I. Disclaimer:

Before you move on, we just want to let you know that we are not in any way responsible for the damage that may cause you by following the steps below. The products and the steps work for us, but may not be working for you. Run it at your own risk if you want to follow. By the way, although we'd like to help, we are not liable to do any technical or non-technical support either.

Again, this is just our successful experiment for your reference.

II. What is Skype Gateway, or Skype PBX ?

Skype Gateway is a device which can integrate your existing Office PBX Telephone Network with the Skype Network, such that you can use the existing telephone handsets and equipments to call or receive Skype phone calls in additional to the existing PBX/KTS functions you already have. The benefits of integrating Skype Gateway into your PBX are:

• Cost Saving (SkypeOut rate is very competitive. Calling USA/Canada is free until end of 2006.)
• Reach more potential customers for sales, service, and support.
• Preserve existing telephone network investment.

III. Where does a Skype Gateway fit into our PBX Network ?

See the picture below. The Skype Gateway, or Skype PBX, sits between your Office PBX and the Internet. The links between the PBX and the Skype Gateway are the FXO/FXS ports, and the link between the Internet and the Skype Gateway is the Ethernet port.

IV. What is in this Skype Gateway, and how much does it cost ?

This Skype Gateway is made by any PC with Ethernet port and USB ports running Windows XP Pro. If you want to connect N FXS/FSO  ports from your Office PBX to this Skype Gateway, then you will need to have N USB ports available on the PC.  Plus, you will need to get KMU-30A device (s) for each USB port you are using. The cost of this device is about US $25. Once you have these, you can download the software here to make the SkypePBX working.

So to answer your question, if you want to have 2 Skype Ports, such that you can have 2 external Skype Lines to be shared by the employees, the hardware cost is about US $50 + the cost of the PC.

V. How to setup this Skype Gateway ?

The system has been tested successfully on Windows XP Pro version with two ports only, so let's just assume you are using Windows XP Pro.

Fisrt of all, we will need to install multiple instances of Skypes on this PC. To do this, you will need to register multiple accounts from Skype. You will also need to create multiple Windows XP users, who are using different instances of the Skype. For detailed information, please refer to here.

Let's assume you have created two Shortcuts Skype1 and Skype2 on the Desktop based on the instructions above.

If you want to use 2 USB ports to connect to two FXS/FXO ports on the Office PBX, you will need to have 2 Skype accounts running on 2 different Windows user accounts at the same time. Let's say you run Skype account SkypeUser1 on Windows Users account WindowUser1, and Skype account SkypeUser2 on Windows User account WindowUser2.

After you have setup two Skype Accounts running on the same PC, you are half way done. You can try to call from one account to another account and talk to each other, to make sure both accounts are running correctly and independently.

Once you have achieved this, let's move on.

Let's assume you have already got two KMU-30A devices and you have hooked them from the USB ports to the FXS/FXO ports respectively. Now, you will need to download our SkypeUSB beta software from here. This software is running on Microsoft.Net Framework 1.1.

Unzip the download file to SkypeUSB.exe and TelBoxIF.DLL, then store it to any place in your hard drive. Now, we are going to create two shortcuts for this SkypeUSB.EXE on Desktop. The shortcut SkypeUSB1 launches SkypeUSB.EXE under Windows Account WindowUser1, and the shortcut SkypeUSB2  launches SkypeUSB.exe under WindowUser2 Account. These two shortcuts are corresponding to the Skype1 and Skype2 shortcuts we have just created.

Now let's launch Skype1 and Login to Skype Network as Skype user SkypeUser1. Then launch SkypeUSB1. Once launched, make sure the Device # is 0, then click on Connect Button.

A Skype Window will pop up, asking you if you allow this application to attach to Skype, say yes, the first choice.

Click on button labeled Find My Device, then click button Read, then click button Init Telbox. 

Now let's launch Skype2 and Login to Skype Network as Skype user SkypeUser2. Then launch SkypeUSB2. Once launched, make sure the Device # is 1, then click on Connect Button.

A Skype Window will pop up, asking you if you allow this application to attach to Skype, say yes.

Click on button labeled Find My Device, then click button Read, then click button Init Telbox. 

We are assuming you know how to program your Office PBX/KTS, such that people can click a button on a office phone, to pick one of the FSX/FSO lines and use. Let's assume we have SkypeButton1 and SkypeButton2 on the office phone handsets.

Now push SkypeButton1, dial the following sequence, say *16505551212#, this will make the first FXS Port dial to 1-650-5551212. While you are talking, your co-worker can pick up SkypeButton2 and dial a speed dial number 99 set up by you on Skype, by dialing 99#. This will call a Skype User, say, echo123.

If someone from the Skype Network calls SkypeUser1, the FXS port 1 will pick up, and depending on your Office PBX setting, some phone will ring, or the voice mail system will pickup, or the main switchboard will ring. The caller will be guided to the place via your voice system.

One thing you have to be sure is, these two instances of Skype will need to hook to different USB Audio Devices. In Skype, you can go to Options, and Sound Devices to find out.

VI. Troubleshoot Skype Gateway

The product is still under constant improvement and development. At this point, not much help you can use except the followings:

To make it easy to diagnose, it is a good idea to know which USB port is the port #1, which is supposed to hook to Skype1/SkypeUSB1; and which USB port is port #2, which is supposed to hook to Skype2/SkypeUSB2.

There are two dialog windows showing messages on the progress of the SkypeUSB.exe. The left hand side one shows the status of the communication between Skype and SkypeUSB.exe; the right hand side one shows the status of the communication between the KMU-30A box and the SkypeUSB.exe.

When you pick up the Skype line, there is no dial tone - we haven't implement that yet, but you can just go ahead to dial.

VII. Skype Server - Run multiple Skype Handsets on a Single PC.

Home users do not have Office PBX. But home user can use the steps above to setup a Skype Server to hold multiple Skype Lines on a Single PC. The only difference between the Skype Gateway and the Skype Server is: the KMU-30A Tel ports are connecting to the wired or wireless phone handsets, instead of FXS/FXO ports. 

If you have multiple Skype accounts for your family members, and you don't want to leave all the PCs on just for calling and receiving Skype phone calls, you can setup this Skype Gateway as a Skype Phone Server, to hook your wired or wireless phones to this SkypePBX via KMU-30A, and turn off all other PC's which are standing-by for Skype incoming calls.