Customer Reviews

Xtreme Technologies Xlink BT Bluetooth Gateway - Black

5 star:		(87)
4 star:		(48)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I heard about the Xlink on the Daily Giz Whiz podcast with Leo LaPorte and Dick DeBartolo ( www.gizwizbiz.com ) The concept intrigued me, and seemed very timely as by wife and I had been talking about disconnecting our home phone line. Note that I got the standard Xlink version. As I understand it, this version is meant to be used an a home phone lines THAT ARE NOT CONNECTED TO THE OUTSIDE PHONE SYSTEM. The "N" version is made for that purpose. We had just canceled our home phone service since it had been out for a week and the provider was unresponsive. I went out side to the telephone junction box and unplugged my home phone lines from the outside service lines. Not difficult, but many people may not know how to to this. The safe way is to get the N version, which is just a little bit more expensive.

I checked out the product on line, and based on generally positive reviews, ordered the product. To my amazement the product arrived the next day. And I only paid for regular 3- 5 day service. I had ordered early enough the previous day that it shipped the same day from a local warehouse. We're off to a good start. If this thing works "as advertised" this will be great.

The product set up was dummy proof. The first thing they want you to do is to upgrade the firmware. It is probably a good idea, but my unit turned out to be up to date. The procedure was simple none the less. A disk is in the box, and you just pop it into your Windows PC. I can't remember if they had a Mac version, and if not that might be a minor problem. However, as I mentioned, my unit arrived with the most recent firmware version.

Anyway, a small program installed and told me what to do. 1 plug in a standard USB cord to the unit and the PC. Now here is the first problem. The USB cable is not provided. It's a standard PC to Printer type, a wide flat plug for the pc end and a smaller square plug for the Xlink unit (again if you don't have it, just skip this step)

Then they have you plug in the power to the Xlink. The PC and the unit talk, and a dialog box pops up. Just follow the directions. It checks the website for the current firmware version, and allow you to customize a bunch of things. I found that the standard ring patterns and settings worked just fine.

The unit allows you to connect up to 3 bluetooth enabled phones, each with a distinctive ring pattern. A phone is paired with the unit by putting your phone in discovery mode (refer to you phone's manual on how to do that) and then press and hold one of the three blue buttons on the top of the xlink. It will flash for a while, and you phone will "see" the Xlink. You select the XLink on you phone (it may be called "unknown audio device" or something simiar) and then it asks you for the bluetooth password. A recent firmware upgrade changed the default password from "1234" to a much more common "0000" code. A few seconds later the units are paired, and the button that was flashing goes solid, indicating that the units are paired. The other two buttons show go dark. Now, when ever you get with in about 30' of the unit, you phone and the unit pair up automatically, and when you cell phone rings, you can answer it from any of your home phones. Big deal, you say. I always have my cell phone with me. Really? When do you charge it? Now no matter where you are, if you have a phone extension you can pic up you cell.

What is really cool is that you can connect up to 2 more bluetooth cell phones, and each one has a distinctive ring so you can tell who's phone is ringing. My phone ring with one long repeating ring while wife's rings with two shorter repeating rings (RRIINNGGG......RRIINNGG vs Ring, ring.......Ring, ring) A third will ring with 3 short rings.

When each of the paired phones is out of range the corresponding blue button on the XLink blinks. When the phone is in range, the blue button goes solid.

Note that when one or more of the cell phones are in range, when you pick up any extension, you will get a standard dial tone. You just dial like you normally would. It is no different that having POTS (plain old telepone service) If none of the cell phones are in range and you do not have home phone line service, the line is dead. This could be a problem if you and your spouse go out and the babysitter want to make a call and doesn't have a cell phone. Fat chance of that now a days, but that is a down side of no phone service. Also note that 911 might not work right, and your fire/burglar alarm won't notify the monitoring center if it went over your POTS. (New cell based fire/burglar alarms are available for this) If you don't disconnect you home phone line service this doesn't apply.

The down sides.

The range for static free calls is fairly short, about 10 feet. The unit will pair over about 30 feet, but the calls are a bit noisy. This works well for us since we have the Xlink unit in the center of our kitchen/family great room area, and this is where we store and charge our cell phones, well within the 10 feet range. I'm not sure what the real usable range is, since we don't stretch it too much.

If you don't have POTS, remember the follwing: It may not call 911 properly. Check with your local 911 service. Also remember about the fire/burglar alarm monitoring service. If one of the paired cell phones is not in range the phone lines don't work. Guests, baby-sitters, etc may be confused, esp in a emergency. Depending on you cell phone, if you take a cell call directly on the cell phone when it is paired with the Xlink, it may break the pairing and it may not immediatly reconnect, leaving the phone line "dead."

The unit is set up to use the first available paired cell phone when making a call from a phone extension. If you have more than one phone, the phone paired with button 1 will be used for outgoing calls. If phone one is not in range, it will pick the next available paired phone in range (assuming you have paired more than one) This could create problems with driving a phone over the monthly minute allotment unexpectedly. It is not a problems for us as we have a shared minute family plan, so it's all the same. There is a way to select which cell phone will be used to place out going calls, but we don't bother.

I'm going to assume that if you keep your POTS in place and have the compatible system, outgoing calls will always go out on the POTS, so only incoming calls will drive minutes, so there is really no difference from just answering your cell directly, except for being a lot more convenient.

Note that sometimes there is a bit of a delay when answering a cell call on a phone extension. I don't know if that's a problem with the XLink or just our cell service as we get a delay when answering direct now and then.

Overall I'm very satisfied and very impressed. Highly recommended.

My wife and I got rid of the VoIP service we had since everyone calls our cell phones anyway. But in the new house, there's always quirky spots (my signal is good at my desk, but my new cell phone doesn't realize I answered the call -wierd). And some people reading this may have dead zones. Enter the Xlink.

I read about the Panasonic KX-TH1212B in Consumer Reports and saw how they liked it, and I always like Panasonic products. But reading some of the reviews online here, I questioned if I may also experience issues. I then read about the Dock-n-Talk, or whatever it's called, and a GE bluetooth link, but everyone kept swearing by the Xlink.

The Xlink worked right out of the box. I put the box at the cell phone chargers, where cell signal is perfect and issue free. I plugged it up to my Panasonic cordless phones (I call them networked - where you have one plugged into jack and others one their charger but not plugged in wall throughout the house), and there have been no issues.

When you have the cell phone past the 10ft range from box instructed, you will get some static. Easy solution - move the cell phone into range. I liked that I read you could plug up the box and firmware upgrade at no charge for future cell models.

On my cordless handsets, I have numbers programmed, and the handset speaks those names. If an unrecognized call comes in, then it shows up as 'Xlink BT', but I have no issue with that. I bought this fron ANTonline through Amazon, and have had nothing but good things to say.

I bought this item in order to replace a landline. We ported the number to a cell phone, hooked it up to the xlink, and the cell phone and the xlink are now sitting on my kitchen counter. The xlink is connected to a phone base, which hooks up to three cordless phones throughout the house.

Pros: easy setup
works as intended


Cons: Line is scratchy and hard to hear (and our other cell phones work fine throughout the house, and don't have this problem)
Numbers no longer show up on our cordless phones- just Xlink


Overall, I'd say it does what I want it to, but I'm really disappointed that the line is so scratchy and hard to hear.

As the previous review described, if your home phones (hard wired or cordless) have Caller ID, it will say XLink BT instead of the name and shows the number of the caller. Perhaps in a future software upgrade it will include the caller's name.

Setup was easy. Hold the button down till it flashes, use your cell phone's Bluetooth pairing function to find the XLink Gateway, then select it. My iPhone was the easiest. My wife's Pantech Breeze, was a little more difficult to navigate the menus, but linked up once I figured out how to do it.

You can easily disconnect your land line service at the Network Interface (box) outside your house (if your phone company doesn't) and just plug it into the wall.

You can then answer or make calls from either your cell or home phones. It defaults to calling out on line 1, but you can override this, if desired. We have a family plan, so it doesn't matter.

This originally listed for $169, but due to competition, it is now under $100. Get one while they are in stock. It's the best-kept secret in the Cellular world. Get the convenience of a land line, with the portability of wireless with a one-time investment. Highly recommended.

http://www.myxlink.com/index.aspx

Xtreme Technologies Xlink BT Bluetooth Gateway (Black) I'll assume that readers are familiar with how this product works. I've had my Xlink BT for about 10 months. I bought it so that we could use my cell for long distance and have several people on the line, and also so that I could park my cell in the kitchen and not have to hunt for it on my way out the door. I have a 2 line phone system with the land line (local calls only) on 1 and the xlink on 2. I had to do some rewiring and Xlink has good instructions on how to wire.

Xlink works as advertised but the voice quality is acceptable to horrible, sometimes so bad that I must hang up and find my cell phone and call the person back directly from my cell phone. I dread having to constantly ask my caller to repeat him or herself because I can't understand what they've said. Cell reception at my house is good so I know that's not the issue and I have decent cell phone. I now only use Xlink when absolutely necessary.

My Xlink does not work with phone menus. I cannot push buttons on my house phone and have them translated through the xlink to provide touchtone prompts. If I'm making a call that will require prompts, I must use my cell.

Hopefully the designers are working to fix the voice quality. Many others have mentioned it. I would not buy Xlink again until this issue is fixed.

I am due for a new phone, and once I get it I will likely look into a hardwired device that I know is compatible with that phone.

This device does everything it's advertised to do, but there are a few things that have left me disappointed.

First, the amount of static on the line is highly dependent on how close the cell phone is to the base. This means, for best results, you really ought to keep this base and your cell chargers all clustered together; I had planned for this, and set mine up in the kitchen, but thought it worth pointing out.

Second, when a call comes in, the cell phone rings about a full ring before the gateway "catches up" and rings the house phone. If you answer the call on the cell phone during this time, the audio is connected through the bluetooth, so you can't hear or say anything for a few seconds. Once it figures out "who has the call", then it's OK.

Third, if you've ever been on the receiving end of a cell phone "speakerphone call", you know how it cuts in and out, and how you sometimes can't hear anything, because of noise filtering. The same thing happens with the bluetooth connection here; if either person pauses, it sounds like the line went dead, and you lose that first sound off of the next spoken word. If you can live with that, fine, but I find it REALLY annoying.

I ported my wired phone number to my new bluetooth cell and did away with the wired service. This unit paid for itself in just over one month. Setup for both myself and the Mrs. You can locate the unit within 10 feet of a sweet cellular spot within your home.

You can make and receive calls and access voicemail. Any remote voicemail indicators (flashing light or different dialtone) will not work.

The unit works well!

Seems to work effortlessly with Blackberry Storm. Sound quality is hit and miss. Occasionally significantly worse than on Storm alone. Good range. Never approaches land line quality. Still, just what the doctor ordered.

I was a little skeptical about this gadget but a guy at work had it and said it worked great! Also, most of the reviews raved about it. So, I decided to order it and give it a try as I was tired of paying for a cell phone AND a landline. Well, recieved it, paired it with my iPhone (about 30 seconds) and promptyl cancelled my landline! Just keep your cell phone close to the XLink and it will pick up all your phones in the house (you need to have a base phone with handsets assigned to that base). Some people find it hard to believe I am talking on a home phone via XLINK via cell phone!!

Mixed bag. It is not a complete replacement for landline as promised, which has subjected me to endless complaints from my wife. It really struggles with LG phones (we have env3) even with the dedicated patch; unit tries to switch back and forth between the "bluetooth headset" aka XLink and the cell phone repeatedly during one call; usually the call becomes permanently muted: the other caller cannot be heard nor can they hear us, at whcih point the only solution is to end the call and try again. Also, don't be on a call when you come in range with the XLink (e.g., talking on the phone while coming home); the call is disrupted and cannot be picked up on the XLink or the cell phone. That said, we have had less of these occurrences with Motorola Droid2 (but still not perfect). Setup was fairly easy, although tedious to import all the phone number aliases from the cell (and ultimately this was unneeded as caller ID from both cell phones apparently sends caller data to XLink and could be displayed on our landline handsets).