Actiontec VoSKY Internet Phone Wizard for Skype

For a long time I was looking for a phone to use with skype. For the price and convenience, Actiontec Internet phone wizard was the best I found and ordered it from Amazon ($42.99 with free shipping). After receiving the modem I have been using it for almost a month now and I am extremely happy. I have connected my codeless phone to it and everything seems to be working fine.

This product doesn't work on Vista and after contacting Actiontec regarding this issue not only they ignored my messages, but when I browsed over the net for help, there was only a couple of responses from them one year old at least. Although this product is excellent running on XP, the lack of support and incapacity to keep up with current operating systems is at least unacceptable. If you plan to ever update to Vista, don't spend your money on it.

I would just say that I was waiting for a product like this for ever, originally from France and leaving in Canada for over 6 years, I was good customer for the phone company. I would not use it for business as the products is still young (minor bugs here and there*) but I am overall very satisfied. Sebastien Le Guillou * allow 3 sec at the beginnig of a conversation until the other party can here you.

I bought this on amazon, and it performed so poorly that I had to return it. In theory, the product is fantastic -- it lets you use your existing 'normal' telephone to dial and receive skype calls. In reality, however, it's a buggy product that simply does not pass any semblance of quality standards. The big problems: 1. it has some flawed USB interface such that the software you load onto the PC never finds the device on the first try. You have to manually unplug and replug the device into its USB port to get the software to 'see it.' 2. The interface with Skype is very klugy. It changes Skype's audio in and audio out settings to direct skype to use the actiontec drives instead of your PC's microphone and speakers. That's okay when you're using a phone connected to the device for skype calls, but when you want to use your PC again, you have to manually change back all the settings. 3. The sound quality is excellent, but the mic quality is atrocious. I tried everything option I could, but I was never able to get the other party on a skype call to hear me clearly. It's probably a very cheap processor in the box that doesn't properly encode my speech or something. In the end, it worked about 2% of the time, and the other 98% of the time the person on the other end of the call hung up on me because they couldn't hear or understand what I was saying. Bummer, because I really wanted it to work. But it's just not ready for primetime. I'm waiting until a reputable CE brand like Linksys or Logitech comes out with the device.

It works exactly as it is supposed to, but the sound quality is not that great. Initially, the sound quality for the people I was calling was awful (although I heard them fine, my voice was garbled to them). That was fixed by connecting the Internet Phone Wizard directly to my computers USB 2.0 port (as opposed to a hub or to a USB extension cable). However, even once I did that, I still hear a lot more interference than I do if I use a headset on my PC. The question is whether this product would work better on a newer, faster, PC. I doubt it, but you never know. I have a 4 or 5 yr old DELL Dimension 4400 running at 1.6GHz with 750 MBRam (WinXP). The sound quality is poor enough, that for calls under 10 minutes I find myself opting to use the PC headset for better quality. If I am going to be on the phone long distance for 30 minutes, I use this box so that I have the freedom to roam around the house on my cordless phone, even if the voice quality does suffer.

Note: If the SkypeOut contact does not have a speed dial number, dial the number using the following format: 00+Country Code+Area Code+Local Phone Number. I have seen some people saying that they could only dial from the computer. That is not true, but you have to know how to do it from your phone. When you dial from Skype software on your computer, it already knows your country. So if you are in the US, and you want to call 1-800-555-1212, then you just put that into the Skype window and it calls the number. BUT, when you are on the actual telephone, you need to first dial ## (only if you have the regular phone line connected), then once you are on Vosky/Skype, you have to dial 00, and then the number. So, if you are in the US, and you want to call 1-800-555-1212 from your regular telephone using Vosky, you would dial ##-00-1-800-555-1212. I hope that clears up some of the confusion. Also, Skype for some reason does not offer speed dial from within the Skype software (as of this writing), and I have seen no plan to re-enstate that feature. So the only way you can dial from your telephone with Vosky IPW is to enter the actual number as shown above, or program it into your telephone's speed dial.

I soooo wish that other companies came up with cool ideas like this. This product allows you to use free internet phone sites like [...] with your regular telephone. Normally you would have to use a microphone and speakers hooked up to your pc. This product allows you to connect ANY standard telephone to it and talk over the internet just like you would with any other phone call. Here are some key features that I didn't know prior to buying: - You can use a cordless telephone with it - You can dial internet phone calls from the phone handset using skypes speed dial feature (you never have to touch your computer as long as it is turned on). - You can have your regular phone line and the internet phone line connected at the same time. You switch between them by hitting the # key twice. - It gives you call waiting. If you're on a skype call and your landline rings, you'll hear it and can switch between them by hitting ##. - I have it setup so that every phone in my house can either make skype internet calls for free or use the landline. I highly recommend this product. It will literally save me thousands of dollars in international phone bills and make it comfortable and normal. My wife wouldn't normally want to be bothered with complicated computer devices. Now she just picks up the phone and hits the speed dial number for the person she wants to call and it goes through. Keep in mind that in order for skype to be free, the person you are calling must also be using skype. If you want to call a landline you must pay. The rates are very cheap though, so it's not a bad solution. Check [...] for the rates.

Will recommend for anyone wanting to set up a Skype account. Item makes it so easy to use. The affordable of Skype to now add to your existing home network phone lines to simply use your regular phone ('s). Takes a little to get use to, but before long, you will be up and running like a pro. I will suggest to get a small computer with CAT 5 connection to hook directly into your router, and use this computer just for Skype phone service. Found a good cheap used Dell Optiplex on and online action that works great!!! It is used for a server only for Skype. I say these items will pay for themselves within 4 months of another VioP service I had.

Very difficult to set up. It's now been discarded.