netTalk Duo Review

When my husband started working from home two days a week, we knew we needed a second phone line for him, so he wouldn’t be tying up our home phone. We reviewed the Magic Jack about a year and a half ago and it worked well, until a couple of months ago, when there was a driver update for my husband’s computer. Then it just stopped working. More frustrating then that though was the lack of support and customer service that Magic Jack had to get the problem ironed out, and our product working again. Which had us on the lookout for an alternate service.

And this is how we came across netTalk Duo, which in addition to providing VoIP over your computer like Magic Jack, also allows you to use it without a computer.

Installation of netTalk Duo is pretty simple. Both the software and the hardware.

To use it without your computer you need to have a router that has a spare ethernet port. What’s great about this is that you don’t need to keep your computer running 24/7 to have your phone up and running.

But if you still wish to use it with your computer, you just need a USB port and you can use it with or without a telephone, OR you can use it on both, with the router at home and on your laptop when you’re on the go. That’s great news for those that travel frequently.

The quality of the calls are indistinguishable from our regular phone line. There is no fading in or out, no dropped calls or static on the line. We have been using it connected directly to our router though, so the quality using it through the computer may differ.

There are no lack of options with netTalk Duo, you get call forwarding, three-way calling, caller ID, call waiting and of course 911 services with the product. There is also a voice mail feature that uses a .wav file to relay the recorded message to the e-mail address given at setup.

So far it has worked flawlessly for us. It is a bit more expensive than Magic Jack – $69.95 for the device and one year of service, and then $29.95 for each additional year. However, the extra cost delivers both the ability to use it without running your computer and live technical support (which I am hoping should we need it supersedes, Magic Jack’s customer service). NetTalk Duo also has a smartphone app that can be downloaded which in an updated version can be linked with your netTalk phone number.

You can learn more about netTalk Duo at their website, www.netTalk.com.