Magic Jack is the home VoIP solution that is taking on the big boys like Vonage and enjoying great success. The MagicJack, which is primarily advertised as an “as seen on TV” product is gaining some serious traction among the thrifty that are looking to cut costs on their monthly bills. With phone companies usually charging around $30.00 a month for phone service, it’s no wonder that the device has been so popular since the service costs only $20.00 a year. There are Millions of people using this cheap voip service now, which is a testament to its legitimacy. However, this does not mean by any stretch that the product is perfect. In fact, some people of gone as far as to scream Magic Jack scam.
100% Risk Free – Try Before You Buy http://www.magicjack.com
The Magic Jack is a little bit smaller than a credit card and plugs into one of your computers usb ports. The device has a RJ11 input to plug your standard telephone into. Set-up and installation is a snap; the Magic Jack instantly loads its own software and then you can let the free calls begin. The device does require a high speed internet connection so make sure you have a quality cable or DSL connection. Almost all computer operating systems are supported by the device, including Windows XP, Mac, and Windows Vista. At the time this article was written there are some hiccups with getting the Magic Jack to work with Windows 7. The company does offer a download to make the product work with windows 7 http://upgrades.talk4free.com/tools/magicJackUpdate.exe however I have not be able to test this yet.
The fact that you simply plug the MJ into your computer, plug in your phone and start calling for free has attracted many users. After you purchase your Magic Jack USB dongle you receive a unique phone number that is completely yours and lasts for life, this in itself is something other phone companies cannot deliver. During the free trial there is a 100% risk free period which allows the end user to make as many free calls as they desire. There is free local and long distance calls for owners; there is also free directory assistance, free call waiting, free voicemail and free caller ID. The quality of calls you can make with the MJ is very good and the products recent popularity has only increased the features and service you will receive with this product. The online based customer service for the Magic Jack has also been very well received for the most part however there have been some very vocal individuals on the web complaining about the online customer service.
100% Risk Free – Try Before You Buy http://www.magicjack.com
It’s no big surprise that up to 10,000 of these units a day are being sold with a total incurred cost of $19.95 per year plus a $40.00 dollar upfront cost for the magic Jack device it’s self. Once you have paid these dues, you are able to make all the local and long distance calls for $0.00. There are no restrictions on the length of the call or what time the call is being made. So, you are probably wondering what other features you get with the MagicJack. One would think that there would be hidden fees for advanced features such as caller id or voicemail. Another bonus feature that often does not get mentioned is the ability to call 411 directory assistance for no charge as well. This is where the Magic Jack shines, providing voice mail, caller ID, call forwarding, call waiting and 3 way conference calling all for FREE. The only thing that does cost money is International phone calls. However rates are much lower than the local phone company or Cell Company or many VoIP companies. To clarify things a little bit, you can take your Magic Jack USB phone and a laptop out of the country and make phone calls to the US for free.
Now that we’ve established how exactly it functions, let’s look at how many different ways this can go wrong:
Internet Issues = No Phone
Family and friends with standard cable/DSL connections call me to their homes all of the time to fix their Internet connection. This usually involves tweaking/resetting the (usually wireless) home router, or likewise power-cycling the modem. Other times, the issue is on the end of the ISP or an issue with the local machine. The point is, stuff goes wrong in home networks all of the time.
Well that’s a huge problem when your landline phone connection goes through the same connection. Need 911? Having Internet problems? Forget it. And if your cell phone, if any, is also experiencing problems along with your Internet connection then you have no way of calling your ISP (or “geek friend”) for assistance.
The best part about this, is that most cheapo Linksys/D-Link/Belkin home routers usually need resets every now and again when being run with a ton of traffic (e.g. magicJack VOIP traffic or BitTorrent).
So expect the complete loss of your landline phone connection with the loss of your Internet, or for that matter:
Problems With Your PC
Windows isn’t the most secure or stable operating system, but that’s an entirely different rant. Here’s the thing: if a virus is eating up all of your bandwidth or CPU time/memory, then bye bye reliable phone service over VoIP.
And since MJ relies on a _working_ Windows PC, power outages or other mishaps mean you also lose your home phone service. Is it still worth the price? Even with a cell phone to back it up, nothing beats a reliable land line for emergencies or other needs.
100% Risk Free – Try Before You Buy http://www.magicjack.com
Did You Read The EULA?
When doing a little research on this product, I found something very disturbing on the Wikipedia Entry for the magicJack regarding the EULA’s respect for privacy and any legal issues.
The End User License Agreement specifically states (as of this writing) that:
You also understand and agree that use of the magicJack device and Software will include advertisements and that these advertisements are necessary for the Magic Jack device to work … Our computers may analyze the phone numbers you call in order to improve the relevance of the ads.
By “Necessary to work”, they mean “completely optional for all practical purposes but we need something to pay the bandwidth/telephony costs”. Right. Surrender all privacy regarding who you call, because Big Brother is watching you, only using the “magic Jack” instead of the conventional Telescreen (reference: George Orwell’s 1984).
Also, the EULA goes out of it’s way to protect the product’s parent company of any possible legal liability that may result from usage of the product. If you don’t believe me, read the current (as of this writing) EULA.
Other Issues
Did they mention that the free voicemail the service offers is stored on remote servers maintained by the company itself? Another point of failure to consider when using the service, combined with the other issues outlined here. You better hope they have sufficient redundancy for their datacenter, else you just lost all of your voicemail.
The voicemail service is mainly to cover for another issue at hand: if the PC is off, the phone is unavailable. So the call made to an off or otherwise unavailable computer with MJ is instead routed to the failsafe voicemail system, hosted on the company’s servers (as mentioned above). While this saves the hassle with failed incoming calls, it still doesn’t justify downtime’s effect on outgoing calls, especially those needed during serious emergencies.
Uninstallation Troubles
Not that I have any love for conventional phone companies, but should you have the desire to uninstall this POS after reading this, expect editing the registry because another common complaint is that this ad-ridden, naturally-flawed product is difficult to uninstall due to lack of a traditional Windows Installer uninstall utility.
Last Remarks
100% Risk Free – Try Before You Buy http://www.magicjack.com
While conventional home phone service isn’t 100% perfect, this product throws way too many other common points of failure into the equation. With viruses like Conficker running on too many machines as it stands, the possibility for the complete loss of privacy as a result of using this product is disturbing to say the least given the appropriate security compromise.
I don’t mean to completely knock Magic Jack as it may seem from reading this post, but I feel it is necessary to outline the potential problems that may come as a result of using it. I value having a hard-wired home phone connection with guaranteed reliability regardless of the Internet connection and power status, because some emergencies also entail the loss of both and a cell phone may be out of reach or uncharged.
Other VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) services like Vonage require only a base station and the standard Internet connection, independent of a PC (OR Mac) status. Still susceptible to power issues, but that’s a small subset of the factors associated with routing your entire phone connection through a Windows PC.
Take it form a Networking professional: don’t trust your life and privacy in the hands of this product any more than you would your power, PC uptime, and Internet connection at the same time.
A Recent Review From One Of Our Readers Also I since this post started it has amassed a ton of user comments. I have started a new post for magic jack reviews so feel free to make your comments there as they will more likely be read.
Magic Jack has exceeded my highest expectations! Received the device in 2 business days (from Florida to NYC). Set up was a no-brainer. Picked my area code and MJ assigned the phone number. Avoid all the extras . . . imho, they are not worth it. My internet connection (TWC NYC) is excellent, so MJ works like a charm. Quality is excellent! As good as it ever was with Verizon. Very intuitive and easy to use all the features. Conference calling is terrific! Again, quality was without peer. Sure hope that all the good stuff continues. As for the much talked about “spyware” issues, if they’re out there, no one is bothering me . . . and, who really cares. If you use Amazon.com, Google, et. al, they alreeady have your ticket. Well worth the price . . . btw, we use MJ as a second line, as our main line in Vonage, which also works extremely well.
Update: FemtoJack The Magic Jack For Cell Phones
The company Ymax which is behind the MagicJack has been working a new product for some time that will utilize femtocell technology. The product they are calling FemtoJack is similar to the MJ but will allow you to make calls from your cell phone and the FemtoJack will transfer the call through the internet so you will not have to use up your minutes on your cell carriers network. It is rumored that the device will come out in the second quarter of this year and will cost less than $100 dollars. You can imagine that the cell companies are not very happy about this announcement. I will make a post soon on more of the details of this new device.
100% Risk Free – Try Before You Buy http://www.magicjack.com
I have had the MJ for about 2 years now and I do like it. It does have its cons, that’s for sure. But overall, it’s easy to use.
My only real con is that the device itself is cheap. The whole thing is falling apart and its unpredictable when it will suddenly turn off. My laptop can’t even be moved right now and a small book is holding it in place.
I did the online chat with a rep while at work, my mom was at home on the MJ. I told him I was at work and he said I needed to be home and looking at the device and then ended the chat.
Strange.
Magic Jack may be a good product, but their customer service is definitely the worst ever. They continually told me that they value me as a customer and understood where I was coming from, yet no one would help me. I needed to return my device because the usb ports on my computer did not work. I received an RMA to return it. The email stated that I had to print the form and enclose it. I called and explained multiple times to the woman that I had no way to print out the RMA form and asked if I could just simply write down the details of it onto a piece of paper and enclose it when I returned it. She told me no and insisted that I had to print the form and that returns would not be accepted without it. I asked her if I never activated it and simply threw it away since I had no way of returning it, would I be charged. She told me no, I would not be charged anything if I didn’t activate it. What she failed to tell me was that at the end of my 30 day trial period, I would still be charged $49.15 for the cost of the device. I have spent 1.5hrs of my time arguing for a refund, and they still refuse. Tomorrow I will call and go directly to customer service manager (whose name they refused to give me earlier). I constantly heard how much they value me as a customer, but these were the rules. Really? You really can not afford to refund me $49.15 because YOUR agent gave me the wrong information? I am furious and would NOT recommend them at all simply because of the wretched customer service that I have received.
I’ve been using an older (hand me down)MagicJack device for over a yr. At my first home it was choppy and usually unreliable, although it saved me minutes on my cell, but I didn’t “reply” upon it.
I moved (all of 1.5 mi away) and now my cell is totally useless — dropped calls, no voice quality — everyone who lives here has to go wander outside to use cell service) However, the MagicJack works PERFECTLY. The only dropped calls are those when my friends’s cell’s drop. Haha!
I’m saving a bunch of money per month now, since I long ago went to my cell as my “main” phone but my plan has limited minutes. Now I can keep my ultra cheapie cell plan and not have to worry about overages. Now I’ve connected to Google Voice/Text to eliminate text charges as well. It’s a little tedious and not as “instant” but I can access Google Service via web on my cell and get all voice and text at once.
The best thing about the Google “sync” is that it archives (indefinitely) ALL texts and voice calls — with transcription and sound. This is amazing. No more worrying about texts being deleted or having to forward them to email — and no 30 day limit on voicemail storage.
If you have any legal or person reason to want this stuff archived, get Google Voice/Text — whether or not your MagicJack works well or not.
If you’ve gotten this far — my point re: MagicJack is that, apparently, location can make ALL the difference. So if doesn’t work for you, don’t toss it, tuck it somewhere till you move (or travel and can use it via laptop) and check it them.
Can’t adjust the number of rings before going to Magic Jack voice mailbox. No support.
I have had my magic jack for 6 months now. Even with the privacy concerns listed on this site I still recommend the Jack to everyone. I have never seen adds on my pc due to the Jack. your local phone company all so collects the numbers you call. so i don’t see any difference there. Where the Jack really stands out above the phone companies is the tech support staff. I have had issues with the Jack dropping calls to questions about my billing and every time they have been beyond my expectations. Nothing like the large rude Phone companies. It’s Well worth the money. Even if you just use it as a second line. The conference calling for up to 10 people is brilliant for chat for online games.
magicjack is junk! Numerous problems trying to install software from their servers, to the whole mess freezing my computer. I tried their online chat and they could not figure it out. Finally, after 2 and half hours I gave up, and used to work as a computer tech, so I know how to troubleshoot problems. Yeesh! What a joke. The final insult was the retailer, a discount place called Factory Direct, would not refund or provide a credit note for magicjackcrap. BE CAREFUL about where you this thing if it doesn’t work to avoid getting ripped off $40 plus taxes. Skype is the way to go for voip telephone.
I’ve purchased 4 MJs to date. Can’t say they worked fine initially but after chatting with the customer rep who helped me to make adjustments, the one I currently have works fine, voice quality is fine so far, no one complaining.
Have run MJ for 4 years, to date NO DROPPED CALLS voice quality is VERY VERY GOOD. MJ seems to be like a fine wine that improves with age. Oh yes, I dropped my At&t land line 3 and ahalf years ago have saved tons of money, very pleased.
“Our computers may analyze the phone numbers you call in order to improve the relevance of the ads.”
Big Brother is a bad analogy. You want to not be in an advertising database? That’s one thing… but Big Brother classically means government. Do you know how easy it is for the Government to get your landline phone records?
Bad news for all of you if you thought you had any phone record privacy; you in fact don’t. After sixteen years with a cellphone company I can assure you we are required by FCC regulations to keep such records and to comply with all requests from all law enforcement to hold operations licenses in the United States. Officials contact our company daily with requests for call and text records to track drug dealers, drunk drivers, accident citations and divorce preceding gone bad and teens sexting those naughty pics only to name a few…get real. The latest request I received might worry you if you attend college. It came from the federal financial aid people, yep…the student loan folks as they were looking to block student loans from students suspected of texting about marijuana for purchase. Big brother isn’t coming at all, he’s been here for generations and we gave him absolute power when we gave corporations and government entities the same rights as a human being. It’s really a socially self inflicted std so grow up and smell the reality sheeple. I’m still using this product as it rocks.
I have to MJ and when I call people my voice is choppy to them. so I called myself on my cell and sure enough it was choppy. If I was listening to someone on the other end I would get a headach!! So what can I do so that will not happen? any suggestions? HELP!!
I used a MJ strictly for 3 months. Then one night “this is going to sound like a bad novel” when it was raining we lost power, when the lights went out at about 9pm or so my 3yr old son tripped and fell, cutting his forhead. Without a phone
I had to run to a neighbours house “who wasnt home” to use the phone. So i had to cross the street and use thiers.
Long story short, i have 2 months left on the contract, but
the MJ has long been disconnected and unused.
Great for travel or a backup PC to Phone etc, but
do NOT use it as a homephone as the company suggests.
$20/yr isnt worth what can go wrong.
$30/month = a much safer life.
I now use a VoiP that doesnt use a PC, and has a battery
backup. It works even when the powers out. F- for MJ
Im just glad it wasnt much worse.
nothing but headaches. freeses my pc , drops calls . poor sound ……etc.i could go on but ive wasted way to much time on mj.but hey the guy is rich now from fools like me.
I want to be able to use a similar usb dongle as the MJ, but on my own VoIP switch in another part of the world. Can anyone advise how I can go about this.
I had magic Jack may work for some people, but not for me. While they had my area code, the only exchanges they offered were for a town that was long distance for everyone that I knew to call me. Drawback 1. I decided to try it for ougoing calls and found the quality poor at best. I could hardly understand the person on the other end. Sad to say, but I am returning this product after having it only one day. Apparently this device works well for some people. That’s great. I am just sharing my experience because people should know both pros and cons before they buy something. Keep you posted about the return process as I am sending it back today before my 30 day trial period is up.
I was skeptical at first about MJ, but decided to try it out and it works great, the down is that pc has to be on for it to work, but VM makes up for most of that, I also have a cellphone so this is great to use when don’t want to waste minutes.
BTW lots of negative comments above are from communication providers written by same person, look at the similar type of words they use like “atrocious customer support” etc.
We have 3 magic jack connections in Haiti for calls back to the US. Have has them for about one year. As far as I am concerned this invention is as good as it gets. We have unlimited free calling back to the states since we have US phone numbers on the Magic Jacks. Of course there are occasional problems-but they relate to the problems withe internet service. We wouldnt go without this service since it allows us not only to conduct business with US but gives our people unlimited access to talk to their families without concern about costs
Very good Article. However, I do want to say that you kept bringing up the fact that if your Internet is down then your phone will be too. Isn’t this the same with Vonage or any other VOIP that charges $20 or more a month? Also, EULAs are written to protect the company, whether it is Google, Microsoft or any other company out there.
I have been having one issue with the Magic Jack, a few phone numbers that I need to call returns three tones (sounds like a busy tone) and then stops. It never connects to those few phone numbers, but I can call many others in the same area code. This is very odd and I am waiting to see if it is resolved in the next week or so, but other than that
I think this is a wonderful product that is giving people the ability to use a service that should be practically free.
It is about time that phone companies stop making so much money off of us. When my wife still lived in England I made a 2 hour phone call to her once and AT&T charged me $350.00 for that one phone call. That is roughly $2.91 per minute.
Cheers,
Rick
I bought a MJ couple weeks ago, to use as a secondary phone line, as I work from home a couple days a week, and dont want to tie up our POTS homephone, or run up large long distance charges on it.
Is MajicJack perfect – no, not by a long shot. but I find it adequate for conference calls, and long distance calling that my working from my home office requires. quality is fairly good, reliability is as reliable as my DSL internet, which is pretty good. I had to do the 100K resistor fix to get the incoming CID working reliably.
My POTS phone is only $24 a month. no way I would give up the reliability of that service, and depend solely on Magicjack just to save a few bucks, if saving $24 a month ever becomes my goal, I’ll find other ways to achieve it.
Hving alot of problems since i bougfht mine in the best buy store. plus i had to buy more on this ci=omp. i’m not understanding.. can’t even asnwer the phone… please help me with this thanl=jk you mrs. guarnera
JUNK, JUNK, JUNK!!! MagicJack is nothing but waste of money and time. By “waste of money”, I dont’ mean just the cost of purchase. Value of my time and inconveniences & troubles by not having a reliable line was beyond imagination. Waiting for some lawyers to send me a “class action” law suit announcement.
Is there an actual help desk or support for magic jack? Was working fine for first week I had it. Now in Windows 7.0 landscape. Since late yesterday I’ve been unable to hear callers to my number. I can dial out and callers can dial in, but I’m getting no audio. Need help.
Overall I have enjoyed Majic Jack. I have had it for 2 years now. Once you learn how to shut off non required start up programs and keep your net service not tied up in other uses, it works fairly well. Customer service is not the greatest though. You own this product long enough, you will deffinately experience this. The latest update for this unit totally erased all of my phone contact list that was stored in this unit. No warning that the new upgrade would do this. No phone book for these numbers either. Suggestion…. write down your list of numbers somewhere so that its not only stored on your computer. However there is one issue here that has really started to make me curious about long term reliability of this company. I had been calling a phone number for almost 2 years. Now I can not. Customer service did and inquiry about this. They offered me a refund. Totally unexpected after almost a full 2 year subscription running out. Ok… first 30 days for trial, that would be understandable, but not being limited in service almost 2 years later. So now I can no longer call my friend. He can call me but I can not call him. Part of the reason as defined by majicjack was that it no longer became economically feasable to connect with that phone service provider. Say what????? This is why a full refund was offered. How can a phone company advertise unlimited nationwide calling but then not tell you “oh yah, by the way, there are some companies now who no longer honor our phone connection”? I like majic jack. Dont get me wrong here. But something just doesnt seem right when the advertised service is slowly dwindeling away. I dont mean service as in call waiting, forwarding and so on. I mean restrictions to who you can call. I dont know all of the fine details of coarse as there is probably way more that was not shared with me. But as of right now the refund offer still stands. I really dont want a refund. I would rather pay just a few more bucks for this service and have it restored if thats what it takes. Majic Jack is a heck of a deal…but how long can such a cheap service be reliable?
I find that this works great! None of my calls get dropped like people here say it does.
It actually works much better than my cell phone. Cell phones drop constantly, and the voice sputters in and out, and neither party can hear the other on a cell phone. I paid for the 5 year plan already and have only had had this for about a month.
I love this gadget, I am prepaid for 6 years of service, the 1st year came with my MagicJack purchase and after I got it setup and working the way it should I opted the 5 additional years for 69.95 and the 1.00 replacement insurance should my MagicJack ever die out on me, however I have not heard of that happening too often, probably why the insurance is so cheap. There are some important considerations, 1. good broadband service, 2. download a program call prio and set MagicJack as your number one priority, I set mine to air card instead of normal high speed, and last but not least, Google MTU setup for your router, once I got that set correctly I have never had a second of trouble with my MagicJack, it is crystal clear, every bit as good if not better than my former telco was and best of all I am paid up for 6 years for what I used to pay for 1 month, beat that ? I don’t think so, live online tech support was excellent, the folks I talked with were well versed and very helpful. I think this may have been the best dollars spent in 2010 for our family.
I’m considering the MJ, but I’ve been trying to figure out whether calls on the MJ interfere with usage of the internet. Do you get bumped off a website connection when you get a call through MJ? Can you work on your computer and the internet while making and receiving calls? That would be a big negative.
I have to ask about the state of humanity when there is an effective solution to phone long distance at minimal cost and yet those prefer to toss a thousand dollars out the window demanding quality. AT&T has some of the worse cell phone plans in the market top dollar and have horrible cell phone coverage….PEOPLE, THIS WORKS!!! What the hell are you tossing money at? There will be small issues with anything connected over the internet.. This includes vonage, Itunes etc but im calling las vegas many times a day for no cost where costing a fortune over the cell.. Truly are idiots..you really are. I also hear there is ir outside .. Walk out, breathe in and deposit 20 dollars on the cement every half block
I’ve had Magicjack for two years and I have had enough! Switching to netTalk duo. I am a computer tech, and I have seen few products and unreliable as MJ. Avoid it!
Ive used Magicjack in Thailand and the Philippines to phone Canada,very convenient saved me some money in calls and seemed to work quite fine….I keep my landline in Canada for now in Hibernation mode for 12 bucks a month… phone still phones out but cant phone long distance….Can do this with Telus for 6 months. i think the phone companies are a bit scared.