UIC Softphone: The Residence Hall Phone Revolution

You are about to start loving your residence hall telephone! This isn't your sister's phone that she shared with her roommate. It is communications for today, it's your own personal phone number, and it has lots of terrific features.

This Web page explains how to open your Softphone account if you live in an eligible Residence Hall. UIC Softphone Software: CounterPath X-Lite Softphone explains how to use the ACCC-supported softphone software.

In addition to living in a covered Residence Hall, you must have three things:

• A regular (analog) telephone plugged into the phone jack in your dorm room.
  
  
• Your UIC Softphone account telephone number, Softphone#, which is a UIC digital telephone number and personal identifier for your residential telephone service. Softphone accounts telephone numbers will begin with 312-432-0001, and increase numerically. This UIC Softphone account telephone number is like your UIC netid in three ways:
  1. It is unique to you, and
  2. It will not change as long as you are a student at UIC. It will only be active, however, while you live in a covered Residence Hall.
  3. You will choose a personal, private Softphone password to go with it.
     
     
• Your UIC Softphone password, which is a number with at least 7 digits (with a few reservations to make it less easy to guess). You will select when you get your UIC Softphone account and Softphone telephone number. Like your UIC ACCC common password, this password identifies you as you when you use your Softphone#, so you must take care when you choose it and keep it safe and private.

Your dorm room telephone set, your UIC Softphone account telephone number (Softphone#), and your UIC Softphone password combine to give you access to the UIC Softphone system, an up-to-the-minute Internet telephone system. The UIC Softphone telephone system uses Voice-over-IP, or VoIP, very similar to the commercial services Skype and Vonage, which you probably have heard about.

That's no problem so long as you know your UIC netid and ACCC Common password, which you needed to have to register.

• If you forget your UIC Softphone account telephone number, Softphone#, you can find it on the Softphone Settings page, at the URL: http://softphone.uic.edu
  Use your UIC netid and ACCC password to log into it.
  
  
• You can also change your Softphone password if your forget it, or just want to change it, through the ACCC Passwords page: http://passwords.accc.uic.edu
  Here too, you use your UIC netid and ACCC password to log in.

These features enhance UIC Softphone that bring in your email, your personal computer, and any other telephone, including your mobile and home phones.

Your Softphone account telephone number will ring the telephone that you installed in the UIC residence hall room that you live in without your having to do anything. And this assignment will be automatically updated if you move from one room to another, including when you return to living in the residence halls after taking terms off. Your personal Softphone account will always know whether you are living in a residence hall and what room you are in if you are.

But when you are living in a UIC Softphone Residence Hall, your Softphone# doesn't only have to ring in your Res Hall room. You can log into this ACCC Web site using your UIC netid and ACCC common password:

http://softphone.uic.edu

and add or change additional telephone numbers that your Softphone# number will "Simulring" at.

• Do you have a cell phone? Enter your cell phone's number, and the incoming calls to your Softphone# will simultaneously ring in your dorm room and on your cell phone.
  
  
• Are you going home for break? Set your Softphone# to ring at your family's house during break, then take your home phone number out when you get back to campus.
  
  
• Going to a neighbor's and expecting an important call? Set your Softphone# to ring at your neighbor's room while you're there.

The Softphone Settings Web page allows you to select the up to three phone numbers where your Softphone# rings. Use this page to change these numbers whenever you want, wherever, and however many times you want.

There is no charge for the Simulring service, but there might be toll charges if the Simulring involves a toll number.

There is free voicemail service attached to your Softphone#. Because it attached to your Softphone#, which is different from your roommate's Softphone#, your voicemail mailbox that is different from your roommate's, without your having to have any extra equipment in your room. Your Softphone password is your voicemail password.

To pick your voicemail up by telephone, dial 2222 and enter your Softphone password.

Your voicemail messages are also sent by default to your netid@uic.edu email account. Each time a new voicemail message comes in, an email message is sent to your netid@uic.edu email account with the voicemail attached as a .wav file. In most email programs, you can click on the attached file to hear the voicemail in your email. This is really cool.

Even if you can't hear your voicemail on-line, you will know who sent it and when, so you can choose whether and when to go to pick it up.

You can set up your voicemail message and other voicemail options at the 2222 telephone number, after you enter your Softphone password.

There are no UIC charges for Softphone voicemail or access to it.

This wouldn't be the 21st century without a 21st century telephone -- software telephone, or Softphone. A softphone is is a program that enables VoIP telephone calls, such as from your Softphone account and your Softphone#, from personal computers and other computing devices. And yes, that is where the Softphone name comes from.

To use a softphone, you need the following:

• a personal computer with a supported operating system, that also has the following:
  • softphone software,
  • a microphone,
  • speakers,
  • and a broadband Internet connection (such as Res-Net).

Download and install the UIC-supported X-Lite by CounterPath Solutions, Inc., softphone software for your operating system, and plug in your Softphone# and Softphone password.

Now you have a softphone on your personal computer or PDA that is set up to use your your Softphone account and your Softphone#.

The X-Lite is free, and there are no additional UIC charges for its use.

• The ACCC Web page X-Lite Softphone for Windows, Macs, and Linux has download links, instructions on how to set it up, and an introduction to X-Lite's use. (It's easy.)
  
  
• Other Web pages you will need are the following (there are links to both in X-Lite Softphone for Windows, Macs, and Linux):
  
  
  • X-Lite by CounterPath Solutions, Inc to download X-Lite for Windows, Mac, or Linux.
    
    
  • If you will use X-Lite from off the UIC campus, download and install the UIC Cisco VPN Software. (That also is easy.) Then, when you are off-campus, start and connect the VPN software before you start X-Lite.

You charge toll calls to your Softphone#, identifying yourself with your Softphone password. The toll calls are billed at 3-cents a minute local for local toll calls and 7-cents a minute for domestic long distance. We do not have a way at this time to do international long-distance calling. For more information, see Information on Phone Charges.

You will not have the option to open a Softphone account unless you are eligible for one.

1. Your get your Softphone account the way you get any ACCC account, on the ACCC Accounts Web page. You need your UIC netid and ACCC password to log in, so pick your path and follow the instructions.
   • If you have your netid and password, click LOGIN.
   • If you don't, click ACTIVATE NETID.
     
     
2. On the Create an ACCC Account Screen, at the bottom, you will see a listing for a Softphone account, Type Softphone and Voicemail. Click the radio button beside it. Then click the CREATE ACCOUNT button.
   
   
   
3. Next, choose your Softphone Password number, a number which is at least 7 digits long, with some additional restrictions which are explained on the page that will make it harder to guess. Then click Create Account.
   
   
   
4. If you have selected a suitable password, the Create a Resphone Account screen will open. It will have your Softphone telephone number on it. Write it down so you don't forget it; it will be the telephone number you will use in the Residence Hall.
   
   
   
5. Click the Softphone Options link on the Create a Resphone Account screen to open the Voicemail and Softphone Settings page.
   
   The Softphone Voicemail and Softphone Settings page is also at the URL: http://softphone.uic.edu
   
   Use your UIC netid and ACCC password to log into the Voicemail and Softphone Settings page.
   
   
   
6. Use the Voicemail and Softphone Settings page to add or delete telephone numbers from your Simulring telephone list or, if you want to, to turn off the email notification of voicemail. (Though I don't know why you would want to turn off the email notification of voicemail; it's handy.) Or to play or delete your most recent voicemail messages.
   
   
7. If you are going to be using the software telephone with your Softphone# and Softphone password, see the ACCC Web page X-Lite Softphone for Windows, Macs, and Linux for instructions on how to set it up and an introduction to its use. (It's easy.)