Using My Laptop (Mac) To Make Calls To Us

[i am bob]

Just to jump in for a second.... For any Canadians who are looking for the same idea, we can use MagicJack (which has a cost of course) or there is another one called FreePhoneLine which is a free online SIP phone (in other words it works on your computer). It will give you free Long Distance calls throughout Canada - though not all areas are covered. My personal experience was that there are a few very rural exchanges I could not call in Nova Scotia. The nice thing is that it will follow you anywhere in the world - as long as you are online! And, at present, it works for Windows and Mac. And you can also get this on your SmartPhone - it is associated with Dell through Fungo.

:tiphat: As it won't affect me, I am not going to bother but for any Americans out there who are interested in something like this, google the Dell app and see what is available in your country!

I have both on my cell phone and my wife's cell phone, Magicjack works the best and the quality of calls is excellent to and from the Philippines.

How do you find the FreePhoneLine when calling to / from the Philippines? Is it decent enough or...?

im sorry Bob, I meant Dell an MJ

I was reading up on the comments on the Dell version recently and, after their latest update. most people are saying it really works great now. Some others say it doesn't work at all on their phones. I guess a new model phone must be a requirement for it to work properly.

I have used the FreePhoneLine on my computer as well as MagicJack and I really don't find much difference other than the cost. My brother went the whole route, installed the router and uses FreePhoneLine as his regular telephone service throughout the house.

[earthdome]

Everything will be perfect if I can get my AT&T cell phone number transferred to the MagicJack.

The MagicJack website phone number porting did not work. I even chatted with their online support and they were no help... they just kept repeating the exact same message their online phone number porting tool said.

I had called AT&T and they said there was nothing on their end to prevent the number from being ported.

So now I have setup an account with http://ParkMyPhone.com and started the process of porting my AT&T phone number to them...

then they will forward calls to my MagicJack phone number.

Cross your fingers with me that the phone port will work. Then maybe at a later time I can port from http://ParkMyPhone.com to MagicJack.

And the verdict is ???????? work or not to work, that is the question? :photo-109:

Yes, everything works. My old AT&T cell phone number is now parked and forwards to MagicJack. With the MagicJack app running on my android smart phone with the Smart Telecom data plan I received a phone call from my sister in the USA when she dialed my old US cell phone number which I forwarded to MagicJack. Rang in on my smart phone like a normal call. Only issue is that the MagicJack app sucks down the batter of my smart phone so I only have that app running when at home with the smart phone on the charger.

[sjp52]

Everything will be perfect if I can get my AT&T cell phone number transferred to the MagicJack.

The MagicJack website phone number porting did not work. I even chatted with their online support and they were no help... they just kept repeating the exact same message their online phone number porting tool said.

I had called AT&T and they said there was nothing on their end to prevent the number from being ported.

So now I have setup an account with http://ParkMyPhone.com and started the process of porting my AT&T phone number to them...

then they will forward calls to my MagicJack phone number.

Cross your fingers with me that the phone port will work. Then maybe at a later time I can port from http://ParkMyPhone.com to MagicJack.

And the verdict is ???????? work or not to work, that is the question? :photo-109:

Yes, everything works. My old AT&T cell phone number is now parked and forwards to MagicJack. With the MagicJack app running on my android smart phone with the Smart Telecom data plan I received a phone call from my sister in the USA when she dialed my old US cell phone number which I forwarded to MagicJack. Rang in on my smart phone like a normal call. Only issue is that the MagicJack app sucks down the batter of my smart phone so I only have that app running when at home with the smart phone on the charger.

Yes I was amazed how big of a battery hog MJ is. They need to fix that

[earthdome]

I have an android smart phone with Smart unlimited data plan I use as wifi hotspot for my laptop. Here I thought I was just running into oversold congested data network. Turns out that over time my smart phone data access slows and slows. This morning the internet was barely usable on my laptop. I rebooted the smart phone and all of a sudden the net was very fast.

Looks like I need to reboot the smart phone once a day to ensure I maintain good bandwidth.

I am currently averaging about 1.7GB data transfer a week on the data plan.

[i am bob]

I know what you mean - I constantly have to go into my phone and dump the cache or it is soooo slow! Even then it will hang up on occasion and need to be rebooted. Not enough RAM to do what I want it to.

Be careful of your usage too. I understand Smart will throttle your bandwidth once you use so much. I go through that here with my internet stick - I'm throttled after 10 gigs for the rest of the month. That is usually about 8 to 9 days into the month... hehe!

[ibemarshall]

*hmmmm...maybe get a bigger stick would help???...I would suggest that but I don't want to sound like I know what I am talking about...so I will just be quiet*

[ibemarshall]

I use Google Voice with Groove IP, a VoIP client, on my tablet and it works great for free calls to US and Canada, it's by far the best thing I've found.

 

Mr Mike,

 

Just checking to see if you are still satisified with your Google Voice via Groove IP setup as I am going to be attempting to do the same thing when I come for my visit next month. Any issues or challenges incountered recently?

 

Cheers~

[MikeB]

Just checking to see if you are still satisified with your Google Voice via Groove IP setup as I am going to be attempting to do the same thing when I come for my visit next month. Any issues or challenges incountered recently?

It works great, no problems; I get an email with a wav file when there's a v/m, same as MJ. If you haven't already set up google voice it would be easier to do it from the US because you need a U.S. IP address or the option to choose a number doesn't appear. The Groove IP app is a straight android install; you use that as a dialer and it automatically connects to the google voice account. The app costs $5 but they have a lite version that's free and might work as well, no harm trying. 

[Americano]

Whistle Phone dot com has a small program you can download free to make and receive free calls to the USA. You will be given a phone number in the USA.  The only catch is there's a short commercial at the beginning of each call you make and the call automatically ends after 20 minutes. You can call back for another 20 minutes if necessary.

 

I downloaded Whistle to my computer last year. It was easy to operate. The only problem was Globe Lines has the Port blocked in the area I live.  I believe its Port 5060.

 

I know someone in the Philippines who uses Whistle to call numbers in the USA and it works fine for him.