«An Open-Source SIP Soft Phone»
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How can I contribute to this project?
Even if this project is started under a contract with Vovida Networks via SourceXchange, consider it a normal open-source project, where contributing is done by subscribing to the mailing list, checking project progress, testing code, filling bug reports, proposing features, etc.

Beware that the project is still in it's infancy state so it's not really ready to accept major contribution from external developpers (i.e. where not in «bazaar» mode yet). To avoid any confusion, let us specify that we do not intent to share the compensation we get from the contract with Vovida Networks, it would be more trouble than it's really worth. Feedback is greatly appreciated.

When will you support [place your feature here]?
Our schedule is public and can be found on the SourceXchange site. Note that this schedule is likely to change but it may give you an overview of our roadmap.

I can't compile VOCAL SIP module. What can I do?
Note that as of today (Sept 23 2000), only the RedHat distribution is supported by Vovida. It *may* work with other distributions. The quickest way to get around is to send an email describing your problem on the Vovida SIP mailing-list, all this after having check the mailing list archive, of course.

How much disk space and memory is required to compile Siphon?
Well... er... you need about 128M of total memory and about 280M of disk space. And yes, we are working on solutions (after all, we compile it every day).

I fail to compile Siphon, what can I do?
For the current version (0.1), compilation has been tested only with gcc version 2.91.66. If you use a more recent compiler, you may have some problems with const correctness.

The next step is to send us a message on the mailing list describing your problem. Include all the text of the error message and the version of your compiler (do a 'cc -v').

How can subscribe to the mailing list?
See the SourceForge Siphon mailing list section.

I thought Siphon was a portable passive network mapping suite...
Wait! You are thinking about the other Siphon. Apparently, they also believe it's a killer name!

How do you pronounce "Siphon"?
phree-sof-way-re
;-)

Are SMP machines supported by Siphon?
Not if they use the Quicknet card (but they mostly do...). It appears that the ixj drivers haven't been designed to run in a multiprocessor linux kernel. This problem has been addressed on the Quicknet linux drivers mailing-list. If you would like to see some support for SMP in the future releases of Quicknet drivers, kindly mention it on their mailing list.

I got Siphon to compile but my calls cannot be established with another computer running Siphon.
Do the following test first. Type this in a shell:
ping `hostname`

If you get a "ping: unknown host ...", it can mean that you have a "self-address resolution problem" (in this case, see other question below).

Otherwise, there may be a firewall between the two hosts. This is an unsupported setup (for now...).

You can also have a problem because your host has multiple network interfaces connected to differents isolated networks. In this case, you may also have a "self-address resolution problem".

It may also be a bug with Siphon. Those kind of problems are hard to report as they need a tcpdump trace, a SIP message log, etc... Things are changing quite fast at the current stage of the project, you might wish to wait for the next version OR investigate it yourself.

I have the "self-address resolution problem". What do I need to do?
You need to add in your /etc/host file the IP address of the network interface you will be using. You will need root privileges to do this. You will have to do this each time your network address changes.

For example, if you use PPP, /etc/hosts must contain an entry where your hostname (given by the output of the hostname command) is associated with your dynamically assigned public IP.

Let's say that the "hostname" command gives "prokofiev.gawi.org" and that the address of my PPP interface (as given by /sbin/ifconfig) is 123.123.123.123. A correct /etc/hosts would then be...

#good!
127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.localdomain
123.123.123.123 prokofiev.gawi.org


...and an incorrect /etc/hosts would be...

#bad!
127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.localdomain prokofiev.gawi.org

The sound is stretched and chopped like someone talking in front of a fan. Why is that so?
It is likely that you don't have enough bandwidth. You need 64kbps upstream and 64kbps downstream. This is for 8khz mu-law 8-bit (8000 * 8 = 64000). As other codecs will be integrated, those requirements will change.

Nothing is working at all. Can I file a complaint?
Sure. We'd like to hear anything from our users. Good or bad. But also bear in mind that Siphon is at an early stage.