I have been using Magic-Jack for a short time and really enjoy the quality and service of this product.
My son-n-law also purchased a phone and has been using it for some time. His brother-in-law has two phones and is very happy with his service.

Sincerely,

Art Hodge

Sence I've install the magicjack. I;ve had no problems with the service. The only thing I have todo is update my computer, kmow and then.

I've had MagicJack for a few months now and overall I'm impressed. The sound quality is much better than I had with ViaTalk too. I had some problems in the beginning using it because I didn't have service pack 2 (this took me several hours figuring out why it wouldn't work). Then when I updgraded to SP3 it stopped working AGAIN, so I had to restore my PC to SP2. That has been the only frustration with MagicJack. I've recommended it to 4 coworkers who have all told me they're more than happy with it. I

I was very very skeptical because of the $20/yr price, but now I'm a believer and honestly, what have you got to lose?

I've had MajicJack for about six months and have had little difficulty. I'll keep using it.

I have been using my magic jack for about 3 months now and have had no problems

I've had the gizmo for 3 months and am not crazy about it. The quality is sketchy; 30% of my calls, both in and outgoing have static or clicking. I'm running Vista on a good computer thru a phone company provided broad-band connection. (hmm,that might be a bit of a conflict) I still have my phone service because of the reliability: I'm very rural and we don't have the optical cable yet. Satellite internet is a bit pricey here and I'm not nuts about the cable service.
TV service.

I have been using magicjack for a little bit over a month and couldn't be happier. This is awesome. What great quality and sound I get. Thanks magicjack for making it possible to tell my phone company to kiss my you know what. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've had MajicJach for about 3 months. It was a snap to install and works great Voice quality is as good as I get on my land line.

This is a piece of crap. It did not work and a call to customer service failed to correct the problem. If there is a new version that the company claims is 100% effective, I would very loudly say "hell no". My purchase was mode than a year ago and it still does not work. Please, don't waste your money. If you just must spend some of your hard earned cash, sent it to me>

it worked for about two weeks. Never have gotten it to connect since. I couldn't get a local number either.

I wish I could say I love it. After I read the review a year ago I ordered one. After many phone calls and emails and not receiving it I was happy that I had paid with pay pal and I asked them to cancel and refund my money. I got my money but never heard from Magic Jack. I might try again now that I can pick one up in stores.

I paid the $58.00 for five years when I got mine, and the thing is a little scratchy sometimes, but I have a cell phone I use most of the time. Hey, no more big bills from the phone company

I have had magicjack for a few months and it works great, no problems whatsoever. The people complaining that it doesn't work are probably technically incompetent, plugging it into a Mac or windows95 machine, something like that...These type of people are probably not ready for the digital tv switchover either...

magicjack works flawlessly on win vista 64.

w00t!

I have had MagicJack for over a year now and have had very few problems. At first I had a few problems but after firmware and software upgrades it has been a great investment. It's not perfect and every once in a while I get a bad connection but hang up and dial again and it works fine. I'm sold on the product.

"Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be spending enough to take care of that customer base."

The company is not charging enough for its customers to expect a decent level of service. At $20 a year, how many service calls per person can it handle before it no longer makes any profit from that customer?

When did we become a culture where we expect that we don't have to pay for service? If you want professional service, pay $20 a month, and then you can complain when you don't get service. If you are too cheap to pay that and pay $20 a year instead, you have got to set your expectations right! There is a reason they can afford to make it that cheap, and it's not because they love satisfying customers!

love my magic jack i take it when i travel and could not live without it !

I've had the magicJack for about 14 months. I used it sporadically until I got a local phone number and then eased further into using it. I have it on a Dell XPS running Vista Home Premium, 32 bit.

The only problems I've had with this is an occasional echo and what acts like AVC (Automatic Volume Control). When I speak and then stop and the other person starts speaking, the volume of the transmission is very low and then within 2-3 seconds it resumes at a normal level. If they pause and then continue talking, the volume is at a normal level but as soon as I talk and then stop, the condition is repeated.

The echo problem seems to come and go. Some phones connected to magicJack are worse than others. I am using the software fix "TJNet Line Echo Canceller" and I don't know if that is effective or not because the problem is somewhat intermittent.

About 2 months ago I canceled my ATT landline and use magicJack as my house phone. I also have a cell phone that I can fall back on.

The voice quality of the magicJack is about 70% of the ATT line but the savings in cost out weighs the better quality of the ATT line and magicJack is certainly more than adequate or satisfactory.

Just installed in on an XP system with 2GB memory running SP2. The XP system was connected via a 54mbps wifi to the net. Not good enough. I then took it to another XP system of the same caliber but with a hard wire connection and it's OK. Not as good as "real" phone line quality. It cuts out. I have a fixed IP connection on a 700+ mbps cable line thru RRunner. It's worth $20 per year. If it stabilizes, I will use it for all long distance and save $25 per month (all-u-can-use long distance fee).

I ordered a magicJack about 6 months ago and looooove mine. I am a student and it has been a life saver for me. I have already saved hundreds on mine. Installation was a breeze and the call quality has always been excellent. I highly recommend this product. It also saved me a bunch of money and time when I did my Christmas shopping. My family and friends are also happy magicJack customers now.
J-O

I've had magicjack since April 2008, and I love it! I have 3 extensions throughout my house and they all ring and work great--the sound quality is perfect. I can't believe I had to pay about $50 or so a MONTH with my old land line, and magicjack is offering $59 for five years so I'm going to do that. The "inconvenience" is that I have to dial an area code to make calls FROM my magicjack, but incoming calls do not, so it's not bad at all. The only complaint I have is that it's called "magicjack" which sounds cheezy (at best)! It's fantastic and the price can't be beat!

I've had a MagicJack a few months, and so far, so good. I took it to Israel, where free wifi spots are abundant, and made all my US calls with no problem and no extra fees. Quality was mixed. However, I just found out about the ability to update its software and quality is improved. Its already paid for itself.

I have been in contact with MagicJack and thought you might like to know, their Chat/Technical Support staff is populated with idiots unable to think on their own. I posted a question to them, to wit. Can I connect the MagicJack to a wall phone outlet, no phones connected to it, so that all of the phones in all of the rooms of the house could use the MagicJack? After much explaining and haranguing it came down to. I would have to use a splitter and string wires throughout the house to use the MagicJack with all of the phones. I asked why a splitter had to be used and why the house phone wiring couldn't be used. No answer. It seems they are hung up on splitters and when I asked why, they hung up (closed the chat session) on me, without answering. The higher support person I was chatting with was Dover. If this is the kind of support the customers can expect, I don't think they can be considered a viable option for phone service. Since there is no way to get hold of the company, except through their Chat, I wouldn't hold any hope. We learned from a friend in VA that there were many places they couldn't get through to and when they did it sounded like they were calling from a deep cave. Looks and smells like a scam to me. }:-(

Be careful of MagicJack, and before you get it I suggest considering this review:

MagicJack vs Vonage vs Skype

Not only is MagicJack is bit scammy, but it might not be the cheapest VoIP option for you either!

after one year and a faster connect speed on my home computer I love it. So glad I supported a company which drives down the price curve. Kinda like Magic!!

My magicjack hasn't worked from the beginning. Now I cannot get calls or check my voicemail. The voicemail isn't worth anything if you don't get any messages. I've been on their chat many times trying to resolve the problem. The problem is you always get a different agent, and they all want to start from the beginning! If you try something and it doesn't work, why would you expect it help the 12th or 15th time????

Sandi

I like magic Jack but since I have installed my pc randomly locks up or my usb ports all lock up. I have to power off/on to recover. Does anyone have a fix for this?

I tested magicJack for a week or so (using one phone connected to it), with the magicJack plugged into a HP Desktop Windows XP SP2 PC (recently upgraded to SP3), which is connected to our "6M" DSL service through a 2-Wire HomePortal 1000HW (wireless) Router. On top of that, the USB port on this PC is the old technology (1.1?) instead of USB 2.0. Considering that most tests on my connection speed from this PC (go to: www.speakeasy.net/speedtest for your test) is only pulling 3.5M from the connection, the magicJack has had quality that I could expect from a $20 per year service. I have occasional issues with the PC/DSL connection, so I may need to connect this one direct to the Router, or use one of my laptops that pull 5M+ from the connection.

Anyway, after a week of mulling over the difference in the cost of service from MagicJack and AT&T, I decided to call AT&T on Feb 19th and ask if they had DSL service that does not require a telephone service to be connected to the home. Turns out they do, and it is called "DRYLOOP". With "DRYLOOP", you are given a ficticious phone number (for billing and technical reasons) to associate with the "DRYLOOP service. I told them to "cut off" my current home phone because I am trying to "cut expenses", and that I have a cellular if I need to call someone. The switching off of my current home phone and "reprovisioning" of my DSL 1 week later on Feb 26th, went very well. The only thing I missed, was the use of my additional phones in the house, and the phone connection to my Dish Network DVR. I then pondered, and decided to test a theory I had, that I could "backwire" the magicJack to the other phone jacks in my house for more phones to use. I looked at the NID (Network Interface Device) on the outside of the house, and it had connection terminals for "Line 1" and "Line 2", and Line 2 was unplugged from the line coming in, so that made the "Line 2" terminal a "Dummy" terminal - PERFECT! I disconnected ALL wires from "Line 1", connected them to "Line 2" and left the plug unplugged. I then ran a NEW wire from "Line 1" up along the house to the room where my PC & DSL Router are, and wired a NEW separate jack for my DSL. I connected the router to this jack, connected the phone cord from magicJack to the old phone jack, then began checking phones I still had plugged into jacks around the house. ALL phones receive a dial tone, and I can call out from ANY of them. I also tested the phone connection on my Dish Network DVR, and it reported back "Phone connection OK". GREAT!

The only issues we have right now, is that the magicJack must only be providing enough amps/watts/etc. for minimal phones connected, for the Caller ID displays and the ringers, because the phones do not ring like they used to (which is actually nice, because they rang too much before). They ring very shortly, so there is still testing to do with my theory, but for the main goal, IT DOES WORK! it is now March 1st, and the quality of the connection and the service is still working great!

DISCLAIMER: Depending on the speed and quality of your internet service, you may or may not see similar or better results. If you try this theory on your own, and mess it up, I will not be held liable for any damages resulting from your experimenting.

Good Luck!

Michael

Looking through the MagicJack FAQs, I found this info:

Question:

How to rewire your house/apartment for magicJack

Answer:

Although the magicJack was not designed to be set up this way, many have been successful doing so.

In order to set up your wiring so that magicJack can feed and ring your phones plugged into the wall phone outlets please do the following.

Locate the Telco Box where your landline comes in. In a house this box is usually located on the outside of the house. In an apartment it can be located in a closet, laundry room, or storage room.

You disconnect the line coming in from the phone company and then connect a phone cord from where the phone company line was connected and then plug the other end of the phone cord into the back of your magicJack.

(Please be advised that this will diconnect your landline from ringing the wall Jacks. If you want them both to work you will have to buy a splitter)

Please be aware that you may have to purchase an AC Powered USB Hub to plug the magicJack into to provide enough power to feed all the phones connected to the wall jacks throughout your apartment or house.

Also, try using newer phones as older phones require more power to ring and the USB port on your computer or the AC powered USB Hub may not provide enough power to ring the phones if they are of an older model.

Hope this helps others trying to do exactly what I did with mine. Good Luck! Michael

I've been using the magicJack for a few months now and I love it. It has some compatibility issues with Windows 7 so you might want to wait if you plan to upgrade to the new OS when it is released. I found a work around so my magicJack is working on my computer that's running Windows 7. Microsoft and magicJack are completely useless at resolving this issue.

One thing that you might want to try if you're having problems with the power supplied by the magicJack; you can use a wireless jack to amplify the power output. That way your magic jack is only supplying power to the transmitter and the receiver is supplying power to the phones connected to the wall. Havent tried this since my magicJack is connected to a fax machine and an answering machine with 5 wireless handsets, and yes the magicJack does work for sending faxes (much better than Vonage and Lingo anyways).

I just cancelled MagicJack today after 2 months of hit-or-miss service. Not sure if it was a MagicJack issue or a DSL connection issue, but I had a lot of missed calls and even when it did connect, the quality was not as good as expected. Yes, I know. What can one expect for $20/year?
I have also have Vonage that I use for my business voice and fax lines and it has worked great from the beginning and still works great today.

I live in ireland and heard of Magic Jack, I got one through a friend in the states and now use it for all my calls to and from the states, The quality of the calls is great no delay at all. But whats best is,all you need to bring with you when you travel is the dongle as it carries all the software and settings for you in it. you can then have your number wherever you are staying once you have broadband and any free domestic telephone, It even has voicemail for the times you are either offline or not able to answer, It is the way forward and no regrets for getting it. j

I purchased MagicJack after reading the PC Mag rave review. It has never worked on my XP but worked great on my vista for sabout 1 1/2 weeks. Then audio began dropping out. Steadily got worse. Now it is nothing more than a piece of junk. Have never been able to get help on line and have read and tried just about all the applicable suggestions.
The one I have is a loser. No way would I throw away another $40.

So far so good. I have been using magicjack in Bogota Colombia for about six months; when it works is great, drops calls once in a while, but for 20 a year it is a bargain to be able to call to the USA from Bogota.

Easy to install and worked as advertised.
Eventually, I got annoyed the ads and with the magicJack window popping up in front of my other computer activities. A problem not the fault of magicJack is my multi-set cordless phones had insufficient range to cover the whole house. I have given it away.

I purchased a MajicJack and it worked fine for more than 6 months. Then it broke down. Trying to get it returned and a new one sent was a headache, but I did finally get a new one and it works fine. I sent one to Costa Rica for my family there and it works well. I sent one to Canada and Israel and have not had problems with those either. I even took one on a business trip to Japan last week and was callingt back to the states without issue. All in all I'm pleased with the MajicJack concept and operations.

Got suckered into the 30 day trial which was not a 30 day trial. After I received the crappy-jack it would not work. Support for the product is non-existent. They seem to count the 30 days from the time you order not from when you receive almost 6 days later. If you are lucky enough to get it to work you better hope no problems arise because you are on your own.

I tried it once. But the one attempt was satisfactory but I found that the volume was very low so that I could barely hear the other person. The same volume issue occurred from the other end as well.
I returned to the land phone after that to allow me to hear other people and they can hear me.

Bought one on the 30 day trial and it worked as promised, however I could not replace my land line due to my alarm system would not work with Magic Jack. I returned within the 30 day trial and my credit card was not charged.

Have had Magic Jack for about a year now works great the best part is I'm running it on my wifes old HP desktop going on 10 years old now. Magic Jack is clear does not lag or have any kind of delay in it's calls. Only use it for making long distance call. For 20 dollars a year you can't go wrong. I love it

Our company purchased four of these for our field consultants and ended up sending all four back due to poor call quality. This product does not do well on internet connections with mid to high latency. I am guessing it is due to the extra digital to analog conversion required by the device. Skype (without video) and my Callcentric soft client worked much, much better on the same networks. If you have a solid broadband connection with low latency at home and don't travel with it you will probably fine most of the time. I wouldn't rely on it as a business line solution though.

To the company's credit, they refunded our money on all four units within a couple of weeks with no questions asked.

I used it for a week and then gave up. A wasted $40.

I've had Magic Jack since day one. I bought it as a gadget, but did use it. Often the party on the other end hung up on me, but it did work sometimes. Here is the kicker.

It came time for the renewal. I updated on the internet and posted to my credit card. Suddenly, the MagicJack blue light wouldn't come on. I called support and talked to Ezekial for the better part of an hour. Download updated software, etc., etc. I gave up, because the blue light would not come on. I thought the product was cheap enough, so I saw that it was available at Radio Shack. I bought another one at 40 dollars, and when I got home, after I had destroyed the blister pack, in the mail was a brand new Magic Jack. So when you renew, you get a new one.

Now I have two, and know the drill. Next year I will only renew one.

By the way, the new ones (two different local area codes) work just fine, even over my DSL which includes phone, anyway.

I have been using majic Jack for few months now without any problem. I travel a lot internationally and although internet service is readily available, the phone service may not be or be very expensive. Majic Jack comes in very handy in those situations and it is well worth the annual subscription fee.

The best phone to use is a DECT 6.0 phone. This will not bother your wireless network plus the phone is encrypted. You can't use a 2.4 ghz or 5.8 ghz phone. If you have wireless internet it will interfere with the signal. I have had it 6 months and had very minor problems.

I, along with numerous colleagues started using MagicJack some months ago. We all are suffering from calls being dropped at 1hr 59 minutes. My colleagues and I all work for a large computer manufacturer and use our phones daily to assist customer with installation of their enterprise equipment. 1hr and 59 minutes doesn't come close to being enough time for us to setup a whole enterprise. We have all been to the chat session with the support reps and all are told different things. I was told there is no limit to how long a phone call can last, while others were told it is limited to 2 hours a week. That is ridiculous.
Some have dumped the jack while others will soon (including me) once I have skype configured.

I do agree with your comments.

I had a Magic Jack a few months ago and I called the Credit Card to cancel it.

The help is incompetent. The Magic Jack did not work and I got my money back.

Horrible service!

One magicJack works great (most of the time), the other not at all. Chat support is tedious and Registry changes did not fix things. Poor support.

Mixed bag.

I got MagicJack about a week ago and the only problem I had was that the older phone I plugged into it would not dial out from the phone keypad. The MagicJack knowledgebase said to try another phone unit so I used another (newer) phone and now everything works as advertised. So far, I'm a happy camper.

I had the magic jack for a few weeks and ultimately decided to cancel it and return it for my money back. When it worked it worked, but more often than not it didn't and people had a terrible time trying to hear me. I was also rather put off by the terrible customer service. I am still getting emails notifying me of a voice mail I have on the magic jack system and I have not had my magic jack for 6 months or more.

My Magic Jack worked great for two weeks, then it quit and I have not been able to get any help from the Company. Total waste of money, at least I can write off the cost of my cell phone as a business expense.

I have had MagicJack for about 6 months and most of the time it works fine... Other times I get crackle & static. I thought it was my Comcast Broadband but now think other.

I purchased Magicjack about 2 months ago to dump my landline which price had gone up, yet again. I kept the old line until I was able to test it. Installation was a breeze but my calls were getting dropped. I spoke to a rep on live chat which had me making changes to my registry. Nothing worked so after two hours, I told the rep I would check back on another day, but never did.

Instead, I looked around on their knowledge board and found a tip to change USB ports. I did, and the problem went away. But, not all problems went away.

I knew this wasn't going to be a perfect solution so the 95% success ratio seemed fair. The annoyances I have had since then are some messages which are saved and sent to my email address but sound garbled when played.

I have also learned that sometimes, the caller will receive a message indicating that all circuits are busy, try to call again later.

I've also noticed that the quality of the line seems to be better when I initiate the call rather than when someone calls me. Most of the time, I just tell them I'll call them right back.

There is the occasional echoing of your voice but it seems that I am the only one who hears it. Not the person on the other side of the line.

I am someone who leaves their PC on 24 hours a day and magicjack allows me to take calls and give companies a valid telephone number. Although it's portable, I haven't had the chance to try that yet.

All in all, it's a pretty good deal as long as you are willing to give up the consistency of a landline for a 95% solution, in my view.

Bought it out of curiosity, had trouble getting it to work initially then, suddenly it did (?). Used it sporatically and it worked OK. I moved, set up my computer. Same ISP, modem, everything. Couldn't get the MJ unit to work. No matter what I do the only thing I get is the MJ Website, did all the FAQ suggestions and everything else. Finally got a live person on chat, very pleasant but I don't think she knew anything more than I did. Anyhow we tried a number of things (FAQ all over again) and she told wait 30 min and try again and it should work,or "I'm busy and don't know what to do, good-bye". Now it's a paperweight and not a very good one, I'm pretty sure the unit is defective. The real question is is are they going to bill my credit card for $20.00 a year for eternity for "cheap" telephone service? How easy is it to miss one annual $20.00 charge on your card? Who can you call to resolve it? Anyhow this my MJ phone # 631-238-2051, call, leave me your credit card info and I'll set up annual billing. Any problems email me at berniemadoff@gotyou.com.

wouldn't even install on my Windows Vista machine. 3 Live chat reps had me install the vista update every time but all failed. Finally returned it and bought the ooma VOIP device and it works great.

It installed and updated in about 2 mins. and has worked well since. The only time there has been a sound quality issue is when I am watching a show on Hulu and my son is playing an online game, it may get a little choppy then. I only have a 1.5 mb DSL connection.

My buddy bought a magicJack a few months back, worked great on one computer, but on his desktop it slowed the machine to a crawl as soon as it was plugged in. The forums were no help and the live chat was even less help. After a solid day of digging on google I found a forum with a former Microsoft engineer that said there was a conflict in the registry when it tried to mount as a cd drive, changed the setting and Wha La! it worked flawlessly, on the down side there is currently no Linux support so I will probably not be purchasing one for the time being.

I bought MJ a Year ago. The comment from one was if it didn't work it was of the incompetent computer users. Well Mr. genius I've been using computers for over 30 years. Set up all the programs for a multi million $ company. And my MJ does not work on XP Vista and Mac I have all three. It worked for a few months on XP and then started shutting down by itself on all three computers. Tech told me it was my computer, all 3 were bad computers, Bull Crap. The MJ just doesn't work all the time.

In general, Magicjack has worked very well over the nine months or so I've had it.

It has, however, developed some annoying quirks. Recently, when I plug it in, I get an error message telling me I must plug it in. Then it's webpage opens; when I close it, the normal initiation process begins and all is fine. More recently, it has added one more level of hassle to the process. When I plug it in, nothing happens. So I must double-click the icon to get things going. But then I get the "you must plug it in" message, then the webpage and so on. Once I get through the frustrating initialization process, it works almost perfectly. I've had only one call terminate, but it could have been the system on the other end, not necessarily Magicjack. Several times, the person on the other end could not hear me, or hear me very well, while I could hear them perfectly. That could have something to do with my DSL line having about ten times the download as upload. Otherwise, I'm satisfied with the service -- certainly worth $20 a year.

I keep wondering when AT&T will buy it and pull the plug.

PROS:
I love it! You can't beat the price for high quality VOIP long distance calls. I've recommended it to all my friends and relatives.
CONS:
You need a GOOD broadband connection, preferably cable for this to work as advertised. I've been using it for about a year now (with cable)and have had only minor issues with sound/transmission quality, when the INTERNET is running slow.
Also, Customer Service is NON-EXISTENT, although I've never needed it.

no probs here...been using as replacement for landline for 5 months cuz sometimes cell drops...very clear from both ends...nice to be able to talk hands free thru laptop while working on it...only complaint is i wish it was built in to laptop/wireless rather than hanging out the back...haven't needed customer service, though...

G. Petersen
California

It worked great for a few months and then dead audio and mis-dials were happening to often. The company's support was very poor, suggesting things that made little or no difference. Help from magicjacksupport.com is useful.

I don't have a land line and use it when I work from Home. I am not impressed. I stopped using it and use skype. It has been much better. I bought a skype phone that uses my wireless network and the quality is much better. Majic Jack had echo's too often. For calling friends and family it could be ok by I was too unreliable for work.

I had Magic Jack for one year what a hunk of junk. At first I thought this is great, I can live with the slight static, and constant background echo. but after about 3 months it just quit working. I had done all the updates and online support things reinstalled the update about 50 times with the different techs. It worked for about a week then it quit again and I started getting notices that it was time to upgrade, I decided to just go with a regular phone and pay the big bucks, at least I could talk to real people on the phone......will just wait and see if service improves, if it does we might try it again but as for right now it isn't happening.

My wife pays $27/mo to Qwest (lots of taxes on that small wire) for a phone line with basic service: no voicemail & no call waiting. This is a requirement for her job as a language translator. She calls into their phone system and hangs up to let them know she's waiting for a conference call to help translate. Subsequent callers must receive a Busy Signal. MagicJack tech tells me that I can turn off Call Waiting and VoiceMail by setting Call Forwarding to the MagicJack's own phone number and using Do Not Disturb while on a call. So I do the 30 day free trial and test: Subsequent callers go straight to VoiceMail. I contact tech support again; second tech says VoiceMail cannot be turned off and an option for a Busy Signal is a future feature; no ETA. So I re-package the piece and look all over for a way to uninstall the software. I eventually find a 3rd party website: http://uninstallmagicjack.com/
MagicJack's software is a piece of deeply-rooted spyware (a buried advertising statement in its EULA) that runs even after the phone is returned.

I have used the MagicJack for about two months and can report that on only one occaision did I have a problem with voice quality. I routinely call all across the U.S. and Puerto Rico everyday and so far, so good. I have not had to try and access any support services, so I can't comment on the quality of customer service and/or technical support.

great products but like you said the customer service is terrible. we have been using ours for over 9 months and have been more than satisfied.

I purchased a MagicJack thinking I could use it with my PC’s boom mike/headset while I was working on the PC. I use it to record instructional mp3 files… and it works fine with the recorder. After a few hours typing back and forth on the live chat the problem was not resolved. [I am not much of a typist which is why I wanted the capability to talk through the PC in the first place.] I do not think the techs even understood what the problem was. They had me go through the same things I tried, on their web site, before contacting them… yes them. I talked, or rather typed, to two different tech support folks over a 3 hour period. The second tech had me do the same things all over again.

PROBLEM DEFINED:
The problem with using the headset/mike is the person on the other end hears their own voice come back to them as a loud delayed burst. Turning the headset and mike volume controls on MagicJack way down did decrease the volume of the burst but did not eliminate it. The volume was low to begin with.

SOLUTION:
I tried an old dial phone but while it worked better the volume was very low… even with the MagicJack phone volume turned up. I finally purchased a new Single-Line Headset Telephone with another boom mike/headset. I have now used it several times talking to a few people and it seems to work ok. I would still like more volume as I am running at max volume now and if people talk very softly it is hard to hear them. The phone I purchased is from Radio Shack online and was on special last December. It is a Plantronics T10 (See plantronics.com). I can use it with my home system if I drop MagicJack later.

PLAN:
I may drop long distance on my home phone later… the tax and fees would more than pay for MagicJack. I will not replace my home phone service with it though as my local friends would have to call long distance to reach me since the MagicJack number is OUT OF MY AREA CODE. I will probably just use it for my outgoing long distance calls. At only $20 per year you can’t really go wrong.

The Majic Jack works, but it does not always work well. The sound quality can be scratchy and the sound can stutter quite a bit. The worst part is I use it as my second phone line, which is primarily for my fax. The call quality is not good enough for the fax to make a connection, so I have to switch to line 1 to send a fax. Ugh. I'll keep it for now but if the quality does not improve I'll drop it eventually.

When it works, Magic Jack is a great way to save money on calls. But as a POTS replacement, it certainly isn't green enough or reliable enough. For one, you have to leave your PC and gateway on. Two, on reboots, the magic jack took a long time to initialize, with it's splash screen holding up other PC operations. And three, call quality varied, even when using known good line-line phones, and drop-outs as well as dropped calls are more frequent than trouble free calls.

OOn the whole, it's hard to recommend this product, even though I like the concept.

I've had 2 MagicJacks for about a year. The sound quality is tolerable but not good on one. I've not been able to set up the other. Overall, inferior to other VoIP services that I have used but tolerable for the price.

Just hooked it up two days ago-talked on it out of state-did great. Only problem-have to disconnect it to get certain business related acknowledgements (IRS). Don't know about incomeing. I'm not technically savvy-so don't know how to hook certain things up without a splitter.

For the savings of long distance-I don't mind connecting the magicjack USB thing when I need to make a ld call and then disconnecting for regular needs.

We'll see, tho-I have a few weeks. Btw-bought it from Radio Shack-in store.

Love it!!! Worked perfect on my Mac Mini. Didn't have a single problem with it and the voice quality is exceptional... VERY clear!

19.99 per year for unlimited local and long distance, caller id, call forwarding, call waiting, free 411, 911, 3-way calling... THIS ROCKS!!!

I've had a magicJack for over a year and I like it alot. I've had to reboot my PC a couple of times in the last year to restart the application but that always resolves any problem I've had with it.

Lots of clicks and noise pumping. Totally unacceptable quality.

I have put several Magic Jacks into use with some of our people. I would agree with many of the comments -- when it is good, it is great. Otherwise, the tech support may be helpful or not.

Most of the time "it just works™." Other times the quality is spotty.

I have put several Magic Jacks into use with some of our people. I would agree with many of the comments -- when it is good, it is great. Otherwise, the tech support may be helpful or not.

Most of the time "it just works™." Other times the quality is spotty.

Used a MagicJack for a couple of weeks. Aside for need for a new number, it was OK. Then I had the unfortunate idea to try to use it with a speaker phone. After that it simply didn't work. At that point I decided it was too fragile and returned it (not without some runaround and multiple conversations about "we can make it work"). This was some time ago and I did not experience the difficulty of getting in touch with the company. The techs' ideas on "making it work" ranged, however, from "is it plugged in?" to potentially dangerous system changes.

The MagicJack "just worked" right out of the box, no problems whatsoever, and the voice quality was fine. I returned it the next day, for two reasons: 1) it only works when a Windows computer is on and running, which in California results in very high electrical bills; and 2) whenever a call is made, the MagicJack window pops up in the middle of the screen, making it impossible to use the computer. That's particularly objectionable if someone else in the house makes the call, because the person at the computer is caught by surprise.

One solution would have been to dedicate an extra computer to MagicJack, but that's not cost-effective: an old desktop would gobble up electricity, and I don't have an old, no-longer-in--use but still-funcational laptop available.

MagicJack should connect directly to the router (wired or wireless), without needing a computer. They could charge more for that device, and it might still be a game-changer. As-is, it's unusable.

Well I purchase one from Radio Shack,Because I hate the Phone Company,, Two I am Really Cheap !! LOL !!!!:)
It work great first crack out of box and Then Once I turn My CPU unit off it would just lock up my entry system, when I rebooted to on.,,, But rest not ,, I took it back to RS and they give me a new one.... Same exact thing... Talk to MJ Teck support for about 8 hr and Final, I Released that I just wasted 45.00$ and 8 hours of my time... To bad someone can not make this thing work... would love to see Phone Company go Belly up !! Just my humble opinion !! Have a great day... TCW

I moved a year ago, and couldn't justify a Home phone AND my Cell phone.

Problem is though, the cell phone, at home on weekends especially, Would end up on the other side of the house, when I would get a call. So 5 months ago, I spotted MJ in Best Buy and decided $40 for the device + the first year of service worth a shot.

It installed easily on my Dell with XP Pro, and has worked perfectly ever since. I have a DECT 6 phone system, with 3 satellite phones, so as to not interfere with my WIfI setup plugged it to it and I have phone coverage through the entire house. $20 a year I can justify.

Of course, I rarely turn off my computers. But when I do, MJ's voice mail has always worked for me.

The product has always worked, and worked well. I have had it for two months. Setup was simple. What I don't care for are the web site design; getting information - finding the updated software or example, and what it displays on caller ID. On some phnes the MJ caller ID shows "Magic Jack" and my phone #. On other phones it comes up with Nevada Call and the phone # and on a third phone it simply just showed the phone #. A bit of consistency would be really nice.

When I can port my land line #, and caller ID is always the same, Magic Jack will be a true winner and I can drop Embarq. For the time being I give the Magic Jack a B+ or A- at best.

I have been using Magic Jack for about a month or two now and I have run into a few problems but nothing that a little tinkering and searching on the Magic Jack website hasn't solved (plus a few forums once). Overall I am pretty satisfied with Magic Jack. I use it as my only phone right now... well except for Skype. I find the call quality good most of the time a little cutting out occasionally but I am not sure if that is the device or on the other end of the call. One thing that bothers me a little is that there is no local number in my area yet but hopefully there will be in time. I live in Frankfort, KY if any Magic Jack reps are listening in. It also doesn't seem to handle two user accounts very well. It runs fine on my user account in Windows XP Home 32 bit (the account it was installed on, but it has problems on my wife's user account sometimes, giving a weird stuttering dial tone and refusing to make any calls even though the soft phone appears to be running. I am thinking about trying a few suggestions that I have read on some forums like giving it its own user account and running it as a service in Windows. At this point I really wouldn't recommend Magic Jack to anyone who wasn't computer savvy enough to troubleshoot a lot of their own PC problems, however with just a little more improvement ,more local numbers and better customer support from what others have said Magic Jack could go somewhere. I just figure even if they sink in a year (I don't really think they will)I have saved quite a bit of money on phone bills in just that amount of time. Magic Jack I hope you step up to the plate and make this thing succeed, regular phone companies need more competition.

Charles

i love my magicjack. very few problems

Had my MJ for around 9 months and no problems at all. Have used an older computer system traveling in my RV and had a little problem with lack of resources due to a slower processor and ram but it holds it's own. Got rid of the landline.

I've been using Vonage for about two years now and have been very pleased with its level of service and customer support. When I see an advertisement for a ridiculously low-priced service such as magicJack, my first thoughts are it's too good to be true. After all, phone service for the masses depends on customer service and tech support, services that magicJack cannot possibly afford at the price they're charging.

That to me says the developers of magicJack are only in the business for personal short term capital gains and are not truly interested in competing with other VoIP providers who are offering a complete package at a fair price. Unless magicJack changes thier pricing structure, I don't see how they can ever expect to retain happy customers, even at $20 a year. Under these circumstances, I see them ultimately going out of business or selling off their subscriber base. And they won't leave behind a lot of unhappy customers since the price they paid up front was indeed a good deal. Good marketing can sell almost any idea, good or bad. And by the way, the pricipals of the company will probably get rich.

I gave up on this "magic" device! Dropped calls being the norm or other people not being able to hear me during calls. I do not use it anymore and wish I could return it.

Have used MagicJack for about a year and I will not complain for the price. I got a 2-line phone and use line 1 for Vonage basic and line 2 for MagicJack. The call quality is different from Vonage but still very acceptable. I used to use Skype and there is no comparison - MagicJack is much better. I think that the quality is more than acceptable for the price.

My conversations seem like they are on time delay which makes having a conversation with clients on my magicjack an issue. Not very happy with it.

!!!!!!!!!!!! STAY AWAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think the company is a total fraud. I got my junk from them last July when there was "SPECIAL" pricing on the web site that was to expire that day at midnight.

That message remained on the site for months and has only recently changed to something marginally LESS fraudulent (check the reference to ONLY 10,000 being available for the free trial:

"Use our Phone Service free for 30 days, make all the free calls you please. 100% Risk FREE - you pay nothing. (Hurry, less than 10,000 magicJacks are eligible to be shipped for the Free Trial Offer Today, Saturday, April 18, 2009. This offer is not available in stores and will expire." .... when they go out of business, I would expect.

The product is GARBAGE !!
The service is WORSE !!

I have NEVER been able to have an ungarbled call on the product, despite having the highest speed rated internet service from Rogers Cable AND multiple up to date computers on which I have tried it AND updating the software dozens of times AND and following all their instructions AND spending hours on their useless tech support chat where I get disconnected the moment the questions become to tough for the incompetents to handle. Skype works perfectly on all my equipment, including video.

The only thing it WAS good for was call forwarding - and that stopped working about a month ago.

I was told 3 days ago, on a chat, that the problem was being handed to their "engineers" to resolve - I even got a "Ticket" - and I would be emailed when it was fixed.

Today, when I called for an update of my "Ticket", I was asked to start all over again and I refused. I got the same garbage about being emailed when the problem was resolved - I don't think I'll hold my breath. I expect the ticket number was made up and the problem report discarded with the hope that I would never try to follow up.

I used the Magic Jack for about two weeks and threw it away. First of all, you need a really GOOOOD internet connection isdn or whatever. Since we live in the boonies, we can only get DSL so the voive quality is minimal at best. Secondly; The prefix numbers provided did not match ours or anything that would be local to us, So what does this mean? Well, it means that if our next door neighbor tries to call us from a land line they will have to call long distance. Tried to contact them about this issue but to no avail. I don't think they exist and if they do it's on the SciFi channel.

I have had my magic jack for 11 months now and I had a few minor problems at first but have enjoyed it ever since with no problems at all and you just can't beat the price for what all you get in features. It is worth the price if your lucky enough to not have the problems that I read in the others comments. I have XP home edition and use Roadrunners internet connection.

Ok, like most of the reviewers here, I too agree with the statement, 'when it works it's terrific, when it doesn't its terrible.' I believe that I have gone through most of the problems that has come up with this thing. Echo, no dial tone intermittently, the other person can't hear me or vise versa, phone call get put on hold intermittently, clicks, pops, a sound like a key on the phone has been pressed, magic jack must be plugged into a USB Port, I can hear them-they can't hear me, unable to install (Vista Home Premium 32), low volume on calls, no local phone number (people freak out when I give them my MJ number!) shall I go on? You get the idea. Here's my take. You get what you pay for! At $20.00 per year, I am not going to expect world class customer support, but I must admit I did have results from the CS chat. The only thing that irked me was they tend to assume things and their grasp of the english language needs work if they are going to use people in another country. I will also not expect the product to work all the time. I have excepted this and stil use the MJ to make call so I can save the minutes on my cell phone. I have set my expectation very low for this and thats why I am able to put up with the intermittent service it provdes to save money. Good Luck to eveyone else, you'll need it....

I had used the Magic Jack for a few months when it failed,no talk audio. It took three hours chats with 6 people to convince them it was a hardware problem. I was required to mod the registery, reinstall the program and a lot of other silly things. I had already tried it on another machine with the same results.I will say in their defense, they were patient and I did get a replacement that works flawlessly.

I have had Magic Jack for over 2 months and have been mostly happy with it. the echo is annoying on some calls and I get an occassional unexplained beep when talking sometimes. But for the money, I decided it was the best.

I am worried today though. Last night there was an outgoing call made on my Magic Jack which no one in the house made to 866-363-7172 on my call log. I don't know if someone can hack my computer information via Magic Jack? When I dialed the number, there was only a computer/fax tone. The outgoing call on the log lasted only 1min 9 sec. If anyone has information if hacking is possible through this it would be great.

Majic jack can be hooked very cheaply throughout your whole home with you're existing wiring. Take the line (can be purchased for one dollar to seven) from your computer to the existing phone line box outside of your home. (the one that bring the service into your home) Open the box. Unhook the male line from your local phone company and plug it into one side of a phone extension plug (1.00 @ the dollar store and the end from your computer into the other female opening. Hide the wire on the house or in the groung. Close the box and voila. The whole house works and so does all the phone features.

Just bought it and it won't let me install, says my e-mail address is already on file, it isn't, this is the first one I've bought. Sending it back, can't deal with this nonsense.

I’ve been running magicJack on Windows XP (Service pack 3 with up-to date patches) over cable broadband for over five months now and the sound quality is outstanding – no difference between landline phone service. It worked out of the box without any install issues. The only sporadic problem has been occasionally not being able to complete calls (after a second or two you’re back to a dial tone). And during a short period callers told me they could not get through to my number. I assume that the company is aware of these failures and is working behind the scenes to improve the service. Perhaps I’m naive, but I expect these issues to diminish over time as the infrastructure is gradually refined. I hope to continue benefiting from the cost savings afforded by magicJack as long as the service is available and works most of the time.

Purchased 2 Magic Jacks,could get niether to work.When I contacted support,they just take you through the troubleshooting steps listed on the website at the end they said "well it should work now" end of conversation,it didn't work because the problem I am having does not appear in the troubleshooting guide and after that is done the people I spoke with seem to be lost.

love the magic jack . only one probleem, need someone to tell me how to get rid of the delays coming and going . maybe some one knows what to do or what to buy to get rid of this proble

I have used it to talk to Philipines for over a year and it free almost and for the price who cared its 1 dinner a year for free call who could bitch about that. and the support i needed always fixed the problem it great.

Have MagicJack for 2 years now. It always worked for voice calls, but was intermittent for faxing (call would go thru, synch up, start transmission, then the remote fax machine would drop). A few months ago, I renewed for 5 years at $69. At $20 for the device and $20 for the first year of service, it was a steal. At $14 a year for the next 5 years it is more than a steal.

As others have done, I back-fed the entire house wiring from the MJ. Three phones plugged in all work fine. I also fed the computer modem on the machine where I have computer fax software running. As I said, that works occasionally.

All in all, it works fine for that price.

UNRELIABLE! I'm saving the landline fees but the magicJack is very unreliable. "Circuits are busy" is very common for incoming calls. So before you give your new number to all the family and friends, warn them it's unreliable, and add "call my cell back as a back up." Don't get this VOIP unless you have cell phones too.

My parents bought a magicjack and it doesn't work on the main XP Home computer. I was on the phone and live chat for hours. I even bought a powered usb hub. Still nothing. Don't know why it won't work - a driver conflict? The only thing I didn't do was reinstall windows. It works on the other 2 computers in the home that they don't want to use magicjack on. One of the computers is the exact same kind of motherboard and also XP Home. Very frustrating if it doesn't work.

Discusses advantages and disadvantages of
hard-wired landline services, the pros and cons
of cable vs. DSL for high-speed internet and
suggests an alternative to the "Magic Jack."
I use AT&T for my primary Internet Service Provider via Ethernet/DSL, T-Mobile for my cell phone and Cox Cable for my basic 70-channel cable service. There are advantages to a cable service that are not offered by DSL, primarily that a cable service is always on (has an always-powered-on router, which >>should have

What is needed is a conventional telephone handset, either cordless or hardwired, with a built-in alphanumeric keypad for text-messaging and a fairly fast CPU to get away from the need for a laptop's CPU processor as is now required by the "Magic Jack." Something like a Blackberry without the need to buy a cellular service data plan. (Such cellular data plans are currently relatively expensive.) Like the Blackberry, this yet-to-be-marketed telephone will also need a display screen, but not so large as a laptop screen and without the iPhone touchscreen capability.

C'mon guys. You techies out there dream with me, criticize my ideas and offer your own technical solutions to the problems being jammed down our throats by giant corporations and faceless bureaucrats. Are you aware that there are plans afoot to tax many more Internet purchases even when such purchases are made from another state or country. Many of my utility bills have Internet user fees. (expletive deleted) May I use the Internet to put my garbage out front. (Actually they offer a pay-on-line website, but I pay through auto-deduction from my bank account.)

I have been using MagicJack for months now and I am very happy with their voip service. It's cheap, it works, and it can be taken with you. When I travel, I take my MJ with me so I can make calls from the hotel for Free. Go to http://voiprev.com/voip-reviews/magicjack/ and submit a review on MagicJack and several other VoIP service providers. I had been paying $30 a month for VoIP service, but I am now saving about $350 per year with MagicJack.

i bought it when all the infomercials started appearing on tv, it was very easy to install but other than that i hated it, the sound was awful on both ends constant popping and static sounds. also you would get disconnected everytime your screen saver kicks on so you have to turn it off and final complaint which is something they left out on tv was you have to have your computer on for it to work so incase of emergency you have to boot up your computer and then click magic jack icon and watch it say for one minute of patience a lifetime of savings which takes 2 minutes or so meanwhile you would be dying of something terrible.
but now they have seemed to fix one of my complaints which was static popping sound, so im a little happier with it. overall i would tell others to buy but make sure you have a cell phone (of course) for emergencys, its cheap and in this day in time with the way our country is going we need cheaper things