cwpowell Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 Hey guys someone asked about the magic jack in another post. what I have to say about it is the best choice my family has made in a while says my old man. We payed 29.95 for the device it took 5 minutes to set up. it was 10.68 to get a canadian number comes with caller i.d. call waiting, voicemail, call forwarding, unlimited long distance in the us and canada. so from $80 dollars a month to $20 dollars a year. Quite a good savings if you ask me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danbouck Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 Do you get a local number so people calling you don't pay long distance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lookinforwalleye Posted January 6, 2011 Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 If you listen to talk radio you can always tell who the internet/magicjack customers are, they are the ones you can`t hear or understand! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misfish Posted January 6, 2011 Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 We have rogers and any calls that come in, are posted on the bottom of the screen.No extra charge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muddler Posted January 6, 2011 Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 When I moved north I couldn't get phone service for 2 months so I got a magic jack. I talk to my friends in California every week and my kids everyday at 6:00 pm (thier choice). The clarity is excellent as long as I'm not downloading anything that interfers with my limited internet connection. I have a local (Sudbury) number so that my neighbours and I can talk whenever we want. Shut down the computer when I go to bed and all calls are redirected to my email. At $20 per year, it's a steal. I called Arlington Texas once and the guy put me on hold for 3 hours. No problem. Just put it on speaker phone and did stuff around the house. Love it, muddler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Cliff Posted January 6, 2011 Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 We tried a VOIP phone here about 2 years ago, it was a disaster! I have heard good things about some of the services but I guess I'm a little gun shy right now. We are looking into a package from Virgin Mobile, a pairs package it's called. Anyone know anything about them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spincast Posted January 6, 2011 Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 Just be aware if you go with a VOIP - 911 service is not able to identify your house when you call. You have to supply the address. while you hope you never need it, especially in such circumstances, you gotta question if that is worth it - especially if you have young kids or elderly people living alone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garry2Rs Posted January 6, 2011 Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 I have a Magic Jack with a Hamilton number so that my friends can call me, as a local call, even when I am in Arizona. It's not perfect. It drops a call once in awhile. On the other hand it costs $20.00 a year!!! In Apsley I have basic phone service, for local calls. Up there I use a "stick" for my Internet. I only hook up the Magic Jack when I want to make a long distance call. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRIFTER_016 Posted January 6, 2011 Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 Just be aware if you go with a VOIP - 911 service is not able to identify your house when you call. You have to supply the address. while you hope you never need it, especially in such circumstances, you gotta question if that is worth it - especially if you have young kids or elderly people living alone I'm a Vonage customer and if I call 911 they automatically forward to my local emergency services. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grt1 Posted January 6, 2011 Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 I saw the informercial the other day about this and have a couple questions, maybe someone out there can answer. Can you request the area code and phone exchange number ( ie. living in Red Lake area I would like a 727 or 728 number)? How would this work using a satellite internet service since it isn't as fast as high speed that is available in the city? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Bob Posted January 6, 2011 Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 (edited) I saw the informercial the other day about this and have a couple questions, maybe someone out there can answer. Can you request the area code and phone exchange number ( ie. living in Red Lake area I would like a 727 or 728 number)? How would this work using a satellite internet service since it isn't as fast as high speed that is available in the city? Go to MagicJack's website and they have all the answers there for you. At one time they didn't have a Buffalo area code but they do now. For $20 what do you have to lose. Edited January 6, 2011 by Billy Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spincast Posted January 6, 2011 Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 I'm a Vonage customer and if I call 911 they automatically forward to my local emergency services. Hey Dave: I'm not saying it doesn't go to 911, but from what I was reading and the investigations the CBC did on this last year, because you have an IP address as opposed to a physical address associated with your phone number, the 911 service doesn't see your address displayed on all incoming calls. Now maybe Vonage has found a work around for this in the interm, but that was only 6 months ago. The question is, if you just dial 911 and dont say anything, do the emergency services know your address if you have VOIP service? With a regular land line it is displayed automatically and he can dispatch a response unit to your home based on the connection. IF this matters to you as a subscriber, you may want to investigate before you switch. We actually have VOIP at work, and I love it, especially the voicemail and forwarding, email contact options - but we do have to identify where we are calling from if we call the 911 emergency services. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRIFTER_016 Posted January 6, 2011 Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 How would this work using a satellite internet service since it isn't as fast as high speed that is available in the city? The only real problem with Voip over Sat based Inet is lag. There is a 3/4 to 1 1/2 second lag because of the distance the data has to travel through the air. The signal has to go from your sat setup into space, back to earth and then be routed terestrially to your Voip provider and onto the regular POTS network. When I was using voip over sat I had to lear to wait until the other person was completely finished their sentance or they would miss the bigging of my sentance, same goes the other way around. Voip over Sat works well when no other option but Sat Phone is available. The remote mining camps up here all use voip over sat for communication. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OhioFisherman Posted January 6, 2011 Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 I am in the states, but I talked with a lady for a couple of hours and had no idea she was using it until she mentioned it. Magic jacks website had a connection speed tester on it, it`s been a while since I have looked. Supposedly google is working on internet phone service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tb4me Posted January 6, 2011 Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 Thanks! Im the one that asked for the review! Im going ot go buy one this week..the worst that could happen is we waste 40 bux...go figure we do that with bell all the time.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perodimi Posted January 6, 2011 Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 (edited) I've had a MagicJack for a couple of years now an use it for all my travels. I can plug any hotel phone into it and call home or they can call me using the local Toronto number. It's amazing how they can dial a local number that rings in my hotel room in Beijing. I carry a small 9" Acer laptop and most hotels give us complimentary internet as part of our contract. I've used it in Australia, China, Europe and South America and it's just like talking locally. At times, there can be a delay like any long distant call and an adapter is required to plug in a phone in Britain but you can always use a headset instead. My brother in law lives in Hong Kong and that's how they keep in touch with family here. Also, it will take messages and send you an email with a .wmv attachment that you click on and play in your media player. Edited January 6, 2011 by perodimi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grt1 Posted January 6, 2011 Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 I had just finished reading the posts and talking to my wife about it when we saw the informercial was starting on our tv so we watched it, talked it over and decided to give it a try. the wife calls the 800 number and gets prompts to order the magic jack but no one on the other end to talk to. so she hangs up and I went to the web site. i filled in the information and ordered one, then it proceeds tothe payment page, of course there are upgrades that can be added on, so I took the 5 year platinum plan, (another $80) and my order info comes up on thenext page complete with my cansdian mailing information and a note saying they will send an email withing an hour to confirm the order. this morning i got the confirmation email and says if there are any questions to reply to the email they sent,, so I replied that on tv they stated there was a $10.98 charge for Canadian phone lines, but on the application form there was no place to enter that.So I asked if I was getting a canadian number when I replied to their email. About 1/2 hour later I got a reply that the email was to only confirm the order and if questions were about the billing, they could be answered, if I had technical questions they referred me to http://www.magicjack.com/techchat so I clicked on that link and it goes nowhere, so I went to their home page and cliked on faq thinking it would hold the answer, it goes nowhere, then i clik on another portion of the site and it goes nowhere, now Im wondering what have i gotten into. sure hope this is worth the doubts i'm getting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tb4me Posted January 6, 2011 Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 GRT1 there is no customer service that I know of. There is a store here in town that sells them. Maybe there is a store near you that can help out.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muddler Posted January 6, 2011 Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 To GRT1 question. Once you get your magicjack, just plug it into you computer USB port. Select a USA number (it's free) and register your magicjack. That's an email and a password of your choice. Go to magicjac.com and login. Select the "My Subscription" tab. In the new window you get and option to change your phone number. In there you'll find the Canadian Area codes and you can pick from that. Hope this helps. Once you've done it you'll be glad you did. muddler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walleyejigger Posted January 6, 2011 Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 this thread peeked my interest so i checked out the website, for anyone interested there appears to be a free trial offer for today only, or so thats what it says, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pikehunter Posted April 23, 2011 Report Share Posted April 23, 2011 I saw them in Walmart in Hamilton a few days ago and then I remembered this thread. Just wondering who else has tried it around the province and if so how do you like it? Sounds interesting, no bill, no L.D charges and take it with you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archer379 Posted April 23, 2011 Report Share Posted April 23, 2011 we just signed up for vonage this morning 30 a month vers 70 and i keep my number Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrego7 Posted April 25, 2011 Report Share Posted April 25, 2011 Magic jack user here! You can't go wrong with this, a ton of savings. No more $40 monthly basic landline bill for me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
landry Posted April 26, 2011 Report Share Posted April 26, 2011 • Saw this thread and decided to go for it. • Bought it at Walmart - The unit cost 50+ bucks but included this year's fees ($20 bucks annually) plus 10 bucks for a canadian number per year. So - next year I will be paying 30 bucks for the year and this year it costs me 70. I am paying Rogers 35 a month right now BUT that will be cancelled tomorrow! • It installed easily and was working in 5 minutes with good sound... on my MAC. • The catch - your phone will only ring if your computer is on - not in sleep mode. If it is in sleep mode, the call will be immediately forwarded to voice mail (without an audible ring). Voice mail was easy to set up and it is forwarded to your email (u can listen to it there) or you can retrieve it through your cell in another location too. SO, if you put your computer in sleep mode a lot like I do to save electricity then you will have to check for voice messages thru your email regularly - not a big deal for me. Incidentally, the voice mail is great with the call going immediately to voicemail if u r offline and the caller can leave a message VERY quickly (no annoying delay/wait). • We really don't use our home phone much anyways. If anyone I know wants to get me immediately then they will just text or call my cell. The magic jack line will take care of doctor, dentist... calls and messages throughout the day just fine. Thanks for hiliting this product on this forum:) I think it will be fine for our needs. And it saved me 35 a month (fishing $). Landry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motv8tr Posted April 26, 2011 Report Share Posted April 26, 2011 I'm guessing it won't work with dial up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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