magicJack and MagicJack Plus Support, Reviews, FAQs and Hacks

fhmanas · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 29 May 2009 Posts: 9

Thanks for the hack to make MJ work as a service. A couple of comments, though.

1. The original Post has inconsistent folder descriptions, some had '.../LocalService/...' and some had '.../All Users/...'. I chose '.../LocalService/...'

2. Had a hard time looking for '.../LocalService/...'. Solution was simple enough, open an explorer window, go to Tools->Folder Options->View and check 'Hide protected operating system files' and '.../LocalService/...' will appear.

3. Run first the following commands in a cmd terminal to determine where your '.../LocalService/...' is. Do this if you moved your Documents and Settings, I moved mine to Drive D:

@echo off
reg query "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders">log.txt
reg query "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders">>log.txt
reg query "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\comdlg32\PlacesBar">>log.txt
reg query "HKU\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders">>log.txt
reg query "HKU\S-1-5-18\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders">>log.txt
reg query "HKU\S-1-5-19\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders">>log.txt
start notepad log.txt
exit
cls

4. Do the RemoveDrive option upon shutdown to disconnect the USB properly.

5. If you have the 'Interact with the desktop' option on, once you log off somehow the phone interface is disconnected. You can still call using the soft phone and using the handset as a mic and earphone set. Solution is to set the 'Interact with the desktop' to off.

6. Once you removed the MJ and returned it, it will try to install again, solution is to use TweakUI to disable Autoplay to MJ drives.

7. Once you removed the MJ, the MagicJack Task is removed but the service is still on. Attaching the MagicJack will not restart the MagicJack task bec of Number #6. The service has to restarted either in services.msc or in cmd with the net start/stop magicjack command

8. An option for 6&7, is to have a copy of mjusbsp folder in each of your user's application, in which case, when you reattach the MJ, it will start the magicJack application, but take note that this is a local application execution not the service we created.

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fhmanas · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 29 May 2009 Posts: 9

What does the MJ USB look for during autoplay, since

1. it won't restart the service if it was re-plugged in when you disable autoplay. A manual net start/stop magicjack has to be executed.

2. If you enable autoplay, it will attempt to reinstall and the execution is local.

3. If you enable autoplay and retain a copy of mjusb in your Application Data, it will execute MJ as localized copy only.

I have made a simple batch file with the necessary net start/stop magicjack commands and wrapped into an exe using the Windows utility iexpress in your c:\Windows\System32. The "magicjack.exe", I made is working if I click it, it restarts the service silently.

My premise was to replace the exe that autorun is looking for and replace it with my "magicjack.exe" file. I will place this file in my User/Application Data/mjusb. The thing is, magicjack detects the replacement and replaces my file with the real magicjack.exe.

I was thinking if somebody can point to me how to accomplish this, it would tie up the loose end of this hack of the removing and replugging the MJ dongle during autoplay to restart the LocalService service daemon.

ldrancer · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 21 Feb 2009 Posts: 2

ok here's how i got rid of the internetr explorer, ads, that are going in magicjack, doing the browsing webpage sound every 5 minutes. it worked for 4 months, but now it started back up. but i'll say how i done it, i got to check my shortcuts again. where its running from, rename the small.skn file and big.skn file, magicjack.exe can't be running when you do it because the process is using it. magicjack, has a other skin, with a bunch more options, and the shortcut to run magicjack, after you've started it as a service, if you end the magicjack.exe and mjsetup.exe processes, to see the program, you can see the skin. i got the base skin from some other that said to get magicjack to do another skin, and get it to load more options. the base skin has no ads, so when you load magicjack as a service, it's like running on your desktop, where the ads will go, and it does the navigate sound every 5 minutes which bugged me. i'd be playing a game and in it, every 5 minutes i would hear the navigate sound, tick tick tick... ahhh. so thats how i got rid of it.
but it stopped working lately i got to figure out what it's doing it for.
about the base skin, what it is is if you load magicjack from the magicjack.exe and not the magicjackloader.exe, i think is the name, it doesn't connect and dowload, so it loads a magicjack without skins. and it doesn't revolve ads.
magicjack as a service, sits on your desktop, but you can't see it, and you can't minimize it, and it doesn't bother you with windows, if you pick up the phone, it doesn't come to view, and minimize stuff. its loaded, though, and will revolve ads, and its on your desktop.

mianne · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 26 May 2008 Posts: 4

I've been using my laptop for over a year as a dedicated magicjack host, but the laptop seems to be on its last legs. The network port is FUBARed and even the AC supply port is persnickety. I have no current need for a new laptop, and supply and demand seems to have made ThinClients nearly as expensive as full-fledged PCs lately.

Thankfully, semicharm's steps in the OP as well as modifications for Vista posted here by Gospelific have MJ running invisibly in the background on my primary computer running Vista Home Premium and I'm very pleased with the results.

One thing which didn't work initially was step 6. I got an error about not being allowed to perform that task. The solution was to run CMD as an administrator, and it worked just fine.

I am, as the saying goes, just smart enough to be dangerous, and while I pored over most of this thread, I still haven't deciphered everything I might need to know, so hopefully someone can spell it out for me or point me a little more specifically where to find what I'm looking for:

1) I did not follow exactly how to access the softphone on my desktop. Seems the OP is very XP specific. A shortcut to start it and another? to stop it without a reboot would be super.

2) Mind you, I don't have much use for the softphone itself, but would like to have easy access to the call logs. They seem to be stored in X:magicJack/CallLogs.clm with enough plaintext visible in the code to see that it should be feasible for another app to display the data in a more user-friendly format. Has one already been written, or on a to-do list?

3) The other need for the softphone display is for new voicemail notifications, since MJ unfortunately doesn't send out a new message signal to a handset. I'm assuming it'd be impossible without a hardware hack to send out the staccato dialtone via the dongle?

4) When (if) I finally get a thinclient, ATA, or other hardware to act as another dedicated host for magicjack, is there more to the uninstall process than deleting the mjusbsp directory and the HKLM/.../Magicjack registry entries?

leashy · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 25 May 2009 Posts: 4

For all of you who run magicjack as a service with the dongle plugged in, will it work right going into and out of sleep mode? I rarely shut my computer down, but I put it in sleep mode all the time. So I'm just wondering if it would work that way.
Thanks!

quaan · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 25 May 2009 Posts: 2

luzer · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 02 Oct 2008 Posts: 3

i2bizee · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 15 May 2009 Posts: 2

yeah same thing is happening to me. all calls go to VM and get a dial tone.. dial the number.. goes back to dial tone..

KageCM · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 16 Jun 2009 Posts: 1

For me it turned out the new update was installed in a different folder that where the service looks. It was installed in the folder associated with the log on I used. I just copied it over to the default user and now its working again.

I am having problems with call quality now. Others can hear me fine but incoming is stuttering. Though these problems might be unrelated.

Turbo4V · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 02 Jan 2009 Posts: 2

I found that if you just let it go ahead and do the "upgrade", and re-install the service (just go back through the service installation instructions) that all was well again. ymmv!

R0ss · magicJack Apprentice Joined: 22 Apr 2009 Posts: 25

HAd MJ running as a service for about two months then all of a sudden it has given me nothing but problems. Noticed the post about the recent update so I reinstalled as a service (had to do it a couple of times for it to finally work) and it seems to be OK now. However I noticed that magicjack.exe is running as a process also, is this supposed to be and I didn't notice it before?

corvax · magicJack Apprentice Joined: 11 Dec 2008 Posts: 13

i have line but i can make a call stay dead but i have line....

corvax · magicJack Apprentice Joined: 11 Dec 2008 Posts: 13

put magicjack normal like factory default

GrampaDan2 · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 09 Jul 2009 Posts: 1

I put the executable in firedaemon and I can make calls when no user is logged in ... but ...

On logging in, I find that
1. it starts the magicjack process and I have to kill it in the task manager or the phone call is really awful sounding as the process is running twice
2. a zillion copies of install.exe and autorunu.exe are running. Autorun.exe is running off the g: drive (the USB with the magicjack on it).
http://files.getdropbox.com/u/1232550/process-manager.jpg
http://files.getdropbox.com/u/1232550/Process-manager2.jpg

I'm using Windows 7, so it's a learning experience. I tried restricting auto runs fby turning off auto run in the policy editor, but that doesn't seem to have helped.
http://files.getdropbox.com/u/1232550/turn-off-autoplay.jpg

I tried removing magicjack from the run keys in the registry, but then I got the dial tone however the calls would not work ... just dial tone and no line.

RDHeinz · magicJack Apprentice Joined: 06 Jun 2008 Posts: 11

I found this "script" to automate the process of converting magicJack to a service. I'm not new to computers but "running a script" is something I know little about. Here's what the script looks like. Can anybody help me?

#cs ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

AutoIt Version: 3.2.13.13 (beta)
Author: Alex Escalante

Script Function:

1. Close all existing Magic Jack processes
2. Move Magic Jack application from users inveroment to shared enviroment
3. Find Magic Jack hardware and add script to root directory
4. Create the Magic Jack Service
#ce ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

; Script Start - Add your code below here

#include <Array.au3>
#include <service.au3>

$appTitle = "MJ Service Installer"

If Not IsAdmin() Then
MsgBox(48, $appTitle, "Administrator privileges required.", 10)
Exit
EndIf

CloseVerify("mjsetup.exe")
CloseVerify("magicJack.exe")
CloseVerify("cdloader2.exe")
CloseVerify("magicJackLoader.exe")

TrayTip($appTitle, 'Closed existing "MJ" processes', 10, 1)

RegDelete("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run", "cdloader")
RegDelete("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run", "cdloader")

FileDelete(@DesktopDir & "\magicJack.lnk")
DirMove(@AppDataDir & "\mjusbsp", @AppDataCommonDir & "\mjusbsp", 9)

$Drives = DriveGetDrive("all")
For $i = 1 To $Drives[0] Step 1
If FileExists($Drives[$i] & "\DONT USE THIS DRIVE") Then
TrayTip($appTitle, "MJ found at " & $Drives[$i], 10, 1)
Sleep(2000)
FileCopy(@ScriptFullPath, $Drives[$i] & "\")
TrayTip($appTitle, "Updated MJ device", 10, 1)
Sleep(2000)
EndIf
Next

$serviceres = _Service_Create("", "mjsvc", "Magic Jack Service", '"' & @AppDataCommonDir & "\mjusbsp\magicJackLoader.exe" & '"')
Switch $serviceres
Case 1
TrayTip($appTitle, "Service Installed", 10, 1)
Sleep(2000)
Case 0
TrayTip($appTitle, "Error installing service.", 10, 3)
Sleep(2000)
EndSwitch

$res = MsgBox(4, "Magic Jack Service", "Done!" & @CRLF & "I suggest a restart. Should I do that now?")
Switch $res
Case 6;yes
MsgBox(0, $appTitle, "Thanks! Please consider donating a few bucks via paypal to alex@eqitpro.com")
Shutdown(2)
Case 7; no
MsgBox(0, $appTitle, "Thanks! Please consider donating a few bucks via paypal to alex@eqitpro.com")
EndSwitch

Func CloseVerify($proc)
Do
ProcessClose($proc)
Sleep(150)
Until ProcessExists($proc) = 0
EndFunc ;==>CloseVerify

; notes for v2
; $mjUser = "MJSVCUser"
; $mjPass = "mi*=^=*im"
; $objUser = ObjGet("WinNT://" & @ComputerName & "/" & $mjUser)
; If @error Then
; $colAccounts = ObjGet("WinNT://" & @ComputerName & "")
; $objUser = $colAccounts.Create("user", $mjUser)
; $objUser.SetPassword($mjPass)
; $objUser.Put("Fullname", "Test User")
; $objUser.Put("Description", "Test User description")
; $objUser.SetInfo
; EndIf