my wish list for iTalkBB

Do I have a wish list for iTalkBB? Well, I do. But so far it has been short.

(a) I wish their adaptor would not only have build-in router function (as in Linksys SPA2102 model), but also have wireless access point support. Two's a company; Three (modem + voip box + wap) is definitely a crowd.

(b) With the exception of a few countries such as China, USA and Canada, iTalkBB charges users, although at a fairly low rate, for calls to mobile phones in international destinations. My second wish is for iTalkBB to include those destinations free of charge, so that I don't have to care about whether my callee is using a land line or not.

I have also heard other users' complaint about not have a voice mailbox. It doesn't bother me much since I already have an answer machine. But I could see it could be a valuable feature to some.

That's it. I'll add to the post if I find something else.

If you can live with that, here is the link to sign up iTalkBB. Use promotion code 953110 to save an additional $10.

iTalkBB's iTalkFreedom promotion expiring soon

In an earlier post, I mentioned one of the pleasant surprises I discovered after I signed up with iTalkBB -- iTalkFreedom service. With iTalkFreedom, you can get two additional China phone numbers and bind them to two cellphone numbers of your choice. Your family and friends in China can reach you by cellphone as if they were dialing a local number. You can also make international calls from your cellphone by dialing one of the following number first.

• (323) 908-8701
• (646) 682-0300
• (832) 631-3081

After the call is connected, you may then dial 1 for English or 2 for Chinese, followed by the destination number. The iTalkFreedom service offers first 200 minutes FREE each month. After that, it charges 2.2 cents/minute for outgoing calls to China and 3.5 cents/minute for incoming calls from your China phone number. It is very convenient indeed!

But the iTalkFreedom promotion is expiring soon. By the end of the month (Jun 30th, 2007), the 200 free minutes is gone. Hurry up to catch this benefit while it lasts, with promotion code 953110 at sign up for another $10 off. You'll get all the great deals from iTalkBB and iTalkFreedom.

iTalkBB Global Unlimited Plan

iTalkBB global unlimited plan offers free calls to China, United States and Canada. For most users, it is enough. Some others may need to call people in besides these three countries. I for one have a brother-in-law who studies in Australia and we call each other occasionally. iTalkBB does offer free calls to 20+ countries and regions including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Vatican City. However, most of the above do not include mobile phones. Although the calling rate to mobile phone in those counties are fairly low, you'd better check it out (here) to avoid any surprises in your phone bill.

3-way call in iTalkBB

iTalkBB supports 3-way calling --you can add a third party to your conversation at anytime. It is quite easy to use.

1. Press flash button or the hook switch to place the first party on hold.
2. Wait a couple of seconds untill you hear the dial tone -- you would hear three short tones followed by the dial tone.
3. Dial the number of the third party -- when the third party answers, you may have a conversation with him/her while the other party is on hold.
4. Press flash button or the hook switch again to join all parties.

That's it. Happy teleconferencing!!

iTalkBB on dwnews.com

There was an article recently on dwnews.com covering an interview with iTalkBB senior executives. If you read Chinese, you will find the story on how was iTalkBB founded while the four founders were playing double tennis in year 2003. In short four years, this company has grown to a multinational corporation with more than 2 million subscribers all over the world, The four founders, Jack Zhao (president and CEO), Sizhen Wang (VP in marketing and sales), Tong Wei (VP in customer service) and Jinhui Sun (senior executive officer) are now still taking care of the business operation of iTalkBB in its four divisions located at Austin Texas, Washing DC, Shanghai, and Beijing. About the name of iTalkBB, Zhao says, that iTalk stands both for Internet Talk and for "I" ,as the first person, -talk, which is a coincidence to apple's i-series, and BB comes from the BroadBand icon, Yahoo! BB. With the emphasis on technology and customer service, and of course great deals such as $10 promotion code 953110, iTalkBB is destined to leading VoIP provider in the world.

free online movie and tv series for iTalkBB users

As mentioned in an earlier post, there was a pleasant surprise when I signed up with iTalkBB -- free VideoPark access. It is really a pity that iTalkBB did not put up any active advertising campaign about this great benefit... As a partner to iTalkBB, VideoPark offers online movie and TV series free of charge to iTalkBB users. They have a good selection of recent Chinese movies and popular Chinese TV series. It may not mean much to an American user who doesn't speak Chinese. But to me, this is really a huge plus. I had watched more than 50 hours of video since I discovered this service. Here is a sample of the titles that are available at VideoPark.

Now you've found another reason to sign up with iTalkBB. Besides you can get another $10 discount for iTalkBB using promotion code 953110.

Advanced iTalkBB hardware setting

If you have a wireless access point (WAP) or have more than one computers at home, you would connect your WAP or multi-port router with the iTalkBB VoIP box (Linksys SPA2101). Now you have two options.

(a)
Cable/DSL modem
|
VoIP Box ---> telephone
|
WAP/Router ---> PC

(b)
Cable/DSL modem
|
WAP/Router --> PC
|
Voip Box ---> telephone

Option (a) is suggested in the installation guide. If you don't need to run a more advanced home network, this is the way to go. The pros are easy to setup, and the potential for the vo-ip box assigning higher priority to voice traffic over competing data traffic. However, you need to contact the iTalkBB technical support if you would like to have some specific port-forwarding (e.g., port 80) enabled. The login information attached in the installation guide does not give administrator privilege required for such settings.

Option (b) gives more flexible control on the home network setup. However, one needs to be more knowledgeable in setting up the network IP addresses and configuring port-forwarding properly. The best way to do so is to bind a static IP address to the vo-ip box by the mac address and set incoming port forwarding of the iTalkBB required ports (5060, 6802, 16384-16482) to that IP address. It's not very hard to do, but you should only use this setup when you know what you are doing.

If you are considering taking advantage of iTalkBB's latest promotions, remember to use promotion code 953110 to get a bonus $10 or sign up HERE.

Linksys SPA2102 VoIP box

When you sign up with iTakBB (Don't forget using promotion code 953110 to save $10), you will receive a pre-configured Linksys SPA2102 VoIP box in post mail. It comes with an installation guide, which is very easy to follow. All you need to do is to connect your devices as the picture shown below. If you have a wireless access point (WAP), you may connect it to the Ethernet port (where the computer is).

For those who choose SPA1001 box, you need a router connecting your cable/DSL modem to your SPA1001 box.

The only tricky thing happens when you try a power cycle: you need to turn off the cable or DSL modem and keep it off for 1-3 minutes before you try turning it back on. This would ensure the routing/registration status stored in the network properly time-out. A little patience would pay off.