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You now know the secret of the name Magic Jack! When you go to do that its.....Poof! He disappears to reappear on the next channel! Oh those Magic Jack folks!!!!
Yeah, just like the colon cleanse guy who says you have 14 pounds of old dookie stuck in your intestinal tract.
I have tried both.
-Magic Jack is a piece of junk. Absolutely awful quality. I guess you get what you pay for. No free or cheap lunch here
-Have been using Vonage since the last 4 years and I am very happy with the voice quality. Never had any issues with hours and hours of conference calls all day. I hope the company survives.
A friend with Magic Jack called me the other day. It was a terrible connection, sounded like a bad cell phone connection - breaking up alot, etc. . My friend said sometimes its clear, sometimes its awful.
I've had no major problems with it, the only problem is sometimes it has a few seconds of connection lag and thats it.
It was $50 for one YEAR of service that is less than 5 a month. Then after than you can get I believe 5 years of service for 39 or 59 dollars. I like saving money, so its great for me.
Maybe, the people that are having problems with it are expecting it to work exactly like a service you pay 20-60 dollars a month for. NOT gonna happen , YET.
Your internet speed might also have something to do with the quality.
Last edited by bhouston77386; 01-16-2009 at 09:37 PM..
I paid 19.95 for a year of Magicjack service. Best freaking $20.00 ever spent. I'm currently living overseas and I can make unlimited calls to the States and Canada without any monthly fees, sometimes the connection is bad, but never as bad as calling from overseas using AT&T or other landline carriers.
Warning: For great connection, get the best internet speed in your area. Pass up DSL Lite and go for the fastest cable internet offered. Majicjack works for me because I love my internet fast and hate receiving a monthly phone bill.
A friend with Magic Jack called me the other day. It was a terrible connection, sounded like a bad cell phone connection - breaking up alot, etc. . My friend said sometimes its clear, sometimes its awful.
VoIP connection quality is affected greatly by whatever else is using the Internet connection. Tell your friend to make sure no one sharing the Internet connection is downloading/uploading/YouTube viewing/etc. while s/he's on a call. P2P file-sharing really does a number on VoIP, which means that during calls is not the time to use BitTorrent.
Most of Magic Jack's isues have fixes, the big thing you have to remember is that it has to be plugged into a PC, and that PC has to be running, it will not work in hibernate or suspend mode as it's software driven, and software doesn't work in hibernate or suspend mode. I bought a thin client PC to run it on because my main PC is a beast, no way it was staying on all the time, couldn't get it to work reliably despite help from a forum dedicated to setting it up so I gave up eventually.
MagicJack has a flawed business model - there's no way they're covering their costs with what they charge. It's my opinion that they started with the intention of being bought out. If that happens, you can expect a price increase. If it doesn't, they'll fold. Either way, the "bargain" isn't so much of a bargain when your friends and family can't get a hold of you until you contact everyone with your new number (again).
Vonage is a good service, but they're very expensive. What makes them a reasonable alternative is their plug and play hardware - you don't have to configure anything (typically). Good for grandmas and other non-computer people. The drawback to that is that you can't use their hardware with anyone but them, so if you leave them, you have another great doorstop instead of a useful piece of telephone equipment.
Someone mentioned Skype, but I don't recommend any service that hooks into the network through your PC. There are too many things that can screw with your quality of service. If you're willing to deal with whatever issues may arise due to that tethering, then Skype is pretty cheap.
I use three different providers - Callcentric, Vitelity and Les.net. Callcentric is by far the most consumer-friendly of the three. All of them are BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) services. Callcentric and Vitelity have both been rock solid for the ~2 years we've been using them. Les.net has occasional network issues, but they resolve them quickly and their customer service is great.
We use Vitelity for our business (and for all our domestic outbound calling), and the service quality is excellent. They're my top choice for business class service. They can also be suitable for residential service, depending on your usage patterns and technical prowess - their website isn't very consumer-friendly.
For residential service, I almost always recommend Callcentric. The service plan I recommend varies, depending on usage:
If you do more than 700 minutes of outbound calling per month, go with their North America Unlimited plan, which is $5 less than Vonage ($60/year savings).
If you do less than 700 minutes of outbound calling per month, get the Personal Unlimited plan for inbound calls ($6/mo), and the Pay Per Call plan for outbound calls ($0.0198/min). Depending on how many outbound calls you make, the savings over Vonage can be quite dramatic with these plans.
With most VoIP providers, you're required to supply your own hardware. What you'll need is an ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter). This connects a regular phone to an IP network. I typically recommend the Grandstream HandyTone 286 (http://yurlo.com/2cbntu - broken link) for this. They can be had for about $30, and they'll work with virtually any VoIP provider, so you can switch without worrying about whether or not you'll be stuck with another doorstop. If you need two lines (separate accounts - e.g. for roommates or parents+kids), the HandyTone 386 does the trick. The initial configuration of an ATA can be a little daunting for someone who's not familiar with VoIP technology, but it's a one time thing, and most providers have help pages that walk you through it - the long term savings over Vonage or the phone/cable company make it well worth the effort.
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Magic Jack
