H0NEYD0
Premium
join:2006-03-14
Tampa, FL
 ·Verizon west (ex G..
| reply to swanboy
Re: My review of MagicJack
I ordered the magicjack two days ago using the website. I was able to see a $1.00 hold placed on my cc account by magicjack at my bank's website after ordering. Usually this one dollar hold is to verify an account exists and is normal. I reached the final ordering screen that stated congratulations details of your order will be e-mailed to you within an hour.
My credit card was not charged a penny (the $1.00 hold came off) and I never received any e-mail from magic jack.
So that's it. I get no magicjack. And I have moved along with my life.
After reading these threads I am sure that only heartache and despair will come from magicjack support. And I am just the unlucky guy who would place a second order and have *both* orders be charged two seconds later.
The clear indicator that a complaint would be headed for disaster is that the ordering process provides no UPS tracking number or invoice number or order number. Those numbers are all promised to be sent in the e-mail that never arrived. So I would be absolutely crazy to do anything but forget about magic jack and move on.
If the magicjack arrives I'll post a reply here then a review elsewhere. I do have and use GrandCentral so this would have been fun to try. But I value the loss or gain of $50.85 a hell of a lot less than thinking or worrying or grinding my teeth at trying to resolve the issue. |
|
amigo_boy
join:2005-07-22
Tempe, AZ
 ·Cox HSI
 ·magicjack.com
| said by H0NEYD0  :I never received any e-mail from magic jack. If using something like Yahoo mail, with spam filtering, did you check the spam or "bulk" folder?
It's amazing how many people don't think to look there.
Mark |
|
RockyBB
Premium
join:2005-01-31
Longmont, CO
| increasing in popularity (I don't know why) is an auto-responder technique requiring the sender of the email to reply to a bounce message. folks using work email addresses might unknowingly get their incoming emails blocked because of that. wouldn't be surprising at all if MJ would not ship if they received an email bounce message from a subscriber, even if the bounce turned out to be a confirmation request. |
|
jittery jim
@charter.com
| reply to swanboy
Re: My review of MagicJack - updated update
Well, as far as a telephony device for local calls, the magicjack well and truly sux.
I am unable to complete calls to two of my main suppliers in the local area -- American Sling in Hurst TX and MSC Industrial supply in Ft. Worth TX (and never mind my MILF gf across the street).
I cannot fathom why I get the weird rings followed by even more strange sounds. The only sound I want to hear is a voice asking "how may I direct your call" (or "when can you come over").
Geez, what a waste of time and money. |
|
cool_coda
join:2004-09-08
Brownsburg, IN
| reply to swanboy
Re: My review of MagicJack
I just received my MJ today, and have placed 8 phone calls with it. Of those 8, 1 failed with a bad connection. Connection was made with breakups though.
I don't have caller id on my landline, and was pleasantly suprised to see it pass on caller id info to my handset. Wife really liked that.
Voicemail sending to my email is pretty cool. Might have potential of getting annoying though.
Call waiting does not work at all for me though. I see a 2nd person calling, but when I try to jump over and talk to that person, it skips and cracks. So we won't use that option, which isn't much of a big deal to us.
FYI for those that wonder. We are on AT&T dsl, 6mb down, 768 up. So I thought that would be able to handle 2 simultaneous calls... but evidently not.
My landline costs $20 a month. If this continues to work as wel as it has, we will be getting rid of that and dsl. Switching to faster speed cable modem. |
|
RockyBB
Premium
join:2005-01-31
Longmont, CO
| said by cool_coda :we will be getting rid of that BEFORE YOU CANCEL YOUR LANDLINE be aware that MJ will not port in your current number, and will not port out their assigned number in the event you want to change. you'll likely lose your directory listing, as well. since you're new to MJ, maybe you could check your ADD/DELETE Programs option in the Control Panel to see if they have added the ability to easily delete their software... |
|
H0NEYD0
Premium
join:2006-03-14
Tampa, FL
·Verizon west (ex G..
| reply to amigo_boy
said by amigo_boy :said by H0NEYD0 :I never received any e-mail from magic jack. did you check the spam or "bulk" folder? The e-mail arrived a half-day later and it *was* in the spam folder. E-mail later than the promised one hour, but the MagicJack arrived yesterday.
It works. I may keep it. That's what 30 day trials are all about.
Since I have Autorun and MCN notification turned off for CD-ROM drives, and Autoplay turned off for all drive types and drive letters, I gladly had to double-click the autorun.exe file on the fictitious CD-ROM drive detected by Windows when the MagicJack USB adapter was inserted. The setup process went without a hitch as did registration.
Using the softphone and a headset is made troublesome because the MagicJack software forces wrong choices of analog or digital, front panel or rear jacks, and line-in or mic. It took quite a bit of struggling with the onboard Realtek chipset control panel to rig a workable solution. The default MajicJack choice that could not be changed called for a digital mic, and both the call audio and ringer to come out of the headset earpiece. It's a pretty common chipset on Intel/Asus boards so I may not be the only one with this dilema.
Calls go through OK. It's a real race to use the softphone dialpad as too short an amount of time between keypresses times out and causes a dialing do over. The time taken to glance from the screen to the mouse to a phonebook is all it takes to have to start dialing over.
Plugging in a phone is seamless. That works great. But I'll have access to a mic and headset more often than I'll have a phone and RJ-11 cable in my back pocket. I'm guessing this is best suited for stationary use in the home. A lot of work, tons of work, need done on the softphone for this to be realisticaly used by a road warrior.
I really dislike the creation of a default localhost proxy on port 8888 to pass all WinINet traffic through. No one mentions that. For me that creates both a privacy and security concern. Giving MagicJack access to every site I visit and every password I enter is way over the top when it comes to what should be simple, targeted advertising.
The privacy issue of course includes every call made or received. Potentially, MagicJack can know how many times I watched the Get Smart trailer before I checked Google showtimes the IMDB, and who I called first after I saw it and in which theater Iwent to see it and how I bought the tickets online.
If the public will trade all that information and more for free calls, and settle for a few (OK a lot of) pop-up ads in the softphone, MagicJack is going to make a lot of money. I mean a lot of money. The CLEC tarrifs and the $20 a year is chicken feed. I may not want to use or keep the thing but I sure want to invest in it. |
|
sami685
@pacbell.net
| reply to swanboy
ok,try to put this short and sweet,iam very interested in the concept of the magic jack (mj)finally found some one to ask,i have at&t phone service,$22.00(month),isp at&t dsl wireless modum $25.00 (month) and plans on increase,my question is mj can be used for the phone service,connect to jack of pc,if i disconnect phone service with att,(which would save bucks yearly)what about the isp? do i go to a dial up,or comcast? how does that work?and are all so called "bugs" out of mj,if any?.any help would be really aprrciated,try to save where i can.THANK-YOU |
|
Darnell Barber
@rr.com
1 edit | reply to swanboy
Hello Swanboy I read your review of the MagicJack and opted to try it for myself. However, I believe I to will need to take advantage of the GrandCentral Station option.
Unfortunately, Google now has it and it is invite only.
Would you mind inviting me? |
|
JohnA
Premium
join:2003-09-16
Pittsburgh, PA |
We have an IM feature here, so you don't have to post personal info like that. It's between the folder and the star at the top of the left column. |
|
dbmaven
There's no shortage
Premium,Mod
join:1999-10-26
Sty in Sky
clubs: | reply to Darnell Barber
See the sticky thread at the top of the threads list in this forum.
»The one and only MJ Forum GrandCentral Invites Thread |
|
clusterbuck
@rr.com | reply to swanboy
have the people your call over seas buy one and you can then keep yours |
|
twhd
@comcast.net
| reply to swanboy
ive bought 2 and sent ne to england for my girl to call me it works beautiful as long as you dont have a highband with program running like utorrent , the other i have on a computer at my brothers house , and it seems to work fine, but he has told me that it took out the front usb ports of his computer and gave him a blue screen of death , but amazingly i had a call from him on it today so you decide, ive used it on this pc and it worked very well here , its well worth the money in my opinion and i recommend it to anybody it is the cheapest way to go , i have skype and magic jack works just as well just cant wait for them to add the overseas package as well. |
|
Sarentack
join:2008-02-07
Lumberton, MS
·magicjack.com
·EarthLink
·AT&T DSL Service
| reply to cool_coda
Re: My review of MagicJack
said by cool_coda :I just received my MJ today, and have placed 8 phone calls with it. Of those 8, 1 failed with a bad connection. Connection was made with breakups though. I don't have caller id on my landline, and was pleasantly suprised to see it pass on caller id info to my handset. Wife really liked that. Voicemail sending to my email is pretty cool. Might have potential of getting annoying though. Call waiting does not work at all for me though. I see a 2nd person calling, but when I try to jump over and talk to that person, it skips and cracks. So we won't use that option, which isn't much of a big deal to us. FYI for those that wonder. We are on AT&T dsl, 6mb down, 768 up. So I thought that would be able to handle 2 simultaneous calls... but evidently not. My landline costs $20 a month. If this continues to work as wel as it has, we will be getting rid of that and dsl. Switching to faster speed cable modem. Interesting Info as I got the same internet service although my upload is 512kb.
What phone service you had that was $20? was it with AT&T? |
|
Brucekd
@aol.com
| reply to swanboy
Caution - As per my text chat on Magicjack's website on 7-21-08, it is NOT compatible with XP SP3 or Vista SP2 and they have no idea when they will fix this MAJOR bug. You'd think they would mention that prominently on their website before you order it and have to go thru the trouble to send it back. |
|
mozerd
Light Will Pierce The Darkness
Premium,MVM
join:2004-04-23
Nepean, ON
| said by Brucekd :
Caution - As per my text chat on Magicjack's website on 7-21-08, it is NOT compatible with XP SP3 or Vista SP2 and they have no idea when they will fix this MAJOR bug. BALONEY pure and simple. BTW, VIsta does not have SP2 -- your imagination is far ahead of your thought process. 
I have magicJack running under Vista/SP1 and under XP/SP3 without any issue directly connected to running magicJack under Vista/SP1 or XP/SP3. I also know of many others doing the same without issues that are specific to Vista/SP1 and or XP/SP3.
--
David Mozer
IT-Expert on Call
Information Technology for Home and Business |
|
DrStrange
Technically feasible
Premium
join:2001-07-23
West Hartford, CT | reply to Brucekd
Works fine here on XP SP3. Tested on 3 other XP SP3 machines, no problems. |
|
RockyBB
Premium
join:2005-01-31
Longmont, CO
| said by DrStrange : Tested on 3 other XP SP3 machines Doesn't the act of "testing" load the MJ software on those test machines? Is there an easy way to uninstall the software from the machines that you were testing on? As the software is, in part, an advertising server that records user internet habits isn't there some jeopardy about spreading it around? |
|
DrStrange
Technically feasible
Premium
join:2001-07-23
West Hartford, CT
·Stephouse Networks
·magicjack.com
·EarthLink
| The only thing I see on those machines is the desktop link for MagicJack.
I think all they're doing is recording your calling patterns, not your browsing habits [at least that's what it says in the Service Agreement]. I don't see anything running when MagicJack isn't connected. I don't see any suspicious outbound traffic even when it is running. I run behind software and hardware firewalls, so I would probably notice it in the logs  .
I make part of my living removing malware from computers. I have a serious problem with malware, and I hate 'legitimate' adware almost as much. I don't like that MagicJack doesn't have a transparent uninstall process. If I get some free time in the near future [don't hold your breath], I'll see if I can log what's installed when you connect the MagicJack and think about how it could be properly and transparently uninstalled. What I've seen so far is in the NT user files ([windows drive]:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\mjusbsp\) along with the registry entries you'd expect from a USB device with firmware.
I had a look at the rest of the registry of the machine that's hosting MJ and I don't see anything ominous. |
|
