MagicJack : Computer Hardware Buyers’ Glossary

Advantages

• You can make free incoming and outgoing calls free anywhere in North America.
• If you take your laptop to Europe, you can still call anywhere in North America free.
• The initial cost of a MagicJack is $40.00 USD which gets you the jack and one year of calling. Subsequent years are $20.00 USD . This works out to $1.66 USD a month, 15 times cheaper than a similar VOIP service from Shaw cable. It is so cheap, you could justify it just for outgoing long distance and still keep your regular land line.
• The initial cost of a MagicJack Plus is $70.00 USD which gets you the jack and one year of calling.
• The initial cost in Canada is $90.00 CAD . This gets you both a Canadian phone number and a US phone in any state, but no 911 service. For $40.00 CAD you can give up the Canadian number have just a US local incoming number. This might be suitable for outgoing calls only, or to maintain a business presence in some US city, or make it easy for your friends in some US city to call you with a local call.
• All the usual extra features such as caller-id, voicemail, directory assistance and call waiting come bundled.
• You can treat the MagicJack just like a land line. You can plug in several extension phones with a splitter or a cordless phone.
• One of the interesting features is it does not require you to install software. The jack itself contains enough code to automatically trigger the install over the Internet.
• The MagicJack Plus does not need a computer. It plugs directly into your router. That means you can take your laptop away and still have a phone. It means you don’t have to leave your computer on. It has higher voice quality.
• They take Visa, MasterCard, Discover, Amex and PayPal.
• PC (Personal Computer) Magazine picked MagicJack as their editor’s choice on 2008-01-17.

Disadvantages

• To make the phone ring, the computer must be on all the time, and not sleeping.
• Installing MagicJack disables hibernation and standby modes. This is so it can respond instantly to an incoming call. The downside, is your computer then uses full power even when it is not in use. Ideally MagicJack should behave like an Ethernet card that can wake the computer out of hibernation when needed.
• There is no warranty, just a one month trial.
• Sometimes calls don’t forward properly when the computer power is off.
• Check this list to make sure your area code is supported. For Canada, you must pick an ON or QC number.
• Callers get 30 seconds of dead air before being able to speak to you.
• Even though it works anywhere in the world with Internet access, they only ship to the United States and Canada, including Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands.
• You will have to experiment to see if you can get your apartment door intercom to work with MagicJack. You have have to get the door reprogramming to your new number, or you may have to get your phone connected both to the MagicJack and the land line from the intercom.
• If your Internet connection is overloaded, you will get dropouts and weird voice effects.