Magic Jack (like voip) on sprint unlimited ?

firedude · EVDO Junkie Joined: 26 Mar 2007 Posts: 414

OK, I went and changed phones today and got rid of the 2.4 ghz one. I have no idea where my brain was when I did that! I picked up a nice Panasonic digital 6.0 ghz cordless today at Best Buy for $39.95.

Holy cow what a difference! Everyone I've called has thought I was either on my cell or a landline. When I began this little undertaking I heard a few negative things on here, but sure read a lot of positive things both here and other forums. I've tried Vonage and Skype and this thing has them both beat (so far) hands down. Here's what I have in further review.....

HP laptop AMD dual core 64x2 processor with 3GB DDR2
Running Vista Home Premium
With a digital Panosonic 6.0 ghz cordless phone running magicJack

Test conditions....
Sprint EVDO, U727 with a MBR 1000 (wireless, njo cables)
average download speeds in excess of 1 Mbps (1.1 Mbps) with upload of around 300-400 kbps
Signal -56 to -65 dBi
SNG on MBR 1000 ...4 bars (thanks for the fix Cradle Point!)

1. Clarity/Quality?
So far excellent clarity AND quality phone calls. I'm very surprised at times as though as it is as good as my cell or landline. Most people don't even know a thing different. There was one time the person on the other end got choppy so I restarted magicJack and all was well. I think it's a good idea to restart the MJ modem at least once a day if like me you leave your computer on the whole waking part of the day. I shut everything down at night.

2. Advertising and adware?
I had read magicJack come with pop up ads. False, not true at all. The soft screen has a small space for ads that MJ had built into their software and does not interfere with anything. I pat it no attention. There are NO ghost programs or adware running. I have accounted for everything running on the cpu in the background.

3. The soft phone screen?
It can be ran minimized and either in the large or small modes. The soft screen does pop up if you receive or go to place a call however if you don't like that all you have to do is drag the screen off the monitor and poof it's gone.

4. Features?
It does have a few cool features. An address book (contacts), call record and even voice mail that you can personalize like your cell.

Cons?
1. Well so far I'm having trouble with it on my XP laptop, but confident when I have time I'll get that worked out.

2. Support? Well there is no phone support, only real time chat, but it seems to work well and they are very responsive. In my case with the XP problem it was very frustrating chatting and had gotten to a point I would have liked to have spoken to a real person on the phone lol.

3. Operation
The only drawback to me is the computer has to be on. If they ever figure out a way to run this behind the router and maintain the quality service I have now then look out cell providers and Ma Bell!

Over all this thing smokes any VOIP I've seen. $20 per year? Hell even if I had a few bad connections now and then how could I complain about a whopping 5 cents a day cost!!?? So far I am impressed and it takes a wee bit to i8mpress me nowadays. Ask Alex or Verizon LOL! Laughing

Summary
Now the above is my own personal experience with MagicJack. Others may vary. MY IT and Network Engineer bro has already got his cordless and awaiting his MJ. Anyway I thought I'd give an accurate, honest account and review here based on MY experiences. Form me it's a secondary line and daytime/evening phone thus significantly reducing minutes on the cell. Being a gadget freak, it's a cool toy too! Wink

Hope this helps....

Tony