I have a Skype Belkin Phone that I use with my landline business number [443-393-6650]. The thing is- it is almost always connected to one of four dedicated ethernet lines available on the Verizon Internet router I use for broadband support. The phone is physically located on a night table in my bedroom. [The router is located in an upstairs office-- which is also where I have a desktop Mac and Windows 98 platform.] I ran a long ethernet cable through the wall between the office and my bedroom.

Before I ordered, first the headset and then the Speaker/Mic connector cable from Amazon-- I played around with using the Belkin Skype phone with my wireless netbook and the ethernet port. I got the phone in the Spring of 2010 I think. I wanted to use the phone downstairs during the day-- and still do not have an ethernet line available from the router to any of the lower floors. The netbook, sort of a router for the phone.

Shown below, the PC Skype application in a window, the headset and the connector to use with the netbook.

Actually when I use the setup [shown above], I connect the output sound to hidden pc speakers so I can hear the phone when it rings when I am away from my pc. But it took awhile to get the right equipment because I thought the headset was PC ready [double connectors]-- so I played around with using the phone with my wireless netbook-- downstairs where I often work. I was able to get it to work-- but it was kind of intermittent and I used a bridge connection.

This was before October 2010 when a virus caused me to install a new version of the operating system [obtained from the Microsoft site]. It took me awhile to get it to work and as I said-- it was not always consistent. I think this is because my PCs are shipped to me-- and they may have things they should not have on them.

Anyway in October 2010 I overwrote the original operating system so last night when I was playing around with the phone again-- I was able to get it setup without much effort. Here is a photo of the phone connected to the ethernet port on the netbook.

This time, rather than a bridge connection I simply set the Wireless Internet Connection to allow for sharing-- as shown in the following illustration:

Under Network Connections double-click on your Wireless Network Connection icon. It setup quickly.

I can also use the headset with my Macbook-- but since I keep so much of my software on my Macbook-- I seldom leave the Internet Connection active when I am not using it and therefore do not use Skype with that platform. Yes-- I do block directories and do not keep important things at the system level-- also blocking all sharing options under System Preferences-- however I am very cautious about my Macbook. It simply has too much on it. I also keep backups offline. But I provide this to explain why I seldom use Skype with my Macbook and for whatever reason-- I have not had much luck using the Belkin phone with the ethernet port on the Macbook.

I can use Skype wherever I am that also has access to broadband using the headset, however I seldom use broadband away from my home network. Last week, I posted a blog post to this blog from the Hanover location of Panera Bread-- but before that I cannot remember the last time I was on external broadband system. Probably last summer when I was checking something-- [how my sites looked using someone else's IPs].

Post a blog post away from my home network? I was feeling a little daring last week-- but it was done with the Netbook. I do not keep anything I cannot afford to lose on the netbook.. the Macbook is an entirely different story-- however I have setup software development platforms on the netbook-- in case something goes wrong with the Macbook.

This post, I simply wanted to show how to connect a VOIP phone to an ethernet port on a Netbook platform using Windows-- and explain somethings about my Skype access. It is with me 24 hours a day.. I seldom get calls to 443-393-6650. FBI- I think this business number is being blocked. It should not be blocked.