Hi,

When I travel abroad I could do with a sip VOIP phone that I can link up to my laptop in some way, so that I can use my VOIP account and get my phone calls when I am connected to the internet in my hotel room.

Has anyone any suggestions for VOIP phones that might be suitable - they need to be portable, but also need to be a standard phone rather than headphones etc.

Thanks.

All a VOIP handset does is put a speaker one end, a microphone the other, and sometimes a keypad in the middle. That's it, put simply it's a USB mic and speaker with an added extra, your computer does the rest of the work.

Any device which supports the SIP protocol will be fine, the rest is your personal preference if you like the look of it. Sipgate has a very basic handset on their website, I believe Aldi has launched their own for a tenner, Tesco has one, and numerous others.

I already have a sip account - so are you saying I can pop down to Tesco's and buy a suitable USB phone? Sounds easy enough

Yes, I haven't used this phone but other feedback from here says the Tesco phone can be easily reconfigured for other SIP based services. I had a leaflet from Aldi come through my door the other day, they have a handset for £10 at the moment, that includes £5 calling credit if you want to use it too.

Thanks - had a look for these type of instructions and couldn't find any - but will search further.

To be honest if you get the Tesco one and you can't reconfigure it, knowing their policies you'll have no problem getting a refund so nothing lost. You should be able to adjust it from the instructions on the manual you get with it.

I know that the tesco phone model E337 is in fact a device made by Yamamoto, drivers for Voipcheap, Sipgate and Skype can be downloaded from their website, for free of course

Thanks - I'm with draytel - so I guess that is a no-go

Actually the Tesco E337 is a Yealink USB-P1K (also a US Robotics 9600 and Trust PH-2200) and you can get drivers for many VoIP software clients here: http://www.yealink.com/en/otherdown.asp

You can get a free copy of X-Lite, configure that for Draytel, and then download X-TenMate from the link above to use with the phone. Alternatively you can use SJPhone.

Thanks - trying the tesco phone - shame that you can't use the phone to do anything - is this the same on all usb phones?

All I get on the phone is 'check PC' - and whilst you can talk on the phone, you have to use the softphone to dial, accept a call and hang up.

At least I have it working to a degree - and in fact with X-lite you do not need any drivers.

The keypad and display are supposed to work. I've a similar phone and as long as you install Skype/GTalk/GizmoMate, you can use the keypad to dial, answer or hang-up calls and the display shows the current time/date, elapsed time while in a call and caller ID for incoming calls.

I have had no problems setting mine up although the first one was DOA, took it back and got another.

BTW have you also installed Tesco's own software? If you have it might conflict

no - just ignored the CD.

I got one of the Aldi ones working perfectly with Skype using the USRobotics (www.usr.com) 9600A drivers, and Skype software, works perfectly, keypad, display and everything, even on a Mac!

Well worth the tenner i paid!