MagicJack Phone Service

I was going to switch if they could answer three important questions? 1. I have a alarm company that needs a phone number to work properly and they cannot for legal reasons comply. 2.My Direct TV needs a phone number to communicate with requests for movies and reloads--they cannot work with TV company. My Internet company is also my Phone company and they are tied into the land line somehow and they couldn't answer that one which at that point 1 and 2 were more important so I didn't get one

Maria and Steve,
YES you can FAX with Magic Jack. I just did it. You can do everything with MJ that you can do with any other VOIP telephony system including Vonage, Comcast, Verizon and many others.

I don't know your specific setup but you just wire the MJ through your existing home telephone jacks.

Thanks Phil,
I'm curious though about why you would be using MJ if you have landline service? Even after dropping my land line, I disconnected the inputs to my house because I had read that the 90 volt ringer signal would fry the device. Since MJ is a VOIP device, I don't see how it would be possible to use that on a regular phone line. Just doesn't make sense.

My MJ replaced my Comcast VOIP service. It was Comcast that cut the hot incoming line from my old land line service.

I'm not sure how the system works if the outside line has never been cut. I haven't seen any info from MJ about that. Interesting situation.

I would recommend to anyone, If in doubt, go to the utility box on the outside of your house and disconnect the wires.

Addendum to Steve,

Once you've been disconnected from you land line service your house wiring is yours to do with as you please. Just plug the MJ into any nearby wall jack and all the jacks in your house become your own telephone system.

Frank, this applies to you to. I'm not going to pretend to have a handle on your specific situation but MJ works exactly the same as any other VOIP service that I know of. I would recommend that you purchase the unit (MJ Plus) as well as a cheap phone and try it for a couple of months. If it works for you then you can port your number and use the MJP as your primary phone system. That's what I did and I'm not looking back.

Phil,
I'd suggest you do a Google on problems sending a fax with Magic Jack. Many folks have had problems. Most are about only receiving 1/2 of the fax. Just because you can send doesn't mean it works.
I'd also add that if you are going to use existing house wiring to utilize your MJ, the old land line does need to be physically disconnected. Especially if your old land line was routed above ground. Why you might ask? Lightning, and the induced transient spike. Granted, very rare, but possible.

Phil,
Mea culpa on not reading your entire post. Sorry about that.
I'd like to remind everyone that if you are using existing house wiring with MJ, you will have problems if you are using corded phones and they exceed the REN (ringer equivalence number) limit. Symptoms are low call volume and the phone not ringing on incoming calls.
Just unplug all but one corded phone and see if that corrects the problem. The better solution is to go out and buy a cordless phone. I'd recommend Panasonic VTEC, but that's just me.

Just to reiterate for everyone regarding use of existing house wiring. The house system definitely needs to be disconnected from your land line service.

Steve... In the beginning I experienced the symptoms you describe (low audibles and no ring). It was driving me crazy but I was determined to make the MJP work for us. My solution (after trying MJ's horrible 'chat tech' service) was to purchase a new power supply module from Radio Shack. This may also be why I don't have a problem FAXing. Haven't had a problem since. My feel on this is that the MJ supplied power supply module is cheaply made and under powered and it wouldn't hurt to replace it.

If everything is fine for 6 more months I'll be sending them my $100 for 5 years. I can't even imagine 5 years without a phone bill.

Phil,
I think we might have been on separate pages regarding MJ. I'm using the original, not the MJP. The articles I read were in regard to sending a fax with the original MJ. They might have changed the innards on MJP to where the problem no longer exists.
Just out of curiousity, were/are you using corded phones? I'm using the USB2 output from my Dell desktop and didn't have a problem after I disconnected an ancient corded phone.
I can't comment about MJP or the quality of the power supply, but I was wondering if you lived near the coast? My mother lives in Daytona Beach FL and she had a problem with a phone jack outlet that became corroded from the salt air. Or to be more specific, the wires to the outlet. My brother took care of the problem with some fine sand paper by cleaning the wires. Copper wire can get really nasty when exposed to salt air.
I hope you have the power supply connected to at least a surge suppressor, or preferably an UPS.
I don't think you can go wrong by purchasing the 5 year subscription. I did about a year ago and haven't looked back. I was paying about $40 a month for my land line service years ago. I had Vonage for awhile, but it wasn't that much cheaper. It's rare to find anything that will actually pay for itself these days. Not to mention paying for itself many many times over.

Steve,
I don't live near enough to the coast for saltwater to be an issue. But it is important to always keep electrical connections clean.

I have a Panasonic 4 phone wireless system with the console connected to the MJP through a telephone jack. The same jack has one incoming connection (MJP input) and two outgoing (phone console and FAX). All my issues regarding low audibles and no-ring disappeared after I installed the new power supply for the MJP. The MJP is plugged into my computers' UPS.

I too did a lot of research before I decided to go with MJ. I found that after all the fees and whatnot, Vonage was not much of a savings.

Hello all,
In regards to most of your questions. you can learn the answer to your questions at:Magic Jack.com/Customer Service.
Yes you can fax, conference call, port your number over to MJ. You can forward your phone to the MJ when your computer is off. They have a chat component that will answer any question you do not find in their FAQ's. section.
The only shortcoming I have encountered is the MJ disconnects calls that go longer than 90 minutes. When I inquired about this, they told me it was to control usage. It does not advertise that. I was disappointed because I use my MJ for business, this includes conference calls which sometimes run longer than 90 minutes. All said, you can not beat the price. The quality is good enough, occasionally there are small hiccups in the quality.
You are offer free 30 trial days. Just don't sign up for additional years so if you want to return it, you can get a full refund without hassle.

Hi RV,
In regard to your post, have you ever read the comments and questions posted here? I beg to differ to "MOST" of your questions can be answered at the MJ site. They are very very basic, and I suppose for some users, the site might be useful. Especially if they had only minor problems.
Online chat with an MJ rep was useless for me. All they did was typed a response from a book.
LOL on the full refund without a hassle... I've read way too many complaints here about folks that didn't.
I do agree on the 90 minute cut off though. Minor problem though for the cost and most folks.
I'm glad you didn't have problems with low voice volume/no ring. But there are many out there that have. MJ CS does NOT address those.
Nor do they address using existing house wiring to use MJ. On that issue, I really can't see how they could.
I'm NOT bashing MJ by any means. Not many products out there that pay for themselves MANY times over like they did in my case. Does MJ have a few glitches? Of course! Would I buy it again when my subscription runs out in about 4 years? YOU BETCHA!!!!!

Phil,
Sounds like you were indeed correct in replacing the power supply. Glad it worked! I'm wondering now if the original MJP wasn't defective from the start? Do you still have the old one, and a multimeter to where you could compare the output voltage between the two?

Steve,

The power supply may very well have been defective. I'll never know. The new one solved both primary issues and all is well. Case closed.

I have read all these questions and answers to see if my question would be answered but it seems nobody has that problem or they already know the answer. My house has a phone in all the rooms. Those in the bedrooms don't ring but if we are not sleeping we can hear a phone ringing. Now do I have to give up all my (extensions) phones if I use magic? In short can it handle the extensions?

swabyw, The short answer is yes, MJP can power home phone jacks. You're a little light on details so I'll just say that my MJP is powering one home phone jack which is connected to a wireless phone console and a fax machine. The phone console then powers 4 other extensions. I don't have any idea if the MJP would power many extensions without a problem as I have no idea how much voltage is outputed to ring the phones.

It took me several weeks of tweeking my setup before I got the MJP to work well. I ended up replacing the AC power module. I haven't received a phone bill in four months now. That's a $180 savings just this year.

Hope this helps.

I'm a senior and have had MJ for 8 yrs and it has been a great experience. Living on a fixed income it is nice not to have a HIGH landline telephone bill each month. I have never had any problems whatsoever with the service. I have recommended it to all my family and friends and they also love it. I have used all the services MJ provides and again NO problems. This is one company that lives up to what they say and in this day and age it is a welcome surprise.
I recommend that everyone ditch their landline and go with MJ.
Maureen

I have a security system in my home and it reqires a landline to opporate. If I cancel Verizon PHONE SERVICE,how will magic jack work?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Magic Jack doesn't need phone service, just an Internet connection.

I had Magic Jack for many years and bought 5 extra years of service last year - When Magic Jack upgraded to Magic Jack Plus I thought GREAT and got the product but I found out MJ does NOT let you transfer the service leftover on your old device to the new MJ+. Therefore I have four years of service just wasted on the old MJ. I feel ripped off that I have to pay again for more years of service for the SAME phone number.

I purchased a MagicJack in 2005 and never used it. I had Verizon phone and DSL service at the time which seemed to get more expensive every few months. Comcast came by my neighborhood offering better rates for internet service, so I cancelled my Verizon freedom package and DSL service and switched to their lowest priced phone service. A month later I decided to stop my Verizon land line because I had excellent cell service and didn't need the land line. At that time I remembered I had the unused MagicJack and decided to install it using a Toshiba laptop I had. Upon installing the MagicJack, I thought instead of plugging a phone in the MagicJack, I plugged a phone line from the MagicJack to a land line phone jack in my home. I was quite surprised when I checked land line phones in my home and the MagicJack was providing service to all of them. I can't guarantee this will work for you, but I have all my homes land line phones running from a single MagicJack.