After considerable research, experimenting and testing I have finally come up with a way for people worldwide to call any phone in US for free. This has been tested from India and it works. I dont see any reason why it shouldnt work from other countries.
Minimum requirements:
- High speed internet connection (DSL, Cable internet). I have not tested it with dial-up, and so cannot vouch for this working with dial-up.
- A computer running XP with multimedia support and admin priviliges
- Computer speakers and microphone
- The tutorial below
- 20 minutes of your time
Here’s a brief summary of how this works. Skype is offering free calls to all landlines and mobile phones within US and Canada till end of 2006. However, if you connect to skype from outside US and Canada, Skype will detect that the connection is not within US and so wont allow you to call for free. The workaround is to make Skype believe that you are connecting to it from the US. We use VPN to achieve that. iPig provides free VPN service that terminates in the US. So if you open a VPN connection to iPig and connect to Skype, Skype traces your origin to iPig’s servers and assumes that you are connecting from within US, allowing you to make free calls from your computer.
Here are the steps:
- Get a skype account and the skype instant messenger. If you dont already have one, here is how you can get it
- Download the latest version of Skype from www.skype.com
- Install it
- Launch the skype messenger and register a new username in the login window.
- Log out of skype and close the application.
- Get an iPig account and iPig VPN client (note that iPig will NOT work with cisco VPN client, or windows XP’s built-in VPN client). If you dont have one (which is likely the case) here is how you get one
- Download the the iPig client (version 1) from iPig website here. Make sure you download iPig Client v1.x and not v2.x. V2 does NOT support free accounts and will not work for you
- Install the iPig client. You need to reboot your PC after the installation.
- Reboot your PC
- Create a free iPig User Account
- Now we have all the software that we need to get this working. You need to first log into iPig and then into Skype (the order is important, it might not work otherwise)
- Open the iPig software and enter your iPig username and password (Screenshot)
- Click the “ON” button to protect all your wireless and wired communication
- If you have a firewall software installed (e.g. Zonealarm or Norton Internet Security), you need to allow iPig outgoing and “act as a server” Internet access if your software asks. iPig needs this in order to catch and encrypt your Internet traffic (Screenshot).
- Open Skype and login using your Skype username and password
- Call any phone number in the US using Skype, here are the instructions on how to call regular phones.
- Wait till the call connects and start talking :)
Hope the level of instructions are sufficient and clear enough for you to get it working. If nto just leave me a comment with a valid email address and I will respond to the comments on this blog and email you a copy as well.
Happy talkin’!!
P.S: Digg it if you like it
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hmm, and how long wud it take for skype to read this, and *maybe* filter out IPs frm that VPN provider
Will I have to buy skype credit to activate Skypeout?
@Aravind: You dont need to biuy skypeOut credit to call within the US. It works without skypeOut credits. Its free, period.
@BangaloreGuy: It wont take much to filter out the iPig VPN, but that would mean that many valid US users connecting through iPig (for secure browsing) will be denied access as well. That pretty much goes against what they are trying to do.. try and grab VoIP providers’ market share. So I think we are ok on that one.
@Reddy: Could you try connecting from US first, and verifying that you can access the internet. And then try the same fom India and verify that you can access the internet? I think the problem you are having is in connecting to iPig itself. Once the connection to iPig goes smoothly, things should just work.
Pretty cool :) Did you figure this out by yourself? If yes…congrats! I’ll try this out and see if it works.
IndianArchie
Musings that Amuse
@girish: Could you first check to verify that you are indeed connected to the net through iPig? Try browsing the web, and make sure that you can open pages like http://www.google.com
Also, go to http://www.myipaddress.com and get your IP address
Take that IP address and trace its location using the form in http://www.geobytes.com/IpLocator.htm Verify that it says the country of origin is US. If it doesnt, then you are not connected to iPig properly.
Let me know if that works for you.
@DesiNole: I tried that already, but didnt work. I tried changing the http, https, socks to proxies in the US. It works well for web browsing, but not for skype. Skype still sees you as coming from your original IP address and blocks you if you are not in US.
TO everyone who is haveing trouble with this:
Make sure that you activate you iPig accoutn by clicking on the link that is emailed to your from iPig. If you dont activate your account, iPig will not work.
Hi…. at first glance it looked an excellent application, but after installing and signing into iPig, when one tries to sign into Skype, the following error message is appearing on the Skype window……”Skype could not connect. You may be behind a firewall or experiencing problems connecting to the internet”
Please guide me along asto how to bypass this. I wanted access from India.
Hi.
Thanks for the post buddy.
I followed all instructions and placed a call to a US phone number. skype tries to connect for about 20 secs, but fails and gives an error ” Could not connect to skype proxy” . I am running XP pro with Sp2.
Can you help , please?
Regards
It would be easier to search for a proxy server here in the US, change your internet settings and you are all set to go. This does not involve installing any application, just a lil knowledge on what to change and where.
I am unable to locate your Trackback URL. On clicking the ‘Trackback Address’ link in your post, I get a page which says ‘The document has moved here.’
IndianArchie
Musings that Amuse
I have tried a different solution which is much simpler. Conncect using Skype with the person you want to talk on his computer, but instruct that guy not to answer the call on his computer. The guy you want to talk to should have a forwarding number, which can be his cell phone or any other number. Skype will forward the call to the cell phone and its FREE! I have tried this and it works without a hitch. I have my desktop on and Skype connected at all times at home. My parents call on this computer using their Skype account and it gets forwarded to my cell phone. No charge. You dont even have to activate Skypeout.
@ mudit & srikanthsastry: The point which you mentioned about call forwarding. I dont know how you are able to do it but as far as I know one can forward only calls originating from Skype users based in US or Canada in such a way and you cannot forward calls received from Skype users abroad.
http://support.skype.com/index.php?_a=knowledgebase&_j=questiondetails&_i=746
@srikanthsastry: internet could be browsed in India after connecting to iPid but was unable to login to skype.
Great work dude! You’ve saved me a lot of money :)
Dude not working for me. Successfully installed ipig and also checked the location of the ip address, which shows US. Not able to log on to Skype. Have also tried after disabling norton firewall. Though, sent this link to someone and its working fine with him. he uses windows firewall. Any suggestions?
Duh!!! Doesn’t Work
hi nice article…
I was able to do watever said above…but when i called my friend in US usign skype
i was charged with .02euro cents
:(
why is that ?
i knew this free offer is still existing …
Please let me know how could i check make sure that i am VIRTUALLY CALLING FROM US and IS THERE ANY ICON WHICH SHOWS US SYMBOL
:D
Anyways thanks for the article
Hey, i tried it out……accidentally i got the version 2 though……but when i checked, there wasnt a version 1…..
is that maybe the problem that i have? well, the problem that i have is that whenever i click on “iPig On” then it goes on and tells me how much bandwidth i have left, but then i cant surf the web or anything….its like as if i wasnt online
can someone please help me…
[...] Chronosynclastic Infundibulum » Blog Archive » Call any phone in … … finally come up with a way for people worldwide to call any phone in US for free. … It would be easier to search for a proxy server here in the US, change your internet settings and you are all set to … http://www.employees.org/~stilgar/srikanth/blog/2006/06/22/call-to-any-phone-in-us-for-free/ [...]
This is exactly what I expected to find out after reading the title Call any phone in the US for free!!. Thanks for informative article
where to get iPig Client V1 as the iopus website provide only the version 2?