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Actiontec Internet PhoneWizard
by By Terry Currier—NOCCC , tcurrier@aol.com - December 02, 2000 at 00:47:45:
When I talked to Actiontec at the November Comdex they mentioned an Internet phone they were developing. I asked if I could review it, since my daughter only seems to talk to people if they are in another area code. The model I used was a USB so it made it easy to hook up. They also have a PCI unit. You can compare it to an external modem in size and shape. Installing it was very easy, especially so with the USB. Plug in the phone lines hook up the USB cable then install the software for it. You do have to change your multimedia to have the sound and recording set to the InternetPhone setup. Don’t worry it’s not hard to do, and they tell you how. After that, you go to one of the Internet Telephone Service Providers (ITSP) and establish an account. I used DialPad, which is the default. For making international calls, you’ll have to check around. I know DeltaThree, and FreeDL can make such calls. Imagine making a call to Europe for eight cents a minute, some are even free. At hottelephone.com, you can call FREE to over 30 countries.I have a Celeron 333Mhz with 196Mb of RAM and I use America Online (AOL.) My connect speed is nothing to brag about usually 26-32Kbs. So, if it works for me, it should work for most others. Although It does work, I will qualify that statement. I called my other phone and left messages so I would know how it sounds (don’t laugh you’ve probably done it.) You will experience some slight delay which, I figured, must be when the little window, which is displayed, downloads another advertisement. The free phone sites get their money from ads. On one of the calls I put the phone next to the TV so I did not have to babble on. When I played the message, I noticed that the TV sound was clear. I confirmed this when I called George Margolin and did the same. We concluded that it is the ITSP software interpreting the sounds and converting the signal. So, for a constant sound it leaves the “pipe” open. At a pause, as most of us do when we talk, it does something (such as resetting), which then makes for a delay in the signal. Also the quality will depend on the provider used, speed of connection, and even time of day (how many users are on.)
I would say this as not ready for business use. Also, if you have no patience, you could not work with this, as there will be times you have to repeat yourself. I talked to my sister in Florida for over an hour and we were able to adapt to it. The next Saturday, when I called George, the transmission was not good at all.
From their website, I got this information: Question: “Sometimes I have difficulty hearing the other person on the line. Their voice may be very soft or break up.” Answer: “The quality of your call is largely dependent upon the ITSP selected. You may notice that the quality of some of the “web-based” ITSP calls is not as good as the “client-based” ITSPs. Web-based calls will be routed through more servers and take longer to reach the ITSP’s private network. If you use a “client-based” ITSP like deltathree.com, you connect almost directly to a private network where the bandwidth of your call is closely monitored. which should produce better quality.
You can use the ITSP yourself with speakers and a micro-phone without the Actiontec InternetPhoneWizard. But then you are tied to the computer. Unless you spend money for a really good microphone, the quality will be bad. With this unit, I hooked up my portable phone and walked around the house. If you have two phone lines you can switch between analog and I-phone by hitting the # button on your phone twice. Or, if you have DSL or cable connection, it uses Actiontec’s technology, the ‘I-Phone Switch’. If you wish to accept a phone call while talking to someone on an Internet call, simply press the # key twice to place the Internet conversation on hold. Then, when you are finished with the analog phone call, simply press # twice to switch back to the Internet call. When I talk to one lady I know, I have to be prepared to talk for an hour. She told her average phone bill has gotten above $200. She could use something like this and pay for it very fast. So how did my daughter like it? She didn’t like the delay and therefore would not use it. What would you expect from someone who uses her cell phone to call us from the driveway?
I loaned the unit to a friend at work and he tested it on his cable unit. Ray Guszak then even wrote a review for me as follows—
“My current system configuration is a Pentium III 450 Mhz running Windows 98 SE with 64mb of RAM. My Internet connection is provided by Mediaone Roadrunner cable service. One of the main reasons I wanted to try this product is because my wife works from home, and I thought she could potentially save a ton of money (for her company) by making her daily long distance calls through the Internet. The installation was pretty straightforward; I followed the instructions for a 2-line/DSL/ISDN/Cable installation.
I was ready to make a call using a Uniden cordless with speakerphone option on the base. When I pressed the talk button, the Phone Wizard was in analog mode, when I pressed the pound sign twice # # nothing happened. I was still in analog mode on the Phone Wizard. I checked the Phone Wizard software, and it was currently running. The icon was on the task bar. I tried pressing # # on the phone with varying frequency, quick, long, longer…. It didn’t make a difference—it would not go into I-phone mode until I disconnected the line in. It immediately started my browser, IE5 and connected me to Dialpad.com. I heard the high pitched dial tone and placed a call, the quality was pretty good, not the quality you get from a regular call, but what do you want for free. There was a little delay and some echo. When making several calls, some were better, some worse.
I was curious on the difference between using a normal telephone with the Internet Phone Wizard and a microphone/ speaker and or headset combination on the computer. Since this is the first time, I used the Internet to make a phone call. I used the microphone that was built into my monitor and a set of speakers on a shelf above the monitor. It sounded ok but the person on the other end complained about hearing themselves from the speakers that exaggerated the delay—not good. Then I tried an inexpensive headset that I had from an old version of Dragon Naturally Speaking. The quality was better, but this caller also complained about echo. I was not sure if it was caused from the headset or the quality of the call.
Overall, I felt more comfortable using the phone attached to the Phone Wizard and perceived them to be of better quality than my other choices. If there was a resolution to the # # problem that I experienced, and if you made long distance calls on a regular basis for personal use, it would then be a good purchase. In a business or in a professional environment the quality of the call using dialpad.com probably wouldn’t be good enough. End” Ray Guszak
I also had some problems with it switching over to the InternetPhone, but I found when I reselected the DialPad choice from Actiontec it then worked. The InternetPhone will work with Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, and Windows 2000. The Internet connection can be with modem, LAN, ISDN, DSL, or cable. By the way, I did try to use it on my son’s computer but he only had Windows 95B. He has the Actiontec Call Waiting modem and his download speed is twice mine. I tell you it’s just not fair.
The Actiontec InternetPhoneWizard is available at their website or check out stores that already carry Actiontec hardware
USB version MSRP is $99
PCI version MSRP is $79
Go the http://www.InternetPhoneWizard.com
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