Home > Consumer Reviews > Linksys CIT400 Dual-Mode Internet Telephony Kit with Integrated Skype

I have a mac and am trying to supplement my & my wife's cell phone usage with the computer. We have a family plan through cingular and pay about $100 a month, and we don't have a land line at home. I tried getting a uConnect adapter to hook up a normal cordless phone and realized that calls would not ring through the phone and I had to dial out on the computer to make calls.... very annoying. As far as I know there is no way to hook up a mac to a normal cordless phone and have it be usefull. People I spoke to using the uConnect adapter also reported a bad echo on their end. The only way skype would sound decent was using a usb headset... and I hated being tethered to the computer. And either way, you have to keep your computer on all the time if you have a skype-in number and want to recieve calls.

So when I read about the linksys cit400 with skype already built in I jumped on it. We've been using it for about a week and so far it's really good. The best part is that with skype built in, it just plugs into my wireless router and I don't have to have the computer on all the time. We keep the handset on it's charger most of the time so I can't comment on battery life. The sound is great; so far no complaints from us or from anyone we're talking to (I've had a few people say it sounds better than when I call on my cell phone!). The user interface is simple and the phone looks nice too. You can add people to your contact list on the phone and it will update your skype contact list online as well, and vice-versa, if you update your contact list on your computer the handset will update too (I think it updates at night, but was able to have it update when I wanted by logging the handset off and back on. I have a skype-in phone number which came with voicemail and that works seamlessly with the phone. You can easily change your coicemail greeting on the phone. When someone calls and leaves a message a red light blinks on the top of the phone notifying you and checking messages is a cinch too. Now that we are using the phone I don't ever use skype on the computer so don't know what would happen if they were both on and someone called in and tried to leave a message.

I gave it four stars because of one major flaw. No caller ID. I know it would probably be difficult to have it have a normal caller ID feature, but I just want it to recognize incoming calls from numbers already in my contact list and list the name of the contact! I don't think that's too much to ask. Right now it just displays the phone number calling, so unless you've memorized all the people in your contact list then you're out of luck. Another (minor) quip is that (as far as I can tell) they do not sell handsets by themselves. According to the manual, one base can sync with more than one handset, which would be nice to have one phone upstairs and one downstairs in the future.

So now with the Linksys phone set up we reduced our cingular cell phone plan to a $70 plan, saving us $30 a month. The phone was $150, buying skype-out for the year was $15 (soon going up to $30 for the year) and getting a skype in number (which comes with voicemail) was $40 for the year, adding up to a startup cost of $205. So this set up will pay for itself in about 7 months and then after that there will just be a $70 yearly cost which will be worth it if it keeps us off a more expensive cell phone plan. Of course, Skype says that January 18th, 2007 they're announcing a new pricing plan so who knows how that will affect things.

PROS:
- Could save you money in the long run. My wife calls to Italy a lot and Skype makes that affordable too.
- Reception/Audio quality is good/great. No echo, no dropout.
- Voicemail with skype-in works great.
- Don't have to have your computer on! Actually, the product doesn't even need a computer to work, making this the best skype solution for mac owners out now.
- not tethered to the computer by a cord. It really feels like we have a normal cordless phone now.
- We don't use it but for those that have a landline as well this hooks up to both the internet connection and the landline. So when you make a phone call you select the contact or dial the number and then select if you want to call them on the landline or via skype (we have it set to just automatically dial with skype everytime instead of having to choose for every call).
- phone looks very nice, and seems to be well made.

Cons:
- no caller id: even though the phone number calling in is displayed, even if that number is on your contact list it won't show the name of the contact.
- expensive startup cost.
- for those not familiar with skype: it can't dial 911, so it's not an adequate replacement for a phone.
-can't expand by buying a second handset right now without buying the handset with base station.

With the CIT400 Linksys comes very close to having a 5 star gadget. I'll break my review into several parts.

Setup: 5 stars - it couldn't have been easier. I plugged the base station into my home network and turned the power on. It was that simple within a few minutes I was making calls. I already had a Skype account so I'm not sure how simple it is the sign-up via the phone.

Design: 3 stars - the phone feels like it was designed by a router company. Nothing really stands out in the design of the phone or the software interface. It's pretty functional but pales in comparison to the UI on most cell phones. Several things that could be better with the UI (and are probably fixable with a firmware upgrade): CallerID doesn't reference your contacts (like most cell phones). When phone numbers in the call log don't fit on the screen they go into a scroll mode, making them impossible to read. The phone doesn't register when another phone in the house has answered a call thus placing them under 'missed calls', my 15 year old at&t cordless phone somehow manages to do this. There is no browser interface to the phone - it would be nice to configure it this way since it is a network device. It's difficult to change Skype accounts quickly. Don't get me wrong the phone is quite functional, but many aspects of it could have been executed better.

Quality: 4 stars - overall I've been quite pleased with the quality of the Skype calls. They sometimes suffer from a delay (thus not 5star) but are good enough to replace my long distance company.

Service: 1 star - I'm probably being harsh but in today's connected world I consider it very bad form for high tech companies to not have employees that care enough to read and respond to their own online forums. I own other gadgets, like a Tivo and Roku Soundbridge, where I can find pretty much the answer to anything by reading the product forum hosted on the company web site. This is mainly because those companies have employees who seem to want to connect with their customers. It makes sense - it's an inexpensive way to support a product. In the case of the CIT400 (and other Linksys phones) the forum stinks. I have yet to see a knowledgable representative of Linksys post there. It wouldn't take a lot of effort and to me shows a lack of pride in the product.

Skype service isn't any better. When I tried to see if anything could be done to improve the delay issues I was having on some calls, I exchanged a frustrating set of emails with Skype service asking me to replace the drivers on my sound card and making sure the microphone on my PC wasn't as fault. In other words they kept sending me pre-formulated canned repsonses.

Got this thing a week ago and had it hooked up in about 10 minutes. Base station plugs into your network and your POTS line. The handset gets charged for a few hours and when you bring it up it asks for your Skype username and passwords. Having been a Skype user for months, it figured out who I was and pulled down my address book. Very easy setup (not sure how more difficult it would be for a non-previous Skype user), and it doesn't need the computer to work.

So far, call quality is superb using this unit (I'm also running it over Verizon's FIOS fiber optic service). Nobody on the other side who I call knows I'm using Skype. And when you dial, you can choose to make the call via Skype or POTS (you can pick a default in the Options so that it doesn't ask you every time). Incoming calls to either Skype or your POTS line can be answered with the handset. Caller ID is working fine on either incoming Skype or POTS calls, showing the name of the caller (not just phone number, unlike a previous poster). Reception seems pretty good; I have the base in our basement (no pun intended) and I've walked outside about 30 feet down the driveway and the handset still worked fine.

The handset is pretty slick. Navigating the screen and the menus is very easy with the thumb rocker thingy. The keypad (and actually all buttons) light up when you pick up the handset, making it easier to see the buttons in the dark. However, since the buttons only are lit in profile but not in the middle (showing the symbols), you sorta have to have memorized what each button does. I still find myself straining to see the symbols on the pick up and hang up buttons, since they're the same size and on opposite sides of the rocker button thingy.

The base supposedly can handle 4 handsets but, so far, I haven't been able to find out how I can buy just the extra handsets.

If the CIT 200 was great !!! This one is "just" SUPERB !!
Really a MUST HAVE !

I always wanted to have the stand alone Skype phone, and the reason I waited and did not jump on the "mobile-like ones" was the battery factor and the issues aabout logging on other networks when you were away from home...

Now this one is just THE ONE !! plain and simple..

Installation could not be more simple.
Take out of the box, plug at your cable modem (or a router like I do) and plug the power.
Turn the phone on, input your skype account and password (or create a new one) and that is IT !
Ready to go...
It is quite light, has a plastic feel, but nothing that would take any credit out of it ! It is in fact quite "modern looking" phone. Better in my opinion to be a bulkier cordless phone like the ones everyone is used to nowadays.

Sound got better (as if it have anything to improve from the CIT 200) in reality.. It is just like a regular phone !! All the time...

It is located just about 10m (32.5 feet) from the base with a wall in between, and the range on it is better then the CIT 200 I had.
I go just about everywhere at my apartment and even at the balcony, no issues at all (and that means another wall in between the phone and the base and another 10m away)
MY home connection is just a 2mb Cable modem, so for people that got even higher than that will be satisfied.
I have tried it out also at a friend of mine, which has only 512K connection and the results were just about the same.

It keeps and IP for itself all the time, and since I got a Skype In phone line, that just about perfect !!

The speed of the CIT 400 is just awesome when browsing at the menus (something that was quite annoying with the CIT 200, which is in fact on my review of it)...
It's just like a mobile phone, just about any models out nowadays...
You have all sort of controls and advanced that cover just about everything you need. The phone also updates it's firmware and the skype version that comes with it !!

Lots of different ringtones to choose from, a page function at the base which is really good in order to find the phone around the house.

The speakerphone function is perfect.. Sound is very clear and is very handy, just turn it on and leave the phone anywhere, the mic sensitivity will get the work done..
You have even the Mute funtion which can come in handy sometimes..

And I must say I only use this for Skype, but if needed just plug a regular phone line to it as well, and you have a single equipment doing both jobs, something I never tried so far (and must probably never will... ;-)
But it's something that add's up to anyone who might need this on it !
It's been over 3 years now that I do not bother about local phone companies.. Skype always did the job, and with this phone it just shows up that it is here to STAY !

Overall score ?? If the CIT 200 was a 10, this has to be a 100 !
Definatelly the Skype phone to have.. AND I mean it and you won't regret !

Way to go LynkSys !! :-)

I use Skype as my only long-distance service, and wanted to be able to use it without being tethered to my computer by a headset, or if the computer is off. I also use a land line for local calls, and as a backup when my internet connection goes down. Since the CIT400 can handle both skype and a land line, and I don't want two phones on my desk, it seemed like an ideal solution. As Borat would say... NOT. Why? While the sound quality is fine, the phone is extremely inconvenient to use. Some examples of why:

1. Skype allows you to sort your contacts into groups, but the phone doesn't support this. This means a lot of scrolling to get to the name you want if you have a lot of contacts.

2. Scrolling--The above problem wouldn't be so bad if you could quickly scroll down through your list of contacts. But you can't--you have to press the navigation button each time you want it to advance; it won't keep scrolling if you hold it down. Thus if you want to get to the 50th name on your list, you have to click the button 50 times! I've never seen any recent phone work like this, so I called Linksys support to determine if the phone was defective. They seemed to know almost nothing about the CIT400, and after going through the usual manual and then have me hold repeatedly over 20 minutes, they finally confirmed that this is the way the phone was designed, and it is therefore working properly. They then suggested that if I don't like this feature I return the phone and buy a different model, so it looks unlikely that Linksys is planning to correct the problem with a software upgrade.

3. Voicemail: To retrieve a skype voicemail is not too bad, it takes only 3 button presses--as long as you don't make a call or do anything else before retrieving your message. If you do, here it the retrieval procedure you have to go through (from the user guide):
1. Press Menu.
2. Scroll to History. Press Select.
3. Scroll to Voicemails. Press Select.
4. Scroll to Skype VM. Press Select.
5. Scroll to the Skype Voicemail you want to listen to. Press Select.

AND remember that scrolling is one click at a time, no speed scrolling.

Retrieving a landline voicemail is worse:
1. Press Menu.
2. Scroll to History. Press Select.
3. Scroll to Voicemails. Press Select.
4. Scroll to Landline VMWI. Press Options.
5. Scroll to the service provider you want. Press Options. Scroll to Call. Press Select. Wait for voice instruction.

Then, of course, you have to enter your code, which I can find no way to have skype dial automatically. On my regular landline phone, I just press one button, and it dials my voicemail, pauses, and then enters the code.

4. If you answer a skype call via your computer/headset, then decide you want to switch to the phone so you can move around the room while you talk--you can't. In other words, if you don't answer a skype call via the phone, you can't switch to the phone mid-call.

5. As others have pointed out, using the phone in a dark room is tricky; the keys are not transparent, and you can't read them in the dark, as the backlight only illuminates around them.

There is also the continuing problem that many phone tree systems don't reliably recognize the skype dial tones. This is not a flaw of the phone, but of skype itself. Hopefully they will be able to fix this at some point, but they've known about it for at least 2 years, so I'm not holding my breath.

Would I buy this phone again? Absolutely not--better to wait until Linksys gets some interface experts who know how to design user-friendly phones. Would I return it? Yes, but of course to discover all the above I had to open the package and start using the phone, which makes returning it not very cost effective.