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Review by leomarth7 
UPDATED: 257 days ago
member for 6.3 years, 1 visits, last login: 257 days ago
 Queen Creek,Maricopa,AZ
 Contract price not specified.
 about 1 days
 "Free, good sound quality, excellent customer service."
 "sometimes dies"
 "well worth it."
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I've had my magicJack for about six months. It has been our only phone. I have had some issues with, but nothing very hard. The worst part was that sometimes it would stop working and I would need to restart my computer. However, with one of the newest software upgrades, it has worked flawlessly for the most part.
It has excellent sound quality about 95% of the time. The customer support has always been polite and helpful. I'm happy that they're available 24/7, and they've usually been able to resolve any problems within 10 minutes.
For anyone looking for a bargain, I would highly recommend magicJack. My renewal comes up in October and I fully intend to renew with them and continue this as my only phone.
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Review by RogersLite
Posted: 262 days ago
member for 4.9 years, 492 visits, last login: 52 days ago
Canada
$3 per month
"Very cheap"
"Doesn't come in Canadian numbers"
"Awesome provider for the money"
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I love magicJack i use it for my secondary home phone in my house. It paid the 40 dollars @ the start + tax. Really good service cheap and quite useful. Matches with all the stuff i use it for. Kinda good to keep people for not knowing who you are.
Call quality is good and + works well with my DIR-615 with QOS
resources aren't very much but it runs well i can't complain.
It can get a lil choppy due to my heavy downloading but nothing wrong.
Sometimes hiccups but it's fine.
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 Review by DoC_DaR
UPDATED: 265 days ago
member for 5.5 years, 1762 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Canton,Cherokee,GA
$2 per month (12 month contract)
about 5 days
"Amazing Price"
"Quality up to your computers health and software and proxy."
"Unbeatable for Tech Savvy People."
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I Have a Win XP X64 PC that I use as a basic "Always On" file server. Installed on this machine and was able to make and receive phone calls in less than 10 minutes. Call quality superior to Vonage but carries a fraction of the features. Before you run out and grab this service, it will only work as well as your PC and Broadband connection. If your PC is not "Very" healthy, don't bother. I have worked in the IT field for many years and am so done with people blaming issues on everything except their ability to run a clean PC. Not the place to vent on the overabundance of who don't understand that downloading and installing every piece of "free" software they find on the internet is the source of their problems.
Update: Just dumped service as the local Atlanta proxy server severely overloaded. Too many problems to be worth keeping. Still worth it if you don't mine call quality fluctuations and overloaded proxy servers on random occasions.
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 Review by ILpt4U
UPDATED: 268 days ago
member for 3 years, 724 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Lisle,Dupage,IL
$3 per month (12 month contract)
about 6 days
"Cheap Dial Tone"
"Needs reliable Internet, Power, PC. 60 min Call-time Limit"
"It works, given its needs are met"
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Updated 1 March 2009:
It seems the 60 minute outbound cap has been extended to 120 minute. That is an improvement, but still not ideal.
I have also decided that, as a young single working guy living in an apartment alone, MagicJack is great. If I had any type of family at all, would not use it as a primary phone line. Just not reliable enough.
It still is a neat idea, and a real price bargain.
But anyone considering it should consider its costs, both monetary and other, as well as its benefits.
Updated 11 January 2009:
I have noticed & experienced that there is a 60-minute per outbound call time limit. At exactly 60 Minutes of call time on the nose, the call is terminated and you get dial tone. That is not a good feature at all. I have yet to decide how to react to this feature...
Original Review:
I decided to give Magicjack VoIP a try.
I run it over my U-Verse Elite Internet. I have noticed call quality suffers if I doing heavy downloading/uploading -- Considering investing in a QoS router to correct, but not that big of an issue so far.
I like that you can make calls with a PC headset or thru a normal phone.
I got an area code & number with an exchange from the next town over -- so I basically got a local phone number in relation to where I live.
So far it is as advertised -- phone service for a very modest price -- $40 for the first year (includes the equipment -- USB-ATA adapter as well as first service year) and then $20/year after. Get a month trial for free.
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Review by redcdiver
Posted: 279 days ago
member for 279 days, 0 visits, last login: 279 days ago
Philadelphia,Philadelphia,PA
Contract price not specified.
"Price, call quality"
"Need good high speed connection and clean computer"
"A fantasric buy!"
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I saw a Sunday morning infomercial for magicjack and decided to give it a try. The unit did not work very well BUT it was not the fault of the product. My was running very slow. I have since replaced the computer and have had a tremendous experience with magicjack. I told a coworker of mine and he got one. He uses it 6-7 hours a day and swears by it. He had no landline at his house and used his cellphone for all his communication, both business and personal. To send and receive faxes he had to either go to the local office services store (ie: Kinkos) and pay or have a computer fax program. Now this is all done by magicjack. At $40 including the first years service it is a deal. Future years at under $20/year are unbelieveable. This product can be used anywhere in the world that has a reliable high speed internet connection (assuming the use of a computer). A wife/husband/child... can now speak with someone on the other side of the world as if it were a domestic call as the number is stored in the unit.
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 Review by Comspastic
Posted: 283 days ago
member for 2 years, 16 visits, last login: 113 days ago
Seattle,King,WA
Contract price not specified.
about 1 days
"Doesn't work"
"Don't Buy this......."
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I bought this for my dad, hoping he could have a cheap line of Comm. It failed horribly, luckily we were only into the service 50 bucks, this is a Cheap as seen on tv gimmick.
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 Review by brut7
UPDATED: 283 days ago
member for 9.1 years, 672 visits, last login: 63 days ago
Babylon,Suffolk,NY
$3 per month (12 month contract)
about 5 days
"Very Inexpensive"
"Needs an always on Computer"
"Works great, Very Inexpensive"
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After reading many reviews here I decided to give it a try.
I'm familiar with VOIP in many flavors having been on P8, Sunrocket and most recently Optimum Voice. I have an old P3 1100 based laptop with a USB 2.0 PCMCIA card that I decided to dedicate to this task; it wasn't doing anything anyway. It's wired into my router, not on wireless. I want to use the service like a land line for the whole house. Had the laptop all set up, fresh install of xp sp3 and power options set appropriately. I think a lot of people have computers that are infested with spyware and/or so many BS applications that it slows down the computer to a crawl. With a clean proper computer, the requirements are low. Optonline in my ISP and that is of course, very solid. MajicJack device arrived, plugged in my Uniden wireless phones that I originally got from Sunrocket! One base and 2 sattelites, I replaced the battery packs on all 3 recently and they still work great.
Plugged the jack into the usb 2.0 port, it started doing stuff and downed updates.
I chose my number and after a few minutes it all started working.
I went to the website and downed an update file and it did another update.
Rebooted the computer for good measure.
I called my Mom.
Mom said it sounds fine but had a bit of a too quiet sound to it when no one was talking but it was fine with her.
Did a bit of tweaking on both the laptop and the MJ sofware (not that you can do much) and was ready for the all important "Wife Test"! (dramatic music here).
My wife calls Montreal Canada every day from here on Long Island to talk to her parents and sometimes several times a day. MJ passed the wife test! The in-Laws one of which is hard of hearing said it sounded better than Optimum Voice, especially the hard of hearing one, he had no problem hearing my wife and he had been straining with OV (they have a pots line). BINGO, the primary goal is calling Canada and it passes the test with high marks. Set up my voice mail, forwarded my OV number to MJ, closed the lid on the laptop and put it up on a shelf where it will remain on all the time. A laptop is better for this use as it consumes less energy than a full sized PC but probably a bit more than a full device like a Sunrocket Gizmo. Called Cablevision and reduced my bill from them quite significantly and reduced my TV service as well, down to 65 a month for ISP and basic TV (times are tough). MJ works fine now for a couple of days, no complaints from the wife. At $3.33 a month for the first year and half that for the hopefully next couple, you can't go wrong. Voicemail, caller ID and a working home phone. Two thumbs up.
The Bad, it needs a computer but that wasn't a problem for me. I do wonder how much the electricity for the laptop will actually cost but it's probably not much. Anyone have any ideas on that?
Bad reviews on MJ are probably from people who are technically challenged, impatient or have a lousy ISP.
I can't really comment on tech support being someone who usually figures things out himself but it looks like it's not that great though it does seem to have a live instant messanger type service.
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 Review by jeffster1970
UPDATED: 284 days ago
member for 5.6 years, 1688 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Kitchener,ON
Contract price not specified. (12 month contract)
about 7 days
"Very inexpensive, installed very easily, works well so far."
"If I had to say, lack of area code. (I am Canada, have a US number)"
"I have people I call in the states, and across Canada, doesn't make sense not to have it."
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Not sure if I should say anything about Tech support, however, when I install MagicJack, in automatically installed updates.. (and said "We'll now install updates...Lucky You!") The package got to me pretty quickly, though I was surprised that it was mailed out only 35 miles down the road. Plugged in unit, Vista installed drivers, and then, it opened the "Drive" since this device has some memory that runs as a disk space. So I let windows autorun the built-in program. It was like this, and it was like that, and so forth and so on, 3 minutes later, I plugged in my phone, and made a successful call.
Reliability doesn't get a 5 since there have been the odd time that I get a dial tone, dial the number, but hear nothing. I just retry and it goes through.
Really, for $19.99 a year, and $20 for the unit, it pretty much sells itself. If you have a somewhat good internet, and have half decent computer, you're going to be in the good.
This is nice too, because you can take your laptop (if you use it on that) and BOOM..you can call anywhere in the US or Canada from your favorite watering hole that offers free wi-fi...plus, perfect when you are on vacation...
Call quality was very good. No cracked that you sometimes hear over a digital network. Maybe I was lucky, but...$40?? Man, you really can't lose.
More upgrade for magicjack...improved quality
Now they need to have it set up for Windows 7 and LINUX...not everyone wants windows guys...get with the picture
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 Review by g0nepostal
UPDATED: 291 days ago
member for 8.6 years, 2036 visits, last login: 6 days ago
Concord,Contra Costa,CA
$2 per month (12 month contract)
about 4 days
"Lives up to the hype; service is beyond cheap and is reliable."
"Website is difficult to navigate."
"Not a bad alternative to a landline, if you don't mind leaving your PC on."
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Full disclosure: My mom gets the credit for getting my family hooked on the magicJack. This review is dedicated to her. Hi Mom!
My mom saw the ads for the magicJack and asked me to get one to try out, so I did. After placing the order through the magicJack website I received the first (of 3!) magicJacks I own. Once I received that first magicJack I plugged it into my laptop, ran through the setup, selected a number in my area code (925) and then connected a regular, plain ol' cordless phone to try it out.
Lo and behold, a dial tone! I then placed my first test call, to my home landline. Despite having to do 10 digit dialing (even when calling in the same area code, magicJack dialing requires that you dial the area code as well as the number), the call went through without any problems.
Voice quality was (and is) excellent. Needless to say I was stoked.
Now, several months (and countless phone calls) later, that first magicJack is connected to my mom's PC in Nicaragua, and we use it to call my parents down there using a local (to us) number. My parents use it to call us as well (duh!), and it still freaks me out to see their area code 925-based number on the caller ID while knowing that they are so far away. Voice quality during the calls is great, despite my mom's magicJack being behind two NAT-based routers as well as a firewall.
Since getting that first magicJack I have also obtained two more, which are connected to my own and to my brother's PCs. These are mostly used for daytime calling so we don't burn through our cell phone minutes.
The above uses (international long distance, daytime calling to save cell phone minutes and on long distance charges) are the ones for which the magicJack appears to be the best suited. Since magicJacks require the computer to which they are connected to be on for them to work, I cannot recommend them for use as your main telephone; computers do freeze up and are not reliable enough to count on during a time of emergency. Not to mention the fact that any telephone connected to a magicJack will be dead during a power outage.
That said, there is no denying the fact that not having to pay international long distance call rates (in either direction) and not having to burn up my cell phone minutes MORE than justifies the $20/year price tag for the magicJack.
Note that the $20/year charge is what it costs for unlimited long distance calling within the United States and Canada. If you want to call other countries you can pre-buy calling time in $5, $10, or $20 blocks through the magicJack website; the per-minute international rates from magicJack are also very low. Hence you do get good value for your long distance dollar.
One really annoying thing about magicJacks is the fact that their software (the soft phone) pops up on the desktop every time a call is placed or received. It would be a great improvement on the software if it could simply be made to remain minimized in the System Tray. I understand that a large reason for the soft phone popping up is to display ads, but so far the only entity I've seen advertise through the soft phone window is magicJack itself. Hence a permanently minimized soft phone is something I fervently hope will be implemented in the future.
Another negative is the magicJack website. It can be hard to use to administer your account, and the layout of the site is not very intuitive - it seems to be geared more toward signing up new customers than to helping existing customers do their own support. This too is something that could (and should) be fixed in the future.
Short version: The magicJack does live up to the hype, if you don't mind doing your own tech support, don't intend to use it as your main line, and don't mind leaving your PC on.
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Review by kieranmullen
UPDATED: 300 days ago
member for 3.9 years, 662 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Portland,Washington,OR
$30 per month (12 month contract)
about 7 days
"Cheap backup. Would not rely on low end voip for business."
"No windows 2000 support? Closed forum?"
"Get what you pay for."
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Get what you pay for so service is up and down. I plan to get my moneys worth. So if they go belly up it will not matter since I will not take chance and transfer my number.
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magicjack.com
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Magicjack Unable to have a local telephone number assigned
"How Horribly..??"
Ive had three MJs for a year now all on three different computers as they require. Ive had numerous "chats" with them trying to get them working as the public is lead to believe. Their technical support is good for what it is, but very frustrating too. Each time I chat with them its either repeating the same operations suggested by each tech or someone comes up with something completely new. Weve been all over the computer in and out of different programs, reseting or changing defaults, rebooting, etc. Ive had road runner here 12 times to improve service and have signed up for "Turbo". No matter what I do, the system does not work dependably. Most of the time people on the other end can not hear me due to chopped words. Sometimes delay is horrible, but mostly chopped words. I have to repeat myself over and over if trying to give someone a phone number. If only Magic Jack would quit hiding behind computer screens with chat techs and care enough about their customers to actually answer a call or at least return one. After all, they are a phone service. 
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