MAGICJACK

[JE KA ES2K 0]

SKYPE IS BETTER!!! and all you have to pay is Internet connections and I record my wife's and I video conversation from 2009 up to now... Put it all on DVD and it's what we are going to use to prove our communications everyday because Consulate can just watch the videos. You just gotta have lots of storage in your computer.

The videos show me and her side by side talking to one another.

[Atencio 43]

Are you sure the consulate is going to want to watch a video?

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Duplicate threads (moved several times trying to find the best home) from CR-1 and Regional forum moved to Off Topic and merged together. Duplicate post removed. It is best to have all of the information posted in one place rather than in different places around the site.

Matt and Evieve, Your photographs are lovely - but they really are too big. Would you please reduce them to 1/4 of their current size? It makes it very difficult for our members with slower connections to download any posts you make. Thanks .

[Darnell 8,480]

re: magic jack -

ya it's convenient, and the price is great - but

when I looked into it 2 years ago, there wasn't any generation of call detail records.

Call Detail Records are important, when trying to show 'call logs ' between you two.

If Magic Jack does do call detail records NOW, even printable on their online portal - hey ! that's even better !!

Ultimately, ya gotta decide what 'proof' yer showing. CDRs are great, when ya got em.

[marriedtomrg 141]

What we did was to screen capture the calls (using Ctrl+PrtScr) and paste them on a Word document then print them out. Crude, but effective.

Would be great if a bunch of well-meaning MagicJack users could band together and ask the manufacture to include that feature in their future upgrades!

re: magic jack -

ya it's convenient, and the price is great - but

when I looked into it 2 years ago, there wasn't any generation of call detail records.

Call Detail Records are important, when trying to show 'call logs ' between you two.

If Magic Jack does do call detail records NOW, even printable on their online portal - hey ! that's even better !!

Ultimately, ya gotta decide what 'proof' yer showing. CDRs are great, when ya got em.

[evli1966 88]

re: magic jack -

ya it's convenient, and the price is great - but

when I looked into it 2 years ago, there wasn't any generation of call detail records.

Call Detail Records are important, when trying to show 'call logs ' between you two.

If Magic Jack does do call detail records NOW, even printable on their online portal - hey ! that's even better !!

Ultimately, ya gotta decide what 'proof' yer showing. CDRs are great, when ya got em.

Been using it since early 2009.

We now pay for service at an Aunts house in cavity, 2 Sisters and where Jo lives.

They pay for the net we pay the MJ and when she is here she will have open communication with everyone she can.

Skype doesn't work well in most places in Phillipines even in Manilla the connections are slow and vid phones bog down. At least in our expperience.

I like the idea of making Cds of the calls for evidence.

As for tracking our calls I track my cell phone usage whihch supplies time date and how long we talk.

[rsn 135]

We used to use MagicJack but once Anna was here the need for a running computer at that end was a killer as her Mom is elderly and not interested in computers.

We found Nettalk early enough to have 2 of their units with the unlimited lifetime subscription (paid $100 upfront and will have service for the life of the company). now it's about $100 a year but the quality is better than MagicJack and it is a stand alone unit (like Vonage) so no PC required that that end. We're pleased with it .

You shouldn't really need a computer to run MJ. Check out the other MJ thread on here. You can use a standard ATA w/ your MJ subscription info. It takes a bit of investigation to get it to work, but it's been done.

Edited September 23, 2010 by rsn

[evli1966 88]

You shouldn't really need a computer to run MJ. Check out the other MJ thread on here. You can use a standard ATA w/ your MJ subscription info. It takes a bit of investigation to get it to work, but it's been done.

Please forgive my ignorance; what is an ATA?

[rsn 135]

Please forgive my ignorance; what is an ATA?

an Analog Telephone Adapter. Simply put: It allows you to plug a plain 'ole phone into your internet connection.

[Deputy Purple 1,294]

an Analog Telephone Adapter. Simply put: It allows you to plug a plain 'ole phone into your internet connection.

It also requires you to violate MagicJack's TOS which may get your service abruptly disconnected when they discover you've eliminated their softphone which generates add based revenue for the company!

For $100 annually you don't need to worry about that and have better voice quality using NetTalk. For $36 monthly you can go to vonage but their quality isn't much of an improvement over NetTalk. We've used all 3 (MagicJack, NetTalk & Vonage), even if we hadn't gotten in before the annual fee we'd still stick with NetTalk because it is a stand-alone device.

They're all basically SIP Services so if you don't like to be tied to a particular piece of hardware then you can simply find a SIP provider and bring your on device...

[rsn 135]

It also requires you to violate MagicJack's TOS which may get your service abruptly disconnected when they discover you've eliminated their softphone which generates add based revenue for the company!

For $100 annually you don't need to worry about that and have better voice quality using NetTalk. For $36 monthly you can go to vonage but their quality isn't much of an improvement over NetTalk. We've used all 3 (MagicJack, NetTalk & Vonage), even if we hadn't gotten in before the annual fee we'd still stick with NetTalk because it is a stand-alone device.

They're all basically SIP Services so if you don't like to be tied to a particular piece of hardware then you can simply find a SIP provider and bring your on device...

I wasn't commenting on MJ's TOS, nor do I care. It was simply a commenting on what could be done and what many others already have done without any issues w/ MJ. However, I agree that there are much betters services than MJ and using your own ATA ultimately lets you hunt for your own and switch from one service to another easily.

[Deputy Purple 1,294]

I wasn't commenting on MJ's TOS, nor do I care. It was simply a commenting on what could be done and what many others already have done without any issues w/ MJ.

I only made a point of it because there are many who do care about the possible disconnection without recourse so it should be mentioned.

However, I agree that there are much betters services than MJ and using your own ATA ultimately lets you hunt for your own and switch from one service to another easily.

In my younger days I would have been the first in line to do this but it does add a layer (or two) of complexity to the setup as you generally don't have the convenience of tech support with the hardware/SIP provider combination (though you will probably have support for each side for their piece only) so anyone who doesn't want to be the guys trying to fix it from across the globe would be better served with a prepackaged solution.

[rsn 135]

In my younger days I would have been the first in line to do this but it does add a layer (or two) of complexity to the setup as you generally don't have the convenience of tech support with the hardware/SIP provider combination (though you will probably have support for each side for their piece only) so anyone who doesn't want to be the guys trying to fix it from across the globe would be better served with a prepackaged solution.

A safe solution is to use a pre-paid service w/ a small starting balance. If it doesn't work, move on. Unless they are especially shady, they will return your credit if it doesn't work for you right off the bat. I've never found any customer support for a VoIP service (among other services) to be worth the extra cost, at all. You usually have someone reading from a script who knows just as much or less than the caller about the technology.

Edited September 23, 2010 by rsn

[Dakine 26]

SKYPE IS BETTER!!! and all you have to pay is Internet connections and I record my wife's and I video conversation from 2009 up to now... Put it all on DVD and it's what we are going to use to prove our communications everyday because Consulate can just watch the videos. You just gotta have lots of storage in your computer.

The videos show me and her side by side talking to one another.

COs don't watch videos.

I've been using Magic Jack for 6 months. It's as clear as normal land lines. Best to have a long distance carrier that gives month bills. Make 1 or 2 short calls daily on AT+T or any long distance carries that gives you good records of your calls for the record and all long conversations on Magic Jack!

[thekfc 26]

We have been using MJ since the beginning of this year. We speak to each other just about every morning (& sometime we speak 2-3 times a day) - my wife is also my alarm clock

e get very good voice quality, I can hear everything in the background, even the people on the street talking/playing & the roosters.

People have been talking about the issues that they have/had but we haven't encounter any....yet. Maybe it is because of our connections - She have broadband & I use Optimum Voice.

Also for call details records - I do it on my end via Optimum Voice. Optimum Voice records every call I make & received, I sorted the call records by caller, then I printed out the report showing all calls made to & from the MJ. I also included an explanation about the MJ - who we communicate on it, who is using it, etc, ect, ect,.