Calling Free Through Gmail Now In Thailand

[sulasno]

how did you managed to install the plugin in English ?

[BB1950]

how did you managed to install the plugin in English ?

It wasn't hard.

1. Using Firefox 5 under Windows 7, I logged into Gmail
2. Clicked on the drop down arrow to the right of the word "Chat" on the left side of Gmail page
3. A drop down box appeared
4. I clicked on Add voice & video
5. A new tab opened to: http://www.google.com/chat/video?hl=en
6. I clicked on the "Install voice and video chat" button
7. A new window popped up that downloaded and installed the plugin.
8. Upon completion I was taken to Chat setting page to verify the video and audio settings.
9. Went back to my inbox by clicking cancel on the chat settings page
10. I didn't have the call option so I refreshed the page
11. I still didn't have a call option
12. So I went to the link provided by the OP: http://www.google.com/chat/voice/
13. Clicked on the "Try it now" button which took me to my Gmail page which had the "Calling in Gmail is not available in your current location." message above my inbox messages.

Note. I have my Google set to use (google.com) as default rather than (google.co.th) with cookies enabled for both (google.com) and (google.co.th). I also have my Gmail settings to use English (US) as the display language.

I would venture to say that an easier method that wouldn't require you to change settings would be to:

1. Go to: http://www.google.com/chat/video?hl=en
2. Click on the "Install voice and video chat" button
3. A new window will popup that will download and install the plugin.
4. Upon completion verify the video and audio settings.
5. Click on cancel in the chat settings to return to the inbox.
6. Go to http://www.google.com/chat/voice/ to enable Gmail phone calling
7. Click on the "Try it now" button
8. You will then go to your Gmail inbox. If you are able to use the Gmail phone calling option an green call icon should appear in the Chat list, otherwise you will get the not available message above the inbox list.

[sulasno]

thank you

appears that my contacts with this plugin will have this next to their name

[BB1950]

thank you

appears that my contacts with this plugin will have this next to their name

Yes and no. It means the contact has a camera available (icon) and the contact is on-line (green).

Here's a video on how to use video chat

[lomatopo]

Google has a limited number of PSTN ports in the U.S. These are used currently for free Google calling services like Google Voice, and others within the U.S. You would use one of these ports when you initiate a Google call from your PC, to jump from the VoIP to PSTN (telephone) network.

If Google started allowing everyone in 38 countries to call for free these ports would be saturated. Perhaps they are allowing a select few users the capability to call from their PC to a telephone in the U.S., either as a trial or as a marketing tool to generate interest?

I have a Google Voice telephone number, and have Google Talk enabled. I can dial a telephone number in the U.S., but it does not ring/connect. (It does when I am in the U.S., obviously.)

Like most Google product/service announcements this one is vaguely confusing. It's always a bad idea for the Product Manager to "launch" a product.

There are more detailed, and perhaps accurate assessments of this new "service".

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/networking/look-out-skype-google-makes-its-voip-service-international/1319

excerpt:

This will enable international users to make phone calls from Gmail, or other Google services such as Google+ that support Google Talk. While you can still call or video-conference with people for free over the Google Talk Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) network, you’ll need to pay if you want to use Google Talk to chat with people on their conventional phones in other countries.

[Pib]

Still no Call function for me unless I activate my VPN.

Have you checked that you have "US English" as your account language?

https://plus.google....language?tab=m8

Just checked...yeap, set to English (US).

Not sure if it has anything to do with it but my address is also a US address.

I still can call to the US for free (I do not pay 0.01/min) without VPN in Thailand. Maybe it is link to my US address, not sure.

I have a US address entered also from many years ago when getting a gmail account. It's just some kind of IP detection thing....Google is probably detecting my IP address is from Thailand and for some reason not identifying your Thailand IP address as a Thai IP address. Same thing was going on a few months ago in another thread on this subject. But if I remember right those who could use the Call capability lost it about a week later...but maybe it will be different this time although the Google List says Thailand is not yet included as one of the countries where the Call funciton will be available..

[lomatopo]

and for some reason not identifying your Thailand IP address as a Thai IP address.

Excellent point.

[phuketrichard]

installed everything and got this right at the top of my gmail window;

Calling in Gmail is not available in your current location

I am in Phuket

[HAL9000]

If you have an Android phone you have no need for this. Android have native support for VOIP (sip).

I have an Android phone. How do I access this feature? Thx.

[HAL9000]

By the way, I used to get the service not available in your area message, but shortly after this announcement appeared the other day, the Call Phone icon began to appear in my gmail chat area.

[muratremix]

Betamax VOIP is still cheaper than these rates.

Just 0.01 EUR / min for Thai Land / Mobile.

[Phil Conners]

If you have an Android phone you have no need for this. Android have native support for VOIP (sip).

I have an Android phone. How do I access this feature? Thx.

Menu > Settings > Call Settings > Internet call settings (right at the bottom). First you setup a SIP account under "accounts", then pick one of the options under "Use Internet calling"/

[HAL9000]

Menu > Settings > Call Settings > Internet call settings (right at the bottom). First you setup a SIP account under "accounts", then pick one of the options under "Use Internet calling"

Thanks for responding. My phone doesn't have Internet Call Settings in Call Settings. Maybe it appeared in a later version of Android.

[Phil Conners]

I didn't notice it until I installed Gingerbread, but someone else said it is also there in Froyo.

[HAL9000]

I didn't notice it until I installed Gingerbread, but someone else said it is also there in Froyo.

Yeah. I've been wanting to flash Froyo, but a little afraid of bricking my phone!

[BB1950]

I didn't notice it until I installed Gingerbread, but someone else said it is also there in Froyo.

Yeah. I've been wanting to flash Froyo, but a little afraid of bricking my phone!

It's not on my Froyo!

[Phil Conners]

Hm, you'll have to upgrade to Gingerbread then. I recommend Oxygen Rom if available for your model.

[Thaigreg]

Google Talk doesn't appear to be free anymore. Tried calling this morning and it told me I didn't have enough credit. When I started the call it showed that it was free, but when it connected the box changed to show rate at 0.01 per minute, stated I didn't have enough credit then disconnected. Anyone else have this?

Greg

[lomatopo]

I didn't notice it until I installed Gingerbread, but someone else said it is also there in Froyo.

Yeah. I've been wanting to flash Froyo, but a little afraid of bricking my phone!

It's not on my Froyo!

Android 2.3 (aka Gingerbread) incorporated a SIP protocol stack.

http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-2.3-highlights.html

Internet calling

The user can make voice calls over the internet to other users who have SIP accounts. The user can add an internet calling number (a SIP address) to any Contact and can initiate a call from Quick Contact or Dialer. To use internet calling, the user must create an account at the SIP provider of their choice — SIP accounts are not provided as part of the internet calling feature. Additionally, support for the platform's SIP and internet calling features on specific devices is determined by their manufacturers and associated carriers.

Some, but not all, 2.3-based custom ROMs include this feature. If not included it can typically be added.

You might look for an official 2.3 release from your manufacturer, or simply use one of the free clients which should work on most Android releases. Skype, SIPdroid, CSIPsimple, Nimbuzz, et al. You'll need a VoIP provider to make calls to the traditional telephone network. Typically VoIP clients require a WiFi connection but some may work on 3G networks, and some even say they work on EDGE.

[rogerdee123]

I wonder if google is scanning the contents of your phone calls like they scan the contents of your your email messages ..... ?

I just read online where Google is being sued in the USA for scanning the contents of personal email messages from their (your) GMail accounts.

[HAL9000]

I just read online where Google is being sued in the USA for scanning the contents of personal email messages from their (your) GMail accounts.

Good question. But the email scanning has been obvious all along because of the ads in the right column that are associated with key words in the email that you are reading at the moment.

[FarangBuddha]

You don't need any plugin for this to work. Just reload gmail (ctrl-F5) and make sure your google chat is enabled. Expand the chat option on the bottom left and you should see a "call phone" link.

Nope...I don't see any "call" option listed when I expand the chat function in G-mail. I do have my Magic Jack for very cheap USA calls.

[longball53098]

I have the little green phone symbol on my Gmail. Tried using it and get the message saying I have no credit to call out to the US. Checked in to this and it appears the rates from LOS to the US are about 2 cents a minute.

I then switched on my VPN to a server in the US and I was allowed to make free calls in the US.

So the Google calling feature is available here in LOS for me anyway but it's not free

[Pib]

Still no Call icon for me unless I use VPN. I'm on True Cable internet in western Bangkok. I also punched Ctrl-F5 several times and it made no difference for me.

[longball53098]

This is the process I used from a Google site to enable the call feature. Seems to work for me using both the local ISP in LOS and the VPN servers. The only difference is the calls from LOS are not free to the USA.

I'm sure most folks know how to do this but I show here for those that may not.

To get started, you must be signed in to chat and have the voice and video chat plug-in installed.

Simply click the Call phone link at the top of your Chat roster to open up the Call window.

From the Call window you can dial a phone number, view your call history or add credit if you'd like to place an international call. Additionally, if you are a Google Voice user, you can enable Google Chat as a forwarding phone and receive calls in Gmail.

If you don't want to see the Call phone option in your Chat roster, you can disable it.

[Pib]

Still no Call icon for me unless my VPN is turned on. I even reinstalled the voice and video plug-ins. Based on the posts so far and including the Google notice Thailand is not on the list of countries the Call function is available to, for whatever reasons, expect it going to vary from individual-to-individual whether the Call icon appears for folks in Thailand until Google officially makes it available to folks in Thailand. But using VPN you can get around this restriction.

[HAL9000]

This is the process I used from a Google site to enable the call feature. Seems to work for me using both the local ISP in LOS and the VPN servers. The only difference is the calls from LOS are not free to the USA.

I'm sure most folks know how to do this but I show here for those that may not.

Thanks for the explanations longball. Could you also explain how to sign up for and use it with a VPN?

Thanks.

[longball53098]

Signing up for a VPN service is no more difficult than Google for VPN services and then perusing the various sites and going through the buying and set up.

PIB is very good at explanations about this sort of thing. In fact I got the VPN idea from him and I use a service that he is using. I did look at others as well and ended up with the same service. I had a bumpy start with them bu now it works fine.

As for the Google Voice plug-in just use the help button on Google and they will show you what you need to do.

You do not need a VPN to use Google voice.

PIB care to comment on any of this?

[Pib]

Signing up for a VPN service is no more difficult than Google for VPN services and then perusing the various sites and going through the buying and set up.

PIB is very good at explanations about this sort of thing. In fact I got the VPN idea from him and I use a service that he is using. I did look at others as well and ended up with the same service. I had a bumpy start with them bu now it works fine.

As for the Google Voice plug-in just use the help button on Google and they will show you what you need to do.

You do not need a VPN to use Google voice.

PIB care to comment on any of this?

I would just say sign up for a VPN service like StrongVPN.com, but there are many VPN sellers out there. It's no harder than buying something online with your credit card. Buy X-months of a PPTP or Open VPN plan....PPTP VPN requires no additional software to be loaded on your computer; Open VPN is one step up/offers a higher level of security (if needed), is harder for countries to block, and requires additional software to be loaded/run on your computer. You can upgrade a little later to Open VPN if you feel you must have it like you are now living in a country that tries to block VPN service....Open VPN is harder to block than PPTP VPN...Thailand don't block VPN service...although Thailand does block some sites, they haven't yet sunk to the fear of having unrestricted internet communications like some authoritarian-ruled countries. And when you get right down to it, when a country wants to stop all internet communications it will just shutdown internet connections/lines; even VPN has to have an internet connection to work.

You'll receive the simple setup instructions by email once you have bought a service plan. The setup instructions are also on the VPN service provider's web site. With your VPN setup you will then have an IP address in the country you chose (i.e., U.S., U.K, etc) and whatever web site/service you are hooking up to sees you as being located in that country versus Thailand; therefore, you'll have full access to the services from that web site....the same level of services that person actually in that country would have. Nothing illegal about VPN. Heck, probably every large international cooperation in Thailand is running it's company network on VPN and many of the Thai government agencies run their networks on VPN.

Personally, I would just sign up for a PPTP VPN plan since it's cheaper and easier to setup, not to imply Open VPN is hard to setup. Once your PPTP account is setup, it will just appear like another modem/router to hook up to in your Windows internet icon...open the internet icon and you will see your modem/router basic internet connection and your VPN connection...click on the VPN Connection and it creates connection/tunnel through your internet connection; disconnect the VPN connection and you are back on your basic internet connection. Pretty much like switch on; switch off except it takes a few seconds for the switch to switch. It's really simple but can be a little scary on the surface...just the name Virtual Private Network (VPN) sounds technical and hard to setup....but it ain't; once you have it setup you will think it was no harder than turning on your computer.

I finally decided to get a VPN plan after another web site I use to be able to fully access started rejecting my full access due to my "outside the U.S." IP address with me living here in Thailand. I said to myself that, "Well, this is now X-amount of sites I have issues with due to my Thai IP address/my outside the U.S. IP address." So, I'm now spending a few dollars more a month to have and use VPN when needed (only use it when needed as it will probably be a slower connection than you now have) to have full internet access.

[HAL9000]

Thanks for the explanation.