Xlink BT Bluetooth Gateway - Black

I got rid of my VOIP system a few months ago as my wife and I each have cell phones with unlimited minutes. We rarely used the VOIP so thought we could save some money just using cell phones. We have two homes, one in Florida and the other in Arizona and at times my wife and I are not at the same residence at the same time. In our home in Arizona, we have a Uniden 5.8 GHz phone system with seven wireless phones which I turned off. The Uniden system laid dormant a few months. Using just the cell phone for all your voice application requirements is good in theory but it requires you to keep the phone with you constantly. Can't leave it in the kitchen and go upstairs. You might miss a call. Especially from my wife. Not a good idea! I knew cell phones could connect to other devices using Bluetooth as we use such a connection in one of our vehicles. You can receive and make calls through the vehicle console and speakerphone. Works pretty well and thought I could find something similar for my home and possibly reuse the old wireless Uniden system. So, I searched for a Bluetooth gateway and found the Xtreme Technologies Xlink BT Bluetooth Gateway. Ordered the Xlink BT, received it, followed the simple instructions (pretty idiot proof), connected the legacy Uniden wireless phone system, then paired and connected my T-Mobile myTouch 4G cellphone. Made a call and it worked! My wife then called me, and it worked! The old Uniden works perfectly with this Gateway. Next, I set up my cellphone to use our WiFi internet connection as the primary mobile infrastructure for incoming and outgoing calls. It worked! Now I use my internet to make cell calls! Next, I checked to see if the system links seamlessly when I move out of and back into the Bluetooth connection range. It connects quickly and has not failed me yet. Bear in mind, it's still early and I haven't found any real quirks. I have not tested the range and have not tried to pair and connect two distinct cell phones yet. I will update this review once I have done so. Our legacy Uniden phone system seems to work seamlessly with the Xlink. All the remote phones throughout the house works and the caller ID (passed along from my cellphone phone book) show up on the phone screen. The audio is crisp and clear. No static, no voice lag. So far, so good. By pressing ## you can access the cell phone voice recognition system through your legacy phone and make calls hands free. It works as well. Most impressive. I will continue to update this review as I learn more. So far, it's a five star review. ---------------------------- Quick update on 3/22/2013. Still works well, but have found some minor issues I want to report. 1. If you have two of these devices (1 in each home), the Xlink doesn't seem to "pair" as a distinct device from the other Xlink. So, going from one house to the other with two different Xlink's confuses the device and it won't sync and pair. You have to remove the device setup on the phone, then re-sync, then pair. It's inconvenient and my guess is there is a way to solve this, but it's not apparent and not in the manual. 2. If the device is too far from the cell phone, there will be static. You really need to keep your cell phone close to the Xlink. 3. When the phone rings, use the home phone system (not the cell phone). If you walk too far away from the Xlink with your cell phone in hand, the cell phone pairing starts to fail and all kinds of problems start to occur. Thanks.

When our security company started offering wireless monitoring, we eliminated our landline to save money by using only our cell phones. We first purchased a Cobra Phonelynx because it was cheaper than the Xlink, but from day 1 it had a problem with unpairing itself from my wife's Pantech Breeze II and later developed a problem with both my Samsung AGH-A237 and the ZTE/AT&T F160 I replaced it with, so I returned it and ordered the Xlink. I've been using it for a few weeks now and so far, it's working well. I downloaded XWizard from their website and connected it to a netbook using a USB cable I had lying around. The cable isn't included, but if you don't have one, you can borrow one from a USB printer to complete this step. When I ran XWizard, I found there was a firmware upgrade available and there was a patch available for cell phones which according to Xlink, have a bug in their implementation of Bluetooth that causes them to unpair themselves(the same problem the Pantech had with the PhoneLynx), so I applied that was well. There are also other configuration options that I think should have been set by default. One being Disable DTMF blocking. What DTMF blocking does is once a call is started, the caller can't send tones from the phone keypad through, which means if you call one of those numbers that asks you to "Press 1 for....", with DTMF blocking enabled, you won't be able to do that. Another is add line number to caller ID. Even though Xlink has a distinctive ring for each cell phone, not all landline phones will support this, so having this information on caller ID is nice. So far, the Xlink has worked well, the sound quality is good if the cell phones are close to it, and Bluetooth doesn't constantly unpair itself like the PhoneLynx did. I connected it into my house phone wiring, which requires an extra step that is explained in the manual and in other reviews here, and it works well with both my cordless and wired phones. There is a slight delay when calling out and when receiving a call, it just takes some getting used to. Also when using some services that require I enter touchtones on the phone keypad, it requires entering them a little more slowly than with a landline or directly on a cell phone keypad, again something that takes a little getting used to, but isn't difficult. Among the things I like about the Xlink are the fact it can be configured using a PC and that upgrades and patches can be downloaded and installed on it. My only real dislikes are some of the things that are disabled by default should be enabled, but that is easily fixed using XWizard. The fact I can get the advantages of a cellphone(free long distance, free mobile to mobile, etc.) with the comfort of my landline handsets is convenient. If you want to eliminate your landline to save money, place the Xlink in a place where the cell phones will get the best signal, then connect it to your phones, and you'll barely noticed the difference between cell and landline.