Actiontec VoSKY Skype Call Center ( USB07051C-01 )

Average customer rating: 3.5

WoW - so many 5 star reviews?
Best product I have used with Skype
Clever Little Box .....But.....
Recommended
Worst phone product of the year!

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Actiontec VoSKY Skype Call Center ( USB07051C-01 )

Manufacturer: ACTIONTEC
Product Group: CE
Binding: Electronics
ASIN: B000CRUZ2O

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Product Description

Make Skype calls from your cell phone, the nearest phone or any phone. Vosky Call Center from Actiontec takes the great sound quality of Skype calls and makes these features accessible everywhere on any phone. Call Center makes this possible by working like a mini phone operator. Once you've connected it to your computer and phone jack, you call Call Center from any phone and tell it which Skype contact you would like to call. Call Center then makes and transfers you to the free Skype call. For more convenience, you can also connect a phone directly to Call Center and just dial your contact's number from this phone. You can connect Call Center to a phone and hear an actual phone ring, loudly and clearly, when you receive a Skype call. In addition, Call Center will forward missed Skype calls to any phone number of your choice. Now you can be anywhere and still receive your important Skype calls. When you make Skype calls on the go, you're inevitably going to call someone who isn't online and available at that time. You can choose to have Call Center call your cell phone or any ordinary phone number of your choice as soon as your Skype contact is online. Then you can instantly call your Skype contact again with the press of a button. Outgoing call forwarding (Skype calls to ordinary phones) Incoming call forwarding (ordinary phone calls to Skype calls) Call notification when Skype contact is online Computer answering machine software included Call waiting Caller ID for Skype calls Supports Skype speed-dial and SkypeOut service Voice menu No external power required Echo-cancellation technology System Requirements - One IBM PC-compatible computer with one available USB port, Celeron 800 MHz or faster processor, 128 MB RAM, 15 MB available hard disk space, and a CD-ROM drive, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Internet connection, analog telephone and optional analog telephone line Dimensions - 11.5 x 8.5

Customer Reviews:

WoW - so many 5 star reviews?.......2007-06-08

All the 5 star reviews make me wonder - some of the reviewers have written just one review - for this product and that is it. Many of them have purchased multiple units too!! Are at least some of them - working for Actiontec?
There is a reason it is going for that cheap with all the rebates and stuff - and that is - you will have more than a hard time to get it to work.
I have tried more than one computer and more than one OS with multiple versions of Skype. It failed to work right out of the box as advertised - using the included CD or latest versions of software downloaded from the manufacturer web site. The software included with the CD actually caused a serious problem - a "live update" feature runs automatically and used up 100% CPU on install/reboot.
Basic information regarding the installation is not included - such as which audio devices to use in Skype (the software will install 4 of them!). There is no information on why the software won't open till you find out that the "line in" for the phone jack has to be connected. If you go through the forums on this product, you will find out way more negative comments than the ones mentioned here.
When you un-install the software - it will not remove items like the audio devices that it installs.
Great concept killed by dreadfully poor/buggy software and instructions. Take the 5 star ratings with a pinch of salt will you and read the forums on this product!

Best product I have used with Skype.......2007-05-26

This is a very affordable product allowing skype to be used just like a regular phone..

Clever Little Box .....But............2007-04-29

When I first got this box I initially thought wow! The features are amazing as other reviewers have said. I won't go over them again, what I will add is this...
Despite the quality and well thought out product there are two flaws:
1) The call quality on Skype Out calls is not good. There is a big enough lag to make it unusable for these type of calls. I have not tested Skype to Skype calls so cannot comment. I thought like maybe you are thinking now that it is down to the broadband connection or speed of the PC. Well, the PC is a fast 2.5ghz Pentium 4 with 1gb of memory so plenty to deal with audio over usb. But the real killer was when I went back to using a headset and instantly got back the normal skype out call quality i.e no problems!

The second problem more minor is that the firmware attempts to update every time you start your PC which would be fine except that it has the latest firmware and still attempts to update then hangs. You have to disable the firmware updates to stop it doing this.

Hope that helps, as I said great idea, great features but for me it is getting put back in the box as I can't use it for my primary purpose of making decent-ish quality skype out calls.

Recommended.......2007-04-17

This little box does an amazing job. Being able to become untethered to my PC is just what I wanted. I use the VoSKY Call Center with a cordless phone. The cordless phone lets me use the handset, speakerphone, or headset to talk. It took all of 15 minutes to set up (bearing in mind I worked for years as a network/computer tech).

It works flawlessly with the latest Skype software. I spent an hour on a long-distance call to check it out. Audio was clear on both ends with cell phone quality and no echo. Being able to make a local call from work, connect to VoSKY, and then dial a SkypeOut call for long distance is worth the $47 I paid for the Call Center.

The next thing I did was change the weird answering machine greeting. A quick session with Windows Sound Recorder and mixing the end of the message with a simple "beep" wave file did the trick. The answering machine greeting is located at: C:\Program Files\Vosky Call Center\VoicePrompt\English\vp15.wav Make sure that you're using the same settings as the original (i.e. PCM, 16bit samples, mono, 8KHz sample rate).

I gave it a 4 because the software should let you change the greeting without doing so much work. Also, you can only check voicemails at the host computer and not remotely from an outside phone.

Good job VoSKY!

Worst phone product of the year!.......2007-04-11

This product was falsely advertised by the manufacturer as working with Skype. Gee, I guess I was presumptive to think that meant THIS YEAR'S version of Skype! When I called the Vosky support number, I was informed that the product is only designed to work with an older version of Skype (2.5), which is neither supported by Skype nor is it available for download by Skype. (The other reviewer who said that this product works with Skype 3.1 is contradicted by the manufacturer's own helpline). So that means in order to use this product, you have to permanently forego three versions of improvements that Skype has made to its software, as well as all future updates.

Since 2.5 version has been discarded by Skype itself, it is only available on other websites. Once I downloaded the old version (uninstalling my new version), the product still did not work. There are no manuals, nor troubleshooting available for Skype 2.5, and it is not the customer's job to search usenet groups to learn how to use an out-of-date unsupported software, just to accommodate a brand new Vosky product.

For our business, I was responsible for evaluating the Vosky products for implementation in our PBX system. Well, the quality of the call center is obviously a bad mark on the rest of the Vosky products.

Vosky's support desk said nothing about Vosky updating its product, creating a patch, or clarifying their advertising. They simply prescribe using this old software PERMANENTLY, regardless of how many times Skype improves its product, these guys want to keep us in the past. That is a very unusual approach for a technology company to take.

Do not buy!

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