[suess]

This was the earliest hack using tones only recognized by the earliest switches. I doubt if it still works. It was a documentary on tech tv or 60 minutes or something....

[Rivera42]

Originally Posted by JohnWill

Why give it away for free when they can get people lining up to buy them?

Touche'

[sandy72560]

i have had magic jack for a long time and love it! no more long distance bills thats all i use it for. i keep my regular phone service but not the long dis. its great, i tell everyone about it

[Flashback]

Originally Posted by DoubleHelix

The "catch" is that your computer has to always be on and running for the service to work. If the computer isn't on, functioning, with the device/software properly installed and running, you can't make or receive calls.

This is not true! You always have the ability to forward all of your calls to any other number. Plus there are no less than 3 ways to get all voicemail messages. You can call to hear them, listen to them when you return to your computer, and you will also get a e-mail of each voicemail message. Even our cell phone company doesn't do this. We also read somewhere that someone said that you can't use a headset, and this also is not true. You can use any headset with this service

[Dr.Mario]

Yes ive read alllooootttt about this, im getting one in a few months for myself. Read a lot of good things about them, 40 bucks to start, thats 20 for the Jack and 20 for the first year of service, after that its only 20 bucks a year.

[Flashback]

Originally Posted by Dr.Mario

Yes ive read alllooootttt about this, im getting one in a few months for myself. Read a lot of good things about them, 40 bucks to start, thats 20 for the Jack and 20 for the first year of service, after that its only 20 bucks a year.

LOL That's around 41 cents a WEEK You can't touch all of the features that it offers for so little anywhere else. You will love it. Just make sure that you plug it into the computer and not a hub for best results

[abelleba]

Hey guys,

It's been some months now since the release of the Magic Jack service that everyone has been waiting for (March/April). I have to say that now It appears the company might be growing in the wrong direction. Their customer service has been proven to avoid any questions relating how to return the device under their 30 Day Trail period. I would expect a company to uphold their own policies.

It's true that you get what you pay for. You are a cattle if you believe anything else. The Magic Jack service would be beneficial to anyone who does not rely on when their phone service works.

There are plenty of websites out there that go into these details. I would recommend that anyone who currently owns the Magic Jack, or plans on going for the "magical" 30 Day Trail do some research at the very minimum.

Here is an example that might point the people effected into the right direction:

Magic Jack Review Article

If your a person where it's not a big deal if your service is disrupted once and awhile, this might be a great investment for you. It all depends what you want Magic Jack to do for you, and what your expectations are. You always have to consider the worst case scenario when thinking about these kinds of things. Hopefully someone will read this and make the right decision for themselves.

Regards,

[jvic]

I ran into a slight problem with magic jack.......emailed the owner of the company and problem was resolved within fifteen minutes....

[Flashback]

Originally Posted by abelleba

Their customer service has been proven to avoid any questions relating how to return the device

Not true. They even have a form on their website for any returns, so you don't even have to call them. You simply tell them your order number and they will issue a RMA.

The so-called 'review' link posted above is highly biased, probably from someone who works for a competing service There are many misleading and false remarks in it, including but not limited to...

The program needed to keep the phone line open hogs up an immense amount of resources.

Not true. Ours typically uses only 3% and at most about as much as the typical browser uses. Maybe they tested theirs on a really, really, old computer. As far as bandwidth goes, it uses approximately 80 kbps of bandwidth, which is very small and won't interrupt anything.

You should have a dedicated computer running on your network that can be left on at all times.

Not true. You can enable call forwarding and simply use any other phone to take your call. In fact I don't even have MagicJack plugged into our PC and I am still able to take calls from another phone.

you don't need your line running 24/7 and you can live with disruptions of service with the computer is turned off.

See above.

Now there is the obvious issue of network interruptions.

If your internet network system has frequent interruptions, then you need to get a new DSl or broadband service. Don't blame that on products that use the service. Ours has been 100% reliable, even in bad weather.

Do your own review (it costs you nothing) and you will find that the vast majority of people who use this product love it. Consumer Electronics gave it high ratings. PC magazine gave it 4 and a half out of 5 stars and a Editors Choice award. The most surprising endorsement came from QVC, who thoroughly and independently tests products before they even allow them for sale on their network. Similar other high ratings from other REPUTABLE reviewers. QVC even sells it for slightly less.

[abelleba]

Originally Posted by Flashback

Not true. They even have a form on their website for any returns, so you don't even have to call them. You simply tell them your order number and they will issue a RMA.

Examples from other users:
http://discuss.pcmag.com/forums/thread/1004397724.aspx
http://ymax-corp.pissedconsumer.com/...702126024.html
http://voip2u.org/magic-jack-customer-service-numbers

Perhaps they have made changes before the time these chat logs were recorded into these posts and articles? I don't know.

Originally Posted by Flashback

The so-called 'review' link posted above is highly biased, probably from someone who works for a competing service There are many misleading and false remarks in it, including but not limited to...

It's just an example. If you do a search for "magic jack review" on google, the results are not too pretty. Then again, a customer who has a bad experience has more intent to make noise on the net, rather then someone who is happy with their service right?

Originally Posted by Flashback

Not true. Ours typically uses only 3% and at most about as much as the typical browser uses. Maybe they tested theirs on a really, really, old computer. As far as bandwidth goes, it uses approximately 80 kbps of bandwidth, which is very small and won't interrupt anything.

Do you know if there is any documentation supporting this? I am just curious because I was unable to locate any myself when I read your post. I am not denying your claims but was wondering if you might have recorded it somewhere or know where you read about these numbers.

Originally Posted by Flashback

Not true. You can enable call forwarding and simply use any other phone to take your call. In fact I don't even have MagicJack plugged into our PC and I am still able to take calls from another phone.

If you have to have the computer running the software in order to receive the call your only option is to setup call forwarding each time or it goes to straight to voice mail? So if someone only had 1 computer in the home, they wouldn't be able to play any intensive games like WOW, CS, and similar? I guess, this can be answered by confirming the actual CPU and Memory usage of the Magic Jack software, active, & idle modes.

Originally Posted by Flashback

If your internet network system has frequent interruptions, then you need to get a new DSl or broadband service. Don't blame that on products that use the service. Ours has been 100% reliable, even in bad weather.

I would agree with this. However, not everyone is getting a decent speed on their broadband connections anymore. This has to do with the who cable broadband bandwidth sharing method that has to be used by the major cable companies. It might also have to do where you live. I moved to a location built 2 years ago, and for the first time ever, I'm reaching speeds close to what the cable provider claims (4)MB Down. I can only guess this has to do with time. Over time hard-lines are spliced and repaired from natural disasters. Causing leakage and ingress within the network at a slow rate per incident. At my older places I was (lucky) to hit 1.5MB down, and this was in two separate cities. I could be totally wrong about this, it's only a theroy of mine from experince.

Originally Posted by Flashback

Do your own review (it costs you nothing) and you will find that the vast majority of people who use this product love it. Consumer Electronics gave it high ratings. PC magazine gave it 4 and a half out of 5 stars and a Editors Choice award. The most surprising endorsement came from QVC, who thoroughly and independently tests products before they even allow them for sale on their network. Similar other high ratings from other REPUTABLE reviewers. QVC even sells it for slightly less.

I couldn't agree more. This was my initial meaning of my first reply. I probably should have provided more examples but I wasn't paying attention

For others reading. Here are a few more in no particular order. Keep in mind that you really should do some of this on your own.

http://www.measuredup.com/review/I-r...agic-Jack-3434
http://ph.answers.yahoo.com/question...8101746AAsNOi3
http://www.thestuccocompany.com/main...ew-308665-.htm
http://www.getusb.info/magicjack-the-magic-phone-jack/

[Flashback]

Originally Posted by abelleba

Perhaps they have made changes before the time these chat logs were recorded into these posts and articles?

Apparently so, and that's a good thing because it shows they are concerned about customer satisfaction.

If you do a search for "magic jack review" on google, the results are not too pretty.

News flash: if you do a google on ANY product you will find some people that are unhappy. No product has 100% customer satisfaction. The point here though is that the vast majority of people who have actually tried the product ARE HAPPY with it. Not all of those bogus reviews are written by people who have actually tried the product. Some are from competitors and of course they want to scare people into not buying it. It costs nothing to try the product for 30 days so there is no reason for someone not to.

Do you know if there is any documentation supporting this?

No, plug it in and see for yourself. That's always the best way

If you have to have the computer running the software in order to receive the call your only option is to setup call forwarding each time or it goes to straight to voice mail?

Neither.

After you initially install the product and it registers your new phone number it doesn't need your computer to receive calls.

So if someone only had 1 computer in the home, they wouldn't be able to play any intensive games like WOW, CS, and similar?

I don't see why not.

not everyone is getting a decent speed on their broadband connections anymore.

And how exactly is that MagicJacks fault? Contact your broadband provider.

[abelleba]

I'm going to borrow a magic jack dongle from work next Monday or Tuesday. I'm going to take screen shots of the actual usage, CPU and vMemory. Test will be conducted on a Intel 3.0gz, 2GB Ram. Did you expect this kind of system will suffice to a test? I believe the specs of this system are about average to what the current family or home owner is running these days.

I don't think your claims of me or other people that wrote these reviews "work for the competitor". For instance, in some of the examples the main subject of the sites have nothing to do with telecommunications. In the first example I provided (here), the website appears to be mostly about computer stuff. I wouldn't doubt if their were a few, but it's doubtful.

Does anyone know what the exact requirements are for Magic Jack as far as ISP up/down speed. Everyone is saying only 80K. Does this mean 80K when it use or 80K when it's on idle? Their website has the minimum system requirements, but it's unclear with the suggested requirements are to have magic jack work flawlessly.

[TheOutcaste]

Can't hurt to check how much it's going to cost for electricity. Rate per kWh range from a low of 7.06 (WV) cents to a high of 30.13 (HI) cents as of April 2008. National Average is 10.97 cents.
These rates are from the EIA - Official Energy Statistics from the US Government

If you already leave your PC on, say a Media center used as a PVR, you're already paying for the electricity, so it won't make any difference.

Don't forget to adjust these figures to subtract the time you usually have the PC on. If you use the PC 4 hours a day for example, multiply these numbers by 20/24 to see how much additional it will cost to leave the PC running.

Keep in mind even a high end system will use a lot less power when sitting idle; a video card that uses 100 watts drawing 3d images during a game may use less than 30 watts sitting idle.

(Watts X 24 X 365)/1000=kWh/year (Watts X 8.76)
Divide kWh/year by 12 for kWh/month (Watts X 0.73)

    Electricity cost per month
Watts      Low        US       New       High
Used     West Va     AVG     England    Hawaii
$/kWh->  $0.0706   $0.1097   $0.1689   $0.3031
 50       $2.58     $4.00     $6.16    $11.06
100       $5.15     $8.01    $12.33    $22.13
150       $7.73    $12.01    $18.49    $33.19
200      $10.31    $16.02    $24.66    $44.25
250      $12.88    $20.02    $30.82    $55.32
300      $15.46    $24.02    $36.99    $66.38

If you live in one of the more expensive regions, and have a high end system, you could probably justify buying a low end desktop, or even a laptop to dedicate to the magic jack.

And with a 2nd PC on 24/7 you have a handy place to back up your data on a daily basis

The 80kbps is the bandwidth used when active. It's more a function of the particular Codec used to convert the voice signal to VoIP packets than the particular VoIP provider.

you can check your internet connection for VoIP quality here: http://www.testyourvoip.com. Lots of good info there as well. Many other test sites to be found, just google voip test call.

One thing I haven't found is if it supports pulse dialing, or only DTMF. I also can't find what the max Ringer Equivilance Number magicjack supports, or the actual ring voltage it generates. The minimum is 40 VAC by spec, but some of the older analog phones will barely ring at that voltage. They are much happier with 60-90 volts. They do say it works with standard analog phones though. If you have an old Western Electric Model 500 rotary phone laying around, it would be good to see how well it works.


Jerry

[JohnWill]

I can't imagine anything that sips power from the USB connection can generate enough ringing current to ring an old style mechanical ringer! The total power available through the USB jack if 2.5W, 5V @ 0.5A maximum.

[Rivera42]

Originally Posted by abelleba

Their website has the minimum system requirements, but it's unclear with the suggested requirements are to have magic jack work flawlessly.

This reminds me of the flap a couple of Christmases ago over the deceptive "Vista Capable" PC branding. Probably the same sort of thing. Just because a given PC falls within minimum spec doesn't mean it will deliver satisfactory results.

All I'm getting out of any of this is that for anybody foolish enough to throw away their money on this novelty, they still will need a real phone of some sort if they want to make or take any actual calls on any sort of consistent basis.