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Today we got to play with the Skype Phone Netgear SPH101. In February we looked at the ideas of non USB Skype phones, specifically the 200D which is a phone with a special unit to connect into your router. This SPH101 is the model down from the 200D.

Hardware

The Netgear SPH101 phone itself is well made, feels sturdy and looks good. It is easy to use and the software seems to be very logical, but before you go and buy one read on…

Call quality

Unfortunatly this is where the phone is let down significantly. On trying the phone connected to three different wireless networks we found that the call quality was terrible, constantly cutting in and out, the person at the other end could not be understood.  Unfortunatly it is a no goer on this one for us. We are quite keen to test the 200D though and see if that is a better solution!

So on this short review we would advise against the SPH101 but would love to hear anyone who has positive experiences with it!

Last week I installed Sky Broadband for a client and I thought at the time it would be useful for people to know how easy the install process is, the features the modem offers and a general experience. So starting today I will be reviewing the broadband installs that I do, one from each supplier as we do the install and more than one if we come across different modems!

The Modem

So let’s go, Sky Broadband. A while ago I installed Sky Broadband for another user and they were sent a Netgear modem, this client however had a Sagem Wireless Modem Router, looks good, stylish, dark grey device, quite small.

The router has 4 Ethernet ports, however Sky states that the two yellow coded ports are for computers and the other two ports (red and blue I believe) are for features currently in development.

The Install

Being me I ignored the fact I was meant to start with the disc and just plugged the kit in as I knew was right and tried to access the web interface of the router. However none of the default usernames and passwords that work with other routers worked with this one. That was rather disappointing and Sky don’t provide you access to this router. Which for techies I would expect to be a pain.

So that aside I threw in the CD and followed the process through, it was nice and simple, animated and somehow less mundane thn the usual Broadband installation discs I get to see. So for techies and novices alike that process was nice and easy. Possibly the easiest I have come across. It does however brand your Internet Explorer “provided by sky” and add a couple of links to your desktop, which is why i try to avoid the disc’s for things like this in the first place!

At the end of the process you are connected! Nice and easy.

Wireless

If you want to connect a machine wirelessly you do this after the process. The code is on the bottom of the router, which seems the norm these days. The signal strength put out by the router seems to be fairly decent for the average household.

So there we go, my review of installing Sky Broadband with the Sagem router, and to summarise:

1. Use the disc! Don’t try to be clever
2. Setup is nice and easy, just do as the disc tells you and you will be online in minutes.
3. To connect wirelessly after you have completed the setup, the key is on the router!

I hope this helped, Let us know if you have any experiences of your own.

Skype is a fantastic creation and keeping in touch all over the world is made so much easier with Skype. What really bugs me though is the USB phones, not Skypes fault obviously! The way they will interfere with your PC sound settings and despite getting all the settings perfect so you can listen to music and then easily use the phone, it still goes wrong. Because of that I don’t use Skype as much as i’d like.

For a while I have been watching the reviews and developments of phones that connect to Skype but actually bypass the computer altogether i.e. NOT USB! These phones are gadgets that connect to your internet connection wirelessly! Either by configuring them directly to connect to your encrypted/non-encrypted wireless connection, or by coming with a piece of kit that plugs into an Ethernet port on your router which the phone then connects to wirelessly.

There are a number of these types of Skype/VoIP phone already on the market, with the big guys like Belkin, Netgear, Philips and Linksys making an offering to this. The one that stands out to me after reading a lot of reviews and looking through the technical specifications of many is the Netgear VoIP Skype Dual Mode Cordless Phone.

The way this one works – it comes with a base station that you plug into an Ethernet port on your router and away you go! Oh you do have to enter your Skype details into the phone, but then away you go! You can also have up to 3 additional handsets on this setup as well. The other great feature about this particular model is that it is ‘dual mode’. This means that you can connect the base station to your normal phone line as well and therefore use the same phone for calls from your normal landline as well.

No..not yet anyway but I certainly plan to. For anyone who uses Skype a lot, or maybe don’t use Skype for a reason like mine, how about considering one of these!

To summarise then:

Pros -

• Easy to setup – one use review I read said “ever fallen off a log”. I think that sums up how easy it is!
• Avoids the PC! Nice
• You can have up to 4 phones connected to the unit
• Dual Mode so you can use your normal phone line too

Cons –

• It isn’t cheap. At time of writing the cost is around the £90 mark. 10 x that of the cheap USB phones. Then again I am one who believes in the saying “you get what you pay for!”
• I’m yet to own one!

Related Links: Skype.com || Netgear SkypePhone

This weeks quick tip is about problems connecting to wireless networks. There are so many possibilities here but the one I want to highlight this week becomes apparent when you are trying to connect to a wireless network that you know works!

Commonly a network SSID (name) does not get changed so if you buy a Netgear router chances are the SSID is NETGEAR. If you are like a number of people that connect to a number of different networks and already have a NETGEAR profile in your Wireless Access list and then go to connect to another one with the same SSID you will have problems connecting, it won’t ask for the WEP/encryption key and will just not connect! The reason being that it thinks it has the information to connect to that Network.

Answer: Remove the other profile from your list of Wireless Networks and then try to reconnect. If you regularly connect to 2 networks with the same SSID then try to get the SSID changed It is good practice to have a unique SSID anyway