The Amber Scherloz Thread

[Clint]

Re: Magic Jack

How much does that cost?

Mark,

I think it was $29 for the year, call anywhere in the US ... I use it overseas to call home. It's VOIP, and 98/100 calls are perfect. 2 times out of a hundred I will have to call back. - reminds me of when we went off the party lines in the late 70's in Oklahoma...those two times, there is static, and it's choppy, call backs work great. I use it to talk to friends in Afghanistan regularly, Germany, and my family all over the US.

I have a headset that I got for cheap at a discount store. plug it into my laptop, and punch the number in on the dial pad.

 

[ergammill]

Re: Magic Jack

After reading about Magic Jack for over a year and finding only people who hated it or loved it, decided to try it myself. (never found any body who justed liked it)


We have been using Magic Jack for about 90 days now and it's great. Got rid of our landline a couple weeks ago.


The key is to have a good Internet connection, and to install it correctly.


It is also working for faxes, I have had a problem when the receiver has a old fax machine or has their fax machine set on a mode other than fax .


Where my wife works they had been using Magic Jack for international travel for the last few years, they can call back to the states for free. They did recently switch to Skype for the video options.


With the internet options and Google Voice, the age of the landline is coming to an end.

 

[DHK]

Re: Magic Jack

MagicJack seems to work great for me... if:
1) You have a fast internet connection
2) You have a corded phone
3) You have a modern computer with plenty of memory
4) You don't have conversations too long on the phone

Somehow for me, using the headset on my computer, I get MORE background noise than if I use my phone with headset.

I also like how you can keep the same number and have it forward to whatever other number you want. So keeping this number as a "permanent" number is a good thing.

I would start with this, test it and then later upgrade to Packet8 (8x8) or Vonage later on.

After all, how much would you really be out for trying it?

 

[Josh]

Re: Magic Jack

How much does that cost?

The biggest problem with skype is that you can only make 50 calls/day without being charged, tat's what they consider "unlimited".

Aside from the audio quality, Magic Jack uses a little spyware which means giving up some privacy and it slows down your computer. Either Vonage or other VOIP providers would make more sense for most folks that are planning on doing a lot of calls.

 

[Mark]

Re: Magic Jack

Unlimited calls to landlines in the US & Canada ? any time, day or night.

It looks like for $2.95 a month, you can call anyone in the USA for free and to buy a incoming phone number is $30 a year with the $2.95 deal.

Does anyone have any problem with sound or anything with Skype?

 

[Josh]

Re: Magic Jack

Unlimited calls to landlines in the US & Canada ? any time, day or night.

It looks like for $2.95 a month, you can call anyone in the USA for free and to buy a incoming phone number is $30 a year with the $2.95 deal.

Does anyone have any problem with sound or anything with Skype?

I love Skype. I've never had a problem with the sound quality, but some of my friends have. The problems they've had with the quality 100% of the time were because of their internet connection. As long as you have a good internet connection the quality is great and I'm only using a $15 USB headset from radioshack I bought to "try it out". Since it's been working so well, I haven't spent any money on getting anything else.

 

[WinoBlues]

Re: Magic Jack

Unlimited calls to landlines in the US & Canada ? any time, day or night.

It looks like for $2.95 a month, you can call anyone in the USA for free and to buy a incoming phone number is $30 a year with the $2.95 deal.

Does anyone have any problem with sound or anything with Skype?

Any problems working wirelessly, like off a laptop or netbook? Do you dial off the keyboard? How about wireless/bluetooth headset?

Thanks.

 

[Josh]

Re: Magic Jack

Any problems working wirelessly, like off a laptop or netbook? Do you dial off the keyboard? How about wireless/bluetooth headset?

Thanks.

The only problem with wireless would be the same problem you'll have if you're wired, you need to have a lot of clean and steady bandwidth. If you're barely getting a signal then the audio quality is going to go down. Wireless headsets are great, but to get a good one can be expensive. My $15 headset has a 7 ft cable and that seems to work well enough, especially since I usually need to be in front of the computer when I'm working anyway.
You can either dial using the keyboard or click the buttons on the screen, either way I think it works great. It's also really easy to have more than one person on the line.

 

[WinoBlues]

Re: Magic Jack

The only problem with wireless would be the same problem you'll have if you're wired, you need to have a lot of clean and steady bandwidth. If you're barely getting a signal then the audio quality is going to go down. Wireless headsets are great, but to get a good one can be expensive. My $15 headset has a 7 ft cable and that seems to work well enough, especially since I usually need to be in front of the computer when I'm working anyway.
You can either dial using the keyboard or click the buttons on the screen, either way I think it works great. It's also really easy to have more than one person on the line.

More than one person? As in a conference call or someone else in the office also talking to the caller? Any issues doing a conference call? I do that regularly.

Thanks for the help. Our contract is coming up on the current carrier and due to this forum I am looking at Skype and Vonage.

 

[Chazm]

Re: Magic Jack

I use magic jack and while there is some static I love it because my work is about 60 miles from where I prospect. You can choose your own area code and for me that helps a lot because people usually answer the phone for an area code they recognize.

I also like you can hook up the call fowarding feature for free so if anyone calls you at anytime it goes to your cell phone.

Hopefully one day they improve on the quality though, I do get some problems here and there