D-Link Skype USB Phone Adapter
by D-Link
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Our Price: $149.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $24.95 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of D-Link Skype USB Phone Adapter
Customer Review: Works nicely
Summary: 5 Stars
I am using the DPH-50U to connect my cordless phone to my PC so that I can use Skype-In and Skype-Out as a VOIP service. As long as you follow the instructions with the device (which are simple and straight forward) it is a snap to install.
An interesting feature of this box is you can also hook up your regular telephone line to it (I don't have one so I cant comment on this too much) and then "choose" whether to place your outbound calls over the PC via Skype or on the landline. Of course, you'd prefer to make traditionally expensive calls over the Skype and maybe local calls, 911 calls, 411 calls, and toll free calls over the landline.
Which brings me to my next point. In order to "tell" the box which line to put your outbound call on, you need to do some interesting dialing codes before dialing the number you wish to call... kind of like dialing "9" from your office to get an outside line.
To use the skype feature to call 800-555-1212 I'd have to dial the following:
## 001 800 555 1212 *
The ## tells it you are making a skype call, the 001 is the country code for the United States, then the phone number, and finally * is sort of like the "send" key on your cell phone, to tell the box you are done typing numbers and to initiate the call. This is a little cumbersome to be honest.
Since I don't have a regular landline connected I'm not quite as familiar with the dialing requirements, but I think you just dial out the number and press * (so you don't have to do the ## 00 part as listed above)
When I have an incoming skype call, this device rings my phone and you do not have to do anything unusual to receive the call, just pick up the phone.
As a side note, since this isn't a rating on Skype but you should have a little background on the service as well if you are thinking of switching over to Skype for VOIP service, the call quality is quite good. Most of our Skype calls are to South Africa and the quality is the same as any other service I ever used, be it AT&T, calling cards, or other VOIP carriers. Another plus is that the US unlimited calling plan with Skype is (at the time of review) $2.99 a month.. Pretty affordable. But you need to have a PC and keep it on for this box to work, so for those with services like Vonage, they pay more ($25/mo) but do not require the PC and if they already have a PC are not required to keep in on 24-7 to receive calls. For me, my PC is on anyway so saving $22 a month was a pretty good deal and the hardware cost ($20) for this box is a real bargain.
Customer Review: Works Great, Easy Install- I take it Back - unit stopped working
Summary: 5 Stars
See updated review - can't change the rating to 1 star but it should be...
Easy install and quick setup. I already had a Skype account so this was ready to go in 15 minutes. I attached an old phone and the sound quality is fabulous. Much better than the laptop speaker/mic setup I had been using.
Now that I know this works I might consider upgrading my router to accept a unit that does not require my computer to be on.
What a short honeymoon!!! I purchased this in February 2009 & initially had a great experience. It worked perfectly. I plugged my DECT phone into it & the sound and operation were much like my landline. I then bought a Skype phone number & planned on switching many of my phone services to save money.
Shortly after the original review I started getting errors. On boot up this hardware would be found as new again & require re-installation. Then the calls would be dropped after about 6 minutes. Then Skype wouldn't recognize the audio driver (Zoom). When a call was dropped there would be a cryptic error message that left me wondering if it was working or what.
I went through various uninstalls, re-installs, re-boots, forced driver updates, etc based on my hours of research into why this was happening. I even called Dlink support.
Dlink support is a hierarchy system. First, you get the people who can only read through a script of how to install. At any time your system does not follow the script, they don't know what to do except repeat the steps & say things like "Your computer should be showing this message. Something is wrong." DUUUHHHHH!
It seems to be mandatory to go through this process with them so that you are referred to the 2nd level product specialist. This level is only slightly better. Once they exhaust all of their solutions based on a more complex script you're done. They don't have the training to tell you things like the driver is flaky & you should be using a different one. Or the latest Microsoft updates have impacted the drivers & you need to go back to a previous version. Or how to force Skype to recognize their driver. Since this is strictly Skype hardware they should at least know how to do that.
In the end the amount of money (about $14 after rebate)I spent on this pales in comparison to the hours spent trying to get & keep it working.
I'm searching around now for another product to perform the same function but in a reliable fashion.
Customer Review: Works great and highly recommended
Summary: 5 Stars
I just got this from BEST BUY and the price was same as Amazon ($60), for now. I went out looking for a USB Skype Phone and bumped into this one and bought it right away. I am very pleased with this product and my purchase and would highly recommend it and here is why.
I have both SkypeIn (allows you to have a phone no. of your choice for 30 Euros, approx US$ 38, per YEAR.) and SkypeOut (allows you to call any phone in the world much like a prepaid phone card) and I wanted to be able to use Skype away from my PC/Laptop so that I was not "tied" to one place in my apartment. So I started looking into USB Skype phones. A good one with a cord costs around $ 40 and a good cordless one costs $ 80 (I am referring to the one from Linksys and that one doesn't have the best reviews in the world so I was bit skeptical). Now for $ 60, this adapter plugs right into your USB port and allows you to use any good old phone (corded or cordless) with Skype. It doesn't need any separate power supply and is a nice little self contained unit.
Installation was a breeze and took less than 2 minutes and no computer reboot was necessary. I fired up Skype and plugged in a old corded phone and was good to go!! I made and received calls via Skype using my old phone and the voice quality was great. Next, I tried a cordless phone and it worked great too. So now I have a wireless Skype phone and I am very pleased with it. Not to mention I am putting my old discarded phones to good use now.
You can use the same phone for both Skype and your regular phone line if you want to but since I got rid of my landline phone long time back I couldn't try that feature. So I can't speak for that part. The manual does say that it's possible. Overall, I would highly recommend this if you are looking to go wireless with Skype using your good old cordless phones or just want to have the convenience of using a corded phone away from your PC. Believe me, even if you have WiFi in your place you would still want this. I have WiFi but I would rather use a cordless phone to talk on Skype out on my deck rather than lug a laptop and a headset out with me. I think most of you would agree with me on that one. Also, Skype website has similar adapters for a little less money ($ 10 less I think), so you can check those out as well if you like. I was familiar with the D-Link brand name from before compared to the brands on Skype so I went in for this one.
Customer Review: Luv It. Took 5 min to hook up. Works perfect.
Summary: 5 Stars
I received my Skype Telephone Adapter yesterday and I can say that after talking on the phone for at least 4 hrs to several friends out of state it works flawlessly so far. It took less than 5 minutes to set up, and if anything it's as clear or clearer than my landline, and definitely clearer than any cell conversation.
I'm not having any of the problems that I see many others in these reviews have been having. I notice that most of the critical reviews are pretty old (most from 2006) and that most of the 2008 reviews are positive, so I imagine D-Link has modified the adapter and/or the drivers since.
For someone who had been spending +$60 monthly in long distance calls, this thing is sweeeeeeet. I luv luv luv it already. This thing is literally the best money I ever spent on any gadget yet. It's going to pay for itself more than twice over the first month.
I have it hooked to our computer in the living room for everyone to use, but I think I'm going to have to order another one for the skype account on my computer back here to free me from the headset. They are both XP machines but I see D-Link's website does have a Vista driver for it too. It works perfect and didn't drop any calls, though I'm not going to also hook a landline phone to it at all though it says you can. I have a friend who says he had trouble with it when it was also hooked to his landline. I'd rather keep them separate anyway.
The one drawback I see so far (and it's not with the D-Link adapter. It's with how Skype operates with it) is after signing up for a yr subscription from Skype for $30 that gives me unlimited calls out to landlines/cellphones anywhere US and Canada, it didn't come with my own phone number - an 'online number' for calls in. Skype wants $30 more a yr for that. While I could care less about calls in to that phone, not having that makes my calls out show up on caller ids as an 'unknown number' which kind of sucks. I might have to break down and spend the extra $30 just for that. Since you can pick your online number in most any area code, it would really make sense if most of my long distance friends were grouped somewhere because I could make my number a local call to them, but mine are scattered all over the map.
Customer Review: Very Good
Summary: 5 Stars
This works great. However, DO NOT use the software that comes with the device. In addition, follow the directions below. (these directions were posted by someone else and they worked perfectly for me)
1. Download and install skype. I recommend getting one of the monthly plans and buying 12 months because you get 25% off [...]
2. Go to dlink website and download newest drivers - see instructions above. (DO NOT YET INSTALL)
3. open dph-50u box and discard CD. make sure you locate UPC and serial sticker before you throw away box to claim the rebate)
4. Get your skype/phone adapter setup prepared. (DO NOT PLUG IN DPH-50U YET as it will mess things up)(you really want to do as much work ahead of time so you don't have to bother moving stuff around after. There will be alot of wires)
5. The dlink drivers come zipped so the best thing to do is create a new folder on your desktop and unzip the driver to that folder (very important)
6. Open folder and double click "setup" icon (DO NOT PLUG IN UNIT YET)
7. After install completes plug in dph-50u. you will see a popup that says "new usb device found" and then a driver dialogue box will pop up. Select "install from location" and click next. Now you will be able to select the folder in which you unzipped the drivers to. click next and the drivers will begin to install. Once this completes a second driver will be installed. just follow the same instructions above.
8. Once this is complete you should see a "red phone icon" in your system tray. this is fine. Open skype. Skype may say "Dlink... wants to access skpe" Allow this. The dlink icone should then turn blue.
9. Go to skype window. On top navigation select tool/option/audio options. There are 3 drop down menus for audio, microphone and ringer. Make sure all 3 are selected for the d-link (very important)