I’ve decided to write up a little how-to for a FREE and EASY way I’ve come across to call into TalkShoe talkcasts via VoIP. For those of you who don’t know what TalkShoe is, it’s a platform that lets people create live podcasts “talkcasts”, which can be recorded in front of a live audience. Meaning, while it’s being recorded, the show can be streamed live, and users can also chat in its own chat room and call in to participate (like a real talk radio show!).

The difficult part concerns how to call in. When you want to call into a talkcast, you have to dial a toll number (724) 444-7444 to call in to any talkcast. I can’t exactly do this myself because I don’t have long distance at home, and my family wouldn’t like it if I tied up our phone lines for that long. What would be great would be to find a way to call in from the computer, and to do it free.

Until last Sunday (12/31), Skype was free to call US and Canada phones, including TalkShoe. However, Skype has its own problems. For some reason, dial tones (needed to tell the TalkShoe system which talkcast you’re entering) don’t get sent correctly most of the time through Skype, so Skype users find themselves having to call again and again to try to get the dial tones to go through correctly. I tried this–it ISN’T pretty. Worse, now to use Skype, you have to pay $25/yr (or $15/yr if you sign up by January 31st) to make these calls. I’ve been using Skype but desperately seeking an alternative.

Well, I’ve found one. Meet Gizmo Project, a competitor to Skype with a very attractive package, which has a few benefits over Skype. First of all, if you’re into IM, Gizmo Project uses the popular and open-source Jabber for IM, meaning you can communicate with other Jabber (and Google Talk) users. Skype just has its own proprietary user base. Also, if you are making calls to telephones, Skype charges $0.021/min, but Gizmo Project only charges $0.01/min, and all new Gizmo Project users get $0.25 to start them off!

But the feature that we’re going to take advantage of is Gizmo Project’s support for the SIP protocol (not found in Skype). TalkShoe doesn’t publicly advertise this, but they have an SIP address that you can use to call in, just like a regular phone number. SIP calls through Gizmo Project are free, and Gizmo Project’s dial tones are much more reliable than Skype. I’ve never had a hiccup yet!

Once you’ve downloaded Gizmo Project and signed up, hit the big blue plus (+) button at the bottom of Gizmo Project’s main window. This lets you add a new contact. Choose SIP from the drop-down, then enter for the SIP number 123@66.212.134.192, and enter TalkShoe for the first name. See screenshot below. Then, click Add, and TalkShoe will show up under the Contacts panel. Double-click on TalkShoe in the Contacts panel and you’ll be ringing up TalkShoe for free!

To get to the dial tones, look at the drawer on the right (it may be something else on Windows), and under the Map and Hangup buttons, you should see a blue text saying Click here for Blasts!. Click that, and another drawer (or whatever on Windows) will show up, which includes your dialing keypad. Note that unlike Skype, you’re forced to use your mouse to dial in Gizmo Project, but TalkShoe should accept it and you’ll be all set.

So there you go! Connecting to TalkShoe via Gizmo Project, and doing it easily for free! Have fun talkcasting!