magicJack and MagicJack Plus Support, Reviews, FAQs and Hacks

BrianLee1 · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 16 Oct 2009 Posts: 1

Just wanted everyone to know, I went to CVS last night and bought the MagicJack. I was tired of the calls I didn't want, and being a night person, it's just not feasible to turn off EVERY phone. Plus we have cell phones, so....

Had the Caller ID problem. I went to Radio-shack and bought a 5-pack of the 100k ohm resistors for 99cents. I put one in-line, and VOILA!!! Have caller ID. Numbers only, of coarse, but still. For the price of MagicJack, I'll take the inconvience. I have 5 phones in the house, and they all work. All ring. All show caller ID. Quality seems pretty good.

When I say in-line, I mean that magicjack is in my office downstairs, right next to the utility closet that houses my network wires, cable, phone, etc. I spliced the MagicJack line INTO the house phone wires. First I disconnected the phone company wires outside.

Phones were working, but I wasn't getting caller ID. SO, i went and got the resistors. I took some telephone wire, two pieces. Added the resistor between the two, and then wired THAT to the MagicJack and the home phone, and it works fine, so far. I have four more resistors left over. So....I'm happy so far.

~BrianLee

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Courtland · Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2009 2:05 pm Post subject: Caller ID Fix

I have MJ out to a Lucent Partner II Control Panel with 4 Partner 18 Phone extensions. Have not had CID show up on those phones with the PC I am now using. When I first installed MJ last week on a MacBook Pro and tested the system caller ID did work on the Lucent Phones. Now they will not. Will try the 100k resister between ring & Tip prior to the Lueccent box. Stayed tuned.

wolfman · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 23 Oct 2009 Posts: 1

Another 100k resistor fix, I use to get the cid when I had cable but moved and had to get DSL due to location and lost cid. I did this fix and now the cid is back, thanks HolmanGT and Snafu2, you guys and this forum rocks.

nestman · MagicJack User Joined: 13 May 2009 Posts: 48

The CID has always worked on my computer screen, but never on my corded phone that has it's own LCD screen and power supply. I just decided to give up trying to make it work, as none of the suggestions here seemed to help.

Well, this past weekend it started to work out of the blue. I'm really excited, because that means I can locate MJ downstairs in the office, and not have to keep it tethered to my 2nd laptop, just to see who is calling.

Does anyone know why this started to work suddenly? Did a new version of the software get downloaded automatically?

wingnut67 · Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 11:07 am Post subject: Caller ID resistor fix works

Like so many others, my caller ID worked fine when I had a regular landline, but never worked after switching to MagicJack. The MagicJack is connected to one of my phone wall jacks, not directly to any phone.

After reading the other forum entries, I fixed the problem in less than a minute with a 120K ohm resistor.

I didn't have a 100k on hand which was recommended, so it appears the value isn't critical. I also had an old telephone wall jack handy, so I wrapped the resistor leads around the red and green screw terminals. Then I found a short phone cable, plugged one end into the modular phone jack, and the other end into a spare wall jack in my bedroom. If you only have one phone jack in your house you can use one of those two-in-one adapters.

Now any phone I have will work in any room through MagicJack, and the Caller ID works every time. Even my phone with Voice ID works. It's great to be able to hear who is calling without even looking at a phone.

mgh · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 05 Dec 2009 Posts: 6

mgh · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 05 Dec 2009 Posts: 6

I just got back from Radio Shack, and I didn't know which to buy either. The sales guy suggested 1/2 watt, and it worked for me. I have caller ID displayed now.

I did a very crude job of slicing, but it still works.

I do not know the answer to your question, if it matters or not, but it worked for me.

Anyone know if it makes a difference?

Thanks

smhutto · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 13 Dec 2009 Posts: 2

Ok, tried the fix above and it works like... magic.

Since the actual power on a phone line is so low, I don't think the wattage should matter. I used the 1/2 W, 100 k-Ohm resistor from RS (part no. 271-1131, pkg of 5) and it worked fine.

Since my lash-up is a little different, here's a pic (ignore the lables on the splitter - it's obviously from an old fax machine Smile

)

smhutto · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 13 Dec 2009 Posts: 2

PS - weirdest thing... I get numbers only on the display, but we have one of those phones that announce the names, and it's announcing the names even though they don't show on the display ?????

mgh · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 05 Dec 2009 Posts: 6

I did not use the splitter. I wired the resister in-line on the line from my phone to the MJ (have DSL). Just an FYI, your fix looks good.

redpepper · Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 9:47 pm Post subject:

When we were designing the "Magicfeatures" software plugin, we found a big issue with the Caller ID transmission implementation on the magicJack.

Here's the real underlying source of the problem and how we fixed it in the plugin:

1. The Caller ID is transmitted sort of like modem tones between the 1st and 2nd physical rings. The standard ringing cadence is 2 seconds on and 4 seconds off. That part is implemented correctly.

2. For whatever reason, the magicJack blasts a loud inband ringing tone on the audio channel toward the phone at 1 second on and 2 seconds off. Unfortunately, the cadence does not line up with the physical ringing and that horrible loud inband ringing tone masks out the Caller ID transmission. Some phones can filter it out but most fail.

3. If you go to MENU/SWITCH TO HEADSET and turn up the sound on your computer speakers and place an incoming call to your phone, you will hear the horrible ringing tone that is normally sent toward your phone. Chances are that when you do this, you will also finally see the caller id number correctly display on your phone.

In the "Magicfeatures" software plugin, we fixed the problem by making the very 1st physical ring only 1 second long so the Caller ID transmission does not get interrupted by the inband ringing tone. Once we got that part sorted, it only seemed fitting to add Caller ID name display and Caller ID for call waiting calls.

revolutiondj · magicJack Apprentice Joined: 30 Dec 2009 Posts: 23

This works great. Thanks to the one that discovered it!

Silky1 · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 16 Jan 2010 Posts: 1

redpepper · Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 11:39 pm Post subject:

If you have a sound card on your computer, right mouse click on the magicJack icon and make sure the top setting reads "Set To Telephone". Chances are that your caller id will work fine after making that change without any type of resistor solution.

Red_Foxx15 · Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 6:37 pm Post subject:

Went to Radio Shack and got the 100k resister (guy tried to sell me a 1m saying it was the same thing) and looked at the couplings there before i went on ( they wanted 6.99 for a simple coupling) to Dollar Tree and picked up the coupling. Pulled it apart and used a pair of nail clippers to strip the wires. Tied the legs of the resister around the stripped area and clipped the excess. Popped the two halves back together. Easiest attachment I've done in a long time (if you cant tell i had no tools and really wanted to see if this fixed it) Connected the coupling at the magic jack end and all that happened was i lost my dial tone. Moved the coupling to the phone side of the line and it works perfectly fine. Found that strange but i reached the ultimate goal and thats all that matters. Thanks for the post, i would have never thought of this on my own.