Actiontec InternetPhoneWizard (IPW) Review

For those who don't already know, the Actiontec IPW (available in USB or PCI flavors) is a cool device which allows you to connect a regular phone to your PC, for the purpose of making telephone calls over the internet, very much like the Creative VOIP Blaster reviewed a short while ago.

As you can see from the review, the Creative VOIP was a bit of a dissapointment. Many people complained that they had no other choice for affordable VOIP, so they would just have to deal with all the problems of the VOIP Blaster. Well, competition is a beautiful thing folks. The Actiontec IPW is selling for about $65 retail for the PCI model, and $85 retail for the USB model ($37.69 and $52.79 respectively at buycomp.com). While this is a bit more expensive than the VOIP Blaster, I feel that both of these are at a reasonable price based on their quality as compared to the VOIP Blaster. Actiontec was nice enough to send us both models to test for free (though we have to give them back), and they were gracious and understanding when this review was several months late due to my untimely moving fiasco which is still not finished.

Review Index:

• Installation
• Support
• PC-to-Phone
• PC-to-PC
• Unique Feature
• Product Comparison
• Conclusion
• Places to Buy
• Q & A

Support

PC-to-Phone

Since the InternetPhoneWizard does not use a proprietary service, you can use any number of free or for-pay PC-to-phone services. Unfortunately, I have not found any really good free or cheap services, they are all more laggy than I would like. Since the quality of the call in this situation is largely based on the service providor and not the VOIP device, the IPW and VOIP Blaster perform about equally here. Note however that PC-to-Phone with the VOIP Blaster is not free, and since the VOIP Blaster requires proprietary software, you cannot use it with services such as DialPad. As I have already mentioned previously, the InternetPhoneWizard does not have this limitation. I have found that the Innosphere service required in order to make PC-to-Phone calls with VOIP Blaster is not any better than Dialpad when it comes to lag or voice quality.

PC-to-PC

This is where the IPW really shines. Note that in order to use any VOIP service, you must have a reasonably fast connection with (this is the really important part) LOW LATENCY. If your connection has a lot of lag in it, your phone conversation WILL be choppy. There's nothing that Actiontec or Creative can do about that, it's just a limitation of the internet. If you have a quick connection, this can really be smooth. You can use NetMeeting to make a PC-to-PC call with an IPW device on both ends (though the person on the other end could theoretically simply use a microphone and speakers or a headset, I don't recommend it), and it will be almost impossible to tell the difference between this setup and a normal phone-to-phone call. And because you can use NetMeeting for PC-to-PC calls, if the person you are talking to has a webcam, you will be able to see them while you talk to them. This was a major limitation of the VOIP Blaster - it was incompatible with NetMeeting (you could not even have NetMeeting running while using the VOIP Blaster, it would interfere with your calls), so you could not see the person you were talking to, even if you did have a webcam.

Unique Feature

The Actiontec IPW has another unique feature not found in the VOIP Blaster. You can hook the Actiontec IPW directly into your phone line, as well as to your computer, and your phone. This means that you can use the same phone for regular Phone-to-Phone calls, and for PC-to-Phone calls, so you won't have to buy another phone just to use for VOIP. This can save you some money, and helps to level the playing field when doing cost comparisons.

Product Comparison: IPW vs VOIP Blaster

Positive features are marked with BLUE, negative features are marked with RED, and neutral features are not marked with any color.

Feature	Actiontec IPW	Creative VOIP Blaster
Interfaces	USB & PCI	USB Only
Free PC-to-PC Calls	Yes	Yes*
PC-to-Phone Calls	Free or pay, 3rd party	Pay only, 3rd party
Compatible with NetMeeting**	Yes	No
Compatible with LAN & Firewall	Yes	No
Driver updates available	Yes	No
Adequate voice quality	Yes	Yes
Uses centralized database	No	Yes
Can place calls based on IP address	Yes	No
Requires dedicated phone for VOIP	No	Yes
Compatible Operating Systems	Win 98, ME & 2000	Win 98, ME & 2000
MSRP	$84.95 USB/$64.95 PCI	$19.99*** USB

*Must use proprietary software for PC-to-PC calls, both users must have VOIP Blaster
**And all other standard voice over IP or video conferencing software
***Must purchase two devices for PC-to-PC calls, and seperate dedicated phone(s), so this price is misleading

Conclusion

Should you buy a pair of IPW devices? Probably. Their higher price makes it hard to compete with the VOIP Blaster, but as you have clearly seen, the IPW is a much more fully developed device, offering much more flexibility. If you will be making frequent VOIP calls to a loved one far away, it is very easy to justify the price of the IPW, a pair of IPW devices will pay for themselves within a month or two just in the reduction of your phone bill. You will probably find, however, that it does more than just reduce your phone bill, it allows you to call more often. When my girlfriend and I were living in different states, we had been making $50 worth of phone calls a month, and wishing we could talk more; when we started using VOIP, we made what would have been several hundred dollars worth of calls, but they were free. If you will be using VOIP frequently, the features of the IPW will make it well worth it. However, if you just want to mess around with VOIP and see what it's all about, you may want to consider the VOIP Blaster, as a cheap alternative.
We give the Actiontec InternetPhoneWizard 4.5 out of 5 Staplers. - This device is highly recommended.

Places to Buy:

Q & A

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