Customer Reviews

Cisco-LinksysCIT300 Dual-Mode Internet Telephony Kit

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I have not been a Skype user for very long, but tired of using an attached headset and not being able to hear calls when not in my office.

The phone works well. Setup was not difficult. Pretty much plug and play.
SkypeOut and SkypeIn function properly. It's nice having my main line and Skype into one phone. Less stuff on the desk. I can easily make calls from either service (skype or main line).

There are a couple issues that I wish were fixed.
1.) The battery will not last overnight if it can not see the base station. So if you turn the computer off or too far away, the battery will drain really fast searching for the base unit. So you NEED to keep the phone on the charger overnight.
2.) All calls must be initiated from the phone and not the computer. So you can't call from the computer and then transfer to the phone. To call someone, you can search the skype contacts on the phone or dial direct. This is a little annoying since my contacts are in Outlook and not skype. So everything needs to be dial directly on the phone.

Another small issue was Linksys's support. The beltclip came cracked. Linksys's support wanted me to return the entire package for exchange. It's a 15 cent plastic part that doesn't effect the use. I don't want to spend $12 in shipping to get a new 15 cent part. They were not very helpful.

Great sound, small and comfortable to hold.

But a big limitation is that it does not support call waiting / hold between Skype and landline calls, so if you are on the phone and the other type of call comes in, you must immediately hang up on your first call if you want to answer the incoming call on the same handset. It does support call waiting / hold between 2 Skype calls.

The strange menu and command layout seem to have been copied from a feature list with no usability consideration or testing. Here's what's bothered me most so far:

*It requires a tedious sequence of 3-4 key presses to get to the landline phone directory, Yet there are 3 different ways to get to the Skype directory by pressing a single key. Why not distribute those keys among other common functions, instead of having such redundancy / overlap?

* After you make a SkypeOut (i.e. Skype to phone) call from your Skype contact list, the "recently dialed" call list shows only the phone number, not the name of the entry. Not very useful unless you have all your Skypeout phone numbers semi-memorized!

* Likewise, when calling a landline or skypeout number from a directory, the display shows only the number, not the name of the entry.

* When dialing, and also in the recently called list, phone numbers are not formatted (e.g. with dashes) to make them more readable.

* The recently dialed list does not include the time of the call, nor the duration, even though the phone includes a clock and a call timer. (You can go to a different menu (5-6 key presses away), to see the duration of the last call only, or the running totals of all dialled and received calls)

* Landline phone book entry names are at most 10 characters long, forcing constant abbreviation. 16 characters is standard and much more useful. Not quite as bad, but only the first 14 characters of skype directory entries are displayed.

* This is not so unusual, but I'm spoiled: Menu commands do not have numbers by each item, so there are no shortcuts to get to a command, just lots of scrolling through menus and clicking where a single number press should suffice.

* You can't use SkypeOut to dial a number from your landline phone book.

* The following issue is (I think) also present on other brands, but it is still very annoying and unfriendly: even though this phone is connected to a computer (via its base station), you have to populate the landline phone book manually, one entry at a time, using the phone's keypad. You can't compose the phone directory on the PC and download it. (In contrast, the skype directory is maintained on the net and automatically copied from the PC into the phone).

I would hope that Linksys would release a firmware upgrade to correct some of these problems, but instead it looks like they've already released the CIT400 which also has the same lack of call waiting between call types, though the interface looks (from the user guide) like it might be slightly improved.

just FYI this product does not allow for 220V if you are trying to buy for overseas.

I purchased this phone to augment communications to my remote computer lab. The desire was to have a means of being able to use my dedicated ethernet line to double for a phone line and this seemed to be the ticket.

What I didn't realize was that this unit is so much more. Despite reviews about poor interfaces and such, I found the unit to be eminently practical in function and design. I opted to purchase SkypeOut and SkypeIn to dedicate the system as a primary phone once I became comfortable with the overall function of the phone and how Skype works.

Installation couldn't be easier and was a surprise considering how poorly the install for my other Linksys products has been. Totally standard install with no surprises. Things just worked on my little XP system and I intend to keep it that way by never going to Vista, but that is another story.

The range on this phone is incredible. By placing the base station near a window, I was able to reach all the way inside our main ranch house to a distance of about 350 feet. There was some dropout now and then, but for the most part it worked fine. Within the 300 foot range, the performance was crystal clear.

I noted some problems in getting Skype to activate SkypeIn at first, but the problem seemed to clear up after about 24 hours and my phone truly began to perform like a regular phone at that point. Certainly not the fault of the CIT300, which has performed flawlessly from first start up.

Charge time took about 12 hours overnight and the battery was at full charge then. Even so, when I first opened the box and tried the thing out with no charge, the phone worked fine and I kept on expecting it to finally shut off which never happened during my evening of playing around with it. Truly miserly on power consumption from what I can see.

I discovered that the secret to dialing out for SkypeOut with numbers that are not in the contact list is to press the "0" key until the "+" sign appears in the main display of the phone and then to key in my number as usual for any phone. To start the call, press the "Skype" button on the bottom of the keypad and you are in like flynn.

I did end up upgrading to the latest version of Skype software and also had to disconnect my Logitech webcam since it's microphone kept insisting on grabbing the control from the CIT300 microphone and would do so no matter how often I change the configuration back to the CIT300. I'm sure there is a secret to stopping this problem with some adjustments, but for now, the Logitech is parked until I learn more.

I'm more than pleased with the unit and think that anyone expecting a new medium like this to be perfect is not facing reality. The CIT300 is a well built unit with a few imperfections, but nothing that cannot be worked out and it is my opinion that Linksys has a great little product here.

The only request I have for Linksys is to sell extra handsets so more than one phone can make use of the base station. There seems to be provisions for this, but nowhere can I find information on this aspect of the phone.

For $30 and another $50 for Skype subscriptions, you can't go wrong with this phone. Worth every penny!

How anyone can criticize this product is beyond me! Although I didn't buy this on Amazon, I had to throw in my "2 cents". (I bought on ebay for $44).

OK, so it has a few limitations....call waiting? Small color screen? What? Why is everyone so picky? This is a telephone. Use it to make FREE phone calls. It worked excellent right out of the box. I could wander 2 rooms away from computer and got perfect reception. I have not had any dropped calls either.

If you want all those special features, pay the phone company. I am saving about $30/month. I LOVE SKYPE and this Linksys phone!

If you want to use Skye in a manner similar to a regular phone, this handset is a decent upgrade, though not a perfect substitute for better devices. Still, for its price you'll get a pretty good system to access Skype. I'm not regretting getting it, but I'd certainly like a better solution:

Pros:
The phone is extremely simple to use - it gets its date and time directly from the computer, and the Skype contact list (obviously) is transmitted from the computer as well. Seriously, when you get everything up and running, all you have to do is pick the thing up, hit down on the selection button, and - BAM! - your contacts are displayed. Ridiculously simple.

Great range! It will stay connected with the base transmitter through walls and across a small house or apartment.

When everything works (the software, the base unit, and the phone) it works wonderfully.

Cons:
Your computer has to be on to use the phone (try the CIT400 for a solution that doesn't need your computer to be on - if you can find one for sale, that is). Sometimes I have to leave it running all day long; and since my computer uses approximately the same energy as 2-3 100-watt lightbulbs, that's a lot of energy.

There are too many places where something will stop working in this system - the phone always works, but the base unit or the software on your computer may become disconnected without notification or warning at any time (though, strangely, never in the middle of a call).

The software/device driver combo from Linksys pretty much sucks and is no longer being updated as of mid 2007. It initiates once you boot up your computer, loads up Skype, and connects to Skype, but its connection to Skype (and thus the Skype availability on the phone) is not trustworthy. For example, if you're at home all day and have the computer on the whole time, the Linksys software may or may not maintain its connection to Skype that entire time - and there's no way to know if it's disconnected unless you periodically pick up the phone and try to access Skype. If it becomes disconnected, sometimes it's the base transmitter which you can simply unplug, wait 5 seconds and plug back in. It will take it only another 5 seconds to re-initialize and re-establish contact with the software on the computer. But if the Linksys software becomes... discombobulated, for lack of a better term (I have no clue what's the matter with it), nothing short of a computer reboot will make it synch with Skype again. If you try to close it down, it hangs. If you force-quit it with the task manager and restart it, it hangs when trying to connect with Skype. Trust me, I've attempted both solutions over a dozen times each. The results are the same every single time. Today the software refused to connect to Skype no matter how many times I rebooted the computer. After uninstalling, reinstalling, and rebooting my computer again, it worked fine.

Great product, excellent shipping, a little bit troublesome with power plugs (I received European version, so had to get adapters to plug into the US plugs), but product as product- great! Great sound quality, automatically connects to Skype (transfers contacts, calls, etc). Works like regular phone but with Skype contacts and features.
[didn't use it as a landline phone- didn't buy it for that. don't have landline anyway; mobile + Skype phone is all you need nowadays]. Recommend.

Very satisfied. Excelent product
The only problem is that it completely discharge if you unplug the energy. It keep searching a base and discharge all the batteries.

Very good and usefull.
A plus for the distance of wuireless lenth.
The only problem is that do not have a "Flash" key, for use with PABX.

I have had the phone for 2 days now. It replaces the RTX Dualphones I had for 3 years (those screens kept going defective). When I first went to hook up the CIT300 the software would not load. I spoke to Linksys service who after an hour discovered that it will not work for Vista or Windows 7. Turns out (no thanks to Linksys awful service) that Vista can run an XP program in "Compatibility Mode" Problem solved! So far I really like it but you can never have enough features... Good value for money.