Skype Saver: Use Your Regular Phone with Skype

Get the latest tips, tricks and tutorials on how to use Skype to save on your phone calls and the latest news about VOIP technology. 

Actiontec has a USB phone adapter that allows you to connect your phone to your computer and use it with Skype. This is a lot better than using a headset.

 

Tom’s Hardware has a good review and pointed out some differences between using this and a phone adapter for VOIP services like Vonage:

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. 

Once everything is running, you just hit ## on your telephone keypad, wait for the European-style dial tone and punch in the speed-dial code. Although the IPWS works for both Skype and Skype-Out calls, you can only use speed-dial codes to call Skype network users. You'll have to dial Skype-Out calls as you would on an ordinary phone, but with a 00 or 001 prefix.

The reviewer didn’t seem to hate the product but did note that more and more people are coming out with Skype hardware. But if you are a heavy Skype user this may be the ticket for you.