Magic Jack ?

Anyone out there try one? Just curious.

woman i know has one.said it works great,but her puter has to be on to use it.

Haven't tried it, have had Vonage a number of years and been happy with it.

Magic Jack looks like they've taken some of the hardware out of the way and replaced it with software to accomplish the same functionality. Neat concept other than adding workload/overhead to your PC although at the price they're advertising, possibly well worth the trade off.

I used one for awhile. Worked great BUT..

After a few weeks people were telling me when they called me they were told the lines were busy or something like that and couldn't get through over and over. Also about that time I was picking up the phone and dialing and after a long pause I'd get a dial tone again--over and over. If I need to make a call to 911 I don't want these problems. An occasional incident is ok but this was a bit too much.

Next issue is I want to keep my old number and they are not porting phone number over to their service yet.

Still it's such a bargain in price that it's worth getting and trying. If I maded long distance calls I'd probably still be using it for that but for the very infrequent long distance call I make I just use my cell phone. I plan to try it again some time cause bare bones land line service with no long distance calls runs me just shy of $30 a month!

I'd recommend trying it and letting the rest of us know what you think.

My Phone company is windstream [ Formerly AlTell]
and my puter is set to this so do I have to Change to Vontage ? or would it be automatic in my programs

If it works its ok for you for out going calls.
Your next door buddy is going to get a long distance bill when he calls you.
Or a busy signal.

Vonage has nothing to do with Magic Jack. They are actually a competitor or Magic Jack. Vonage provides a device that attaches to your internet modem and coexists / shares the connection with your pc. That device they give you changes your voice to data and sends it over the internet. Magic Jack is hardware plugged into your computer and it using your computers processor converts your voice to data and send it over the internet. So Vonage will work with your computer off but Magic Jack needs it on.

It doesn"t matter who your internet service is with. As long as it"s not a dialup internet connection of course it"s fine. I"m using the local Cable companies internet service but the phone company"s dsl internet service is fine too.

It"s been awhile since I tried Magic Jack but I seem to remember that I really did just plug the Magic Jack thing into my USB port and it started up a software installation on my computer that allowed me to pick where I wanted my phone number to be from and it was up and going in no time. I took an old phone and plugged it into the magic jack and could make and receive calls.

I don"t know what Vonage"s quality is but they cost almost as much as my regular old fashioned telephone service--of course Vonage does include free long distance in their service. Magic Jack is so so much cheaper and also has long distance included.

Magic Jack"s approach would allow me to take the magic jack to work and plug it into the office computer and a phone into it and vola my home phone would ring at work. You could take it to china and if you had a good internet connection do he same. It doesn"t know where it is it just accesses the internet via the computer it"s plugged into. They point out relatives of the military can buy these and set up a number on them local to where they live and mail the device to their military family member in the gulf and then they can make calls back and forth like a local call. Provided the military gives them internet service.

When picking a number you pick a number that you want people to call you at that is local to them so they can call it free--for must of us or local area. You of course using the device can call anywhere free cause long distance is included. So if most of the folks calling you are from out of state do them a favor and get a number where they are located. You can still call all your local number free (free long distance) but to them it"s a local call to call you.

The have voice mail that answers if you don"t or your computer is off and it"s pretty neat that they send you that voice mail via email so you can play it on your pc--you can also get it over the phone.

Course I"m not using mine as like I mentioned I can"t move my current number to them yet and had spells that I couldn"t get or make calls.

Also consider that you can"t turn off their voice mail service though you could put an answering machine on it if it answered before 4 rings which is when their voice mail service answers.

Lastly I found this worked but it isn"t recommended by them. To get all the phones in your house to use it go outside and disconnect your house from your local phone service at their box on the side of your house then take a phone line and plug one end into the magic jack and the other in a wall jack. Now all the phones in your house are plugged into your Magic Jack and work through it. Worked for me just fine.

Oh, almost forgot, Given Magic Jack doesn"t know where it is physically you need to go online to Magic Jacks admin site and tell it where you want 911 to go when they get a call from that device. If you move the jack to another address don"t forget to update where you told them to send 911 responders.

Your next door neighbor would still see it as a local call if you pick a local number. Magic Jack lets you choose the area you want your number in. Again I'm not saying it's a great product. It sounds great and it did kinda work but again I'm not using it any more--see my other responses.