atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Magic Jack with external CID

OK, my math says 100volts and 100Kohm gives 1/10 watt, so telsetrepair's note about SMT's ratings probably takes them out of the picture.

Given that Power varies with the square of the Voltage, halving 100volts to 50volts yields 1 quarter of the power or the 0.025watts that you calculated.

If they (MJ) did add the 100volt (ring) on top of the 50volt (battery), I calculate 0.225 watts which is getting a bit too close to 1/4 watt for my taste, but it should still take extended ringing to cause any damage.

Volts = Sq.Root of Power x Resistance

So for a 100K resistor to exceed .5 watts the voltage would have to be over 200 volts. You either had a bad resistor or the wrong resistance. For a 100K ohm the strips should be Brown, Black, Yellow

So Ed, how many resistors do you have left?

Matt, I'm delighted that you asked. I've been wanting to report my outcome here for quite a while anyway. It turned out that I really DID have a bad resistor! After installing the second one across the pins on a 66 block, it has worked flawlessly for over a week.

Call me crazy, but I almost have myself believing that the resistor improved the overall performance of the MJ. The sound quality is near-perfect and it truly does do what they say it does. You certainly cannot beat the price. Here's some more feedback about my experience:

1. Do not try to skimp on the computer used to host the MJ. I had to upgrade to 1 gig of RAM, but I was already planning on doing that. I had 256K before and performance was marginal, but that wasn't the Magic Jack's fault. In the MJ Underworld, the die-hards are using thin clients to support their Magic Jacks, which puts it more in-line with Vonage or similar products.

2. This thing is the size of a book of matches, so don't expect it to ring more than a couple of phones or a system port. I'm already impressed with the fact that they crammed as much as they did into such a tiny package.

3. MJ uses a lot of USB power. Don't use it on a computer that you are especially fond of. While I can't say for sure, I'm fairly confident that mine was responsible for cooking all three USB ports on my laptop. If using a laptop, by all means invest in an externally-powered USB hub. Mine is on an old Dell 2400 and the port layout is such that I keep it in the back.

4. Don't believe everything you hear in the "Unofficial Magic Jack" support site. There are a lot of people there with a lot of combined knowledge, but I found myself making some critical mistakes. This was largely due to the fact that much of what is discussed is via the "let's try this" train of thought. It isn't until you get five pages deep in a thread that you find something that you did based upon page one screwed you. In my case, I permanently lost my soft phone screen, although I didn't really think I had any use for it. Now I'm finding that there are some features there that I'll no longer be able to access.

5. There are some neat third-party applications available that make the MJ even more versatile. Things like seven-digit local dialing, *69 automatic call return, modification to fixed voice mail parameters, etc. are available from one place for the cost of a few packs of resistors.

6. Don't plan on using rotary dial equipment with the MJ. Also, if your equipment requires loop supervision, you'll need to come up with another plan. It doesn't support either of these. The same thing applies to analog data (fax, modem, etc.) transmission.

7. I haven't confirmed this, but I've heard that they automatically renew your subscription annually without approval. For $19.95 a year, I don't see this as being much of an issue, but it might be to some.

8. Although they say that you get unlimited local and long distance calling, I've heard that it will cut off any call promptly at the two-hour mark. Again, that isn't a problem to me, but it might be to someone else.

9. In the two years since I purchased mine, they have introduced literally thousands of new area code/exchange choices. Once I realized that my home's area had a local exchange, I switched my MJ's number. They will let you do this for free ONE time and it occurs instantly. After that, there's a small fee.

10. Local number portability is not available and might not ever be. It has been "coming soon" for the two years I've had mine. You do not get a directory listing either, Caller ID is number ONLY and you cannot block your number for outgoing calls.

History Of My Experience With Magic Jack

When it first came out, I heard about it here at Tech Talk. I couldn't resist the temptation to get my hands on a real "gadget", so I ordered one. This was before you could buy them at 7-11. I tinkered with it for a while, but eventually lost interest in it. Quite frankly, it didn't work very well except when calling other MJ customers for me.

It wasn't until my wife had the brilliant idea to "cut the cord" with Verizon that I found myself with a renewed interest in my Magic Jack. She was convinced that we didn't need to pay for land lines anymore, but she didn't think about my being a telephone man. I eventually reconnected my Verizon service, but only retained one of my lines.

Once I figured out the ins and outs of the MJ, I gave it my seal of approval and connected it to my system at home in place of my former second line. I arranged LCR/ARS on my system so that it routes all toll calls via the MJ line and leaves the Verizon line alone for local calls. I did go one step further and arranged for local calls to use the MJ in the event that my Verizon line is busy. In doing this, I had to have my system insert area code 540 for all of our 7-digit local calls (Verizon doesn't require 10-digits here for local calls yet). With that being said, we just dial 9 + for all calls and the phone system does the thinking for us.

My home's network wiring is literally CAT zero, meaning that I'm using spare pairs in DIW four-pair cable. My Internet access is via Comcast cable, which is about as dependable as a two-dollar wristwatch. I've made no effort to run CAT5, worry about QoS or any network-related issues. Still, even with these obstacles, I've been very impressed with what the Magic Jack has to offer.

Based upon my experience, I'm no longer inclined to advise against the use of these things. I wanted to learn as much as I could because I've been getting calls from customers about using them. I didn't want to give a canned "NO" answer without checking for myself. Despite it's handful of shortcomings, I can say with certainty that it is the best $19.95 I've ever spent. If you have been on the fence about buying one, my vote is that you should go for it. It really isn't too good to be true and it really IS plug and play. I hope that my observations have helped others here to learn more about this.

There has obviously been a lot of discussion about the Magic Jack here before. Please don't let my experience push you off of the fence. I just wanted to share my experience and rationale for backing the product.

Thanks Ed! Very informative review.... I'm moving forward with getting one.

Great post Ed I may try it again some day but I didn't have much luck with mine after about 6 months it started to cut calls off after just a short while into call and I got sick of the pop up screen all the time.

Great post Ed. Thanks!

I still think of Magic Jack as some kind of novelty. I may be tempted once some Linux capability arises.

Just another player promoting a decline of quality IMHO

Good details to know, I got a customer who spends $200+ on each of her two lines because she calls China for business a lot. I told her about Magic Jack and she almost peed in her pants. I told her it wasn't perfect but for her it's definitely worth a try.

Gonna put it on her Panasonic tda50, and reading your post makes me think ARS would be a nice feature for her.

Whoa there, 94ASTRO. I don't believe there any advantage to calling INTO China. I don't think M/J has a pop there. Remember, there has to be a way to get off the internet and onto POTS lines. UNLESS she sends a M/J with a local phone number to someone in China, that has a broadband connection. Something tells me that China will NOT take kindly to M/J. For both monetary AND political reasons!