EggXpert

Thought I would start a thread on MagicJack.  I recently switched over.  Pretty happy.  The FAQs on their web site are fairly complete and good.  Curious to see what other users think. 

Right now my only squawk is that I've noticed that while incoming voice quality is quite good (IMO) the outgoing quality is "not so much"....I heard some clicking and digitization effects (momentary/syllable drop out).  The clicking bothers me the most.  I'm using the same cordless (Panasonic KX-TG5432 .. a 5.8 GHz digital).

My DSL download speed is 2.6 Mbps and my upload is 0.43 Mbps.

Well...here goes.  Maybe this will be a place to spread the wealth of information and insights.

PH

Well for me even though I am on the PC allot I would not really use it, the power bills here are high enough considering the average power bill here is over $400 per month. So instead I use my cable provider for the phone, and quite happy with it for only 15.99 per month. And really do not want to rely on a PC and have it on 24/7/365 for just a phone call. But that is my take on it. The good part would be shut it down so that no one can call in when you do not want to be disturbed.

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I have had one of these for 19 months or so now.  Incoming is good as I can hear everything the same as a regular landline though I can tell if I have a internet hickup as the person on the other side's voice will sound like a skipping record for a second or 2 and if it is a bad internet hickup it sounds like a continuous stuttering for up to 10 seconds which is the worse I have had.  As far as I can tell on the outgoing this does not happen as no one has ever said it has done that to them.  The only bad thing is a couple people have said it was quieter than normal so I had to either talk louder, which I don't like to do, so I just talk closer to the mouth part. 

I suppose I could hook it up to my htpc as that runs 24/7 but I wanted the phone by my main pc which I do turn off most nights and most of the time during the day when I am gone.  Though I had been sans landline for about 4 years anyhow so not having the phone on is not much of an issue as most people I know only have my cell number anyway.

I've had mine about a month.  My incoming seems flawless. 

Good point:  You don't have to leave a PC on...you can let it go to voicemail (which you get via email) or you can call forward to a cell.

I appreciate Tracer's comments too.  That's one of the aspects that I am wrestling with:  wear on PC and power use/cost.

I was getting ripped on my phone.  I'd be interested to hear if anybody uses Skype of Vonage too.

Well here legally the power company can raise the rates 3X a year @ 15% no matter what its the law here. So a total of 45% per year, and they do it all the time and you cannot dispute it at all, unless you do not want power.

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I have had one since last Februaryand have been very pleased with it.  So pleased that we dropped two Verizon land lines that we were paying $90 per month on.  We supplement with cell phones but I have never been unable to make or receive a call with the Magic Jack.  Call quality has also been very good.  The only time I have had a problem with call quality was when the CPU was under a heavy load processing a video file.  I can't fault the device for this.  I bought a four handset Panasonic DECT 6.0 phone system, hooked it up to the Magic Jack and we now have phone access all over the house for $20 per year.  We are saving over $1,000 per year so I am more than pleased with it.

For those that don't want to have their computer on 24/7 you can get a thin client to run the Magic Jack.  They are sold on ebay pre-configured for around $50-$100.  They use very little electricity so the cost to operate them is very low.  Here is an example:  http://cgi.ebay.com/Neoware-CA15-magicJack-Ready-Pre-Configured-Thin-Client_W0QQitemZ280410927694QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCOMP_EN_Workstations?hash=item4149cb324e

Has anybody seen this at startup?

Simply unplug and re-plug the MJ in and it seems to be happy.   However, this is quite annoying.

I thought it was a poor USB connection or the MJ hanging...so moved it to a completely different port and it still  happens at power up.

I think you're right.   I looked around and saw a lot of hocus-pocus saw a few say pretty much the same thing.  So I looked.....

Seemed like no matter where I plugged it in...it showed up on the same "root".

PapaHomer:

I think you're right.   I looked around and saw a lot of hocus-pocus saw a few say pretty much the same thing.  So I looked.....

Seemed like no matter where I plugged it in...it showed up on the same "root".

Try using a self powered USB hub.  If you are buying one then make sure the adapter has a capacity of 2 amps or more.

Probably depends on your connection

My connection runs at about 2.4 Mb download and 0.44 Mb upload.  Light surfing doesn't seem to bother the call quality...streaming video or downloading something big does.  There's probably some things I could do router & QOS wise that would help.

Doesn't seem to degrade a great deal...but any degradation in a call is pretty obvious/annoying.  Maybe MikeJ or others could comment on their connection experience.

@ toddtaco85  ... The only downside is that it requires your PC on and someone logged in.  There have been other posts about cheap MJ computers or thin clients available on ebay.  I was talking to a guy at work and some of the features alone make it worth the cost of electricity.  I got a report of someone from work who took their MJ to India...and made a phone call home to the states.  At first I thought "Hey, isn't that long distance?"  But the international long distance part only comes in when you want to talk to someone in a foreign country where MJ service has to use the local exchange carriers.

supermaninflesh:

How does it perform under heavy download conditions, or a satellite internet line? I'm guessing call quality would get reduced, but how much?

Good catch sjr....

One thing that I have to say is that the Magic Jack FAQs are very helpful...and very complete.

http://www.magicjack.com/4/faq/ 

I'd say reviewing the FAQs is a mandatory before pursuing MJ...I know I learned a lot

According to the MJ FAQs  there is an update for Windows 7.

Anybody running MJ on Windows 7?

supermaninflesh:

Wow...I'm quite surprised by how well you guys say this thing is. How does it perform under heavy download conditions, or a satellite internet line? I'm guessing call quality would get reduced, but how much?

The only time I have noticed call quality degrade at all is when CPU usage nears 100%.

PapaHomer:

According to the MJ FAQs  there is an update for Windows 7.

Anybody running MJ on Windows 7?

The last upgrade that the MJ received allowed me to use it on a computer with an RC version of Windows 7.  I didn't notice any issues with it at all.