your number!
 
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PrankStupid

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Check your DefaultPVN1 setting. Don't use mine.
I have tripled checked the details including password, username, and defaultPVN. I even tried it on a new account and PVN2.

@wardmundy

Edit: I believe the default firewall could be interfering with the trunk registration, would someone mind posting the commands to whitelist the domain/ip? I am still learning my way around linux, and am wanting to be really careful when it comes to the security of my installation. (Ubuntu 14.04)

Here's my crack at it: (which didn't seem to work, so I removed my changes.)
Code:
iptables -I INPUT -s 199.87.160.241 -j ACCEPT
/sbin/iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -s 199.87.160.241 -j ACCEPT
/sbin/iptables -A OUTPUT -p tcp -d  199.87.160.241 -j ACCEPT

Edit V2: I disabled temporally stopped ip tables/fail2ban and it didn't seem to have any effect.
 
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tycho

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Just to confirm that my TextFree DID is registering and working at the moment:

Sip Registry:
199.87.160.240:5060 N _xxxxxxxxx 105 Registered Sun, 19 Jun 2016 11:49:17

Sip Peers:
TextFree-out/_xxxxxxxxx 199.87.160.240 Yes Yes 5060 OK (59 ms)

My settings:
Outgoing Settings
PEER Details:

username=_xxxxxxxxx
type=peer
trustrpid=yes
sendrpid=yes
secret=xxxxxxxx
qualify=yes
nat=yes
insecure=port,invite
host=199.87.160.240
fromuser=_xxxxxxxxx
fromdomain=199.87.160.240
dtmfmode=rfc2833
directmedia=no
defaultuser=_xxxxxxxxx
canreinvite=no
allow=ulaw

Incoming Settings
USER Context:
USER Details

type=user
secret=xxxxxxxx
context=from-trunk

Registration
Register String:
_xxxxxxxxx:[email protected]/_xxxxxxxxx
 

classicalmusic

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This came up in the old-ish "IPKall" thread which was recently reopened by a comment about the cessation of the IPKall service.

I claim no ownership of the technique described in the post linked to below by dslreports.com user "idan". Several months ago I took advantage of the methodology that idan describes (which involves installing the TextFree Android app on a rooted phone and then pulling some SIP credentials out of the installed app files) . It worked for me; rather easily in fact. Certainly a lower difficulty-level than many of the Nerdvittles projects that I have successfully completed. Following this technique netted me a free 312 A/C number that is humming along as an inbound trunk on my Dockstar (Pogo PIAF image) PBX. Perhaps the only "gotcha" is that you need a rooted Android phone to pull this off.

Here is the link: https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r30594112-

Caveats: Pinger/TextFree* requires activity every 30 days, or they will reclaim your number. They send you an email (or maybe a text; I forget) after 2 weeks of inactivity. "Activity" = sending a text message. Only. Sending and receiving texts are free. But, per their FAQ: "What won't keep your account active: receiving texts, sending picture messages, and placing or receiving phone calls." "Activity" qualifying texts can be sent from the android app on your cell phone, or from your account on their web portal. I just tested that and it works great.

TextFree can be used for outbound calling, but you are given a very limited pool of outbound minutes to start and more will either cost you or you will have to do app-crap like "install an app" or "watch this video." I seem to have accrued 42 minutes somehow. I think I installed solitaire and some other app, that I then promptly uninstalled. :)

Anyhoo, it works for me as a local DID. YMMV.

_____
*"TextFree" is the name of this particular app created by Pinger. Pinger also has created "sideline," an app that creates a second DID that can work along with the native DID on a cell phone.

With this and @wardmundy additions, I add this to my pbx..not because I needed to, but because I could and it was fun! :) Easy peasy :)

Thanks!
 

classicalmusic

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@wardmundy , I am now trying to get this pinger/textfree trunk working in Wazo. I've not been sucessful so far and wonder if you or anyone has played around with this.

IncrediblePBX:
Peer Details:
username=_XXXXXXXXX
type=peer
secret=xxxxxxxx
nat=yes
insecure=port,invite
host=sj2-pvn07.pinger.com
fromuser=_XXXXXXXXX
fromdomain=sj2-pvn07.pinger.com
disallow=all
context=from-trunk
canreinvite=no
caninvite=no
allow=ulaw

Registration String:
_XXXXXXXXX:[email protected]/_XXXXXXXXX


WAZO:
General Tab:
Name: 8015555555
Authentication username: _XXXXXXXXX
Password: xxxxxxxx
Caller ID: 8015555555
Call Limit: unlimited
Conection Type: peer
Ip Addressing type: static
sj2-pvn07.pinger.com
Context: Incalls (from-extern)
Language: en_US
NAT:Yes (force rport +comedia)

Register Tab:
Register: Checked
Transport: udp
Name: _XXXXXXXXX
Authentication username: _XXXXXXXXX (tried with and without this)
Password: xxxxxxxx
Remote server: sj2-pvn07.pinger.com
Port: 5060

Signaling Tab:
DTMF: RFC 2833
Customize: Checked
Disable: All
Selected G.711 u-law

Advanced Tab:
Insecure: All
Port: 5060

Under Call Management >> Incomming Calls:
DID: 8015555555
Context: Incalls (from-extern)
Destination: User
Redirect to: Incredible PBX

Also tried sending it to the sample IVR.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be great!

Thanks again!!
 

wardmundy

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Pinger is too expensive for calls so we haven't played with it in conjunction with Wazo. Works great as a free text messaging service, however.
 

ste5n

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Thanks for the very useful info guys, with the help of all of your tutorials, I've managed to get a DiD for my small centre, but I am facing a problem now, once I make the account I get a number of area of my choice, it works fine for few minutes or hours, once I login on a computer with this SIP credentials, the number gets disconnected with in just a few minutes, account works perfectly fine, but it shows error 'your account does not have a number' or something like that, I have tried many VPNs but of no use, what can be done for this, BTW I'm from India, and I use VPN of US or Canada, to make the account

And as Sukasem asked, can't anyone help us find a way to use TextNow just like Text free

Would really appreciate any help

Thanks
 

tycho

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I've managed to get a DiD for my small centre

Should we assume that the DID you are asking about is a TextFree/Pinger DID because you are posting in this thread? You don't mention that specifically...

And as Sukasem asked, can't anyone help us find a way to use TextNow just like Text free

Don't know. I only know the TextFree/Pinger tricks, and only because someone =else= was clever enough to figure it out. :)
 

ste5n

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Should we assume that the DID you are asking about is a TextFree/Pinger DID because you are posting in this thread? You don't mention that specifically...



Don't know. I only know the TextFree/Pinger tricks, and only because someone =else= was clever enough to figure it out. :)
 

ste5n

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Thanks for the reply my friend, Yes it is Pinger/Textfree DiD number, it used to work perfectly fine, but now I can't get it to work for even a couple of minutes, as soon as I login it with the credentials I loose the number, Account becomes useless
 

tycho

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I am in the U.S. and am not using a VPN with my PBX or with TextFree/Pinger or its DID, so unfortunately I can't help you with that side of the equation. However, I fear that might where the problem lies.

I am using my TextFree credentials on a low-powered hardware PBX consisting of FreePBX 2.11.0.42 running on top of Asterisk 11.23.0, with the settings stated earlier in this thread. The DID has near-100% reliability in terms of registration for inbound calls. I placed a call to it when I started this response and it answered without issue and is still connected after 10 minutes. So, given that I cannot replicate your issues, I don't have any suggestions...
 

Stefan Salvatore

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Hi guys, the thread is not active since long, but I guess IllI get the help I need

Is this Free DID/Pinger thing still working?
I have used it before, but now when I use the credentials (Username, Password, Domain/sj2-pvn08.pinger.com) on Zoiper or minisipserver/myvoipapp, it gets registered, it is even able to receive calls, but it only rings, after the ring it gets disconnected, even if I try to answer it still gets disconnected, is there something I'm missing here?
 

dallas

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I would start here...
Turn on diagnostics in Zoiper (click the spanner (options should open) check 'Show advanced options' then select 'Diagnostics' and check' Enable debug log') and check that a codec has been negotiated.

Log files are named logfile_yyyymmdd_hhmmss.txt
 
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Stefan Salvatore

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Thanks for the reply my friend, ImI trying to use it on Zoiper mobile, and itsi not giving the option to Enable debug log, I want to mainly set the TextFree credentials on minisipserver(with that I dontd have to be worried about my local network running through VPN, because if TextFree detects any IP which is not from US, the number gets taken away), can you help me with minisipserver.com?
 

tycho

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Hi guys, the thread is not active since long, but I guess IllI get the help I need

Is this Free DID/Pinger thing still working?

I can report that my Textfree/Pinger DID is registered 24/7 on one of my IncrediblePBX instances (older stuff: Asterisk 11.23.0/FreePBX 2.11.0.42 -- it ain't broke so I don't fix it) and inbound calls work perfectly. Outbound texting from the cellphone Android app works fine.

I do not use the Textfree/Pinger credentials for any other purpose -- for example, I do not use those credentials to place outbound calls. And I'm afraid I don't know anything about minisipserver.com.

If you don't use your Textfree/Pinger number/credentials every 30 days they will take-back your number. Did that perhaps happen to you? Did they perhaps "turn off" your authorization in a way that makes your set-up only partially work?
 

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