Magicjack

[craftypam]

On another thread someone posted about magicjack. Do you have this or did you have this and what are the pros and cons. Thanks. Sure sounds frugal to me!

[freebs]

I have a friend that had it and couldnt get a local number plus the echo in the phone was pretty bad so she got rid of it but i think it may differ by area too!

[porembam]

I heard about this on cnbc - they said it was a free phone but it seems to only call out - I don't know if you can receive calls - anyone know?

[freebs]

you can receive calls in but you have to have your computer online to get the calls otherwise they go to voice mail!

[Greebo]

magic jack

magic jack <- specific info about business practices of magic jack

[CYork]

I HATED the Magic Jack. It dropped my calls all the time. Further, there would frequently be this weird echo sound. We threw it away.

In its place I purchased an Ooma from Costco (also sold at Best Buy and Amazon) for around $200. Although it was a bigger investment than the stupid Magic Jack, the Ooma works GREAT. I've had no problems with it at all.

I just plugged it into my modem and it was ready to go. There is no monthly fee, only an $11 YEARLY fee for taxes. I can handle that. I never heard of it before I searched for fixes for the MJack and read many positive reviews for the Ooma. I'm spreading the word because of my extreme satisfaction with this product.

Since I bought it from Costco I felt there was nothing to lose since I could return it to them at any time if I ever wanted to. Two thumbs up for the Ooma...

[BeachFun]

I just purchased the Magic Jack. I've been using if for 2 weeks and have been pretty safisifed. You can receive incoming calls as well as make outgoing calls. There is sometimes an echo but it's not too bad. I've had that with my regular phone at times. The only down side is remembering to use the area code for all outgoing calls even local calls. Overall I give Magic Jack a thumbs up.

[HandyMom]

For my Dad who only uses it to call out to his GF occasionally, it's fine. He still has his regular land line so all he's saving on is long distance phone calls. He doesn't receive calls on it. I also heard it is a long distance phone number that you get and everyone who tries to call you will have to pay for a long distance phone call. I considered it but then someone I knew in my area said it didn't work well for them. We're all looking for ideas on how to drop the landline but keep the broadband and still have a phone but so far, they've got u one way or another out here in this rural area.

[angieadams]

I have had a magic jack now for 2 years. I LOVE mine!! There are updates that have made it better recently than when I first purchased it.

I have a Vtec cordless phone from walmart, and have it hooked into the magic jack. You do have to have fast internet service to get the best quality clear calls.

Noone I ever talk to has a clue i'm on an internet phone talking to them. For 20 bucks a year, your really missing out on a great deal.

[lobadshah]

We sent our majic jack to our family outside of the country. We are now saving 30 dollars a month in long distance phone calls!!! For us.... this has been a big money saver, almost as much as eliminating cable.... and as an added bonus, we can talk to them for hours and more frequently.

[maxhuey]

according to MJ TOS, if you talk too much (20% above average users??), they can and will cut you off PERMANENTLY & without warning. Some users paid for the 5 years and got cut off without refund...

I am early adapter for MJ, don't use the phone often enough so not much complaint. From my few years of experience with MJ, most problems stemmed from the user's computer not able to handle that task. One should also check the line to see if it can handle VOIP properly. You might be surprised!

test site (no space): h t t p : / / w w w.voipreview.org/voipspeedtester.aspx

As of late, I bought TK6000 ( new version = DUO) from Nettalk, cost $30 a year and plug directly into the modem or router so no computer is needed. Voice quality is better than MJ and they have apps for smartphone too. Don't have the link to their site but you can google them...

Cheers, max

[SwirlyThing]

I've used magicjack for almost 2 years now. You have to have the computer on and the appication running to make and receive phone calls. Occasionally, the application quits and nobody notices and you won't get your calls... they do go to your voicemail though. There have been times when call quality was poor, but most of the time it's just fine.

After about 1.5 years, the actual appliance that plugs into the computer quit working correctly, they sent me a new one free of charge.

Customer service is ONLY online via chat. Though I've never had to wait to talk to someone, and they've always been able to help me.

I like the service. We don't use it solely, we also have cell phones, but get rotten reception in the house with the cell phones. I will continue to use them and think it's a good value for the money.

[meredithah]

I've always been curious about this, and they are pretty cheap on eBay - I'm going to bid on one and see how it works...

[katholc]

I actually had Magicjack twice, the first time with DSL and the second time with cable interent. It worked fine with DSL, no echo, no dropped calls or anything like that. It wouldn't work at all with cable internet. The echo was horrible.
I have no idea why. I do recommend though if you're going to buy it, buy it from a place you can return it if it doesn't work for you.
Magicjacks online customer service is seriously lacking.

[MrMom]

We have had magicjack for 9 months now so far only a few minor problems, but overall for the $20 for the unit and $20 per year for the service it is so worth it.

Had some initial issues with low volume, this google search (linked) turned up a thread about how to resolve that and it worked for us.

And we too experienced a weird echo sound, we read a comment (again via google search) that fixed the problem

Right click the icon in the bottom corner and turn down the volume for the speakers and microphone all the way. It's looping back into itself.

which did work for the echo issues!

We have att uverse internet and have their medium package, have been considering dropping that package to the lowest one but am wondering if this would cause issues with the magicjack.

We plugged ours into a back bedroom pc then from the pc into the wall jack, this in effect made all our house jacks "live" so now we have phones all over.

That pc sits in sleep mode no monitor on even, yet very very rarely do we even find ourselves having to restart it (once a month at most).

I have heard many good and bad comments about magic jack but for what we have paid for regular phone service in the past (which still had it's problems too) vs this cost vs cost I am sold on the magicjack.

Bill