magicJack and MagicJack Plus Support, Reviews, FAQs and Hacks

haywire1 · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 24 Dec 2011 Posts: 2

Maybe y'all have already figured this out, but I found I can plug in my old USB MJ dongle into any of my Linux Boxes (or windoze, if you must...he he... ) and go to my gmail acct. - and make calls from the softphone dial window (yeah, you have to dial on the PC, not the phone). It breaks the dial tone, makes the call, and sounds every bit as good as going through my MJ acct. -I'm pretty sure it'll work fine even if your MJ acct. is no longer in effect, as all you are really using is the telephone interface. I prefer this over using the mic and speakers of a PC... It is the primary advantage of the MJ device itself for me...

In order to do this, you just go to your chat settings in Google voice and choose "Internet Phone device" as your calling interface instead of "Default Audio Interface". For now, at least, you don't even need a Google Voice number, it just shows up on your recipient's caller ID as some number registered to Google.

I stumbled upon this while trying to obtain the IP Phone software from Tigerjet's website, which has been now completely taken over by MJ... I then played around a bit, thinking I was making it harder than it was.... It turns out I was correct on that front... It works great with no additional software. I have tried it in Win' Vista, Ubuntu 11.04, and Xubuntu 11.04.

BTW - Since MJ is currently having a "problem" that prevents all MJ users from calling any land-lines serviced by CenturyLink (a lot of 717 area-code numbers), I have used this as a "workaround" for that, too!
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nailgunner · MagicJack Sensei Joined: 18 Mar 2010 Posts: 1384

haywire1 · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 24 Dec 2011 Posts: 2

O.k. - so I left out a few details...

1.) Whether you're using Linux or Windows, you'll need to get the "Google Talk Plugin" from Google (Click the link from the "Call Phone" softphone pad...whether or not you choose to use the MJ hardware interface).

2.) If you're using Windows, and you want the fake dial tone to be generated by the MJ USB device, you'll have to use msconfig and uncheck "cdloader2" from the "Startup" tab so the original MJ loader doesn't start at boot. This is really not necessary, since GV can still be used without the "fake dial tone". This is of course, no problem at all in Linux, since MJ's own software is only windows compatible, and is ignored - it generates a dial tone just fine!

3.) You'll have to exit the MJ software first (or never start it, by disabling the startup option detailed above...), and make sure of course that the MJ is plugged in before trying to set up the preferred interface in google chat options, or you won't see the "Handset (USB Internet Phone..." device in your list of available interfaces.

No GV number needed (at least not at the time of this post - I just did a demo for a relative in for the holidays!) - enjoy - hope this was a help to someone!

BTW - satisfy yourself whether or not this is any problem with MJ's user agreement (Though I can't imagine it would be...you bought and own the usb interface device, right? And when using it with Google voice, MJ has nothing to do with the call, since it doesn't go through their VOIP network at all...) Seems logical to me, but like I said, satisfy yourself 1st... << Disclaimer >>
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Growing up is optional, and I choose not to!

nailgunner · MagicJack Sensei Joined: 18 Mar 2010 Posts: 1384

nailgunner · MagicJack Sensei Joined: 18 Mar 2010 Posts: 1384

Darkman90808 · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 27 Feb 2008 Posts: 693

Excellent! Thanks for the info - Merry Christmas!