CallPal
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Connect VoIP.ms to CallPal

Fund a VoIP.ms account, switch it to E.164 dialing, buy a number and create the sub account CallPal registers as — about fifteen minutes once the account can call.

Before you start

  • A CallPal account. The 14-day trial is enough — no card required.
  • In CallPal, permission to manage SIP trunks. Owners and admins have it by default.
  • A card or PayPal and $15 for VoIP.ms’s first deposit. VoIP.ms is prepaid and the deposit becomes calling credit. VoIP.ms bills your minutes, CallPal does not.
  • Time for VoIP.ms’s review of a new account. It may ask for ID, business registration or a description of how you will use the service before you can call — allow a day.

  1. Open a VoIP.ms account and add credit

    Sign up at voip.ms and confirm your email. Then go to Finances → Add Funds and add at least $15. An account with no balance cannot call.

  2. Switch the account to E.164 dialing

    Open Main Menu → Account Settings, and on the General tab set Dialing Mode to E164, then save.

    CallPal sends every number with its country code. The North America mode expects ten or eleven digits, and 011 before an international number, so calls fail until this is changed.

    Dialing Mode: E164

  3. Buy the number your calls will come from

    Go to DID Numbers → Order DID(s) and buy a number local to the people you call. US and Canadian numbers cost about a dollar a month.

  4. Create a sub account for CallPal

    Open Sub Accounts → Create Sub Account. Choose SIP as the protocol and User/Password as the authentication type, and set Device Type to the Asterisk, IP PBX, Gateway or VoIP Switch option.

    For CallerID Number choose to use one of your DIDs, and pick the number you bought. Give the sub account a strong password and save.

    Its username is your account number, an underscore and the name you chose. That is the username CallPal registers with.

    123456_callpal

  5. Add the trunk in CallPal

    In CallPal, open Settings → SIP Trunks and press Add Trunk. Give it a Name you will recognise in the call log — "VoIP.ms" is usually the right one.

    Pick VoIP.ms as the Provider template. It fills in newyork.voip.ms and the port, and selects Credentials (register) as the authentication method. Change the host to the VoIP.ms server nearest your team if that is not New York.

    Enter the sub account’s Username and Password. Your password is written to a secrets manager, never to the trunk record.

    newyork.voip.ms

  6. Add your number as the caller ID

    Under Phone numbers (DIDs), enter the number from step 3 in E.164 format — a plus sign, the country code, then the number.

    VoIP.ms presents the CallerID Number set on the sub account, so use the same number in both places.

    +14155550123

  7. Test the trunk, then activate it

    A trunk you have just added reads Pending, with Health Unknown. That is expected, not a fault.

    Press Test to probe VoIP.ms immediately. When the probe succeeds, Health reports Up. Then press Activate to enable the trunk — Status moves to Active straight away and your team can call.

    If Status settles on Failed or Health reads Down, the host, the username or the password is wrong. The VoIP.ms portal shows the sub account’s registration status.

What you configure

Provider template
VoIP.ms. Fills in the host, port and audio settings for a VoIP.ms sub account; you can still change any of them.
SIP server host
newyork.voip.ms, filled in by the template. VoIP.ms runs servers across North America and Europe; use the one nearest your team.
Authentication method
Credentials (register), selected by the template. CallPal signs in as the sub account you created for it.
Username and Password
The sub account’s username (account number, underscore, name) and its password. The password is stored in a secrets manager, not on the trunk record.
Phone numbers (DIDs)
The VoIP.ms number your calls present, in E.164 format — the same one set as the sub account’s CallerID Number.

What it does not do

Worth reading before you roll this out to a team — some of these are how CallPal works, others are the carrier’s own rules.

  • CallPal is outbound only. No inbound routing, no IVR, no predictive dialing.
  • You pay VoIP.ms directly for numbers and minutes, at VoIP.ms’s rate. CallPal does not resell phone service, so nothing about calling cost passes through your CallPal plan.
  • The account must use E164 dialing mode. In the North America mode, numbers in the format CallPal sends do not connect.
  • International calls need Allow International Calls turned on both in Account Settings and on the sub account, and the country you call allowed in each.
  • A new account can be held for VoIP.ms’s compliance review before it can call. That review is VoIP.ms’s, and CallPal cannot speed it up.

Questions

What does calling cost?

Whatever VoIP.ms charges you — there is no CallPal markup, because CallPal never bills minutes. You add credit to VoIP.ms and calls draw from that balance; your CallPal plan is the same however much you dial.

Calls to other countries are blocked.

Turn on Allow International Calls under Account Settings → Account Restrictions, and again on the sub account — it is set separately on each. Then check that the country is allowed in both places.

The trunk is up but calls fail.

Check that your balance is above zero, that Dialing Mode is E164 (step 2), and that the sub account uses one of your DIDs as its caller ID.

Which server should I use?

The one closest to your team. VoIP.ms lists them all on its Servers page. If you later want incoming calls, set your number to the same server.

Can I add a second carrier for failover?

Yes. Add it as a second trunk in CallPal. If the first stops registering, calls move to the next healthy one.

Still stuck?

Write to [email protected] with your account name and what you saw. A person answers.