The Pitch and Product

Actiontec's Internet Phone Wizard with Skype (IPWS) is essentially a reworked version of its discontinued (but still available) USB Internet Phone Wizard. Both products are used to connect good old analog telephones to Internet-based telephone services. But where the discontinued USB Internet Phone Wizard worked with an assortment of "traditional" VoIP service providers, the IPWS works only with alternative (and free) VoIP provider Skype.

Skype is the latest step in the evolutionary chain of free Internet-based telephony. Skype was created by KaZaA founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, and combines instant messaging, voice telephony and file transfer capabilities into one application. Skype is pretty adept at getting around firewalls (unless it is intentionally blocked) and unlike "traditional" VoIP services uses a proprietary call-control protocol instead of SIP or MGCP. Its main attraction is that it is free for in-Skype-network calls, although it also has a SkypeOut pay-as-you-go option for outgoing calls to the PSTN (traditional telephone network).

The IPWS comes in a beige and blue plastic enclosure that is about the size of a naked 3.5" hard drive. Indicator lights are on its front panel and all jacks are on the rear.

Figure 1: Back panel - no Ethernet

A glance at Figure 1 shows that the Wizard has a USB, not Ethernet connector, which means that it must be hosted by a computer (Win XP / 2000 only). The good news is that the box powers itself from the USB port, but the bad is that your computer must be on, and running Skype, for the IPWS to do its thing. This is different from a "traditional" VoIP Analog Telephone Adapter (ATA), which connects to your LAN directly via Ethernet and has all the smarts it needs to make and receive calls embedded inside.

Figure 2 shows the board, which looks like it needs another revision to get the rework incorporated into it. It is based on an AOX / Endpoints SE 401 USB Video Imager Controller, that is more commonly found in webcams.

Figure 2: The board
(click image to enlarge)

Installation is quick and easy using the printed Quick Start Guide, especially since most buyers will already have Skype installed. I just loaded the CD that came with the IPWS into my computer running Windows XP Home SP2 and connected the IPWS itself to one of the computer's USB ports using the supplied cable. The Windows Found New Hardware Wizard came up and took care of the rest while I used the short phone cable that also came with the IPWS to connect my phones and phone line to the clearly-marked jacks on the back of the IPWS.

I then installed the IPWS application onto my Win XP machine, assigned speed-dial numbers to the Skype contacts that I wanted to be able to easily reach out and touch and I was ready to make and receive calls. Note that the IPWS software requires that you enter an e-mail address during setup, but you can just enter a bogus one.

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Tags: Actiontec, Skype, UP101, VoIP,

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