Magic Jack. Yeah, or Nay?

It's cheap..Most of my Voice comm happens on my Cell phone.
I have Charter VOIP phone service now..55 bucks a month, for about 5 calls..silly really.
This would be 20 bucks per year, correct?
I don't use my house phone much at all any more. I have an available PC to dedicate to it.
So, has anyone used it? Did you throw it away, or are you still using the thing.

For those who are wondering.
It's this thing.
www.magicjack.com...

Users, or ex-users, please chime in and don;t be embarrassed that you bought an AsSeenOnTV item...

#### YEAH!!!!!!111!1!

Mom uses it to call teh US F-O-R F-R-E-E (only had to pay $10 to get a phone number). And believe me when I say it came in very handy when my uncle visited and had to make a lot of calls back home.

*If you have broadband internet connection the quality will be on par with the standard.
*People can actually call you on the number.

I haven't had it for a year yet so the only thing I'm not sure of if there's a fee/year.

The source listed below may help.

A friend of mine gave these out as gifts to his family members with positive feedback.

Snippet from source www.telemarketingfromhome.com...
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Magic Jack Pros & Cons

Pros

You cannot beat the price and associated cost savings. Compare $19.95 a YEAR to the $25.99 per MONTH charged by Vonage or $29.99 or more per MONTH by your cable or phone company. Save $500 or more per year and get rid of your monthly phone bill.
It's portable. Take it with you when you travel and use it anywhere you have a high speed Internet connection, even when traveling internationally.
You can even send Magic Jack to family and friends in other countries. Then they will be able to make and receive calls to or from any U.S. or Canadian phone number for free.
You can make calls directly from your computer using a USB headset instead of using a telephone handset if you prefer.
Ease of installation. We plugged the Magic Jack in and it installed itself flawlessly under Windows Vista, Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Professional.
Unlimited Local & Long Distance Calling (At NO additional cost.)

Cons

When your power or Internet connection are down, you will be without phone service. Of course this is not a shortcoming of Magic Jack alone. This is true of any digital phone service.
Magic Jack will not work with Satellite based Internet connections.
You will be assigned a new phone number in the area code of your choice when installing your Magic Jack and setting up service. Not all area codes are available. Check this list to see if your area code is available.

Conclusion

Magic Jack delivers on its promise of crystal clear calls, provided your Internet connection is the right combination of speed and quality. We suggest at least 500 Kbps upload speed and 60% Quality of Service (QOS) for excellent call quality. (To test your Internet connection speed and quality, visit the link provided in this review.) Of course, the real test is to try the product. Fortunately Magic Jack has a free 30-day trial offer if you order online. They do take your credit card information, but you are not charged for 30 days. Return the product any time during the 30 days and you are not charged. So really nothing to lose. Try it before you buy it. We recommend taking advantage of the free 30-Day trial of the Magic Jack.

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I've had mine for over 2 years. My wife is deeply involved in the cat-rescue "business" (more like an extremely expensive hobby, really)--so the house phone is either in use or "reserved" about 18 hours a day. So I got this thing, and I love it. Have my own phone number, caller ID, free long-distance, great quality; and cheaper'n dirt. And, as the review says, you can take it with you wherever you have an internet connection.

One caveat: Use it only with a wired connection to your router. If you try to use it on a wireless-connected machine you'll get a really annoying echo.

Otherwise, you just can't beat it....

If you're a heavy Internet user (gaming or downloading) then it is a pass....it will static if you're torrenting, if the call transmits voice at all. Same with gaming over something like xbox live. Basically I had to stop everything Internet related to use it and I have a very good (1 step below wideband) and it acted up. You can NEVER get rid of the on-screen window/caller ID. You cannot send faxes using it. You must keep your pc on and running to keep it working, if your screen saver goes on, then you might get one long non ending ring (see 2 minutes of one ring) and still not be able to answer the call with the caller going to voicemail. On the off chance you can answer the incoming call, you'll say hello about 12 times before they hear you.

Here's what I think it would be good for......kids who want their own phone, people traveling overseas, people wanting a second line from a cell phone, people who have to chose between a phone and Internet, parents who think the Internet is a new fangled contraption (see can only email and Facebook and has bajillions of viruses cause they download every attachment)

I personally would loop off my ears before using it again. I jumped to vonage. It costs more a month, but is worth it, doesn't hog bandwidth, doesn't require pc on or even a pc. Doesn't install software. The calls work, even while downloading and playing games across the Internet.

That was the long answer. Short answer is STAY AWAY

In all honesty its a nice thing to have when you don't really feel like paying for a home phone bill that often. If you're a heavy internet user (like me), it should be fine, unless you have pretty bad internet. The only problem I find with this device is the software that comes along. It's quiet annoying.

We got one. Used it a few times and then dumped it.

Because we're outside the area codes they serve, we couldn't get a number with our area code.Didn't find this out until we had bought it of course... We had to take the closest area code... so for my husband to call me from downstairs in his office was a long distance call. Grr.

Secondly, there was a delay when talking with someone. That really bugged me!

Thirdly, we don't make that many long distance calls, so it didn't really save us much.

We have a long membership, so if we need it, we can hook it back up.

If you talk long distance and don't mind a delay, I think it's a great deal. (The delay may not happen with everyone)

Can't comment on MJ but i use a competitor called nettalk(NT). The crappy part about mj is that you need a dedicated PC for service. With NT you just power it up, plug in your ethernet (need a dedicated high speed connection of course) and off you go (no PC required). As some have indicated if you torrent you will most likely introduce jitter because there is no quality of service controls. Otherwise free long distance, voicemail and complete portability for a few bucks a month. Porting is not yet available, who cares choose the closest area code and get on with life.
Highly recommended.

brill

Thanks for all the feedback.
We're probably going to try it out.
But this Nettallk sounds interesting too. I'll research it.
Seriously 1 percent of my calls are landline, maybe a little more..the rest are cell phone.
I don't serve up any data, And Right now I have 12MB connection soon to be 25.

reply to post by brill


been reading up on the net talk device.
The idea is definitely an improvement over the magic jack, just for the fact that it operates as a standalone device.
OR connected to a PC. It's effectively replacing the VOIP I just canceled two days ago (Charter Cable).
The price is higher than the magic jack. But you aren't running a PC 24/7 so there would be monthly power savings.
It's 10 bucks more per year, which really isn't much,,,

Still reading..Checking out the VOIP message boards..Just to see he kind of gripes that show up.
Usually it sounds like user error, or extremely high expectations for a really cheap device.
Thanks for mentioning this other device....Now that we're without a land line, I hope to decide pretty soon.

As for other ways to save money..I just dumped Most of my DIrecTV services..In favor of a Wireless Blue-ray, and a netflix Subscription. They Blue Ray player was a Vizio Model for 138 bucks...Wireless built-in.
Beware the phrase Wi-Fi ready..there was a Sony for the same price...But then you had to add the wireless dongle.
Took me under 30 minutes to get the Vizio online..And it's working great on Wi-Fi..

MY net monthly savings for the Phone replacement, and the Blue Ray with Netflix (7.99 per month), will be about 110 bucks (we had a lot of movie channels)...

Wow, how time flies.
I asked the original question in March of 2011.
Anyway, I went with the Nettalk Duo. Within a couple weeks of asking the question
Plugged it into the router. Went online to their site to get a phone number assigned, also had to answer a couple of questions to get 911 to work properly. And the was that. Moved the House phone wire from the old Charter box to the Nettalk box to make all the house jacks live,.and that was that. No problems since. Unless internet was down.

Now, Magic Jack has made available a Magic Jack plus...Which does NOT require a computer, unlike the original MJ.

Originally posted by spacedoubt
Wow, how time flies.
I asked the original question in March of 2011.
Anyway, I went with the Nettalk Duo. Within a couple weeks of asking the question
Plugged it into the router. Went online to their site to get a phone number assigned, also had to answer a couple of questions to get 911 to work properly. And the was that. Moved the House phone wire from the old Charter box to the Nettalk box to make all the house jacks live,.and that was that. No problems since. Unless internet was down.

Now, Magic Jack has made available a Magic Jack plus...Which does NOT require a computer, unlike the original MJ.

Good stuff . Yes MJ has since come out with a competing service that no longer requires a dedicated PC. I'm sure it's fine as well but nettalk was there when I purchased. Its a great service, the problems I've had dealt more with my Internet connection which, ultimately, any new VoIP service depends on.

The only thing to watch is uploading (ie. if you torrent). Depending on the level of Internet service you have it can impact voice quality as upload rates are typically much smaller. Otherwise it's cheap and works well

brill

reply to post by brill


Actually You're the person who steered me in that direction. So thanks!

BTW, I have updated my router. To a Vizio...Yes the TV company...It's got a lot of nice features. N-Dual band (5 and 2.4GHZ) , With special routing for Vizio apps, which i run on my Blu-Ray player. Also a port for Shared media, like a USB Hard drive.

Vizio is kind of a new entry into networking and such...But ever since Sony Screwed me over so badly...This is me fighting back..

Plus, the router was 45 bucks....so far so good.

and Brill, check your inbox...