Philips VOIP841 PC-free DECT/Skype phone - world's first review

[goldencelt]

Hi Everyone, I am new here and had the great misfortune to purchase this Phillips Skype phone VOIP 841! It has been returned and repLaced already and still no improvement. I have written and called Philips numerous times, but get no satisfaction at all, as no one can find the fault - all this ongoing since last November! The phone has 'acute menopause' in the sense that it will accept calls and ring happily for hours and then go totally silent to all incoming calls for a day or even a few hours, without any warning, so I am still tied to checking the computer 1/2 hourly - 'just in case of missed calls'! I use the Skype phone element only and do not connect it to my landline. I consider it £100 totally wasted, as another £25 pound skype phone ( IPEVO), which is plugged into my computer on occasion, works like a dream.! However, i bought the Philis to be able to leave my desk!! Has anyone else had similar problems? ANY assistance would be appreciated! Dee

[Bob Crabtree]

Dee,

What area of the country are you in?

And have you posted on Skype's own forums?

What you need to know is that the Philips Skype phone uses Linux gateways, not Windows PC gateways, so the quality you can get is different between the two.


Oddly, although I have effectively abandoned regular use of the Philips Skype phone, I do have one that's still connected here (in London) and the quality of calls - free and paid for - now seems to be significantly better than it was in 2007 when I made my last posting here.

[goldencelt]

Hi, Thanks for your reply.

I am also London based. When I actually manage to receive a Skype call, the quality is fine and clear 90% of the time and really only 'iffy' if the caller is using an old headset. I have a router that is Linux compatible, so that cannot be the problem.

This problem has had me tearing out my hair, as I never know when it is working or not!

[Bob Crabtree]

Dee,

All routers are Linux compatible as far as I am aware.

The Linux side of things I'm referring to is Skype's London gateway for Skype phones that connect to routers, rather than to PCs.

That gateway is for Linux devices, including Linux PCs (and, I presume Apple Macs running OS X), as well as phones.

In contrast, any phone that you connect directly to your Windows PC will be accessing Skype through a quite different gateway.

Have you tried updating the firmware of your Philips phone?

The latest downloadable version (V1.0.4.80) - which is what I am running - can be got from here.

Of course, you should check whether or not your phone already has this version (or a more recent version) installed before going to the trouble of downloading and installing V1.0.4.80.

And have you posted on the Skype forums?


Bob

[pfunk11]

Has anyone had problems with this phone messing with the wireless internet? I have mine connected to the wireless router that also my laptop uses and ever since I got the phone, whenever I watch a movie on my laptop (I stream it from my desktop and never had any problems with it before) it breaks up alot, rebuffers and is generally unwatchable. I know that it is the phones fault because when I pull the plug on it everything works smoothly. Any advice? All help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Bob Crabtree]

Have you tried setting up your wireless router to use a different radio channel?

That should be fairly easy to do (selecting the channel manually, rather than letting the router do it automatically).

Just make sure that you don't choose the same channel that the router had picked automatically - here, my wireless router is set to automatic but the interface informs me that it's elected to use Channel 11.

That's about all I can think of - other, perhaps, than trying to use a longish (2m-3m) Ethernet cable to put some distance between the Philips base station and your wireless router.

I've also just had a very quick look through the manual for the Philips phone and can't see any clues there.

Good luck.
Bob

[pfunk11]

Thank you so much for your advice! I changed the channel on my router and there is no interference now. Thanks!

[Bob Crabtree]

Thank you so much for your advice! I changed the channel on my router and there is no interference now. Thanks!

No problem - it was just a wild guess, in truth, but clearly a logical one!


Cheers

Bob