magicJack and MagicJack Plus Support, Reviews, FAQs and Hacks

Nobody beats the Whiz! · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 26 Oct 2009 Posts: 559

Fair and accurate post, phaelon56.

It is their standing offer to get a local area code for all customers. If it's not available for choosing directly from the portal, they just ask you to submit a trouble ticket requesting your specific area code. So far, they've been accommodating everyone.

Their service keeps improving, albeit gradually.
_________________
Enjoys a daily VOIP cocktail made from:

-One shot Magic Jack
-One shot TK6000
-One shot NetTalk Duo
-Two shots Ooma (it's bigger)

Shaken, not stirred.

Google Voice is the chaser.

Google · AdSense

phaelon56 · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 15 May 2009 Posts: 4

Updates:

So far still good. Had a few more minor issues but the Nettalk support people continue to be incredibly responsive and proactive.

1) Had my first lengthy call - about 25 minutes duration - and had intermittent choppiness and latency issue beginning 5 minutes in and recurring every 3 to 4 minutes. They say it's not a known issue and I believe them. It is not the "garbling" symptom that was widely reported in the past and now appears to be resolved.

Only after I ran a VoIP performance test and thought back on the call did I realize that I *might* have been streaming an HD movie through my Roku player when that call was in progress. If that proves to be the case then I have a plausible root cause (also an easy fix - I live alone and can just stop the movie and restart when the call is over). Will run another test while the Roku is streaming to confirm.

For you technical guys - here are the results of the test I ran when main PC was turned on but no apps or other network activity except TK6000 were in play:

Jitter: 0.8ms
Packet loss:0.0%
MOS score: 4.0
Download speed: 4.56 Mbps
Upload speed:2.43 Mbps
Quality of Service: 95%

My FIOS speed tests thus far have gone as high as 9 Mbps download and 4.89 Mbps uploads but HD video streaming through Netflix and Roku can suck up as much as 5 Mbps if the bandwidth is available. I'm also guessing that the video streaming might be using some sort of QoS and could be hogging that bandwidth from my poor little TK6000. All speculation - only further testing can confirm.

2) My parents could not reach me when dialing a local call from their home to mine - in the same area code. Checked with Nettalk and it turns out that my area code is quite large and some 7 digit dialing calls are actually "local long distance" - including those to the first 315 area code number that i was allocated. My parents have no long distance service and for this reason the calls would not go through. Nettalk Customer Support promptly got me a new number in same area code but with a different and truly local exchange - that issue is now fully resolved.

Here's the thing.... Manni from Nettalk proactively called my home phone and left a message on the answering machine to verify what he was doing and then called me on my cell phone when he could not reach me at home. These guys are extremely proactive and seem determined to get users running smoothly, happy and ready to give good word of mouth for the product.

Based on my experiences thus far I will be one of those who give it a hearty recommendation. As I mentioned in my first post - it has its minor idiosyncrasies but for those of us who can work with that it appears to be an excellent solution for low cost phone service.

I will do some more tests and make note of my experiences over the next several weeks before updating here.

Nobody beats the Whiz! · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 26 Oct 2009 Posts: 559

More interesting info. Thanks for the post.

Yes, I agree your choppy problem is likely related to heavy downloading. However, my TK quality doesn't seem to suffer from similar activities, and I'm only on a 7m/768k connection.

Hopefully, it was just an anomaly.

Good luck, and keep us posted.
_________________
Enjoys a daily VOIP cocktail made from:

-One shot Magic Jack
-One shot TK6000
-One shot NetTalk Duo
-Two shots Ooma (it's bigger)

Shaken, not stirred.

Google Voice is the chaser.

crackerjack · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 16 Nov 2007 Posts: 726

conniemadagain · Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 4:34 pm Post subject:

phaelon56 · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 15 May 2009 Posts: 4

Ran another VoIP quality test tonight with Roku streaming HD content and then immediately ran another one with Roku turned off.

The first one I ran with Roku on had MOS of 3.9, 0.0% packet loss and only 75% call quality but I inadvertently closed that screen before I could record all the results.

Can one of you point me to some sort of number I can call that has a very long recorded message so I can run an extended test for the choppiness and latency? I have access to an aggregating style network tap (am in the business) and may run Wireshark packet sniffer to grab a capture in real time if I can replicate the choppiness again.

Netttalk mentioned Wireshark as a last resort for troubleshooting should the problem resurface but I'm more or less in the packet capture and decode business anyway (although my decode reading skills are very rudimentary). I'll be curious to see what they can glean from the trace file if the problem is still there when I capture but I need an extended voice call to do it.

Here's what I got when I ran and recorded the two tests.

By the way - the FIOS router is an Actiontec MI424-WR Rev E

With Roku streaming HD content from Netflix servers

Jitter: 0.4 ms
Packet loss: 0.0%
MOS score: 4.0
Download speed: 3.9 Mbps
Upload speed: 2.33 Mbps
Quality of Service: 89%

With Roku turned off

Jitter: 0.4 ms
Packet loss: 0.0%
MOS score: 4.0
Download speed: 4.55 Mbps
Upload speed: 2.33 Mbps
Quality of Service: 94%

Nobody beats the Whiz! · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 26 Oct 2009 Posts: 559

1-800-GET-COKE

Then 1

Then 1

Then 5

She'll ramble the official rules to Coke Rewards Points for over a half hour!

Only works during their normal business hours of 9:00am to 7:00pm EST.
_________________
Enjoys a daily VOIP cocktail made from:

-One shot Magic Jack
-One shot TK6000
-One shot NetTalk Duo
-Two shots Ooma (it's bigger)

Shaken, not stirred.

Google Voice is the chaser.

phaelon56 · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 15 May 2009 Posts: 4

At this point I'll bow out of the thread and return only if anomalies worth discussing appear in the future. I can call 800 #'s etc. or any other system that requires me to "push 1" etc. and all works as it should. My calls to landlines are rock solid start to finish and the calls I make to cell phones are as good or sometimes better than when I call them from my own cell phone.

In a 20 minute call to my buddy on his 3G iPhone I had zero artifacts and he had just a short blip of echo midway through the call - but it's the kind of echo he's heard many time before on cell to cell calls (as have I and I sometimes get it on my cell phone for a moment when i call a land line).

The one significant thing about the TK6000 that needs to be stressed is not about the technology itself - which IMO is very good - it's the customer service attitude of Nettalk. They have been easy to reach by phone and have been incredibly responsive to all issues of concern. Their support ticketing system is easy to use, is monitored frequently and was very helpful in getting my minor issues straightened out. I work in a technology area where customer service is the factor that defines good companies from mediocre ones. I can easily recognize a company where such an attitude is part of the culture - these guys embody it and deserve praise for going the extra mile.

Consider me to be one very happy Nettalk customer.

crackerjack · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 16 Nov 2007 Posts: 726

BCJ2 · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 08 Jan 2009 Posts: 3

Ask me about rebates on your NetTalk TK6000 purchase.[/quote]

What kind of rebate I just got my TK600 yesterday Smile

crackerjack · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 16 Nov 2007 Posts: 726

MJ7 · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 28 Feb 2010 Posts: 1

[quote="crackerjack"][quote="BCJ2"]Ask me about rebates on your NetTalk TK6000 purchase.[/quote]

What kind of rebate I just got my TK600 yesterday Smile

[/quote]
Sorry, too late. Only available prior to purchase, AFAIK[/quote]

I have yet to purchase one. Can you please provide info on the rebate?