Skype: a fantastic idea and incredibly useful, but unless you have splashed out on a fancy, dedicated Skype phone, some people find that it's still easier to pick up the ordinary landline phone to make their calls. The Internet Phone Wizard is therefore designed to let you make Skype calls with your normal home phone.

How does it do this? Well, you plug it into a) your normal phone using a standard phone connector, b) the wall socket, again using your normal phone connector and c) your PC via USB. You can then make and receive ordinary landline calls as per usual or choose to make a Skype call.

Wires aplenty

The problem is that there's a fair bit of cabling to think about here, and this reveals the main flaw in the Internet Phone Wizard. Basically, it is only really convenient if your phone socket is located right next to you computer.

Admittedly that isn't a particularly outlandish prospect and plenty of people with home offices, especially from the days of 56k, will have just such a setup. The rest of you who, like me, have a phone socket in one room, an internet access point in another and a computer somewhere else again, will probably struggle to fit the Internet Phone Wizard around everything.

The good news

Now that we've dealt with the main problem, I am happy to report that it's all uphill from here. Once set up (which takes 5-10 mins) all you need to do in order to start making Skype calls is pick up your home phone, dial the hash key twice, and then the dial tone will change to let you know you are ready to go. You can either key in the full number, or you can set up quick dials from Skype and you will need to so to call your Skype contacts.

Sound quality is generally pretty good, and on an easy par with the quality you can expect off ordinary Skype. Of course you will need to pay for Skype Out minutes to make calls to landlines and mobile phones but to other Skype users

Is it worth it?

The Internet Phone Wizard costs £35, which is hardly going to break the bank. And, while I would suggest looking at an alternative if you don't have you home computer located at least in the same room as the phone socket, people who do will get a great deal of value for their money. Although set up is a little on the long side with so many cables being involved, it is all well explained and easy to follow.

At a glance
The good	Fast and convenient Skype calls from your normal home phone.
The bad	Needs to be attached to your PC and phone socket, relatively long set up.
Overall:	If you have right layout in your house, there no reason not to look at this handy, straightforward gadget, but if you don't you will probably be better off looking elsewhere for your VoIP accessories.
Design:
Features:
Value:

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