magicjack

[nemesis]

anyone bought one of this? i been thinking about getting one. just wondering if it sounds too good to be true.

magicJack

[SyntheticShield]

I have one, have had it now for several months. We dont use it as often as the wife thought she would. She had been after me to get a home phone. We've only had our cell phones for a few years now and I was happy with that but she wanted a home phone anyway so we got the MagicJack after hearing a News story about it.


Its very good actually. All the software is contained within the magic jack unit itself so theres nothing to install really and it works great. I plug it into the USB port of my desktop computer and hook it up to a phone. As soon as the software loads, its ready to use.

I guess the only down side to it is that you have to have a computer running all the time but thats no biggie for me as I left my desktop on all the time anyway, but if the pc goes down, so does your phone line but again thats not a biggie to me either as we have our cell phones.

I bought two years of service and havent looked back. You can beat the price, the audio qulity is great. The one thing I would caution anyone about is to check their area code list page and make sure there is an area code for where you are at. Now you can use any of them since your long distance is included in the package, but anyone calling you may not be so fortunate. MagicJack to MagicJack calls are free I believe.

Overall Im pretty happy with it. You cant beat the price. Even with my employee discount the MagicJack is still cheaper than what I can get traditional home service for.

[TCO]

You could always check out Skype. I believe it is still free. I do not know if you can actually hook up a phone to it or if you have to use a microphone from your computer though.

[nemesis]

that's what i was going to ask next if i need to leave the computer on. i have DSL cable internet do i need to be online to get connect or can i just turn on the computer?

[SyntheticShield]

Yeah, the computer has to be on and connected to the internet to use the MagicJack. I have a desktop that I hardly ever use so it kinda works out well for me.

[GeddyLee]

I am curious though, what phone number do you wind up having? Or do you even have one? And the 911 service? I know when I had Vonage I had to jump through hoops and sign a bunch of stuff to make sure if I used 911 from my Vonage phone it would route the correct address to the 911 Dispatcher.

I think though for $20 bucks a year, its a steal! I am surprised more folks dont know about this service.

[SyntheticShield]

Yep, I have a regular phone number. You pick the area code then the city within that area code and the last four are set by the service. The beauty of it is that you can choose any area code you want. So if you had family that was out of state for instance, you could pick a number that is local to them so they could call you free of charge, your long distance is free so you can can anywhere.

As for the 911 service, they (MagicJack) have submitted everything. There is an indicator on the software interface that lets you know when you are good to go with 911 service. In other words, all the work is complete and they know where you are when you call if you should need to.

The down side to all of that is that the service is designed to travel with you. So if you go out of town, you can technically take a phone with you and plug the magic jack into say your laptop and make a call. Granted its kinda pointless if you have cell phones, Im just saying you could do it. So in that situation, the 911 is pointless.

When I was in the military I had one of those watches that you could punch numbers into and then hit a button and it would put out DTMF from a built in speaker. I always got razzed for such a pointless thing. But by golly, we were overseas and in the middle of no where and one of our vehicles went over a cliff (this was before cell phones were really even on the market strong). No one was in it, the brakes let go and it took off. Well it had our military radio in it.

We needed to get in touch with the base and had no real way to do so. We went to the nearest pay phone. Well guess what. That sucker you could pick up and get a dial tone but several of the number pads didnt work, of course numbers we needed. Well guess who came to the rescue with his little crazy watch.

Just a story to show you never know. I doubt I would take my magic jack with me anywhere but I can see situations with my storm chasing that it could prove useful.

[Toasty]

alternatively, vonage is indeed pretty useful. their 911 in most markets is set up w/E911 like cell phones now. you do need to input your address, so it's similar in that regard to the magicjack.

if you dont use many minutes, vonage does have a 500 minute plan for 15/month. after average taxes, it's about 22 bucks... works well for me

[Sabrewings]

My cell phone reception in these Air Force dorms sucks. This Magic Jack thing seems really cool!

One thing I liked is that the PC doesn't always have to be on to receive voice mails. If I'm in here, it's on. So, if it's not on I'm not answering anyway.

I may just get this. Thanks!

[nemesis]

i'm going to have to give the magicjack a try. i have 2 lines from sprint and i think i'm paying too much.

[SyntheticShield]

Its $20 for the first year so you really cant go too wrong with this. I love mine. I signed up for two years when I got mine. After hearing a few reviews on the local news and I believe one on CNN as well and doing a little homework I just couldnt see where you could go terribly wrong.

The number is completely portable, all you would have to do is submit new address information if you should ever move. And if you wanted to totally change your phone number I believe its just $10 to do that.

[GeddyLee]

alternatively, vonage is indeed pretty useful. their 911 in most markets is set up w/E911 like cell phones now. you do need to input your address, so it's similar in that regard to the magicjack.

if you dont use many minutes, vonage does have a 500 minute plan for 15/month. after average taxes, it's about 22 bucks... works well for me

I had Vonage for almost 3 years. And almost every 3-6 months the rates kept going up. I did have the 500 minute plan, and I was still shelling out at a high of $27 a month. When i first started it was less than $20 a month. And never ever used up all of my minutes.

This device would be a good way to go and for a fixed price of $20 bucks for the entire year? Oh yeah!

[Toasty]

I had Vonage for almost 3 years. And almost every 3-6 months the rates kept going up. I did have the 500 minute plan, and I was still shelling out at a high of $27 a month. When i first started it was less than $20 a month. And never ever used up all of my minutes.

This device would be a good way to go and for a fixed price of $20 bucks for the entire year? Oh yeah!

interesting on the vonage price increases. i've watched the 500 min plan be @ 14.99 + taxes for the past year and a half, but you had it before that... but i wonder if some of the 911 taxes and stuff started to add up.