Creative VoIP Blaster

THE BAD:
Firewall, or odd routing

SUMMARY:
I run win98 cablemodem from a switch, with zonealarm set to medium. Works fine calling to another unit running win2k off a hubbed DSL connection. Neither machines have multiple nic cards or hardware firewalls. PC to phone is good. Quality is perfect but there is a slight delay. Other party is technoretarded and they use it fine.

THE BAD:
Plugging in phone to the blaster unit, the other end doesn't ring, just a one clicking sound on the other unit. And it hangs up immediately.

SUMMARY:
works well with only headset.

Plugging in phone to the blaster unit, the other end doesn't ring, just a one clicking sound on the other unit. And it hangs up immediately.

Anyone know a fix to this problem?

THE BAD:
Technical support (although typical for most companies if it's more than a "oh sir, you need to plug the unit in" or "try rebooting?")

SUMMARY:
Guys, after a night of problems and terrible but friendly tech support I got my blaster to work with a router (both a Linksys and a Netgear) along with the LAN. I'm somewhat computer savy and when I read in the manual (after I bought two of these) that it would not work I really wondered because I've never seen something that won't work around a router. The biggest problem is that it talks back to your computer through not just one but several random ports. It will work with a router/LAN but it takes a little time and the procedure varies from user to user. Here's a general idea of what you have to do:


Step 1 Have a decent knowledge of computer networking and routers....

THE BAD:
Does not work behind a firewall..

SUMMARY:
I would like to say that this little unit has saved me big time in the way of costs. I needed to call Africa and the rate through most telephone companies is around $7 a minute. I bought this unit thinking of saving some money and it has done just that!

The rate I receive using this device (PC to PHONE) is $0.49 a minute. After eating up my free time ($5 for 10 min.) I dropped $20 and recharged the account. I have spoke now for 50 minutes for only $20 + the free $5 that came with the unit.

The unit works and works well. I do have a cable modem so that may be big help in way of connection. It is cool to pick up the phone and dial through the computer and then talk to someone around the world for almost nothing.

I bought another unit and am shipping it to Africa to see if we could do this computer to computer. I tried the unit in the USA...

THE BAD:
Hard to make it work behind in a home network.

SUMMARY:
I did find a little program that works as a VoIP "proxy" to run on my ICS box. It's from TigerJet Network http://www.tjnet.com and is called VICS for Voice over ip Internet Connection Sharing. It seems to be free, and works well.

This still doesn't provide a solution for office, college, or router boxes such as Linksys. Creative needs to come up with a better solution here. I'm still tracking down the port numbers, and if I find them I'll post here.

THE BAD:
Need to disable local area NIC and disable firewall

SUMMARY:
I got the Creative VoIP Blaster working under Windows 2000 Professional and would like to share my experience. My PC is a not too powerful Celeron 333 with 112MB SDRAM. My Internet connection is Cablevision cable modem. I have 3 PC’s connected using Intel Anypoint RF wireless LAN. A friend called me from Singapore using a 56K modem and I was surprised at the quality of the call. It is not as good as regular phone but I would say it is about 85-95% as good. I ordered two online at $16.72 each plus $11.95 for shipping. Installing the hardware and the software were uneventful. Just follow the Quick Start guide in the box. The package included a card worth $5 of calls from Innosphere. Just follow the on screen instruction and enter the number and PIN given on the card plus some personal information. When I tried to call my home...

THE BAD:
doesn't work through LAN's, poor voice quality, cannot establish Pc-2-PC calls

SUMMARY:
i have been using the voip blaster for about 1.5 months. it has always been giving me problems. i am using a 512k cable connection and the voice quality is horrible when making a pc-phone call. worst part is, the pc-2-pc calls also don't work, rendering this piece of junk useless.

THE BAD:
not for LAN with firewall

SUMMARY:
as an user who call internationally, the call quality stands out clearly and the rates are really low! and also good for local calling as the telephone line is fully hooked up for internet shopping. for heavy internet shoppers and long-distance calling, must have one at home!

THE BAD:
Need other user to install VOIP.... can't use with other com program like battle.com, roger wilco, and netmeeting..... SO SUX

SUMMARY:
Geez.... I wish someone will figure out a way to use Creative VOIP with Battle.com and netmeeting... It is so sux