Defender II Posted August 15, 2010 Author Share Posted August 15, 2010 (edited) This one looks even better, but costs a little more. NetTalks Duo compare You don't even need to have a PC turned on all of the time! Just a router!! More pictures FAQs You can use a FAX! What do you think?! MajicJack $19.95/YR vs DUO $29.95/YR I think running a computer 24/7/365 will cost more than $10... What about the videophone? Edited August 15, 2010 by Defender II Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yuppicide Posted August 15, 2010 Share Posted August 15, 2010 There's a hack you can do on MagicJack where you don't need it plugged in at all! You can use other software to make the calls. Initially you need to plug it in and do some sniffing around, but once you get what you need you can do it without the USB piece plugged in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Almost Rice Posted August 15, 2010 Share Posted August 15, 2010 This one looks even better, but costs a little more. NetTalks Duo Looks like we just missed out on $100 one time charge and no annual fee with the nettalk tk6000. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Defender II Posted August 15, 2010 Author Share Posted August 15, 2010 (edited) This one looks even better, but costs a little more. NetTalks Duo Looks like we just missed out on $100 one time charge and no annual fee with the nettalk tk6000. Yes, that is too bad. But overall it's better than MajicJack so I'm probably going to sign up on the 23rd. Edited August 15, 2010 by Defender II Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horseboy Posted October 26, 2010 Share Posted October 26, 2010 Does anybody know if you can keep your existing phone number if you switch to magicjack? Nope. That's the one thing holding me back. I've had my ph# forever, and since my kids' school, doctors, and tons of other important stuff have that number it'd be a bitch to go through the change.... Well, I have been doing some tinkering trying to get my cable/phone/internet bill down, so I looked into this again. They say number porting will be available on Nov 1. Looks like I will be making the switch then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathanallan Posted October 27, 2010 Share Posted October 27, 2010 My friend swears by his magic jack, I might be getting one soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Almost Rice Posted October 27, 2010 Share Posted October 27, 2010 I will probably get one soon. If I can port my number, it would keep my wife happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie_ Posted October 28, 2010 Share Posted October 28, 2010 My experience with magic jack. I've had it for about a year now. I keep an older Compaq P4 laptop on a end table in my basement that runs the magic jack 24/7 so i don't need to worry about it running on our family computer. I live in NJ and cablevision is my internet provider. When I 1st started using magicjack, it was horrible! I found it was a combination of things. Cablevision had a congestion problem with their network in my area. The other problem was I was using a belkin router with no QOS. My house does a lot of internet use from newgroup downloading, gaming to browsing, all at once. If a call came in, the magic jack was crap. Stuttering broken up calls. Long and short of it, cablevision fixed the local problem. So its very important you have a reliable ISP. Magicjack started working good, but when my home network was using a lot of internet the calls still sucked...less but not really usable. I went to bestbuy and purchased a $100 netgear router that advertised it had advance QOS features on the box. (quality of service) I switched to this router and configure it so that the MAC address of the magicjack laptop gets highest priority. BINGO. It now works as good or better than any VERIZON land line, or Optimum voice number I've ever had. Sum it up: dedicated magic jack copmputer, reliable steady ISP, good QOS router = great magicjack service. The price just cant be matched even after investing in a old cheap craigslist laptop and a good router. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atariauctions Posted October 28, 2010 Share Posted October 28, 2010 I briefly scanned all the replies about MagicJack and am dumbfounded that no one has mentioned a dedicated PBX yet. I run software that is called Elastix for my house. It is a open source PBX. I have a dedicated box for this to run. It is also a fax server. I use a SIP Provider called Flowroute. Each DID costs me $1.39 a month and $0.0098/minute for the us. I use Linksys VOIP Phones. If you are a techie or like to learn new technology this is the way t go. I am very happy with it. You can also port your old number over if you want to. Any questions feel free to post in here or PM me, glad to help anyone out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie_ Posted October 28, 2010 Share Posted October 28, 2010 My experience with magic jack. I've had it for about a year now. I keep an older Compaq P4 laptop on a end table in my basement that runs the magic jack 24/7 so i don't need to worry about it running on our family computer. I live in NJ and cablevision is my internet provider. When I 1st started using magicjack, it was horrible! I found it was a combination of things. Cablevision had a congestion problem with their network in my area. The other problem was I was using a belkin router with no QOS. My house does a lot of internet use from newgroup downloading, gaming to browsing, all at once. If a call came in, the magic jack was crap. Stuttering broken up calls. Long and short of it, cablevision fixed the local problem. So its very important you have a reliable ISP. Magicjack started working good, but when my home network was using a lot of internet the calls still sucked...less but not really usable. I went to bestbuy and purchased a $100 netgear router that advertised it had advance QOS features on the box. (quality of service) I switched to this router and configure it so that the MAC address of the magicjack laptop gets highest priority. BINGO. It now works as good or better than any VERIZON land line, or Optimum voice number I've ever had. Sum it up: dedicated magic jack copmputer, reliable steady ISP, good QOS router = great magicjack service. The price just cant be matched even after investing in a old cheap craigslist laptop and a good router. I forgot to add this. Magicjack has voice mail that emails you the voice mail. Thats nice but if its a house phone you would like your answering machine to pick up. There is no way to turn off the voice mail option. You have to set your answering machine to pickup in 3 rings or the magicjack vm feature will take over. 3 rings isnt many. There was a software called magicbeans (that i purchased) and you could extend the number of rings. However there was an update to MJ and the author of magicbeans claims they made it impossible for his software to work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horseboy Posted October 28, 2010 Share Posted October 28, 2010 My experience with magic jack. I've had it for about a year now. I keep an older Compaq P4 laptop on a end table in my basement that runs the magic jack 24/7 so i don't need to worry about it running on our family computer. I live in NJ and cablevision is my internet provider. When I 1st started using magicjack, it was horrible! I found it was a combination of things. Cablevision had a congestion problem with their network in my area. The other problem was I was using a belkin router with no QOS. My house does a lot of internet use from newgroup downloading, gaming to browsing, all at once. If a call came in, the magic jack was crap. Stuttering broken up calls. Long and short of it, cablevision fixed the local problem. So its very important you have a reliable ISP. Magicjack started working good, but when my home network was using a lot of internet the calls still sucked...less but not really usable. I went to bestbuy and purchased a $100 netgear router that advertised it had advance QOS features on the box. (quality of service) I switched to this router and configure it so that the MAC address of the magicjack laptop gets highest priority. BINGO. It now works as good or better than any VERIZON land line, or Optimum voice number I've ever had. Sum it up: dedicated magic jack copmputer, reliable steady ISP, good QOS router = great magicjack service. The price just cant be matched even after investing in a old cheap craigslist laptop and a good router. I forgot to add this. Magicjack has voice mail that emails you the voice mail. Thats nice but if its a house phone you would like your answering machine to pick up. There is no way to turn off the voice mail option. You have to set your answering machine to pickup in 3 rings or the magicjack vm feature will take over. 3 rings isnt many. There was a software called magicbeans (that i purchased) and you could extend the number of rings. However there was an update to MJ and the author of magicbeans claims they made it impossible for his software to work. Can you access the voicemail any way other than email? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted October 28, 2010 Share Posted October 28, 2010 Can you email the voice msgs to more than 1 email box? If I could send msgs to my wife and I and listen to them on our iPhones that would be a plus. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted October 28, 2010 Share Posted October 28, 2010 I briefly scanned all the replies about MagicJack and am dumbfounded that no one has mentioned a dedicated PBX yet. I run software that is called Elastix for my house. It is a open source PBX. I have a dedicated box for this to run. It is also a fax server. I use a SIP Provider called Flowroute. Each DID costs me $1.39 a month and $0.0098/minute for the us. I use .0795*300Linksys VOIP Phones. If you are a techie or like to learn new technology this is the way t go. I am very happy with it. You can also port your old number over if you want to. Any questions feel free to post in here or PM me, glad to help anyone out I took a look at Flowroute's rates and I'm not sure I understand.. Just looking at the rates for Saipan (the CNMI) and/or Guam what are we looking at.. is this a per minute rate? edit.. I can't find Saipan in there. But here's the Guam rates.. 1671 30 sec 6 sec $0.0795 So is this a per/minute rate? So lets say for 300-600 minutes a month we're looking at 20-50 bucks? If so, it sounds like almost a break-even with Roadrunner's flat $40 rate for unlimited. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie_ Posted October 28, 2010 Share Posted October 28, 2010 Can you access the voicemail any way other than email? No, just email Can you email the voice msgs to more than 1 email box? If I could send msgs to my wife and I and listen to them on our iPhones that would be a plus. I just added a 2nd email address to my account to test this for you. No, it only lets you select one at a time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horseboy Posted October 28, 2010 Share Posted October 28, 2010 Can you access the voicemail any way other than email? No, just email Can you email the voice msgs to more than 1 email box? If I could send msgs to my wife and I and listen to them on our iPhones that would be a plus. I just added a 2nd email address to my account to test this for you. No, it only lets you select one at a time. Magicjack site says you can get your voicemail by dialing your own number. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie_ Posted October 28, 2010 Share Posted October 28, 2010 Can you access the voicemail any way other than email? No, just email Can you email the voice msgs to more than 1 email box? If I could send msgs to my wife and I and listen to them on our iPhones that would be a plus. I just added a 2nd email address to my account to test this for you. No, it only lets you select one at a time. Magicjack site says you can get your voicemail by dialing your own number. I didn't know / never did that. Maybe its a newer feature than when I installed mine. Still without the email you would have to randomly check it I guess. Or maybe the software on the PC alerts you. Using a dedicated laptop off to the side like I do, I never look at the software ever. Still thats good to know. I just set my answer machine to pickup in 3 rings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atariauctions Posted October 28, 2010 Share Posted October 28, 2010 I briefly scanned all the replies about MagicJack and am dumbfounded that no one has mentioned a dedicated PBX yet. I run software that is called Elastix for my house. It is a open source PBX. I have a dedicated box for this to run. It is also a fax server. I use a SIP Provider called Flowroute. Each DID costs me $1.39 a month and $0.0098/minute for the us. I use .0795*300Linksys VOIP Phones. If you are a techie or like to learn new technology this is the way t go. I am very happy with it. You can also port your old number over if you want to. Any questions feel free to post in here or PM me, glad to help anyone out I took a look at Flowroute's rates and I'm not sure I understand.. Just looking at the rates for Saipan (the CNMI) and/or Guam what are we looking at.. is this a per minute rate? edit.. I can't find Saipan in there. But here's the Guam rates.. 1671 30 sec 6 sec $0.0795 So is this a per/minute rate? So lets say for 300-600 minutes a month we're looking at 20-50 bucks? If so, it sounds like almost a break-even with Roadrunner's flat $40 rate for unlimited. But the beauty of this is you have full featured PBX in house. Not limited to features. Make as many voice mail boxes as you want. Have a IVR setup. I have it for my home based business, and I make it sound like I am a big huge company with an IVR. I have a NY number and an LA number. But both ring to my house in NY to an IVR. I say in there press 1 for the NY Office, press 2 for the LA office but it all rings to my phone on my desk in NY. It is fun to mess with and I have installed this in several small businesses in my area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Defender II Posted October 28, 2010 Author Share Posted October 28, 2010 My experience with magic jack. I've had it for about a year now. I keep an older Compaq P4 laptop on a end table in my basement that runs the magic jack 24/7 so i don't need to worry about it running on our family computer. I live in NJ and cablevision is my internet provider. When I 1st started using magicjack, it was horrible! I found it was a combination of things. Cablevision had a congestion problem with their network in my area. The other problem was I was using a belkin router with no QOS. My house does a lot of internet use from newgroup downloading, gaming to browsing, all at once. If a call came in, the magic jack was crap. Stuttering broken up calls. Long and short of it, cablevision fixed the local problem. So its very important you have a reliable ISP. Magicjack started working good, but when my home network was using a lot of internet the calls still sucked...less but not really usable. I went to bestbuy and purchased a $100 netgear router that advertised it had advance QOS features on the box. (quality of service) I switched to this router and configure it so that the MAC address of the magicjack laptop gets highest priority. BINGO. It now works as good or better than any VERIZON land line, or Optimum voice number I've ever had. Sum it up: dedicated magic jack copmputer, reliable steady ISP, good QOS router = great magicjack service. The price just cant be matched even after investing in a old cheap craigslist laptop and a good router. How much do you pay in Taxes/Fees each month? I was also looking into the Duo, but haven't got it yet. Does anyone have the Duo???? You plug it directly into the router or a PC your choice! This one looks even better, but costs a little more. NetTalks Duo compare You don't even need to have a PC turned on all of the time! Just a router!! More pictures FAQs You can use a FAX! What do you think?! MajicJack $19.95/YR vs DUO $29.95/YR I think running a computer 24/7/365 will cost more than $10... What about the videophone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 (edited) But the beauty of this is you have full featured PBX in house. Not limited to features. Make as many voice mail boxes as you want. Have a IVR setup. I have it for my home based business, and I make it sound like I am a big huge company with an IVR. I have a NY number and an LA number. But both ring to my house in NY to an IVR. I say in there press 1 for the NY Office, press 2 for the LA office but it all rings to my phone on my desk in NY. It is fun to mess with and I have installed this in several small businesses in my area. I'm relatively familiar with standalone PBX features (I was a Switch & Provisioning Engineer at a major telco for several years) but yeah maybe that's a little too much for what I'm looking for, which is home phone service for family calls. I mean, you mention voice mail boxes but I barely ever even check my own single answering machine right here Edited October 29, 2010 by NE146 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MattelAquarius Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 My experience with magic jack. I've had it for about a year now. I keep an older Compaq P4 laptop on a end table in my basement that runs the magic jack 24/7 so i don't need to worry about it running on our family computer. I live in NJ and cablevision is my internet provider. When I 1st started using magicjack, it was horrible! I found it was a combination of things. Cablevision had a congestion problem with their network in my area. The other problem was I was using a belkin router with no QOS. My house does a lot of internet use from newgroup downloading, gaming to browsing, all at once. If a call came in, the magic jack was crap. Stuttering broken up calls. Long and short of it, cablevision fixed the local problem. So its very important you have a reliable ISP. Magicjack started working good, but when my home network was using a lot of internet the calls still sucked...less but not really usable. I went to bestbuy and purchased a $100 netgear router that advertised it had advance QOS features on the box. (quality of service) I switched to this router and configure it so that the MAC address of the magicjack laptop gets highest priority. BINGO. It now works as good or better than any VERIZON land line, or Optimum voice number I've ever had. Sum it up: dedicated magic jack copmputer, reliable steady ISP, good QOS router = great magicjack service. The price just cant be matched even after investing in a old cheap craigslist laptop and a good router. How much do you pay in Taxes/Fees each month? I was also looking into the Duo, but haven't got it yet. Does anyone have the Duo???? You plug it directly into the router or a PC your choice! This one looks even better, but costs a little more. NetTalks Duo compare You don't even need to have a PC turned on all of the time! Just a router!! More pictures FAQs You can use a FAX! What do you think?! MajicJack $19.95/YR vs DUO $29.95/YR I think running a computer 24/7/365 will cost more than $10... What about the videophone? I have the Duo, MJ, and Ooma. I would keep my Duo over the others, any day. You can use it direct to a router, or through USB-to-computer, (if you need to connect via wifi). It has more features. It is improving its service, while MJ stagnates and causes new problems. Plus, now you can use your Duo service with your smartphone! http://www.nettalk.com/smartphone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie_ Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 How much do you pay in Taxes/Fees each month? There are no fees/taxes with magicjack. In fact besides for the purchase of the device ($35)I haven't paid them anything yet. I haven't even entered my credit card information. I'm sure I will soon as its been just about a year now. I'll probably go with a multi-year discount too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MattelAquarius Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 How much do you pay in Taxes/Fees each month? There are no fees/taxes with magicjack. In fact besides for the purchase of the device ($35)I haven't paid them anything yet. I haven't even entered my credit card information. I'm sure I will soon as its been just about a year now. I'll probably go with a multi-year discount too. It seems they've started adding a token "fee" to the renewal price. I think it's an extra 7%. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horseboy Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 My experience with magic jack. I've had it for about a year now. I keep an older Compaq P4 laptop on a end table in my basement that runs the magic jack 24/7 so i don't need to worry about it running on our family computer. I live in NJ and cablevision is my internet provider. When I 1st started using magicjack, it was horrible! I found it was a combination of things. Cablevision had a congestion problem with their network in my area. The other problem was I was using a belkin router with no QOS. My house does a lot of internet use from newgroup downloading, gaming to browsing, all at once. If a call came in, the magic jack was crap. Stuttering broken up calls. Long and short of it, cablevision fixed the local problem. So its very important you have a reliable ISP. Magicjack started working good, but when my home network was using a lot of internet the calls still sucked...less but not really usable. I went to bestbuy and purchased a $100 netgear router that advertised it had advance QOS features on the box. (quality of service) I switched to this router and configure it so that the MAC address of the magicjack laptop gets highest priority. BINGO. It now works as good or better than any VERIZON land line, or Optimum voice number I've ever had. Sum it up: dedicated magic jack copmputer, reliable steady ISP, good QOS router = great magicjack service. The price just cant be matched even after investing in a old cheap craigslist laptop and a good router. How much do you pay in Taxes/Fees each month? I was also looking into the Duo, but haven't got it yet. Does anyone have the Duo???? You plug it directly into the router or a PC your choice! This one looks even better, but costs a little more. NetTalks Duo compare You don't even need to have a PC turned on all of the time! Just a router!! More pictures FAQs You can use a FAX! What do you think?! MajicJack $19.95/YR vs DUO $29.95/YR I think running a computer 24/7/365 will cost more than $10... What about the videophone? I have the Duo, MJ, and Ooma. I would keep my Duo over the others, any day. You can use it direct to a router, or through USB-to-computer, (if you need to connect via wifi). It has more features. It is improving its service, while MJ stagnates and causes new problems. Plus, now you can use your Duo service with your smartphone! http://www.nettalk.com/smartphone The biggest advantage MJ has over the DUO is number porting IMO. I need my current number so the DUO is not an option. Running MJ on a dedicated laptop is really no big deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MattelAquarius Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 My experience with magic jack. I've had it for about a year now. I keep an older Compaq P4 laptop on a end table in my basement that runs the magic jack 24/7 so i don't need to worry about it running on our family computer. I live in NJ and cablevision is my internet provider. When I 1st started using magicjack, it was horrible! I found it was a combination of things. Cablevision had a congestion problem with their network in my area. The other problem was I was using a belkin router with no QOS. My house does a lot of internet use from newgroup downloading, gaming to browsing, all at once. If a call came in, the magic jack was crap. Stuttering broken up calls. Long and short of it, cablevision fixed the local problem. So its very important you have a reliable ISP. Magicjack started working good, but when my home network was using a lot of internet the calls still sucked...less but not really usable. I went to bestbuy and purchased a $100 netgear router that advertised it had advance QOS features on the box. (quality of service) I switched to this router and configure it so that the MAC address of the magicjack laptop gets highest priority. BINGO. It now works as good or better than any VERIZON land line, or Optimum voice number I've ever had. Sum it up: dedicated magic jack copmputer, reliable steady ISP, good QOS router = great magicjack service. The price just cant be matched even after investing in a old cheap craigslist laptop and a good router. How much do you pay in Taxes/Fees each month? I was also looking into the Duo, but haven't got it yet. Does anyone have the Duo???? You plug it directly into the router or a PC your choice! This one looks even better, but costs a little more. NetTalks Duo compare You don't even need to have a PC turned on all of the time! Just a router!! More pictures FAQs You can use a FAX! What do you think?! MajicJack $19.95/YR vs DUO $29.95/YR I think running a computer 24/7/365 will cost more than $10... What about the videophone? I have the Duo, MJ, and Ooma. I would keep my Duo over the others, any day. You can use it direct to a router, or through USB-to-computer, (if you need to connect via wifi). It has more features. It is improving its service, while MJ stagnates and causes new problems. Plus, now you can use your Duo service with your smartphone! http://www.nettalk.com/smartphone The biggest advantage MJ has over the DUO is number porting IMO. I need my current number so the DUO is not an option. Running MJ on a dedicated laptop is really no big deal. MJ does not allow porting IN, either. However, if you want to keep your MJ number, then I see your problem. Since I am still running all four of my VOIP devices, including MJ, it's not a problem. I have MJ permanently forwarded to my NetTalk device. I make calls out using MJ, and all my incoming calls go to NetTalk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horseboy Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 My experience with magic jack. I've had it for about a year now. I keep an older Compaq P4 laptop on a end table in my basement that runs the magic jack 24/7 so i don't need to worry about it running on our family computer. I live in NJ and cablevision is my internet provider. When I 1st started using magicjack, it was horrible! I found it was a combination of things. Cablevision had a congestion problem with their network in my area. The other problem was I was using a belkin router with no QOS. My house does a lot of internet use from newgroup downloading, gaming to browsing, all at once. If a call came in, the magic jack was crap. Stuttering broken up calls. Long and short of it, cablevision fixed the local problem. So its very important you have a reliable ISP. Magicjack started working good, but when my home network was using a lot of internet the calls still sucked...less but not really usable. I went to bestbuy and purchased a $100 netgear router that advertised it had advance QOS features on the box. (quality of service) I switched to this router and configure it so that the MAC address of the magicjack laptop gets highest priority. BINGO. It now works as good or better than any VERIZON land line, or Optimum voice number I've ever had. Sum it up: dedicated magic jack copmputer, reliable steady ISP, good QOS router = great magicjack service. The price just cant be matched even after investing in a old cheap craigslist laptop and a good router. How much do you pay in Taxes/Fees each month? I was also looking into the Duo, but haven't got it yet. Does anyone have the Duo???? You plug it directly into the router or a PC your choice! This one looks even better, but costs a little more. NetTalks Duo compare You don't even need to have a PC turned on all of the time! Just a router!! More pictures FAQs You can use a FAX! What do you think?! MajicJack $19.95/YR vs DUO $29.95/YR I think running a computer 24/7/365 will cost more than $10... What about the videophone? I have the Duo, MJ, and Ooma. I would keep my Duo over the others, any day. You can use it direct to a router, or through USB-to-computer, (if you need to connect via wifi). It has more features. It is improving its service, while MJ stagnates and causes new problems. Plus, now you can use your Duo service with your smartphone! http://www.nettalk.com/smartphone The biggest advantage MJ has over the DUO is number porting IMO. I need my current number so the DUO is not an option. Running MJ on a dedicated laptop is really no big deal. MJ does not allow porting IN, either. However, if you want to keep your MJ number, then I see your problem. Since I am still running all four of my VOIP devices, including MJ, it's not a problem. I have MJ permanently forwarded to my NetTalk device. I make calls out using MJ, and all my incoming calls go to NetTalk. MJ allows porting in your number starting Monday Nov 1st. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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