Magic Jack

[tom_shor]

I am taking a Acer netbook to Cebu with me. Will MJ work with such small operational capacity? The netbook has 1 GB of single channel memory and 160 GB harddrive. It has a webcam and microphone installed. I am planning on leaving it with my wife parents and setting up a Broadband service at their house in Talisay. They already have a land line service for their phone set up. I am hoping that they can webcam each other. Of course, MJ would be another tool to use. I am trying to cut my costs on phone cards here in the USA. Any suggestions? Also, anyone living in that area, can you suggest how much would Broadband service costs monthly? They live in Biasong, Talisay City, Cebu. ThanksTim in Memphis USA

The Magic Jack should work on any computer as long as the Internet connection speed is up to par. I never tried one on the computer you are talking about but one friend I know has and he said it did work but occasionally digitizes. I think that is a minor problem to put up with considering the cost saving it can offer you. If I were you, I would buy one and set it up in the states first and then try it on that computer and see what happens. That way if you have any problems you can work them out ahead of time. Just a heads up, Window XP usually requires the Vista fix download that Magic Jack has on their web page to work. Magic Jack also allows you to deposit money into your account and you can then also make long distant calls to a regular Philippine line there should you have to and the rates seem to be reasonable compared to other phone services but probably not as low as that of some cards you can buy. Once you get it all hooked up, sign in to your account with your email address and password at http://www.my.magicjack.com/login.html and then you can add 6 additional years for $59.99 if they are still running that special, or forward your calls or deposit money into your account to be used for long distance calls should you wish to use it for that purpose, but if you have one in the Philippines then there would be no need hopefully. Tim I wish we could be there to meet up with you and I hope we can meet in person one day down the road. Enjoy your trip and I envy you because we cannot break loose right now to get there ourselves. Enjoy my friend.

Maybe they upgraded it because mine worked fine with XP at both ends. I didn't even know there was a patch. When Are you going to Cebu Tim? I'll be there in September and October

[tim]

Thanks for all the information. I will be in Cebu this weekend...Lee, sorry that we cannot share that cold beer. Like you said, there is always tomorrow... I will post my trip information here.thanks againTim

[Mr Lee]

Thanks for all the information. I will be in Cebu this weekend...Lee, sorry that we cannot share that cold beer. Like you said, there is always tomorrow... I will post my trip information here.thanks againTim

Enjoy your trip, I sure will miss that cold San Mig lite, but God willing there will always be another time. :23_11_62[1]: We look forward to seeing all about your trip, so be sure to take notes of every single detail.

[HAPPY]

I think Magic Jack is Great. I have used it in Cebu and it works pretty good. I love it!!

[tim]

Ok Lee. Sorry that you wil not be in town for the rest of the month. Maybe next time....Thanks for all of your help...Tim

[Mr Lee]

An update on Magic Jack. My Magic Jack is working perfect this year while in our condo here in Cebu. I have only had one bad call where the person on the other end who was in the US was low and that was out of way over 25 calls so far to the US. I also have a friend who is here in Cebu and is also using one and when we talk Cebu to Cebu then he sometimes digitizes and when he checks his speed, it is always low, so it is not a problem with Magic Jack or on my end and is more of a problem with his low speed connections. I would say that MJ is as good and if not better than any cell phone calls that I have used while in the US and and better than my friends Vonage service because he is always having problems and when I am in the US and I call him on his cell phone right after a bad call to his home Vonage line, then the cell call is crystal clear my MJ to his cell phone. I give MJ 4 stars out of a possible 5 and for the price it is 5 stars. Below is my sspeed at home on PLDT.

[TheMason]

An update on Magic Jack. My Magic Jack is working perfect this year while in our condo here in Cebu. I have only had one bad call where the person on the other end who was in the US was low and that was out of way over 25 calls so far to the US. I also have a friend who is here in Cebu and is also using one and when we talk Cebu to Cebu then he sometimes digitizes and when he checks his speed, it is always low, so it is not a problem with Magic Jack or on my end and is more of a problem with his low speed connections. I would say that MJ is as good and if not better than any cell phone calls that I have used while in the US and and better than my friends Vonage service because he is always having problems and when I am in the US and I call him on his cell phone right after a bad call to his home Vonage line, then the cell call is crystal clear my MJ to his cell phone. I give MJ 4 stars out of a possible 5 and for the price it is 5 stars. Below is my sspeed at home on PLDT.

Just to pile on....I use Magic Jack as well. It was hit or miss up in Baguio with a lot of voice cracking and stuttering. It worked fine late at night because my connection speed was faster then, but during the day it was spotty at best.Now that I'm in Manila, I have much faster Internet service and the Magic Jack works great! Its the cheapest VOIP service out there and works great provided you have enough bandwidth both up and downstream. If you have less than 600kbps down and 100kbps up, I would not recommend using MJ or any other VOIP service.

[4thDan]

 

I am taking a Acer netbook to Cebu with me. Will MJ work with such small operational capacity? The netbook has 1 GB of single channel memory and 160 GB harddrive. It has a webcam and microphone installed. I am planning on leaving it with my wife parents and setting up a Broadband service at their house in Talisay. They already have a land line service for their phone set up. I am hoping that they can webcam each other. Of course, MJ would be another tool to use. I am trying to cut my costs on phone cards here in the USA. Any suggestions? Also, anyone living in that area, can you suggest how much would Broadband service costs monthly? They live in Biasong, Talisay City, Cebu. ThanksTim in Memphis USA

The Magic Jack should work on any computer as long as the Internet connection speed is up to par. I never tried one on the computer you are talking about but one friend I know has and he said it did work but occasionally digitizes. I think that is a minor problem to put up with considering the cost saving it can offer you. If I were you, I would buy one and set it up in the states first and then try it on that computer and see what happens. That way if you have any problems you can work them out ahead of time. Just a heads up, Window XP usually requires the Vista fix download that Magic Jack has on their web page to work. Magic Jack also allows you to deposit money into your account and you can then also make long distant calls to a regular Philippine line there should you have to and the rates seem to be reasonable compared to other phone services but probably not as low as that of some cards you can buy. Once you get it all hooked up, sign in to your account with your email address and password at http://www.my.magicjack.com/login.html and then you can add 6 additional years for $59.99 if they are still running that special, or forward your calls or deposit money into your account to be used for long distance calls should you wish to use it for that purpose, but if you have one in the Philippines then there would be no need hopefully. Tim I wish we could be there to meet up with you and I hope we can meet in person one day down the road. Enjoy your trip and I envy you because we cannot break loose right now to get there ourselves. Enjoy my friend.

Brought MJ from the States to Danao City,,,I can hear the other end well when calling, but they hear me as very truncated and jumbled. I think the broadband connect here is too slow to support MJ. Does anyone have any experience with Skype??? Would appreciate any info...thank you

[Jollygoodfellow]

I am taking a Acer netbook to Cebu with me. Will MJ work with such small operational capacity? The netbook has 1 GB of single channel memory and 160 GB harddrive. It has a webcam and microphone installed. I am planning on leaving it with my wife parents and setting up a Broadband service at their house in Talisay. They already have a land line service for their phone set up. I am hoping that they can webcam each other. Of course, MJ would be another tool to use. I am trying to cut my costs on phone cards here in the USA. Any suggestions? Also, anyone living in that area, can you suggest how much would Broadband service costs monthly? They live in Biasong, Talisay City, Cebu. ThanksTim in Memphis USA

The Magic Jack should work on any computer as long as the Internet connection speed is up to par. I never tried one on the computer you are talking about but one friend I know has and he said it did work but occasionally digitizes. I think that is a minor problem to put up with considering the cost saving it can offer you. If I were you, I would buy one and set it up in the states first and then try it on that computer and see what happens. That way if you have any problems you can work them out ahead of time. Just a heads up, Window XP usually requires the Vista fix download that Magic Jack has on their web page to work. Magic Jack also allows you to deposit money into your account and you can then also make long distant calls to a regular Philippine line there should you have to and the rates seem to be reasonable compared to other phone services but probably not as low as that of some cards you can buy. Once you get it all hooked up, sign in to your account with your email address and password at http://www.my.magicjack.com/login.html and then you can add 6 additional years for $59.99 if they are still running that special, or forward your calls or deposit money into your account to be used for long distance calls should you wish to use it for that purpose, but if you have one in the Philippines then there would be no need hopefully. Tim I wish we could be there to meet up with you and I hope we can meet in person one day down the road. Enjoy your trip and I envy you because we cannot break loose right now to get there ourselves. Enjoy my friend.

Brought MJ from the States to Danao City,,,I can hear the other end well when calling, but they hear me as very truncated and jumbled. I think the broadband connect here is too slow to support MJ. Does anyone have any experience with Skype??? Would appreciate any info...thank you

I used skype to phone my mother in Australia from Cebu city last March,worked like a dream but do not know how it would go in other areas perhaps with slow broadband.

[Mr Lee]

 Brought MJ from the States to Danao City,,,I can hear the other end well when calling, but they hear me as very truncated and jumbled. I think the broadband connect here is too slow to support MJ. Does anyone have any experience with Skype??? Would appreciate any info...thank you

If you have a slow connection then it will digitize. In Cebu I get 1.43 Mbps connection and with .48 kbps upload and my Magic Jack works perfect. In the US I have an even slower service with 722 kbps and 122 kbps up and the MJ works fine as long as I do not have yahoo messenger, skype or AOL running in the background.  My understanding is that the MJ uses at least 060 kbps upload speed to work so if you have a slower speed then you will have problems with it as well as with skype. One suggestion I can make is that you shut all programs that you are not using when you make phone calls. When I try to use my computer for anything while on the phone then the calls digitize. You can test your computer speed at speedtest.net or speakeasy.net while on Internet Explorer or another browser and see which is working best for you. Another suggestion I can make is, if you are not getting the speed you are paying for, then call and complain and keep complaining until they speed up your connection. In Cebu it took me many complaints and a visit to the office to speak to the manager to get my speed up to where it was supposed to be and so far it has stayed that way, but if you are paying for the slowest speed then you really have nothing to complain about to them. My complaint to them was that I was paying for more speed and they had a couple of slower speeds available, and if all they could provide me with was a slower speed then either they fix my speed or charge me for the slower speed and that finally worked. There standard answer was "up to sir" and my final reply to the manager while sitting face to face with her was " I do not mean to be a wise guy but if you went to the store and bought 10 bananas and came home to only find 3, would you be happy?" and then I told her "well I am paying for 10 and only getting 3 bananas and I feel that I should get at least 8" and that finally worked.