Dual Home Phone Voip Phone

[Deleted User]

I can't find this on any of the other threads (although I could be having one of those days!)

I've changed my home phone to incoming calls only as I'm hardly there but I use skype quite alot to contact relatives abroad.

Now I've found out you can get dual home/voip phones but I'm a little bit confused by my options.

What option do you guys think is better?

A) Invest in a home/voip phone all in one (Twin sets about £85)
should I just get an adaptor thing for my current home phone (About £25)
C) should I stick to a plug in wired voip phone (current one is rubbish! Get a new one £15)
D) Upgrade to a wireless voip phone! (£30)

What do you reckon what option would work best? At the moment I have two phones on my sideboard my home one and a wired voip one!

kat21

if you have a good broadband connection then I would go with an adapter that lets you plug your normal phones into an ata then into a router, look at the voip threads here. The beauty of that is that you can leave your computer switched off as it would be linked through your router.
kat21

BexTech

There are ATAs around that allow one phone (or more) to be used on both VoIP and PSTN.

You need to remember Skype Hype Tripe is a propriety system and also one of the dearest VoIP services if you need to call out to landlines, want a phone number and use voicemail, the best ATA and VoIP phones will use the open standard of SIP, therefore there are quite a few available, are competitively priced and don't require a PC to be on to be used.

All USB toy phones are useless, they are just cheap and a nasty soundcard moulded into the shape of a phone with a earpeice and microphone attached.

With a proper SIP ATA the call quality will be at least as good as when using a normal landline.

I don't have a landline so have no need for an ATA that works with the PSTN too, so I use a Linksys PAP2, as the Linksys/Sipura range are some of the best.

There are Linksys/Sipura SPA ATAs they allow you to connect your phones and use both VoIP and PSTN from them.

anewman

Check grabit forum now for a staples bargain - netgear TA612V £19.91

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=282720

horus_3

Hi
As a newbie, I have just been given a USB Skype compatible phone (Ikino Voice 200, £9.95 from John Lewis). I have registered with Skype and it works OK, but I am mainly interested in having a second UK incoming number (the family monopolise my main landline). Skypein charges £23 including VAT and reports are a bit critical of its performance recently. Can someone tell me whether this type of phone will work with Sipgate, who supply UK numbers free and/or any other suppliers who give free uk numbers. Thanks

BexTech

The USB thing you have is simply a USB soundcard with a mic and speaker moulded into it.

Just a case of telling the software you decide to use with Sipgate such as X-Lite to use the USB sound card and not your built-in sound card.

If the USB device has a number pad then you may need to download drivers if you require those to work with your chosen software.