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Free internet calls with magicjack?
- Thread starter Kwill
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A privately owned startup company is about to knock Skype and VoIP on the seats of their pants.Is anyone here using magicJack?
Looks interesting, to say the least...If I were to look at anything like that, I'd want it to gain a bit of popularity and have some people report back on the experience first. Seems just a little fishy..
If you're an insomniac like I am, you've no doubt seen the 30 minute informercial on this thing at 3am.
It looks interesting - like a VOIP gizmo, but much cheaper.
It looks interesting - like a VOIP gizmo, but much cheaper.
Someone at my tech school has one of these, and did a tech demo of it. It seems to work as advertised, though I didn't get to make any calls with it, so I can't attest to the sound quality myself.
magicjack
I recently got a Magickjack, and I could'nt be happier, works exactly as advertised, takes about 60 seconds to set up, and plus it has a few other tricks up it"s sleeve they don't even tell you about, all the call's you can eat for $ 20.00 or less each year, they offer multiple year discounts, but in any case NO BILLS EVER, crystal clear calling (must have at least lite broadband).
I recently got a Magickjack, and I could'nt be happier, works exactly as advertised, takes about 60 seconds to set up, and plus it has a few other tricks up it"s sleeve they don't even tell you about, all the call's you can eat for $ 20.00 or less each year, they offer multiple year discounts, but in any case NO BILLS EVER, crystal clear calling (must have at least lite broadband).
I see some of y'all are still using MagicJack - My MacMini and/or MacBook seem to be having problems with it. The voice is jerky and it is a pain to listen to at times. Others do not seem to have the problem. I have Bellsouth (AT&T) DSL 6.0. I do not know if any here have an idea what I can do (if anything, except return it). I was advised by someone on a MagicJack forum to do this:
"using QoS in Tomato helped. Giving high priority to the MJ process helped (do you do that in Mac OS from a command window, and the unix "nice" command?)." Is there a way to do this on a MAC? I would love to be able to keep this cheap form of phone service (a Presbyterian you know) if I could get my MacMini to work with it properly. Any advice?
"using QoS in Tomato helped. Giving high priority to the MJ process helped (do you do that in Mac OS from a command window, and the unix "nice" command?)." Is there a way to do this on a MAC? I would love to be able to keep this cheap form of phone service (a Presbyterian you know) if I could get my MacMini to work with it properly. Any advice?
What about your regular home phone number? You'd probably still have to pay your phone company to keep that.
Here's the thing...what about incoming calls? What about voice mail?
Looks to me like its great for outgoing calls...but...you'd have to have a computer hooked up to the internet and on fulltime to receive calls (if thats even possible) and it takes up a USB port...
Anyone here using it that can answer these questions? Trust me I hate phone companies and up in Canada we truly get gouged esp by the cel phone racket. The prices are outrageous and the quasi-monopoly of carriers make off w/ millions in excess profits because there is no choice. What appears as choice is really just collusion among the telecom giants here. I would love nothing more than Magic Jack to catch on like wild fire if it really is that good.
Here's the thing...what about incoming calls? What about voice mail?
Looks to me like its great for outgoing calls...but...you'd have to have a computer hooked up to the internet and on fulltime to receive calls (if thats even possible) and it takes up a USB port...
Anyone here using it that can answer these questions? Trust me I hate phone companies and up in Canada we truly get gouged esp by the cel phone racket. The prices are outrageous and the quasi-monopoly of carriers make off w/ millions in excess profits because there is no choice. What appears as choice is really just collusion among the telecom giants here. I would love nothing more than Magic Jack to catch on like wild fire if it really is that good.
My father has it, he lives in another country, and the voice quality is poor, maybe due to the ISP but I do prefer to talk with him via Skype and the quality is excellent.
why use a device for magicjack?
what about http://voipwise.com ?
rate is the cheapest! you don't need any device to plug in. with voipwise, you can make FREE unlimited calls for some countries (check their website) and other country rates are very c heap.
but the best part is, you don't need any device to plug in. you can do:
phone-to-phone
cell-to-phone
computer-to-phone
basically you have enter some authorized numbers (like your cell phone or home phone) in your voipwise account. and simply dial your destination. or if you're in front of the computer, you can call from there too!
free sign up. give it a try or at least look at their rates and check out the website.
what about http://voipwise.com ?
rate is the cheapest! you don't need any device to plug in. with voipwise, you can make FREE unlimited calls for some countries (check their website) and other country rates are very c heap.
but the best part is, you don't need any device to plug in. you can do:
phone-to-phone
cell-to-phone
computer-to-phone
basically you have enter some authorized numbers (like your cell phone or home phone) in your voipwise account. and simply dial your destination. or if you're in front of the computer, you can call from there too!
free sign up. give it a try or at least look at their rates and check out the website.
Looks like most calls are for free...gotta be a catch somewhere. Doesn't even look like there's a startup or subscription fee.
Are you using it? How do you pay for the countries that require a fee? ...does it get billed to your ISP or something? ...home number?
Are you using it? How do you pay for the countries that require a fee? ...does it get billed to your ISP or something? ...home number?
This software accession is semi-automatic, in the faculty that you don't see what's accepting put where, you just bang a button to accredit the install and again delay for it to load. I begin that a little sketchy, but I accept apparent added than my allotment of dodgy software installations.
After that, I had to set up an account, which did not absorb capacity any announcement advice but which did crave me to acknowledgment a few marketing-inspired questions (for instance, which aggregation I pay for TV service) that, I presume, will advice magicJack's administration advertise ads.
After that, I had to set up an account, which did not absorb capacity any announcement advice but which did crave me to acknowledgment a few marketing-inspired questions (for instance, which aggregation I pay for TV service) that, I presume, will advice magicJack's administration advertise ads.
$20/yr??
O.Ó Hm. Now the moment that thing allows calls to COME IN, it's sold.
The problem with this is that it does very little extra from SKYPE aside from allowing computer ignorant people to just plug in and go. The price is competitive, the ease of use is a little better, but I wouldn't do any back flips yet.
I still spend less than $10/year on SKYPE.
O.Ó Hm. Now the moment that thing allows calls to COME IN, it's sold.
The problem with this is that it does very little extra from SKYPE aside from allowing computer ignorant people to just plug in and go. The price is competitive, the ease of use is a little better, but I wouldn't do any back flips yet.
I still spend less than $10/year on SKYPE.
as far as voip goes ive heard alot of good things about magic jack, and alot of bad.
some voip providers have to charge a $2.50 per month surcharge for e911 service, since you can move your device this service makes sure a 911 operator knows where you are when you call. I'm not sure if magic jack provides this service because it's only 19.99 a year. does anyone know?
also you have to keep your computer on ALL the time? I'd rather you be able to plug the magic jack into your modem like other voip providers. is magic jack ad supported?
I've used voip before ,not magic jack, but the call quality certainly wasn't as good as a landline but we also had like 60 voip phones running.
i did however call someone using magic jack in the Caribbean off his laptop which was connected via wifi and they sounded perfect, so unless they were lying to me, you can receive calls and it also sounds reasonably well.
some voip providers have to charge a $2.50 per month surcharge for e911 service, since you can move your device this service makes sure a 911 operator knows where you are when you call. I'm not sure if magic jack provides this service because it's only 19.99 a year. does anyone know?
also you have to keep your computer on ALL the time? I'd rather you be able to plug the magic jack into your modem like other voip providers. is magic jack ad supported?
I've used voip before ,not magic jack, but the call quality certainly wasn't as good as a landline but we also had like 60 voip phones running.
i did however call someone using magic jack in the Caribbean off his laptop which was connected via wifi and they sounded perfect, so unless they were lying to me, you can receive calls and it also sounds reasonably well.
Magicjack caller ID
I love Magicjack. Now I love it even more that I got the caller id to work on my phone by getting a fixer from http://www.magicjackcallerid.com
I love Magicjack. Now I love it even more that I got the caller id to work on my phone by getting a fixer from http://www.magicjackcallerid.com
They provide 911 service. You tell them where you are currently located and they provide a 911 button. You can even have multiple locations and that 911 button will change based on what location you are at. Works for US only.
Nope, they have call forwarding. All incoming calls can be forwarded to your cell/landline. Just plug it in when you want to make outbound calls.
You need 80k up and down. If you have that, then you will have relatively clear calls.
thanks for info atsang, at my office we use a hosted pbx voip system and they charge us per minute when we have call forwarding on!
all in all, comparing with the voip service i use, honestly i would rather pay $19.99 a month for unlimited calling, get a free phone, and not have to deal with a softphone.
when i move i might get a magic jack just to keep a local number.
all in all, comparing with the voip service i use, honestly i would rather pay $19.99 a month for unlimited calling, get a free phone, and not have to deal with a softphone.
when i move i might get a magic jack just to keep a local number.
I posted this awhile back so I'm surprised to see anything like it being revived (April 2, 2008); oh well, hope this helps......
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/464778/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/464778/
I see some of y'all are still using MagicJack - My MacMini and/or MacBook seem to be having problems with it. The voice is jerky and it is a pain to listen to at times. Others do not seem to have the problem. I have Bellsouth (AT&T) DSL 6.0. I do not know if any here have an idea what I can do (if anything, except return it). I was advised by someone on a MagicJack forum to do this:
"using QoS in Tomato helped. Giving high priority to the MJ process helped (do you do that in Mac OS from a command window, and the unix "nice" command?)." Is there a way to do this on a MAC? I would love to be able to keep this cheap form of phone service (a Presbyterian you know) if I could get my MacMini to work with it properly. Any advice?
People have been talking about broad band being needed. Maybe dsl isn't
sufficient.
DSL is a form of broadband. That said, this thread is almost a year old. MagicJack has plenty of bad reviews so I think the discussion is practically over now.