Magic Jack - Good or Evil?

Bob,

I was reading your article with enthusiasm until you said the following gaffe:

It's important to remember that ANY piece of software on your computer has the ability to access ANY file on that system. Your web browser, word processor, email program, even your anti-virus program -- they all have carte blanche to read, write, change, delete or transmit anything on your computer. But that doesn't mean they will.

Unless you assume we are all running Windows 98, a program cannot access ANY file on the system. Also, especially in Windows Vista, Seven, and Mac OS X, various pieces of software have various levels of access to your computer. This is the most fundamental aspect of OS security today and if you are a technical blogger, you should at least learn the basics. You could correct the statement to read: "any file in your user folders".

EDITOR'S NOTE: Not so sure about that. If a user is logged in as an Admin level user, then that changes everything, right? Also, viruses can certainly wreak whatever havoc they want, in any folder...

Donnie

A moron? Perhaps for buying Magicjack.
Also for spending too much time writing system internal apps such as drivers and not spending my time on the beach.

No voip program needs to look at other program's data. Searching codeproject or other development sites will show both how to hook and what hooks are all about. Much like a locksmith has ways to open locks, he should not be opening all the houses on the block to see what is inside. MJ does look inside!

Larry

For anyone interested in using it for a fax line, it may or may not work. I've read countless posts on both sides of the fence. It's not working for me...tried screwing with it for a couple of hours and the most I get is the first inch of the page when sending, then the MagicJack hangs up on it's own for some reason. Won't receive at all. Tried it with the built in fax-modem and a real fax machine. I don't really fax that much so it's not a big deal.

Voice quality was never a problem, although I haven't really used it extensively since last year. Audio cuts out once in awhile but don't remember a substantial number dropped calls. They do disconnect you if you stay on a call for 2 or 3 hours (can't remember which) but you can just re-dial after a minute or so. I have heard of people being required to pay for excessive usage (over a couple thousand minutes).

I don't really know to what extent they spy on users and the software seems questionable at best (12+ MB just for their cheezy dialer software). If you're concerned about privacy, consider putting it on it's own computer (build a thin client to save power & money) and then you have nothing to worry about, other than perhaps the hassle of getting it to work on the thin client. I still prefer an analog line myself, but it also costs me a bit more than if I were to use the MagicJack exclusively.

This article is fairly accurate. One of the only things that annoys me about the magic jack software is its habit of loading several processes just to check the status of the magic jack device. It enters itself deep within the registry where most users wouldn't think to look, and sets itself to start when windows starts. Every time I remove it from the registry and restart the software, it puts its registry entries right back where they were. And it actually does slow down the computer a little, assuming the processor is slow, even when the device isn't plugged in. Windows takes at least twice as long to load up all of its processes thanks to magic jack, even on the best machines. And no, there is no uninstaller. It also installs to the documents and settings folder, not program files. Most people wouldn't think to look for it there.
Also, there doesn't seem to be a fair usage limit. Last time I read the terms of service, they had some nonsense about 20 times the normal usage. Ok, so how the hell are we supposed to know what everyone else and their grandmother uses per day? I've also heard of several people having their service cut off without notice because they went over this undefined usage limit, and being forced to pay not only for a new plan, but for a new magic jack in order to have the service restored. That, in my opinion, is just disgustingly poor practices on their part.

I do have to give them one thing though. Their support is generally good, even though it is only web-based. They give the user everything they promise, even though those promises aren't always clearly spelled out. So if the user reads through all the legalese and other such things that comprise the terms of service, they will get exactly what they are expecting. Personally, I don't use mine very often, so I haven't been cut off at all. I think I will renew mine in June since it's fairly cheap, and it's useful to have around, especially with cell phone rates as bad as they are in Canada. The best combination you can possibly get is a small netbook, a mobile internet air card and a magic jack.

I don't have time to reply to this right now but, I must say. This annoys me. I was on my laptop the other day and magicjack was unplugged and plugged in my main computer. I was on youtube and when the video stopped I heard someone saying something. I turned it up and heard okay to get your data now. I reached up and diconnect internet. I heard, no don't go off, no don't go. I looked up who was excessing my data, and it was magicjack. Mcafee had been blocking attempts but the got threw from another IP address. Hacking threw magicjacks IP maybe. Or just magicjack doing what people are saying. I could here him! He was deep into my system. I wonder if they get into web cams. I am canceling my subscribtion and deleting everything I can. Then i am going to run over my magicjack with a lawn mower. I bet they know I am saying this.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Wow. You're either a very talented fiction writer, a person with an axe to grind, or you have problems that no amount of tech support can solve.

Bob,

Thank you for injecting some common sense into the spyware debate surrounding Magic Jack. I usually look at simple to-good-to-be-true devices like this with a very skeptical eye. As a privacy lobbyist myself I know there are so many ways in which many unknowingly give up their information that, if they fully understood the extent to which they do so, it would make them head for the hills, crawl up in a cave and live in seclusion the rest of their miserable lives. And you're right - SnoopFree is an oxymoron on so many levels it's comical.

"Common sense" is also an oxymoron because it's just not that common anymore. But that's what's prescribed here. The suggestion for the paranoid to get a cheap XP machine and dedicate it to MJ service exclusively is probably the best one out there.

I have actually had pretty good service with mine and, unlike many, did not set my customer service expectations unrealistically high for the only $20/yr price tag. They have to cut cost somewhere and labor, being the greatest cost of running ANY business, is where they chose to cut. From the business perspective, that was a good move. It's a good value, even if we CAN hear the East Indian accent through the chat text window. :-P

That said, I must also point out that I was not pleased with the intrusive pop-up windows I encountered upon entering your web site to read your MJ common sense. You may want to think about practicing what you preach, else be labeled as clergy, "Do as I say, not as I do."

IMHO
Z

Bob, can you please explain the challenge used to authenticate the user using the SIP protocol on the magic jack? Could packet sniffing outside the computer identify this info or only a trojan running locally possibly?

I do believe you work or them... spyware is on it or you have given permission for them to spy in the future.. not sell what they find? I don't want to give them permission to advertise to me at all much less being able to "target" me because of my phone calls! You are an idiot if you can't see ...

I bought a MagicJack last week. Interesting coincidence, I immediately got several problems on my laptop, one of which being the following message that pops up every time on a reboot: Generic Host Process for Win32 Services has encountered a problem and needs to close. Also, I now ALWAYS get redirected when I click on a specific web site using Google or Yahoo search engines. Ironically, I get often redirected to some unknown Anti-virus web page. I have no proof that all this is caused by MagicJack, but the coincidence is overwhelming because all this cr*** started on the same day I installed MagicJack.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I'm not an apologist for Magic Jack, but I'm sure this was a coincidence. It just doesn't make sense for any well-known company to include malware in their product. If proven, it would destroy their reputation and credibility. I suggest you try MBAM to rememdy the issue. See http://askbobrankin.com/malwarebytes_antimalware.html

amazing the paranoia that people have.
some people just have nothing better to do but to start a blog about a product that they probably tried and did not like.i could be wrong about that but imho, its over blown crap. thx bob for enlightening us.
good article thank you

I have been considering magicjack and have not been happy with what I have been reading.

The magicjack website (looks/feels like a hardsell scam imo) and the lack of a uninstall button for their software (odd for any software) has seriously put me off this product/company. It just doesn't feel right to me.

Although it doesn't appear to have been proven I wouldn't be surprised if there was a limited amount of spyware involved.

What respectable company leaves off the software uninstall option.

I am really quite disappointed.

Michelle: MJ adds an entry to the Windows Control Panel Add/Remove Programs section so it could be uninstalled from there. MJ also makes available an uninstall app on its website: search the FAQ or "uninstall".

If you think the MJ website is bad I invite you to check out x10.com!

i don't know about spyware but magic jack is a scam.
you prepay for a year, they waited til i filled out my contacts list and then discontinued me. no way to even access my messages, and they had full control of my account, no telling what they were doing with my 'active' inactive account.
good luck getting a human being to make any of this right, they just sh*t on the user, soon they'll probably change the name so as to screw the same people twice.
also, NEVER TRUST A COMPANY WHO HAS BOUGHT THIER OWN sucks.com site so as to hide criticism.
if you type in magicjacksucks.com all you get is just an ad for their 'award winning' service.
its not an honest product/outfit.

I don't know what the fuzz is about; Facebook is probably worse and the world loves it. I have owned one of these gadgets for almost two years now. I have just spent one month is South America calling all over the USA and Canada daily, and it has become a staple in my gadgets to carry. It's a lot cheaper than Skype-to-landline and does a fine job.

Bought a M.J. about 1 yr. ago. Used for few months. Worked inconsistently. My phone number from M.J. was long distance with my local phone commpany. So local people had to call long distance to call me. Also, found you could not call with or without calling long distance. The M.J. customer service could not solve the problem saying this was due to the phone company (Windstream). It became useless. The customer service is the pits and not very knowledgeable about the device and there is no way to contact them except through the M.J. website.

MagicJack is something I have been using for a few years with some bad audio at times. I have received and tested the plus and want to return it but their customer service does NOT exist. I tried the chat and after several trys and waiting for as much as 40 minutes I cannot get any reply. I could recommend them if they did not have that irritating audio on their site and replace it with a customer service phone number.

Magic Jack company sells or gives away your email address registered with them. This isn't a hypothesis, it is a fact. I'm a system administrator who runs our own email server. Because of this, we can create an unlimited number of email addresses. The advantage to this is that anytime a company requests your email address, you can create a very unique address tailored just to that company. Then if/when you get SPAM, all you need to do is look at who it was sent/addressed to to determine which company released some/all of your personal information. This process caught AmeriTrade's security breach which eventually forced AmeriTrade to send out a notification to all AmeriTrade clients telling them of this breach in security. This occurred some 4 years ago (so those users with AmeriTrade accounts will remember this). Anyway, it only took a few weeks before I got SPAM on the Magic Jack's unique email address registered with them. Just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, a new email address was registered with them that in part used a sequence of letters, numbers and characters (from KeePass Password Safe) making it utterly impossible for it to be another fluke. Again, within a few weeks the new email address was getting SPAM on it. I contacted Magic Jack to inform them about this issue and they denied it was even possible. They were extremely uncooperative and didn't even take the time to listen to why I 100% knew this issue was occurring. I immediately uninstalled the Magic Jack software (yes, there is an uninstaller but it isn't publicly available - the Magic Jack company uses it for clients that are having problems with the software in order to attempt a 'clean' reinstall). The uninstaller isn't a complete uninstaller though and still some manual deletion of files and registry entries was necessary for a complete removal. Because of this we will never, ever use the Magic Jack system again.

Jason

Jason (the so called system administrator) lol. I started out as a sys admin for my company yrs ago before moving on up. One of my duties while in that role was maintaining an email server as well. I assure you that, if you were to do your duties, you might find that your email server is an open relay or has been compromised on some level which is exposing email addresses to be harvested or mass emailed. Although, I do definitely applaud your efforts of email tracking, I do the same thing with gmail accounts for various online purchases/subscriptions. LOVE all the "technical" comments on here from obviously non-technical people. I think I even read the word "registry" word being slung around a couple times...lol..

All of you that are paranoid enough to think magicjack is spying on you are idiots. I'm a so called "conspiracy nut" and am well aware of how to track others tracking me. It does nothing of the sort. Please, those who are saying this, get back on your meds! rofl!

Patty your are one sick Puppy, what kind of dope are you using?