Topic: MagicJack

[ober]

I tried.    Plus it's nice to have a phone in the house that rings all floors when someone calls and the cell phones are on vibrate.

[Mike]

What OSs does the MJ software run on?

[Govtcheez]

Only old people use landlines anymore.

[ober]

What OSs does the MJ software run on?

You don't even need a computer with the newer version.  I can't seem to get to the version of the site for the old one, that I just bought.  There is an app that runs and it installs from the unit itself.  From a little googling, it looks like the one that needs a PC is only for Windows and Mac.

[Govtcheez]

Only old people use landlines anymore.

Even old people don't - my parents got rid of theirs a few months ago

[drakkenkorin]

What OSs does the MJ software run on?

The big 2.

I've plugged mine in on MacOS (10.7 and earlier), Windows XP, Vista, and 7 and it works fine. 

When you plug in the unit you just run the little software, it checks for any updates and runs them if needed, then you're ready to call.

Takes all of about 45 seconds from when I plug it in, till I start dialing home.

[Steve]

Anything made these days should be supporting Linux.

[ober]

Hey DK, any issues with your MJ line being quiet?  My wife says she can hardly hear me when I call since we got it and the volume on our phone is all the way up.  We're using handsets on a 5.8GHz range that we had with Vonage.

[drakkenkorin]

Can't say I've experienced that.

I know when I call my friends cell phone, her volume will go up and down - I'm workingon the assumption that it's due to how strong her signal is when I call her.  But usually when I call land lines or people on cell phone with strong reception, I don't notice anything.

Can't tell you what type of phone I use since I have a Japanese cordless and I don't remember what frequency it uses.

[ober]

I think it's my cellphone.  I get shitty reception a lot of places.  I dunno.  I might fuck with the settings a bit.

[Govtcheez]

So I was thinking of getting something like this at home (pretty much just for 911).  Is magicjack still the way to go?

It came up this week because I was home with a sick baby and my cellphone also happened to die. I realized I had no way to call in case of emergency

[charlie]

Plug in your phone and call? Use Skype? Call from Google Voice? I wonder what those last two would do for 911?

[Steve]

both of them patch through like any other phone call and should patch to 911

[charlie]

To the right location?

[Steve]

To the right location?

This is a very good question I had not thought of. I went to research an answer and discovered something disturbing:

Neither support 911.

With Skype this isn't too surprising, but GV it kind of shocks me. They do not consider themselves a telephone service, which is odd since you can make and receive calls even if you do not have alternate phone service.