Magic Jack-phone

[DaMulta]

Anyone have one of these? I bought one today, but I have not turned it on yet.

I plan to wire into the house wiring for an all around usage. Instead of right in front of the computer. Of course I will have to cut the lines from the house.....in which I will be getting DSL. So I guess, 2 wires for DSL, and then cut the other 2 coming in from the phone company to stop back feed. Then wire the Magic Jack in for phone service using a home sever to power it. not bad 40USD you get the device, and then along with it a years worth of phone service. I'm just wondering if I'm going to need to install a DB amplifier to get it to push threw the whole house.....

 

[Assassin48]

I think fits has one

I always seen the comercial all the time and thought it was fake, would like to see how it works for you

 

[BroBQ]

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/majic-jack-c89272.html

Your PC must be on at all times and it installs a ton of junk on the PC that is a night mare to remove.

 

[Mussels]

what is this magic jack?

 

[BroBQ]

http://www.magicjack.com/1/index.asp

 

[Mussels]

oh so its a cheap ass VOIP phone, where they profit by filling your PC with tons of crapware

i get that anyway, 10C untimed to any landline in AU... $0 a month plan. i think mines better

 

[BroBQ]

yea, exactly... you are paying for adware/spyware to be installed on your PC

I have seen this also cause problems with the registry. It's not worth it!

 

[Mussels]

you know what i'd do
install it to a VMware, or on a shitty spare pentium 3

 

[hat]

I am a proud owner of a pentium 3

Yeah, my uncle uses this. He was using it on a single core with 1gb ram. When the computer was in use (cpu load) the voice quality was very shitty. Once he upgraded to dual core the voice quality improved dramatically... but it still only had 1GB ram, so when I would go over and play BF2 w/ him any time a phone call came in it took like 2 minutes for BF2 to minimize and the phone to be useable. The phone would just ring solid for like a minute until BF2 started to minimize.

In short, only use it on dual core (or better) systems with 2GB ram, if the computer is going to be used. Single core with less than 2gb ram, blah, unless if it can be used as a dedicated phone machine, it's fine.

 

[twilyth]

I have it as a spare phone line - to give out for shit where I don't actually want to hear from anyone (you know who you are - kidding ).

I have malwarebytes and Avira installed and I'm reasonably sure that there isn't any spyware.

What annoys me is that it adds 2 new drive letters. One is for a CD and I forget what the other one is for. When you boot up, it takes anywhere from 45-90 seconds for the software to fully load and in the process it keeps grabbing focus. It's not really a bit deal unless you reboot a lot though. Definitely not something to install on your benching rig.

I wouldn't use it for a primary line, but it's ok for a backup, like if you don't have unlimited cellular time or you're always draining you're battery.

Really, if you want reliability, you have to go with POTS (plain old tele serv). For bare bones, refugee-type service, it's less than $15/month, but don't plan on calling further away than a couple blocks. Incoming calls are OK, but there might be some time restrictions - don't remember. Your local telco will be happy to talk to you about it. It's not like they have anything better to do. :shadedshu

For a primary line that is as reliable as your cable service (if that's your ISP), I would recommend ITP (note: use this link - i googled them once and ended up at clone site). They have a black/white list feature. So if there is one telemarketer that is pissing you off, just turn on the feature and add them to the black list. You can't imagine how satisfying it is to shitcan some of these douche bags. It's a kind of joy that is . . . just indescribable.

 

[1Kurgan1]

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/majic-jack-c89272.html

Your PC must be on at all times and it installs a ton of junk on the PC that is a night mare to remove.

It installs pretty much a virtual caller ID that has ads that flash on it. I have a Magicjack, it's not bad, def worth the price. But you will lag on calls when your are DL'ing, and sometimes have random call issues. Also make sure its not on your gaming PC it will minimize your game

I put it on my gf's PC and let her deal with it

 

[DaMulta]

O it shall be on it's own machine, and I plan on getting 12Mb DSL. Basically I plan on having a PC that is dedicated to just this alone. Set the priority level for the CPU load to high for it, and kill off all other services.

 

[twilyth]

O it shall be on it's own machine, and I plan on getting 12Mb DSL. Basically I plan on having a PC that is dedicated to just this alone. Set the priority level for the CPU load to high for it, and kill off all other services.

That sounds like a good idea for an old Linux box as long as it's low power draw. Or maybe an Atom ITX/mini-ATX box.

 

[1Kurgan1]

O it shall be on it's own machine, and I plan on getting 12Mb DSL. Basically I plan on having a PC that is dedicated to just this alone. Set the priority level for the CPU load to high for it, and kill off all other services.

I wouldn't worry too much draw on the processor, the only reason to put it on a non-main PC is just so it doesn't minimize what your doing. Vut if you got the extra PC go for it, 12Mb DSL might not get lag while DL'ing, I'm not sure though, I'm only on 1Mb Cable, so your phone might run a lot smoother.

 

[Soparik2]

on 10Mb cable i dont see lag and what we did in my house is get a 5pc cordless phone set with the main base connected to the magic jack and the rest are spread around the whole house
it works fine for our needs and we didnt have to wire the whole house

 

[CDdude55]

I hear it actually works.

 

[newtekie1]

It works, but I prefer Vonage. Just overall a better experience, more expensive though too, but still a lot cheaper than a land line. Plus you don't have to have a computer running 24/7, the entire service is run by a box that is no bigger than a Caller ID box(and it serves as a caller ID box also).

To get it running through the whole house, I just had to disconnect my landline from the wiring in the basement, and plug the box into one of my unused phone jacks in the house. I would assume the Magic Jack would be similar, I don't think you would need an amplifier to get the signal through the whole house, but I could be wrong, the Vonage box might put out a more powerful signal than the Magic Jack. I never tried it when I had my magic jack, I wasn't too happy with the serivice so I switched to Vonage before getting rid of my land line wiring it to the whole house.

Magic Jack really fucked with Skype on the machine it was on, though that would be an issue if you are installing it on a dedicated machine. And I don't know if this is just a problem with the machine I was using it on, or something that happens a lot, but when I was making a call with the Magic Jack if I would type on the computer I could hear each key stroke as a very tiny pop and moving the mouse caused the same pops but in very rapid sucession(both keyboard and mouse were USB based). Appearently the person on the other end that I was talking to couldn't hear them, only I could, so I'm thinking it was some kind of USB interference issue with the Magic Jack.

 

[KainXS]

I had it, its decent but leaving my pc on all day and night is not for me

also, they have horrible customer support

I also had a problem where I would have it in and when I tried to burn a cd it would get knocked off, so I would have to restart the pc to get it back on

 

[Mussels]

you guys just need to buy an ATA and get whoever the best VOIP provider is in your country.

plugs into ye olde router via ethernet, no need for a PC, no adware, no hassle.

 

[twilyth]

I had Vonage for a few years. For voice it was generally ok, but forget about any kind of fax/data transmission. I had an old ReplayTV unit that needed to dial out and it constantly failed. Faxes would go through maybe 20% of the time. But this is 4 or 5 years ago.

For me, their service deteriorated over time. I got a landline for faxes. I dial toll-free number for a cheap calling card so there are no toll charges. Transmission was iffy, but it's gotten better and I always have the option of eating the telco charges if I have to. Basic service is around $13/month but that gets you very local numbers and toll-free plus the copper wires. That's it.

Finally the quality was so consistently bad that I had to ditch them. Customer service existed, but obviously they didn't help me. I drew the line at re-wiring my network to trouble shoot the problem.

 

[JrRacinFan]

Since having MagicJack and even though it's not a dedicated machine, that pc barely gets use. I couldn't find any kind of spyware. We live in an apartment and have a cordless with extension base. So 2 handsets, one base and can truly take the phone whereever we want within the first 2 floors of the complex.

 

[MKmods]

I use it too.
And like others said it has a few faults, but for $19 for a year its worth it to deal with them.
(I run mine on my Lego comp(atom 330) 24/7 and notice some probs at times with clarity, Vonage was much clearer. But for the $$ I will survive)

 

[AKlass]

I have it and it works. I installed it on my dad's laptop and it seems to use anywhere from 1-1.5mbps when talking. I barely use it and want to build an atom to run it so I can leave it on 24/7.
Ps. 1-900 numbers are blocked

 

[Deleted member 74752]

I have it and use it occasionally. Vonage and Comcast are clearer, but for the money it is a great buy especially for long distance calls. No problems ever detected as far as spyware and such...

 

[Mussels]

I have it and it works. I installed it on my dad's laptop and it seems to use anywhere from 1-1.5mbps when talking. I barely use it and want to build an atom to run it so I can leave it on 24/7.
Ps. 1-900 numbers are blocked

1.5Mb? jesus.

my VOIP software uses 8Kb or 64Kb depending on the codec i chose