I am a technoholic. I love gadgets. If it fits what I want and new, I must have it.
My NLP strategy is simple. V,K,A,K. Looping around K and A, until I get that internal urge.
I also am a firm believer in VoiP (Voice over the internet Protocol), especially Skype, (www.skype.com). (Pronounce without the “E” on the end).
This technology allows people with internet access, speakers and microphone, and a computer, to talk for free as if it were normal telephone, using free software. I also allows people to chat via the keyboard and screen.
An advantage of Skype is that there is a free version for your PDA or mobile phone. If you can find a free WiFi hotspot, and your phone is capable of connecting, you can make free or cheap calls.
Perhaps not all your friends are on the internet, do not have Skype installed, then what do you do?
Use your access to Skype as a normal phone, calling you friend’s landline or mobile phone with SkypeOut.
This service connects you to the internet, routes the call you wish to make over the internet, then it emerges near your friend landline phone, in what ever country they live, thus you only pay for a local call (approximately, sometimes cheaper), and the quality is just as good as a normal telephone line.
You can even purchase a special Skype telephone number, SkypeOut, you can call mine 0208 816 7962, and as long as you are logged into Skype on a computer, anyone can, call that number, and I will receive it, no matter where I am in the world.
This is all very well, but it requires a computer to be on all the time. Expensive and I am thinking, Global Warming.
So I come across a new product, the Dualphone 3088 a phone that you can connect to the normal PSN (Public Service Network) landline, and via a supplied transmitter base unit, which is attached to the internet router, becomes a stand alone Skype phone.
Now you can receive and make either a normal telephone call or cheap Skype calls from the same wire free hand unit.
I have to have it. I set it up, and it works. For three weeks. Then it will not connect to the base unit for internet access.
After 35 years in the computer industry, having studied computing and business at Brunel University, I have a little knowledge of software and hardware. I can build my own radio transmitters and receivers as a Radio Ham, call sign, G8YJQ.
I tried everything I know to resolve the problem. I reset the base unit, the handset, the two routers I have installed, remove the power supply, re cable, and reread the installation manual and advanced trouble shooting web pages. Nothing.
I contact the manufacturers support helpline. They give me instructions that cannot be achieved, to change settings of the base unit, but that can only be done if I have a connection, and I do not. Me thinks a standard reply to problems that they send out.
I search the internet for a solution and come across a Dualphone 3088 forum, where users of the unit post comments. It is full of complaints. Yes there are many with the same problem I have, but no answer of how to overcome it. I find a similar forum on Skype, and yes entries are there too with the same problem, and no answers.
Obviously there are a major faults in the Dualphone 3088, hardware (firmware) or software, and they have been known for months.
Yet, these two companies continue to promote and sell the unit. Why?
Undaunted, I spend hours trying to get the Dualphone 3088 to work.
Why wont the base unit connect to the router, yet the landline function works?
Why wont the base unit reset, even after removing the power supply?
Then success. I did nothing different to what I had done many times, the base unit connected to the router, and then the handset connected to the base unit.
I am back on-line.
Sometimes it is better to wait until the new has become old, all the faults have been found and corrected, a new release has been issued.
Sometimes it is better to wait unit the price comes down. First releases are often very expensive, as the suppliers try and recoup their investment.
Wait until you have reviewed feedback from previous users, ask others, look at web sites. www.nlpnow.net for my training.
Will I ever learn?
Phillip Holt’s Skype name nlpnow.