Review: USRobotics Skype USB Telephone Adapter 9620

by Bob Crabtree on 29 September 2006, 00:50

Final thoughts (what we really think) and HEXUS.right2reply

At a glance

Pros

* Inexpensive (no, we're NOT going to encourage you by saying exactly how much - but your target is under £40)
* Potentially VERY useful and a great enhancement to Skype (if only you were sure it would work and stay working)
* USB-powered
* Compact size - 80(w) x 29(h) x115(d)mm

Cons

* Currently requires a beta driver that's not publicly available
* Even with the beta driver, may not work reliably with different versions of Skype's software
* Won't necessarily work with wired phones out of the box. Optional - and not easy to find - adaptors may do the trick (we know we didn't tell you this before but it's true - just as it is with the D-Link, so see that review if you want chapter-and-verse)
* Doesn't work with some older DECT phones out of the box - manually rewired cables may do the trick but don't ask us how you'd do that
* Drivers not Windows Logo approved (yes, yes, we didn't tell you this either but, hell, don't shout, you're not going to buy the thing anyway)

Although we're of the opinion that the USRobotics 9620 USB Telephone Adapter isn't quite the disaster that D-Link's DPH-50U turned out to be, it would be madness for us to recommend anyone buy it or for us to imply that it did somehow meet any acceptable standard of performance.

That said, now we know we can get it working, we'll fight USRobotics tooth-and-nail when we're asked for it back. Or, at least, we'll try to hold onto it until we get hands on with one of those Skype phones that doesn't require a PC - and so shouldn't (please, please, Lord) suffer as a result of changes that Skype makes to its own software.

Got any thoughts on this review? Do you reckon we've been too soft, too hard, or failed to give you all the little snippets that we included in our demolition of the D-Link? Tell us what YOU really think in this thread over in the HEXUS.community.

HEXUS.links

HEXUS.community :: discussion thread about this review
HEXUS.lifestyle.reviews :: D-Link Skype USB Phone Adapter DPH-50U
HEXUS.lifestyle.reviews :: MSI StarCam 370i
HEXUS.lifestyle.headline :: report from June's Skype showcase
HEXUS.lifestyle.headline :: Belkin set to heavily undercut Netgear's Skype WiFi phone
HEXUS.lifestyle.headline :: Carphone Warehouse reveals details of 'free' broadband - it's war!

External.links

USRobotics - 9620 USB Telephone Adapter home page
D-Link UK - USB Phone Adapter DPH-50U home page
Skype hardware support forums - home page
Skype hardware support forums - Installed skype 2.5 and now my dlink dph-50u does not work
Skype hardware support forums - search page for DPH-50U
Skype - rates for SkypeOut calls
Skype - rates for sending text messages
Skype - software version history (Windows) (and well worth a look to appreciate the rapid pace of change of Skype's own software)
Hijack This - home page
Wikipedia - entry about Skype
MoneySavingExpert.com - pricing call-checker service (for a cheaper way to make overseas calls than SkypeOut - but less convenient)

HEXUS Where2Buy

Nah, not this time! We really DON'T want to encourage you.

HEXUS Right2Reply

At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If representatives of USRobotics or Skype choose to do so, we'll publish their commentaries here verbatim.

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Hard review, but seems to bring up many issues that are making products difficult to install and use…
Why oh why do people keep on making things difficult.
Witness bloated software and apps that hog memory and cpu cycles!
Glad to see you have the balls to write a hard review when needed

I think you've been too soft. The product does not work in any reliable way, shape or form and not without considerable effort, which is unforgiveable for a telecommunications product. Who would not just throw it in the bin after a few weeks of struggling? It gets really frustrating and embarrassing being cut off. And that's just to friends - god forbid you run a business that relies on the connection.

I understood what you did to investigate the situation but wouldn't have had the patience myself and many don't know how to do those things. Definitely not one to buy for my parents…

There are already even some natural drawbacks you didn't even mention:
a) The product requires you have it plugged into your pc - so it only works when your pc is on! b) It runs off an existing skype phone so there's no way of knowing whether the call is through skype (free) or skype out (not free) apart from going to your computer anyway! and c) It requires your phone to have its base station near your pc! unless you don't mind masses of usb extension cord going to another room, that's not always convenient.

Why-oh-why the fvck can't companies realise the simplest thing? - that most people can't be arsed to uninstall old software before updating and so new revisions should have to check for previous and delete/modify existing files as necessary?! Until skype sells its own branded products, with dedicated programmers so that it auto-update simultaneously with new skype software updates, I can see no point in this myself.

I like your review so much because you saved me sooo much hassle and precious time. However, you should have slammed the product from the off and kept slamming it. I simply can not see the point - this product is unadulterated utter sh1te.

Well talk about jumping through hoops, I think you put more than enough work in to give it a chance. Do feel sorry for the manufacturers a bit as the hardware itself seems to work, just that skype keeps on changing the goalposts.

Thanks for the review though, I've been using skype for most of my calls for a while now and keep thinking of ditching my telephone line rental, getting a skypin number and tagging it onto a little HTPC. Guess it'll either be a cheap wired USB handset instead of this sort of thing.

Just hope the plug into the router jobs work better and the price comes down to a reasonable level, these are what I'm really after, seem to have taken ages to come to market.

Noli
I think you've been too soft. The product does not work in any reliable way, shape or form and not without considerable effort, which is unforgiveable for a telecommunications product. Who would not just throw it in the bin after a few weeks of struggling? It gets really frustrating and embarrassing being cut off. And that's just to friends - god forbid you run a business that relies on the connection.

Well it's working right now, on two PCs - and it's working reliably.

But, of course, you are quite right to think that a lot of people are likely to give up - though, hopefully, they'd get their money back, rather than bin it.

Noli
I understood what you did to investigate the situation but wouldn't have had the patience myself and many don't know how to do those things. Definitely not one to buy for my parents…

Patience is my middle name (well, it's better than Sue, I suppose) - but no, not one to buy for mum and dad unless they're computer nerds that enjoy a struggle

Noli
There are already even some natural drawbacks you didn't even mention:
a) The product requires you have it plugged into your pc - so it only works when your pc is on! b) It runs off an existing skype phone so there's no way of knowing whether the call is through skype (free) or skype out (not free) apart from going to your computer anyway! and c) It requires your phone to have its base station near your pc! unless you don't mind masses of usb extension cord going to another room, that's not always convenient.

I think it's perfectly clear from the review that you need to have the PC running but if anyone else thinks like you, I will, of course, add in a phrase somewhere to make sure.

As for not knowing how the call is being routed - no, that's not so. You set up shortcuts, some to other Skype users, some to landlines or mobiles - and, presuming you dial the right shortcut, you know. And, in that, it's no different to shortcuts you might have set up on any phone to call someone's mobile or landline.

Oh, and since the phone's base station connects to the PC by USB, surely it's a given that the base station has to be near the PC?

Noli
Why-oh-why the fvck can't companies realise the simplest thing? - that most people can't be arsed to uninstall old software before updating and so new revisions should have to check for previous and delete/modify existing files as necessary?! Until skype sells its own branded products, with dedicated programmers so that it auto-update simultaneously with new skype software updates, I can see no point in this myself.

Have to say that it came as a nasty surprise to me to discover - after a lot of grief an bother - that USRobotics' installer for the beta had left the old version in place.

Don't think for a moment, though, that Skype selling its own hardware would sort out the problems I saw - cos those products would be developed by third-parties and there's no reason to think that communication between Skype and those third-parties would be any better than it currently is with the companies who make or sell hardware now.

Noli
I like your review so much because you saved me sooo much hassle and precious time. However, you should have slammed the product from the off and kept slamming it. I simply can not see the point - this product is unadulterated utter sh1te.

Like I said, I wouldn't recommend anyone to buy it. But that doesn't mean that it can't be got working.

It's just that, right now, the beta USRobotics software that I used to get the product working isn't publicly available and, as I said over and over, there's no guarantee that if you do get it working, it will stay working when another must-have upgrade for Skype's software comes along.

wombat
Well talk about jumping through hoops, I think you put more than enough work in to give it a chance. Do feel sorry for the manufacturers a bit as the hardware itself seems to work, just that skype keeps on changing the goalposts.

I see it slightly differently. What concerns me is that Skype certifies products as providing a good Skyping experience but that merely applies to the moment in time when it carried out the test - so its certification process is essentially valueless.

Yes, that's bad news for hardware makers but I am quite sure that they all realise the score, just as Skype must do, and so are legally and morally on the wrong side of the line.

wombat
Thanks for the review though, I've been using skype for most of my calls for a while now and keep thinking of ditching my telephone line rental, getting a skypin number and tagging it onto a little HTPC. Guess it'll either be a cheap wired USB handset instead of this sort of thing.

Right now, what I'm not convinced of is that even basic USB handset phones are immune from problems that might be caused by new versions of Skype's software.

Okay, the relationship between their software and Skype's is a whole lot simpler than the relationship between the apps for USB telephone adaptors and Skype's software but do you (heck does anyone) know for sure that even these simple devices can't be rendered unusable by changes that Skype might make to its software?

wombat
Just hope the plug into the router jobs work better and the price comes down to a reasonable level, these are what I'm really after, seem to have taken ages to come to market.

Well, I did say in the review that I thought there could still be issues with the phones that connect to routers and, although they're not the same issues discussed in the USR and D-Link reviews, it does seem as though they do exist, I'm sorry to say.

Check out Skype's hardware support forum and if you don't spot the threads straight away, search for either of these expressions (or maybe on the name Belkin, or Netgear) and you'll see what I mean:

SMC

WiFi phone