How-To: Use Gizmo’s Access Numbers to Get Calls from Landline or Cellphone Users to Your VoIP Account for FREE
Recently, I lost my cellphone and haven’t had a good way for people to get a hold of me in the short-term. I did a little poking around the Gizmo Project website and discovered they offer 20 “Access Numbers†across the United States that allow landline and cellphone callers to ring Gizmo VoIP users for FREE.
Here’s how it works. Tell your friends to call you by:
1. Dialing (415) 354-1083 (My San Francisco-based Gizmo Access Number)
2. Entering your 11-digit SIP number 1747169XXXX <– found by going to Account > My Profile in Gizmo
3. Pressing the # sign when done
That’s it! Now, your buddies can get a hold of you from any standard phone and even leave you voicemail messages. Just tell them your SIP number is like your personal extension on the access number you’ve provided them – and they’ll get the picture.
Note: If you want a long-term solution for using your Gizmo VoIP account full-time, you can purchase a direct “call in” number for $35 a year.
Aside: I just noticed that Gizmo Project 3.0 has added voice calling support to Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live, Google Talk, and Jabber (very cool) — previously it was IM chat only.
UPDATE: Another quick “free” solution to easily give your traditional phone buddies a way to call you on your Gizmo softphone is to create a GrandCentral account (when you register you’ll get a free standard phone number in any area code you choose) and have their servers route your calls to your Gizmo account.
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About
Alexander Grundner is a San Francisco Peninsula based web publisher who spends most of his time tracking down news stories for eHomeUprade, attending technology events, or working on his next big project.
For fun he likes to stay active outdoors, take photographs, shoot video, hack together PHP/Python code, play with Linux, and test new technologies.
