Magicjack review

[Kazoon]

Well I have been playing with it for the whole day and its got bugs. For no reason or rhyme every so often the program that runs it will just disappear from the task bar, at the same time I hear the USB plug and play sound. It usually happens when I dont use the phone for a while and then when I turn the phone on (WHAM) the program crashes.

I can then restart the program and it will work fine for a while...talked on it for more than an hour. I have been reading on similar problems other people have had and I think that my USB port does not supply the proper power to the device so it shuts off for a split second and I hear the (plug and play sound) then the program closes. My USB ports are all powering something...laser mouse, keyboard ect ect.


I am going to try a powered usb hub and I will not have any voltage drop issues and I think this will fix the problem.

First impressions
It's not very reliable, customer support sucks! I spent an hour chattin with someone who offered no better info then to reboot my modem and download their (Quick fix) that I already had to do in order to make the program work in the first place.

From what I see if you just need a second phone for kids or if you make alot of long distance calls its a great product. If you had wireless broadband you could actually use this as a cell phone for free! However I would not give up your landline or cell phone just yet.

 

[hermeslyre]

This is why I haven't picked it up. To be fair though, though bugs it has got, overall satisfaction seems to be more sporadic than plain chagrin, leading to the simple conclusion of personal software conflicts..(doesn't sound to be your case, never know though)? Whatever, the PCmag review is beaming, and i've been keeping up with the quite active DSlreports thread and they seem to be more satisfied with the product than not. Call quality is supposed to be stupendous.

Customer support is always discordant. If only all support was as good as Nintendo's! Unhappily, I regress. Hope you solve your problems, post back if you do, or if you don't!

 

[Kazoon]

Well I found out what was causing the problem. It was caused by peerguardian2 running at the same time. I have had no problems all day and talked with my family out of state for most of the day for free. The only other gripe I have right now is when I installed it my area code is not available as of yet and it assigned me a area code across the state, when I make a local call I have to dial 1 and my area code first and if anyone local calls me they will be charged long distance fees. My area code is pending though and should be available soon.

Here is a list of all area codes available...you can still use the product if yours is not available but like I said people that call you will be charged long distance, info I wish was made available before I purchased the jack. http://www.magicjack.com/site/areacodes.html

 

[hermeslyre]

PG2, lol. Software conflict, what did I say, I'm a genius!

Our area code is available! Thanks for that info, wasn't aware. I'm more set to get this than ever, Screw phone bills! Was the call quality alright?

 

[Kazoon]

Was the call quality alright?

Calls sound great...just like talking on a land line. One more thing though, you need highspeed internet either cable or dsl but you cannot use satelite. Your internet must be a minimum of something like 75kbps down and up. So anyone with something like a 758k connection might be pushing the boundaries. And if you are doing heavy downloads while talking on the phone it will cut in and out if you are using all your bandwidth. I am trying to figure out a way to dedicate like 100kbps just for the MJ so even if I have downloads going I will have a spare 100kbps for the phone. I have pretty fast internet and will never miss 100kbps...I need to find a way to do this though, I am thinking maybe some kind of download manager might be able to do it.

 

[hermeslyre]

We have a 4mbps connection, 512kBps down, but only 45kBps up. I still hope it will work copiously, but I guess I'll dedicate some research on the matter..

My Linksys Router, and all newer routers I believe, have a function called Quality of service. It allows varying levels of priority to be given to different applications or data flows. Basically it allows you to dedicate bandwidth to whatever you want. Never used it though.

Good review! I'm happy It's getting some attention, everyone I've talked to about this has considered it a scam.

 

[Kazoon]

We have a 4mbps connection, 512kBps down, but only 45kBps up. I still hope it will work copiously, but I guess I'll dedicate some research on the matter..

A 4MB connection should be somewhere around 3500kbps I have a 6mb and its download and upload speeds are

Download speed: 5186kbps (648.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload speed: 641kbps (80.1 KB/sec transfer rate)

I think you are looking at KB not kbps, I ran this test on speakeasy http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

Run it and see I think you will be fine

Good review! I'm happy It's getting some attention, everyone I've talked to about this has considered it a scam.

They have a commercial selling them on TV now...seen it last night.

 

[hermeslyre]

I automatically figured you were on about bytes, not bits. I noticed the kb, not KB denotation, but WHATEVER! The majority here don't hang on the little details, with certain... exceptions, I get into the spirit as well.

Infomercials suck, but I'm sure it'll get this more attention. If it really caught on the phone companies would be in big trouble, this doesn't exactly fill me with sadness.

 

[Kazoon]

Anyway you look at it though the product does work as described...I dont think it will take over any phone companies though for the simple reason that if you reboot your PC you might miss an important call. Will it take money away from phone companies? Oh yeah and lots of it just because I am saving over $100 a month now on long distance calls.