Asterisk VoIP News gets the call for exposing a new tool for recording your VoIP calls in OS X. The tool is called SoloRecord, and it permits you to get caller ID screenpops when you receive a call. The way it does this is by snooping the SIP packets coming across your network and then creating appropriate responses in software. I’ve explained the exact technique behind SIP snooping and discreet call recording in my book, VoIP Hacks.

There are a few caveats with SoloRecord’s requirements, of course. The only supported signaling protocol is SIP (Ie. no Skype, Skinny, MGCP or H.323 services are supported). Also, if your service utilizes an exotic sound codec, you won’t be able to record calls. Screenpops should still work, though.

Also, the developers want you to use a Neanderthal Ethernet HUB (because a switch would make the snooping very difficult without supervisory port mirroring or some other method of snooping, such as an ARP poison attack). In my mind, that’s a serious limitation. But most low-end switches don’t offer port monitoring, so you might be better off plugging your ATA into Ovolab’s Phlink call recording software if you really need to record calls.

Also, if you’re using a SIP softphone client, such as Gizmo Project, you’re in good shape, because SoloRecord can grab the audio packets right from the local interface. Cool stuff!

Hey–the guys over at Ovolab and Parliant should seriously considering buying the SoloRecord source code. For a long time, I’ve lamented how those products don’t support VoIP yet. SoloRecord would save them an awful lot of work.

Also, if you’re looking for a way to record Skype calls as well, be sure to check out SoundFlower.