The IT Nerd

My wife is helping a friend plan a wedding that will take place in September 2013. The thing is that even though the wedding will be held just outside of Toronto, the friend is in Maryland. That means lots of phone calls lasting significant amounts of time. If you don’t have a long distance plan, that gets expensive in a hurry. So the timing happened to be perfect to have the netTALK DUO WiFi hit my desk so that I could review it. It’s a VoIP product that has a lot going for it. Here’s a few shots of it below:

It’s slightly bigger than a USB stick in size.

It has two ports, One Ethernet and one RJ-11 phone jack.

It also has a micro USB port on the other side of the device.

Now the first thing that it has going for it is ease of setup. In fact, for someone technically adept the setup is beyond easy. You’ve got three ways to use this device:

• You can connect it via the micro USB port to your computer (Windows PCs only) and then connect your phone to it. (the micro USB cable is included)
• You can connect it via the Ethernet port to your router and then connect your phone to it.  (the Ethernet cable is included)
• You can connect it via WiFi and then connect your phone to it.

With the last two options, the micro USB port becomes the power jack by using a supplied AC adapter.

I went the WiFi route as I wanted to be able to place the DUO WiFi where I wanted to. Here’s all I had to do:

1. Inside the box is a sticker with a username and password. I needed that when I went to this website and walked through a wizard that activated the DUO WiFi including giving me the option to choose or port a phone number. I chose the former and got a local Canadian number.
2. Next, I plugged the DUO WiFi into my router via Ethernet and attached a phone to it. There’s a light on the top of the DUO WiFi that will blink orange for about a minute and then turn solid green. The phone that’s attached to the DUO WiFi will ring once. That means the DUO WiFi is connected and working. You can start to make phone calls at this point, but if you want to use WiFi, there’s one more step.
3. I then went to this site and followed the instructions for Mac to set it up on WiFi (they have instructions for the PC and Android users). Specifically steps 3, 4 and 5 as I had already done the first two. This is where you might get hung up if you’re not familiar with acronyms like SSID, WPA2, WEP and AES as you need to understand what those are to complete these steps. In English, they all relate to the name of your WiFi router and security it uses. The instructions give a good understanding of what all of that means and I think that most people will be able to figure it out.

Total time for me to set it up: 13 minutes and 10 seconds. Yes, I timed myself. Your mileage may vary depending on how skilled you are in terms of setting up devices like this. But take it from me, you do not need to hire an IT Nerd to do this for you.

Once I set it up I made a couple of test calls and received one call on the device. It had crystal clear audio on both ends of the conversation for the most part. I did notice one instance were where I noted a momentary interruption of audio. But beyond that, I had nothing to complain about. It was so good in fact that I would never know that I was on a VoIP product if nobody told me I was on a VoIP product up front. But the real test is if my wife thought it was good. So she made a call to her friend in Maryland and spent 59:16 on the line. She also used a phone that we have used with our telco for years so that the phone isn’t a variable in her evaluation. In short, my wife thought the quality of the audio quality was better than what she got on the landline that we have. Also of note, she said that when she used calling cards on the same phone, the quality wasn’t even close to being as good as the DUO WiFi. Since the phone had not changed, clearly whatever method netTALK packages up sound and sends it across their network is clearly designed not to affect the audio quality. She also mentioned that the DUO WiFi was also superior to other VoIP solutions that used recently (although those were on the iPhone 5, thus not an apples to apples comparison).

A few things I also noted during my testing:

• You can save multiple WiFi networks on it. I am guessing that the use case is that if you travel with the DUO WiFi and you have WiFi wherever you’re going, you can use it without having to hop through hoops to do so.
• Having the option for Ethernet is handy so that you can plug it in and use it with minimal hassle if you travel. Assuming Ethernet is available at wherever you’re going.
• It appears that when it comes to WiFi, the DUO WiFi only seems to speak 802.11 B/G. I deduced that based on the fact that my Apple Airport Extreme has separate networks for 802.11 B/G devices and for 802.11 N devices and it never saw the latter. This should not be an issue to most unless you have a router that doesn’t properly drop down to 802.11 B/G without some tweaking.
• It behaves like a regular phone line including having a dial tone. That makes it friendly to faxes and the like.
• It did not seem to be affected by anything else that was going on with my network. Surfing, watching videos, etc. didn’t seem to affect the sound quality.

Now, here’s the big question. What is this going to cost me? It’s MSRP is $74.95 CDN and that includes one year of service which encompasses the following:

• Local phone number
• Call Blocking
• Call ID Blocking
• Call waiting
• Caller ID
• Call forwarding
• 3-way calling and conference calling
• Voicemail: I really like this feature as it will send a copy of any voicemail that is left for me to my e-mail so I know who’s called me while I’m on the go. The voicemail simply shows up as an e-mail message in the inbox of my mail client on my MacBook Pro and on my iPhone and I can play the message on the spot. That means that I don’t have to dial in and check messages obsessively. In my testing, the message shows up in my inbox within seconds of someone leaving it and the audio quality was good on my iPhone as well as my MacBook Pro.
• Enhanced 911
• Free local and long distance calling to the U.S. and Canada
• Free DUO-to-DUO-calls anywhere in the world

Now there are a variety of plans that you can choose from when it’s time to renew or if you choose to upgrade to a plan that has more features. If you the math, the value proposition is simple. If you’re with a major telco paying monthly for your phone service the DUO WiFi will likely start paying for itself in a few months if you use it as your home phone. I did the math in my case and my payback started after month number four with the plan the DUO WiFi comes with. If I then renewed for $40 CDN a year for the same level of service, the payback for that would start after month two.

In terms of International calling, the rates depend on where you’re calling. You can check their per minute rates to see what they’re like and you can buy credits to dial international locations on a pay as you go basis. But If you call overseas a fair amount, I say that you should pay for the International Add On plan which is $120 a year and it includes all the features of the basic calling plan that the DUO WiFi comes with. It will save you money as it is still way cheaper than any phone service that you can get from a major telco without international calling features. By the way, if your Basic phone service expires within 12 months, then the price of the add-on will be prorated for the remaining months. One other thing that I should note is that like other VoIP providers, you are apparently capped in terms of usage. In the case of the DUO WiFi, that cap is set at 3000 incoming and outgoing minutes a month. This was confirmed by a netTALK representative I spoke to, but this is not stated anywhere on the netTALK website that I can find. While this shouldn’t be a problem for most people, this along with any other caps that may exist really need to be clearly stated and easily found so that consumers know what they are getting into when they buy the DUO WiFi.

I should also mention that every option for the service is controllable from a web based portal that you can log in and change options on your account, check your voicemail, and monitor your usage among other things. I found it very easy to use.

Now, are there any drawbacks to the DUO WiFi? Three of them come to mind:

• First, since it relies on your Internet connection, it means that if that goes down then so does your phone. The flip side to that is these days, your Internet connection should not go down all that often. For example, mine has only gone down twice in the last two years. Take that for what it’s worth. Another thing to consider is that any VoIP product is at the mercy of your Internet connection.
• The second thing is that a power outage will leave you without phone service. I point that out because a traditional landline will work in a power outage, and cable based home phones such as Rogers Home Phone will work for a time (about 8 hours) in the event of a power outage. Again, any VoIP product would be in the same situation.
• The last thing is that live tech support is only available between 10AM and 4PM eastern time between Monday and Friday. So if you run into problems (which if you are going to have problems, it’s going to be when you’re setting up the device), you won’t be calling for help on evenings or weekends. Now in the defence of netTALK, I did find their support section to be very good. Chances are, whatever issue you have is covered in there and everything appears to be very well written so that anyone can understand it. Another thing to consider, MagicJack which has to be considered a competitor to netTALK has no phone support. You have to use a text chat which isn’t the best means of providing support form my perspective. At least netTALK has phone support because sometimes nothing beats having a live human being on the other end of a phone to help you. Still, having a broader range of hours is something that I think they should look into.

So, would I recommend the netTALK DUO WiFi. The answer is yes if you fit one of these profiles:

• If you make a lot of long distance calls and you wish to save money, and you could use a second number as a bonus, the netTALK DUO WiFi is for you.
• If you travel and you need a way for people back home to reach you without dialling long distance, the netTALK DUO WiFi is for you.
• If you simply need a second line cheaply and with minimal hassle, the netTALK DUO WiFi is for you.
• If you want to replace your phone service with whatever telco you’re with, save some money, and you’re comfortable with potentially not having phone service if you lose power or Internet, the netTALK DUO WiFi is for you.

The netTALK DUO WiFi was so good that I have decided that I will use it going forward as my main business line. I truly found it to be that good during my testing. If you’re considering a VoIP product, take a good hard look at the netTALK DUO WiFi. I believe that it’s a VoIP product that you’ll want to have in your home.

Oh, for my American readers, there’s a version of this for you. Just visit nettalk.com to get yours for a MSRP of $64.95 USD.

UPDATE: I no longer recommend this product. See this for an explanation.

This entry was posted on August 12, 2013 at 8:38 am and is filed under Products with tags netTALK. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.