Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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70 of 70 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Began to fail after seven months, February 28, 2008
I bought a Phonex Easy Jack 2 PX-211d Wireless Phone Jack in February, 2007, about one year ago. It's used to provide a phone connection for a Dish satellite HD DVR receiver and was recommended by Dish. It is never used for regular voice communication. The Phonex extension unit is located about two feet from a surge protector which is used to power several items of a home theater system, including a Dish satellite HD DVR receiver, HDTV, DVD, A/V receiver, VCR and a subwoofer. The Phonex extension unit is plugged into the same electrical outlet as the surge protector and is connected to the Dish satellite receiver with a high-quality 4-wire telephone cable.
The product worked very well for seven months. In month eight, Dish charged me $5 for not having a continuous phone hook-up. At this point, the product has failed in four out of the last five months. Dish has charged me $5 each month it has failed to detect a phone hookup. When I test the extension unit for dial tone (by connecting a telephone) the unit does provide an audible dial tone and it does it every time without fail. It seems a bit weak but I can hear it. When I reconnect it to the Dish satellite receiver, the receiver cannot find dial tone about 85% of the time.
The product started to fail after only seven months and is essentially worn out after a year. Phonex tech support admits that electrical interference from devices in the room and particularly from the surge protector may have degraded the product to the point where the dial tone is too weak for the Dish satellite receiver to detect.
The owners manual that came with the unit is fairly comprehensive but does not say anything about locating the unit away from surge protectors. It does warn that neither the base unit nor the extension unit should be plugged directly into a surge protector. On the Phonex website, buried pretty deep in the FAQ section there is a warning about locating the extension unit "near a surge protector or plug strip". When I asked tech support what that meant, they said "4-6 feet away".
With the help of Phonex tech support (very cooperative and helpful) the other possible causes of this problem have been eliminated: faulty phone cord, faulty Dish satellite receiver, bad electrical outlet, worn out surge protector, more distance between the extension unit and surge protector. At this point, the unit is out of warranty by a few weeks and Phonex wants $25 plus S&H to test/repair the unit.
My conclusion is that the product failed due to the cumulative effect of electrical interference from the surge protector and other electrical devices on the same circuit. As such, this product may not be appropriate for a satellite receiver in a home theater setup because a surge protector or plug strip is almost always required in such a multiple box environment.
One last thing. There is another type of wireless jack (RTX Dualjack Wireless Phone Jack) which does not use the electrical wiring in the home. The RTX unit is true wireless and works like a cordless phone, using 2.4 GHz. When reading the customer reviews of the RTX unit, virtually all of the reviews indicated they changed to the RTX unit after Phonex units (or similar units that use the home's electrical wiring) failed. Consider yourself warned.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Totally satisfied, August 7, 2007
I purchased this item to work with my TIVO unit via DirecTV. It was recommended by DirecTV as completely compatible, and it is. This is the only way to use your DVR when there is no telephone jack in the room where the TIVO unit is to be used, unless you want to run telephone wire and a install a jack (which I did not want to do)
Very easy to set-up, install and use, and it works perfectly and flawlessly as described. Your DVR must be hooked up to a phone line 24 hours a day / 7 days a week and it must make periodic phone calls to collect data and/or information. In fact, TIVO service will discontinue to operate correctly if a phone line is not connected after 30 days of interrupted connectivity. It will shut down completely and you will lose all ability to record, schedule, purchase, download, etc.....
The fact that DirecTV recommended this particular model, make and type convinced me to buy it. According to DirecTV, it must be described as a wireless jack for a modem.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Works great - EASY to use, August 3, 2008
Here is the one big rule you need to follow, follow the instructions and plug THEM directly into the wall outlet. Even a little 3-way adapter will act as a noise antenna. Also think about what may be near the adapters in making good choices or changes. I used it to connect my HP Officejet fax to a line. I am completely satisfied with this product.
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