Magic Jack

is there a risk with staying connected with the internet (DSL)at all times so i can use the Magic Jack phone system?

Thanks for your time

rjbrjb

 

I am connected 24/7 at home. As long as you are behind a router with a firewall and run a antivirus and spyware protection you shoud be fine:-D

 

only if the majic jack or pc will overheat then problem occurs

 

Thanks for the info

rjbrjb

 

in answer to your question, I have had my magicjack now for about a year. I have had to format and wipe it several times due to corruption. If this is due to the constant up time, or other factors I am not sure. What I can tell you is that the physical device it self will not be hurt by constant up time.

I do suggest backing up the file that stores your numbers though occasionally as a precaution. The restores / formats remove this data, so if it goes bad, the best you can hope fore is a call log being emailed to recover the important numbers you lost.

Another thing to consider is that my Magicjack has picked up more static and breaking in the line than normal. over time. I also have had a few minor feature issues with it as well. For instance the sound no longer redirects into the mic of the phone from my audio output like it used to for "hold music", and I am not able to use my regular mic / head set like I should be able to. These are minor losses and not something that worries me personally.

as for the internet, as previously said. as long as you are using common sense, and use a firewall and anti virus software, and if you have one properly set up your router, you will be plenty safe. Other than update times, and install reboots, my computer is up almost 24/7 and connected. no problems there.

BTW if you are going to do constant up time, like me, reboot you computer at least weekly and it will stop some of the lag / speed loss that happens for some reason to windows machines after long up periods.

 

Thanks Nibble

rjbrjb

 

Nibblerdacat

what internet Acct are you using (yahoo, Comcast)? My Aol acct keeps closing when not in use.

rjbrjb

 

Not quite sure what you mean by Account. I have a Comcast 8mb down 0.5 up connection if that is what you are asking. I average about 6200 kb/s down and about 482 kb/s up.

A few other factors to consider:

The one thing that I will tell you is if you don't have the processor and RAM to spare, it will ruin your call quality as well.

If you are under 1 GHz processor, and 386MB with XP ram you are really pushing it to use this device.

For Vista you can get away with 768 MB Ram and a 1.7 GHz pretty easily.

The thing is here, you need to have the extra ram and processor availible.

It takes about 50 MB of ram just to run, and to get a good call you need closer to 100 MB. The processor load is about 350-400 to run and about 450 for good call quality on this.

They say any thing that is light DSL will handle this device but here is what they don't tell you... if you have a light DSL you need to do nothing more than call. It will run with a 50kb/s but it sounds like crap and drops calls. You need a minimum of a 100 kb/s to get decent quality, and an equal amount of down speed.

If you are having problems with call quality and are downloading large files, or are using torrents and P2P's while using this and it lags or statics, shut them down and your call quality goes up. This helps, not sure why.

Not sure what the difference is, though I don't have a high performance NIC to tell you if that helps. I use just my on board network card.

BTW, for anyone considering getting this device, you need to get on and harass the tech support if you get calls that drop for no reason around the the 1-2 hour mark. This is their TOS kicking in. They have the right to limit duration and usage. They apparently consider long calls to be a load on their system and disconnect them. If they question why you need the longer call time, tell them you do computer B&R and spend long periods of time on the phone with tech support. They will lengthen your time before they cut your call. I was getting cut at an hour until I complained now they doubled the length to 2 hours.

They will try to claim it is anything but their fault but you need to keep on them until they send it to an engineer. If they want you to do deep hardware changes or OS changes, they know what they are doing there and wont hurt your system other than making you loose your numbers, so before you get a hold of them back up your numbers. other than that they are pretty good.

Also if they say something goes to a engineer, record your conversation and remind them periodically. They are a bit lax about support on this part. So always save your conversations with them.

Any other questions, just ask and I will be happy to help with what I can.

 

Nibblerdacat

I have a dell 5150 w/Intel Pent D Processor 820 with Dial Core 2.8 Ghz

1GB DDR2 SDRamat 533MH

I have a Yahoo Act but do not use it, my AOL dissconnects after about 20 to 30 min if it is not being used. Will the Magic Jack stay on line with AOL (does it transmit anything that would tell AOL that the line is in use). If not does Yahoo stay on line 24/7 with the Magic Jack?

Thanks

rjbrjb

 

Nothing that will be noticeable but it does send and receive. If you ask around there should be some way to lock the connection open or closed as necessary.

I get a little activity, but not enough I would think to keep it open.

I can think of two ways to do that for you. You can use a browser, and user a script with grease monkey to refresh a page every 15 minutes or so as one option. The other would be to use a download manager, and something like rapidshare where you can only get files every so many minutes... I think one in 15, and upload a small dummy file of a few KB in a .RAR file and just set it to download.

Granted neither of them are the best idea, but they are what I came up with off the top of my head as big enough to be considered use, and small enough not to tamper with your bandwidth...