Twinkle

Twinkle is a SIP-based VoIP client.

Dependencies

To compile Twinkle you need the following libraries:

A standard library with C++11 support (at least version 4.9 for libstdc++)
ucommon GNU uCommon C++
ccRTP (version >= 1.5.0) GNU RTP Stack
libxml2
libsndfile
libmagic
libreadline
Qt 5 – more specifically, the following submodules:
- base
- declarative
- tools

The following tools are also required:

cmake
bison
flex

Optional dependencies

alsa-lib (also known as libasound)
libzrtpcpp (version >= 0.9.0) ZRTP library, ccRTP support must be enabled
bcg729 G.729A codec library
Speex and SpeexDSP Speex codec library
iLBC iLBC codec library
Akonadi (specifically, the core library) and KContacts

Build

First of all, choose which options you want to have enabled.

All possible options are:

Qt 5 GUI: -DWITH_QT5=On (on by default)
D-Bus use: -DWITH_DBUS=On (on by default, requires WITH_QT5)
ALSA support: -DWITH_ALSA=On (on by default)
ZRTP support: -DWITH_ZRTP=On
G.729A codec support: -DWITH_G729=On
Speex codec support: -DWITH_SPEEX=On
iLBC codec support: -DWITH_ILBC=On
Diamondcard support: -DWITH_DIAMONDCARD=On
Akonadi support: -DWITH_AKONADI=On (requires WITH_QT5)

Build instructions

# Create a subdirectory for the build an enter it
mkdir build && cd build

# Run cmake with a list of build options
cmake .. -Dexample_option=On

# Build Twinkle
make

# Install Twinkle
make install

Shared user data

Installation will create the following directory for shared user data on your system:

${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/share/twinkle

The typical default value for CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX is /usr/local.

Application icon

If you want to create an application link on your desktop you can find an application icon in the shared user data directory:

twinkle16.png (16x16 icon)
twinkle32.png (32x32 icon)
twinkle48.png (48x48 icon)

User data

On first run Twinkle will create the .twinkle directory in your home directory. In this directory all user data will be put:

user profiles (.cfg)
log files (.log)
system settings (twinkle.sys)
call history (twinkle.ch)
lock file (twinkle.lck)

Starting Twinkle

Give the command: twinkle

twinkle -h will show you some command line options you may use.

NOTE: the CLI option is not fool proof. A command given at a wrong time may crash the program. It is recommended to use the GUI.

If you do not specify a configuration file (-f <profile>) on the command line, then Twinkle will look for configuration files in your .twinkle directory.

If you do not have any configuration file, the configuration file editor will startup so you can create one. If you have configuration files, then Twinkle lets you select an existing configuration file. See below for some hints on settings to be made with the profile configuration editor.

If you specify a configuration file name, then Twinkle will such for this configuration file in your .twinkle directory. If you have put your configuration file in another location you have to specify the full path name for the file, i.e. starting with a slash.

NOTE: the configuration file editor only exists in the GUI. If you run the CLI mode, you must have a configuration file. So first create a configuration file in GUI mode or hand edit a configuration file, before running the CLI mode. If you run the CLI mode and you do not specify a file name on the command line, then Twinkle will use twinkle.cfg

NAT

If there is a NAT between you and your SIP server then you have 3 options to make things work:

Your SIP provider uses a Session Border Controller
Your SIP provider offers a STUN server
Make static address mappings in your NAT for SIP and RTP

STUN can be enabled in the NAT section of the user profile.

For the static address mappings enable the following in the NAT section of the user profile:

  Use statically configured public IP address inside SIP messages

And fill in the public IP address of your NAT.

Twinkle will then use this IP address inside SIP headers and SDP bodies instead of the private IP address of your machine.

In addition you have to add the following port forwardings for UDP on your NAT

public:5060 --> private:5060 (for SIP signaling)
public:8000 --> private:8000 (for RTP on line 1)
public:8001 --> private:8001 (for RTCP on line 1)
public:8002 --> private:8002 (for RTP on line 2)
public:8003 --> private:8003 (for RTCP on line 2)
public:8004 --> private:8004 (for RTP for call transfer)
public:8005 --> private:8005 (for RTCP for call transfer)

If you have changed the SIP/RTP ports in your profile you have to change the port forwarding rules likewise.

Log files

During execution Twinkle will create the following log files in your .twinkle directory:

twinkle.log (latest log file)
twinkle.log.old (previous log file)

When twinkle.log is full (default is 5 MB) then it is moved to twinkle.log.old and a new twinkle.log is created.

On startup an existing twinkle.log is moved to twinkle.log.old and a new twinkle.log is created.

User profile configuration

A user profile contains information about your user account, SIP proxy, and several SIP protocol options. If you use Twinkle with different user accounts you may create multiple user profiles.

When you create a new profile you first give it a name and then you can make the appropriate settings. The name of the profile is what later on appears in the selection box when you start Twinkle again. Or you can give the name.cfg at the command line (-f option) to immediately start that profile.

The user profile is stored as <name>.cfg in the .twinkle directory where <name> is the name you gave to the profile.

At a minimum you have to specify the following:

User name: this is your SIP user name (eg. phone number)
Domain: the domain of your provider (eg. fwd.pulver.com) this could also be the IP address of your SIP proxy if you want to do IP-to-IP dialing (without proxy) then fill in the IP address or FQDN of your computer.

If your SIP proxy does not request authentication and the value you filled in for 'Domain' can be resolved to an IP address by Twinkle, eg. it is an IP address or an FQDN that is in an A-record of the DNS, then you are ready now.

Authentication

If your proxy needs authentication, then specify the following fields in the SIP authentication box:

Realm: the realm for authentication you might leave the realm empty. If you do so, then Twinkle will use the name and password regardless of the realm put in the challenge by the proxy. For most network setups this is fine. You only need to explicitly specify a realm when you have call scenario's where you have to access multiple realms. Then for the realms not known to Twinkle you will be requested for a login when needed.
Name: your authentication name
Password: your authentication password

If authentication fails during registration or any other SIP request because you filled in wrong values, then Twinkle will at that time interactively request your login and cache it.

Outbound proxy

An outbound proxy is only needed if the domain value cannot be resolved to an IP address by Twinkle or because your provider demands you to use an outbound proxy that is at a different IP address.

Check the 'use outbound proxy' check box in the SIP server section. For outbound proxy fill in an IP address or an FQDN that can be resolved to an IP address via DNS.

By default only out-of-dialog requests (eg. REGISTER, OPTIONS, initial INVITE) are sent to the outbound proxy. In-dialog requests (eg. re-INVITE, BYE) are sent to the target indicated by the far end during call setup. By checking 'send in-dialog requests to proxy' Twinkle will ignore this target and send these requests also to the proxy. Normally you would not need this. It could be useful in a scenario where the far-end indicates a target that cannot be resolved to an IP address.

By checking "Do not send a request to proxy if its destination can be resolved locally" will make Twinkle always first try to figure out the destination IP address itself, i.e. based on the request-URI and Route-headers. Only when that fails the outbound-proxy will be tried, but only for the options checked above. I.e. if you did not check the 'in-dialog' option, then an in-dialog request will never go to the proxy. If its destination cannot be resolved, then the request will simply fail.

Registrar

By default a REGISTER will be send to the IP address resolved from the domain value or to the outbound proxy if specified.

If your service provider has a dedicated registrar which is different from these IP addresses, then you can specify the IP or FQDN of the registrar in the registrar-field.

The 'expiry' value is the expiry of your registration. Just before the registration expires Twinkle will automatically refresh the registration. The expiry time may be overruled by the registrar.

The 'registrar at startup option' will make Twinkle automatically send a REGISTER on startup of the profile.

Addressing

When you invite someone to a call you have to enter an address. A SIP address has the following form:

sip:<user>@<host-part>

Where 'user' is a user name or a phone number and 'host-part' is a domain name, FQDN or IP address

The only mandatory part for you to enter is the <user>. Twinkle will fill in the other parts if you do not provide them. For the host-part, Twinkle will fill in the value you configured as your domain.

Currently sip: is the only addressing scheme supported by Twinkle.

Michel de Boer [michel@twinklephone.com]

Lubos Dolezel [lubos@dolezel.info]

LubosD/twinkle