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Michael
Site Admin
Joined: 13 Jan 2005
Posts: 5070
Location: Cary, IL
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 Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 7:28 am Post subject: |
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Agreed.
VOIP is a data connection over TCP/IP it is NOT a voice call, there isn't any extra charges.
About the only issue will be inconsistent latency, which will impact the quality of the call.
I have used a different type of VOIP using a:
- SIP WiFi Phone
- Via a CradlePoint Router
- to a Asterisk PBX
And when signal is strong, it works pretty well.
I wouldn't want VOIP over EVDO to be my only means of holding a voice call, as the quality may not be what I want at all times.
The best advice is to try it for yourself and decide (and let us know too).
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firedude
EVDO Junkie
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
Posts: 435
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| Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 7:47 am Post subject: |
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I'll do a comprehensive test here using my MBR 1000, laptop both Vista and XP and Sprint U727 service and report back to this thread. Hey I'll even call Michael or Alex and they can make their own analysis lol! Should have it by mid week next week. it would be cool to be able to run the thing on the back side of the router, but that's not an option right now. My buddy not far from here says it's great, but like Michael says there are a lot of variables. For me it will be a secondary line. As Arnie says .....I'll be back....with a report
Tony |
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deparson
EVDO Junkie
Joined: 30 Aug 2006
Posts: 248
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| Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 10:07 am Post subject: red alert |
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After looking at the Web site I am going to call 'red alert' on this one. The site is very much a infomercial and the business model of supporting unlimited domestic calls at $20/year is just not realistic.
My take on it? They are in it to sell a boat load of devices at $40 and will keep the VOIP service going as long as it continues to sell devices and does not reach the point where it cuts into margins too much. If they are still doing business in a year I will be shocked. I did do a live chat that worked and the agent said it needs 128kbps up and 128kbps down to work correctly.
For example, they say Product of the Year but don't say who named it that. Did they name their own product the product of the year? They also have an image that says "Look how many people came for a free trial today:" with a counter like image next to it. However, this is a hard coded counter that simply increments from 1 to 34681 based on the time of the day. Misleading marketing BS.
And, they are indeed a PCMAG.com editors choice BUT if you read the customer reviews you will see a lot of things like this "
When I first installed this crapware - I found THIRTEEN different applications associated with it in my firewall... I disabled NINE of them - but FOUR of these "services" HAD to be enabled for this POS to work - THREE TOO MANY FOR MY TASTE! And they were all named with obfuscating names like "in00000" & such."
I also got a kick out what I got when I clicked on their FAQ link from their home page:
Compilation Error
Description: An error occurred during the compilation of a resource required to service this request. Please review the following specific error details and modify your source code appropriately.
Compiler Error Message: CS1002: ; expected
Source Error:
Line 1: <%
Line 2: ga_site_id = Mid(Request.ServerVariables("PATH_INFO"), 2, 1)
Line 3: if(ga_site_id = 1) then
Line 4: %> |
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firedude
EVDO Junkie
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
Posts: 435
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| Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 11:24 am Post subject: |
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deparson....
I had the same suspicions myself however all pages came up for me even the FAQ's. Had it not been a friend using this with good results I wouldn't have given it a second thought. My brother who is a IT and Network Engineer tried it. They got one on the 30 day trial to test in their office for future potential use by their customers. they are always looking and testing stuff for use. he said they had good luck with it and even inquired about being a reseller. Said they felt comfortable at that point, but never pursued it as the demand wasn't there at the time. On the pop up and crap that comes with the software? Yep my bro agreed, but said it was an easy fix for them to rid it all and he would walk me through it if I needed him to. I spent some time on chat with two different reps who seemed to be knowledgeable of the product so we'll see. Those who used that I've spoken personally to said it worked ok as a secondary line. I do agree that within a year they maybe belly up or very successful charging competitive rates along with Vonage and those types.
The other thing that bothers me is the lack of contacts. Well hey, if it works for me for a year as a secondary line great.If not I'm only out $20. Life's an adventure. Guess that's why I was a firefighter.
On edit... I read through a bunch of reviews by forum users at DSLreports and some were very good. You can read them here... http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r18734293-My-review-of-MagicJack |
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Glenn7500
EVDO User
Joined: 03 Feb 2006
Posts: 39
Location: New Orleans, La USA
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| Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 6:01 pm Post subject: |
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I have had my jack for about 5 months now and have been overall satisfied with it.
My biggest gripe sometimes is they do system upgrades in the middle of the day and the voicemail works when it wants to. They are aware of the voicemail issue.
They are still in beta mode and I have noticed some improvements overall. So really can’t complain for the value and as far as customer service, yeah you can’t talk live on the phone but the live chat is petty good.
Hey which you expect for 20 bucks a year!!!
My wife also calls her country with the international plan they offer, rates are pretty good.
http://www.ymaxcorp.com/clec_rates.html
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Fox McCloud
EVDO Junkie
Joined: 02 Dec 2006
Posts: 605
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| Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 1:44 pm Post subject: |
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I figure if I was to use this, I'd just install it on a PC I rarely use (probably the one that hosts my ORB server), then plug the jack into the wall; that way, all the phones in the house would work with the service.
That is, unless you have to dial directly from your PC.
I know Gizmo+Grand Central is pretty good, it's just inconvenient to use. |
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Droford
EVDO Fledgling
Joined: 08 Aug 2007
Posts: 20
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| Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 1:47 pm Post subject: |
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I looked into this a couple months ago when I first saw the ad on TV. I thought for $40 it would be worth a shot but I wanted to make sure that I could use it so I looked around and heard people were using rev A with good results, but then I looked up on their website and found that they dont have a local number for me to use so I decided against it.
Also, I read that the software is built to eventually push ads while making calls which might be where they think they'll make money from BUT how many people are going to be staring at the screen when they are talking?
Also, the software supposedly has no uninstall feature and it makes it harder to delete off your system should you not want it. |
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firedude
EVDO Junkie
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
Posts: 435
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| Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 3:41 pm Post subject: |
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| Droford wrote: | | Also, the software supposedly has no uninstall feature and it makes it harder to delete off your system should you not want it. |
Actually there is a work around on this and all the ads can easily be removed. For someone really tuned in can do this. My brother has done it for a few now and told me when it come next week he'll walk me through it ...using their phone LOL! Like I said earlier his company tried it on the 30 day trial to evaluate it for potential customer use and said it was a plausible voip and for as secondary line. The 30 days they had it he figured out how do disable all the ad junk and pop ups. I have an old lappy I could hard wire to the MBR 1000 and could run magicJack alone on it if I wanted to, but my bro says fixing their ad and pop up stuff is a definite doable thing. He even found a way to rid the soft phone screen from being up as well. I'll give it a shot. Like my bro said, hey you can't beat the cost.
As far as local number? Most people that call me have cells anyway so it really doesn't matter the area code or anything to me. My intent is to lower my cell time and have a backup line. My bro and I do a lot of phone talk at times since we maintain our own server and that would be great for that too keeping my cell free and the minutes down.
Bottom line if it doesn't work well for me it goes back under the 30 days and nothing lost.
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Glenn7500
EVDO User
Joined: 03 Feb 2006
Posts: 39
Location: New Orleans, La USA
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| Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 9:51 am Post subject: |
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As far as pop ups, I don’t get any.
The only ad that is visible is a little window in the soft touch app, and it just promotes all there services.
You also get a web base back office login, so you will be able to change your number once area codes become active in your area at no charge.
http://www.magicjack.com/1/areacodes.asp
I normally just leave mine plugged into a good cordless phone so that way I can run about throughout the house.
Last edited by Glenn7500 on Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:51 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Torrey
Site Admin
Joined: 09 May 2007
Posts: 256
Location: USA
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| Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 3:34 pm Post subject: |
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| socksbb wrote: | You guys are mis-understanding the voice charges...
If you use a VOIP product, like Magic Jack, Vonage, etc then you will not be charged, as it is a data connection. To sprint it is the same as downloading a webpage.
What they are talking about is some of the enterprise EVDO cards and devices that can make voice calls over CDMA and data. If you only have a data plan, but start calling someone then you are charged the set rates. |
Well technically, they could determine if you were using these kind of services if they REALLY wanted to. They can use packet sniffing to determine what type of service you are using. This is why net neutrality is a hot topic these days... as certain ISP's *cough*comcast*cough* are packet forging bit-torrent downloads to deter users who are hogging all the bandwidth. I do not condone piracy, as there are some legit uses for Bit-torrent like Linux distrobutions, but its just the point of it...there is also talk of "Premium Traffic" on the networks. Ex: Comcast could make a deal with YouTube that all of their traffic gets sent to the customer at top speed, and all other video content providers get a slower capped transfer rate to comcast customers. Do a google search on net neutrality if you wish to get all the details.
But back to the topic I think you are correct, as I don't know anyone who has received an unusual sprint bill due to their MagicJack. A friend actually called me today using his MagicJack on the Sprint network. It actually sounded really clear and there was only a slight (barely noticeable) 1-2 second lag.
I'm ordering my MagicJack! At that price it's a steal! A little skeptical as I've seen other "hit & run" VoIP services, but if they close shop after say 6 months...I think I'll still have got my $$ worth. Just don't pre-pay for the 5yr plan LOL. It will at least come in handy at the end of my Verizon Wireless billing cycle when minutes are low  |
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firedude
EVDO Junkie
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
Posts: 435
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| Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 9:20 pm Post subject: |
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OK,
I got mine today and it runs great on my new laptop with vista Home premium. I talked to my bro for about 30-40 minutes today with no problem and made a few other calls. Now there was a bit of static at times, but not bad and think it may be jitter along with congestion on the tower this time of evening.
The interesting part it it won't work on my XP laptop (HP), with the cordless phone that is. It will operate in the headset mode with great audio (as it does as well on the Vista lappy). This is where you use it with the computers sound system and mic and the cordless is out of the picture. You can switch between the headset and phone modes depending on your wants. So for now I'm using my new laptop with the Vista Home Premium until I can solve the issue with the xp machine. I spent about 2 hours though with 4 different tech support people in their chat mode to no avail. Each time they either hung up on me or got disconnected/timed out.
Bottom line besides having issues with my xp laptop it seems to work great!
There are NO pop up ads. all it is, is a soft mode screen with dialing pad snd within that screen on the left is an ad space with an ad. You can run the soft screen minimized so it is really no hassle. This is NOT a factor at all with me.
Now I went out and bought a 2.4 ghz bell-south cordless and wonder if the 2.4 ghz frequency has any affect? I also noted the further away from my external drives and the MBR1000 I placed the cordless base the less "noise" I had. Suppose the 2.4 ghz is interfering somehow?
If I could just solve thew issue with the XP laptop. I use it normally as my primary "home" computer, but for now will have to use my new laptop instead.
Overall? I'm impressed and for the price? You can't beat it for a secondary line and keeping the cell time down!!
MagicJacks tech support chat is ok, but it didn't help me at all after a couple hours and 4-5 different techs. My bro who's an IT and network engineer whos tested this says he'll fix it and play with some ports. (beyond my capabilities) the first of next month when I move back to the valley for a while.
Cool little set up and if anyone has any answers to the XP issues let me know. For now though it's working great. Best voip I've used so far. NO latency or lag either. I'll update more as I go.
Tony |
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Torrey
Site Admin
Joined: 09 May 2007
Posts: 256
Location: USA
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| Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 9:46 pm Post subject: |
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| firedude wrote: |
Now I went out and bought a 2.4 ghz bell-south cordless and wonder if the 2.4 ghz frequency has any affect? I also noted the further away from my external drives and the MBR1000 I placed the cordless base the less "noise" I had. Suppose the 2.4 ghz is interfering somehow?
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Yes, 2.4Ghz devices will interfere with your WiFi router, this can be reduced by setting the cordless phone & router to specific (different) channels. You'd be surprised how many people will locate their cordless phone base-station right beside the router 
I'd personally go with a 5.8Ghz cordless phone, then your interference problems are solved.
Oh & btw... it doesn't sound like your issue is related to the firewall (if thats what you meant by ports)...as you are able to use the same service with just using the headset. Maybe a device conflict? I'd have your bro take a look in device manager. I don't own a magicjack, so I'm not 100% sure...but thats where I'd start lookin |
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firedude
EVDO Junkie
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
Posts: 435
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| Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 9:55 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks Torrey, will do. In hindsight I figured as much with the 2.4 ghz. It's ok till the end of the month then I'll switch phones. I've moved it was far as I can from the router to and it helped a lot. I think thats where the minimal static we hear is coming from, not jitter or tower congestion.
Tony |
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Fox McCloud
EVDO Junkie
Joined: 02 Dec 2006
Posts: 605
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| Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:19 am Post subject: |
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[quote="Torrey"] | firedude wrote: | | I'd personally go with a 5.8Ghz cordless phone, then your interference problems are solved. |
5.8Ghz is "ok", if you don't plan on straying too far from the base station; right now the better thing is DECT, since it won't interfere with anything, and it has range far superior to 5.8Ghz.
On the flip side, if you're always 10-25 feet from your phone, then it's no big deal, between the two (though I'd personally still get DECT). |
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xenophon
EVDO Addict
Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 1973
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| Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 12:38 pm Post subject: |
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| firedude, what is your ping time to local websites or google.com from command line? |
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