magicJack and MagicJack Plus Support, Reviews, FAQs and Hacks

JohnODon · MagicJack Contributor Joined: 06 Oct 2008 Posts: 59

Well...

I just received my MJ about 30 minutes ago. For the time being, I am running it on an IBM T42 laptop that I borrowed from work (WINXP SP3 with all current patches). Eventually, the MJ will be moved to a HP T5700 Thin Client (still on its way).

As expected, the installation took about 30 seconds. Plugged in the phone line, plugged in the MJ, spun it wheels for about 30 seconds installing the drivers/software and then brought me to the registration screen.

Here is where I got a little wigged out...(little pitfall for future users)...

I told it I was a "new user" and entered my e-mail addy and password for account creation. It said that an account was already established for that e-mail address. GOOD GRIEF...I HAVE ALREADY BEEN HACKED!!! LOL Eventually, common sense kicked in and I figured that my account had already been created when I ordered the MJ. So, I selected I am an existing user and want to add a new location. WHAM! It let me right in. Whew!

I completed the registration process that took all of two minutes and within 5 seconds I had the "Ready to Call" signal! WOOOOHOOO! I picked up the phone...dial tone. Like a kid a xmas, I started doing my thing. Call my wife at work...no answer. Call one of my buddies at work...no answer. Call another buddy at work...no answer. DAMNIT!

Finally, I call a 3rd buddy and he picks up. I start the conversation with the usual childish noises and crap (that's how we say "hi") and jump right into a convo about the Phillies. 15 minutes later he has to get off the phone, but before he does I ask him "how did I sound to you?". (BTW...I think he took the question in a psychological kinda way and thought I was going to tell him I was getting ready to jump off the Walt Whitman Bridge...haha). I quickly followed it up with "echo, static, delay, etc?". He said not at all...crystal clear. WHEW x 2! I explained why I asked...not that it really matters.

So...first call was a tremendous success! Now, I am a total pessimist and I understand it was the first call. But, it is promising that neither I nor Pat heard a single blip on that call. We shall see. I am ready to move onto more challenges and initiate a DL from the newsgroups that will suck every kilobit of bandwidth that I have. I know that my router has QoS, so I am going to tinker with that first.

One last note…

I set up voicemail which took all of two minutes also. I called my MJ # from my cell and left a VM to see if the light on the cordless phone would flash when there is a message. No dice! In fact, the little light on the VMAIL button on the interface did not light up (I assume it should). I called my voicemail to make sure I actually had a message and it was there. Has anybody else experienced this? Are my expectations too high?

About the only thing left is for my 911 thingy to turn green. It sees my address…but it is still yellow.

All in all, I am very happy so far. As I experience different results (good and bad), I will post them here. Second, third and Nth impressions to come. Smile

John

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JohnODon · MagicJack Contributor Joined: 06 Oct 2008 Posts: 59

Well...I have been impressed enough with my MJ that I went and ahead and cancelled my Vonage subscription. Smile

Now I just hope that it doesn't come back to bite me.

BTW...for all you other Vonage customers...

If you plan on keeping Vonage and just have the MJ as a second line or as a toy, do yourself a favor and call Vonage and tell them you are going to cancel. They asked me why and I told them that we are going to use our cell phones only. Without batting an eyelash, the CSR offered me 2 free months and a rediced rate of $9.99/month. I got the impression that this was standard protocol and they will do it for everyone.

John

Magic Jacked-Up · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 11 Oct 2008 Posts: 5

I was a former Vonage customer and they also offered me free service for two months and the reduced $10/month for 12 months. They are beginning to feel heat from cable internet RR phones and believe it or not, MagicJack. I told them I refused to pay $30/month when I could get just as good service for $2/month. The CSR was not willing to talk after that.
Enjoy MJ.

Here is my story from another thread:
I am a previous Vonage user. I can give you some real-world benefits and problems with Vonage compared to Magic Jack.

Vonage: They supply the router with phone jack. They cost $30.13 every month including tax. They have unlimited long distance, free voice mail, free caller ID, E911, you get a phone number, you get three-way conference calling, and you get call forwarding. Vonage worked pretty well accept sometimes their router caused conflicts with my computer cable modem and caused system instability. This would require a re-boot at the very least and resetting the cable modem and router in other more serious crashes.

Magic Jack: They do not give you a router Shocked Luckily, you don't need one. Everything runs from a very handy USB Jumpdrive/adapter that even comes with a handy 6 inch extension.
You get everything that I was getting with Vonage.
I paid $46.90 shipping included this month..... I will have to pay another $19.95 in a just 12 months to buy another 1 year license for the Magic Jack.... Confused My cost for the first year will be a whopping $3.91 / month. Next year they expect me to pay a huge price tag of over $ 1.66 / month !!!!!

I thought this was supposed to be a good deal !!! Crying or Very sad

I plugged in the Magic Jack and filled in the registration screen and signed up for my phone number in my area code and then guess what happened.... the damned thing just up and worked !!!! Shocked

I was listening to a dial tone in under 1 minute. I placed a few calls and to my utter dis-belief, they went right through. So at this point I am thinking this is way to good to be true. I called my wife from my cell phone yesterday and she informed me that the call is even clearer that with Vonage. No static in the background and the call quality is much clearer and crisper with no hint of "digitized" echo. Now I have no other choice but to keep it and love it... Very Happy

I am sorry for the sarcastic humor but I had mostly good experiences with VoIP using Vonage but I also had some problems and call quality issues that they were never able to solve. With MJ, I just plugged the freaking thing in and it...... worked as advertised Shocked

I guess I am a bit stunned but if it continues to work this well, I may check into becoming a re-seller. Finally a way to get free long distance and a home-based phone for under $2 / month with all the amenities and have it actually work very well!!! Very Happy Unreal. Laughing

I think that Dan has a great product backed by an even greater idea. My hat is off to you sir, I am very impressed.
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$20/year..... I'm in !!!!!