Magic Jack Review

We decided to get a Magic Jack to replace our home line because both my wife and I have cell phones and did not want to pay the phone company for a line we did not use much. But since we have small children we wanted to have quick access to 911 and also to be able to make some calls from a land line.

If you are reading this review because you are deciding if the Magic Jack for home use is for you please read the whole review. The magic jack is not for everyone but is great for others.

There are a lot of good things you can do with the magic jack. For instance, if you have a loved one overseas fighting for us or family outside the U.S. you can purchase a Magic Jack and send it to them through the mail and they will then have a local U.S. number to make/receive free calls to the U.S. with. Also if you travel like me you can take it with you to use on the road. Many people do this.

The Magic Jack is a small USB device that you connect to your computer and then plug your phone cord into. It has a program that runs on your computer allowing you to make calls, keep an address book, see missed calls, etc.

First thing first, you must have high speed internet. You can use this with Apple/Mac, Windows, and Vista. If you are using anything else contact the Magic Jack live chat to confirm you have supported software.

Next if you are thinking about dropping your home phone line but you use DSL through the phone company you must call the phone company to see if you will be able to drop your home phone but keep your high speed internet. Some companies allow this others do not.

Product Features from the site

• Free local and long distance calls
• Free phone number – any area code you would like
• Free call waiting, Caller ID, Voicemail
• Portable to any computer with a USB jack running Windows XP or Vista
• Second year service is only $19.99 a year! You can also make phone calls through your computer

Phones you can use with Magic Jack

There has been reports of some people having issues with phones not ringing when they get a call. I did not have this issue and I’m pretty sure that Magic Jack support can fix this issue if you do run into it. So any land line phone should work. We use a multi-head set cordless and it works fine. We place the base by the computer to plug into the Magic Jack and the extra charging station up stairs because our computer is n the basement. With the charging station upstairs we have access all the time.

Magic Jack Call Quality

This will all depend on your computer set up. If your computer runs sluggish then you will probably get bad quality. If you have plenty of RAM and your computer runs pretty smoothly then you should not even know that you are using it. Our computer falls in between. We have an older Dell that runs OK and we have great quality. We also have two laptops, iphone and desktop running here and we still get good service when all are being used. Every once in a while we get a low static but only when we have all computers surfing the web. This noise only shows itself for a couple moments and then goes away.

Magic Jack Desktop

Like I stated before, magic Jack has a program that needs be be running in order to make calls. This means that your computer needs to be on all the time. As you can see from the photo the program is the heart of the Magic Jack. It will keep your phone book that can be imported from your mail client (google import address book magicjack), give you a list of recent call (missed and all), a voice mail button and more. You can dial from the program to make calls with a mic and headphone.

Magic Jack 911

When you set up Magic Jack you must set your 911 address. This is important so do it as soon as you get it set up. If not 911 will not work because it does not know where you live so it doesn’t know what 911 dispatch to connect you with. If you will be sending it overseas or out of the country at all you do not do this.

Magic Jack Voice Mail

I love the voice mail feature here. You have the option of any new voice mail to be emailed to you. This is great because if you are at work an email can be sent to you with the voice mail attached. It will play on any computer. This works great for me. I have an iphone and get the message as soon as message is left. Great if you are gone and lets say the school calls because you child is sick. We turned off the answering machine on our phone and use the email feature. If it is for my wife I just forward it to her.

Magic Jack Phone Numbers

This was the biggest issue we had with this device. Magic Jack does not have all area codes but most big cities. We could not get our area code but did get one that would not be long distance for our family and friends. They are always adding new area codes and numbers so I’m sure one day we will get it.

One thing you can do is pick your number, if they have your area code you then should be able to use your current home number and select one that works for you. It will cost a little more per year so it might be worth it or might not.

Magic Jack caller I.D.

caller ID is shown on the desktop program. I’m not sure if it will work on your phone. We have not been able to get this to work so when someone calls you do not know who it is unless you are by the computer. With our new phone the caller I.D. works just fine.

Compared to Others

I have never used Vontage or any other product like this. I have read reviews of people saying this works better than Vontage but do not know first hand. I do know that Vontage is $20 a month when Magic Jack is $20 a year. Easy choice for me.

Over All

Magic Jack works great for my family. I would suggest it all day long. The key is to make sure you have the system requirements . You can buy the Magic jack for $40 which includes a year of service, cheap enough to buy and try out before you cancel your home phone.

I would suggest the Magic Jack to anyone that travels and would like to have an easy cheap way to stay in contact with home when you have no cell coverage. I would also suggest this to anyone that has family or friends outside the U.S. No matter where they are in the world they can plug it into the computer and have no charged local call to anywhere in the U.S.

Do you have the Magic jack? How does it work for you?

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