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(More customer reviews)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.
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