Magic Jack issues

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I decided to try Magic Jack out on my desktop computer. Apart from occasional minor issues, it’s been great for over a year now. I cancelled our landline and decided to get my wife her own MagicJack, for use with her Dell laptop. Unfortunately, her experience has been nothing but pure frustration. It takes FAR too long to connect when dialing out OR receiving. I’ve tried every possible solution in terms of laptop location (with no improvement), and I tested her Magic Jack on my computer – it works fine on mine. I can only conclude that her laptop’s 2GB of RAM is insufficient. My desktop unit has 4 GB of RAM. Both computers are running Win7. Before I see about a possible upgrade to her RAM, is there something else I should try?

DC

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I can only conclude that her laptop’s 2GB of RAM is insufficient. My desktop unit has 4 GB of RAM. Both computers are running Win7. Before I see about a possible upgrade to her RAM, is there something else I should try?

DC

DC,
Hello…and welcome to W.S. Lounge…My question is how are you (Both) connected to the Internet? Same modem type, same browsers, etc. I know that laptops have a smaller HD thus are slower than their big brother desktops … but it shouldn’t make a huge difference. :cheers: Regards Fred

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DC,
Hello…and welcome to W.S. Lounge…My question is how are you (Both) connected to the Internet? Same modem type, same browsers, etc. I know that laptops have a smaller HD thus are slower than their big brother desktops … but it shouldn’t make a huge difference. :cheers: Regards Fred

Hi Fred,

Actually, my wife’s laptop HD is bigger than my desktop system… but I don’t think it should matter anyway, since Magic Jack isn’t installed on a HD.

Cheers backatcha!

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Hi Fred,

Actually, my wife’s laptop HD is bigger than my desktop system…

DC,
Hello… Was talking about physical size ( not capacity) 2.5 Inch Laptop vs 3.5 inch for desktop. The 2.5 “incher’s ” usually are spinning at 5400 RPM vs 7200 RPM for the desktops… Thus slower… some of the laptop’s have 7200 RPM’s HD, Don’t know yours .:cheers: Regards Fred

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DC,
Hello… Was talking about physical size ( not capacity) [SNIP] Regards Fred

Ah, yes… I see said the blind man.:rolleyes:

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Ah, yes… I see said the blind man.:rolleyes:

And he picked up the hammer and SAW!

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Hello dconn, and welcome to the Lounge!

I have never used MagicJack, but I have a couple of questions. Is your desktop connected to your router/modem via Ethernet cable? and is your wife’s laptop connected via WiFi? If so, that may possibly explain the differences in performance, particularly if you are using a Wireless ‘G’ router rather than the newer, faster ‘N’. Try connecting her laptop via Ethernet cable to see if things run better for her.

You can check the specs on MagicJack, but I bet 2 GB RAM is fine.

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Hello dconn, and welcome to the Lounge!

I have never used MagicJack, but I have a couple of questions. Is your desktop connected to your router/modem via Ethernet cable? and is your wife’s laptop connected via WiFi? If so, that may possibly explain the differences in performance, particularly if you are using a Wireless ‘G’ router rather than the newer, faster ‘N’. Try connecting her laptop via Ethernet cable to see if things run better for her.

You can check the specs on MagicJack, but I bet 2 GB RAM is fine.

Well, the router is N type. My techno-geek son tells me the router isn’t the issue, and he doesn’t think it’s the RAM either. I would think 2 GB is sufficient, but… ? I’ll try plugging the ethernet cable directly (I don’t know why I didn’t think of that before), and we’ll see what happens…

Thanks,

DC

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My Vaio laptop does spin at 7200 rpm. I have also not used MagicJack. I would suspect, as Gerald states, the ethernet cable is just faster than wireless mode, especially on an older router.

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I would suspect, as Gerald states, the ethernet cable is just faster than wireless mode, especially on an older router.

I’m hoping that’s what it is, since it’s the simplest solution. I guess we’ll find out this weekend when I get a chance.

DC

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I also use MagicJack.
It works fine on my desktop and laptop.

I’m attaching a PDF file here that I once got on the MagicJack website that may solve your problem.

I know it’s mostly about Audio quality but the setting changes it reccomends may help.

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I also use MagicJack.
It works fine on my desktop and laptop.

I’m attaching a PDF file here that I once got on the MagicJack website that may solve your problem.

I know it’s mostly about Audio quality but the setting changes it reccomends may help.

Hi,

Well, I’ve been down that road; tried every Magic Jack customer service reccomendation and add-on file, upgrade, reinstall, etc. Got rid of all of it and just started from scratch. MJ customer service tries to help, but they’re like most customer service call lines: an exercise in frustration for all involved.

Thanks anyway,

DC

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I’ll connect it to my wireless laptop today and see what happens.
Stay tuned…

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I didnb’t get a chance to try it yesterday but I will today, 8/20, for sure…

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I connected today using my laptop on wireless and it works fine…

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I looked into various VoIP solutions and went with voip.ms for the service and a Snom 370 for a real VoIP phone. I don’t like to be made to keep my computer on.

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I looked into various VoIP solutions and went with voip.ms for the service and a Snom 370 for a real VoIP phone. I don’t like to be made to keep my computer on.

I’m not crazy about having mine on 24/7 either. I’ll check out your solutions.

Thanks,

DC

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I have had a MagicJack for about 3 years now. I bought the 5 year plan. I have mine attached to an old Dell C640 laptop. (I leave it running in the living room attached to a digital answering machine, which talks to some cordless DECT phones we have spread around the house.) The laptop has a 1 GB, 5400 RPM hard drive with 500 MB (1/2 GB) RAM, 1.5 GHz CPU. The laptop and MagicJack talk via a wireless card in the old PCMCIA slot (on the laptop) to my old Linksys wireless router/hub running on the old standard 802.11b, not even the faster ‘g’ or ‘n’ specifications. MagicJack works fine.

The MJ is plugged into a four port USB hub, then the hub is plugged into the USB port on the laptop. I used a hub because I have a USB mouse I use with the laptop and the laptop has only one USB port (that is how old of a laptop it is). I have not had any power issues or connection issues with using a USB hub for the MJ.

I used to work in IT years ago. I had a user whose laptop that was slow to log in to the internal company network, but worked fine at home or on the road. We found that the user had another piece of software that was trying to connect to the Internet when the laptop booted up. (It was a non-company standard anti-virus & firewall app that wanted to connect to the internet to get the latest updates in order to protect the laptop). The internal company network blocked it from getting out to the Internet. It kept trying to connect to the Internet three times before it failed, stopped trying and allowed the laptops log in process to continue. This issue was invisible when you watched the screen, it was only found after doing some digging.

Since it does eventually connect and you did not say the call quality was an issue, it does NOT seem like the USB port, cable, the laptop hardware, etc. are the issue, to me.

I agree with some of the earlier post, I suspect:
– it is a laptop software settings conflict
– a piece of software conflicting
– a router/hub conflict

In each of these suggested causes, it may be that the conflict tries to resolve itself (fails then restarts; fails then restarts; fails then restarts), causing the delay, then it eventually times out, stops trying and allows the MJ to connect.

In Win XP (I am not sure if the setup is the same in Win7) you can go into Services (go to Start, Run, type “services.msc” [with no quotes] and press Enter), the Services (Local) window appears. You can see all of the behind the scenes services that Windows uses.

— See the screenshot —
– As an example, right click on any service and select “Properties.”
– Click on the “Recovery” tab to see what that particular service will do if it fails.
– There are three action drop down menus, e.g. First failure, Second failure and Subsequent failures.
– Each one may say “Take No Action” or “Restart the Service” or “Run a Program or “Restart the Computer.”
– If a service is set to “Restart the Service” the “Restart the service after x minutes” option will be available.
– It usually defaults to 1 minute. So there may be a minimum 1 minute delay between the First, Second and Third failures.
So it may take several minutes for the conflicting app/setting to time out (quit) if it keeps restarting the service.
Once it finally quits, then MJ can successfully connect.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Larry

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MagicJack now has a new one called MagicJack Plus that works with your computer is off.

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MagicJack now has a new one called MagicJack Plus that works with your computer is off.

I’ll have to check that out – sounds like it would solve my wife’s problems.

Thanks,

DC

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I can only conclude that her laptop’s 2GB of RAM is insufficient.

DC

I’m running our Magic Jack on the computer I was using when we first bought our MJ — a 900MHz Duron with 376 megabytes of RAM running Windows XP Home — and it’s always worked fine as long as the CPU isn’t being asked to do anything else (which, of course, it no longer is) even when our connection was only one step above dialup. When it was our main system, though, anything from live “gadgets” on the screen to loading up the calendar or calculator would cause the MJ audio to break up. I’m sure your wife’s laptop is miles beyond my “dedicated phone server,” so memory and connection speed probably aren’t the cause of her problems. I’d suggest taking a look at the Task Manager to see what other programs and processes are running, especially things like “Instant Messengers,” Skype and live weather, etc. gadgets.

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I’m running our Magic Jack on the computer I was using when we first bought our MJ — a 900MHz Duron with 376 megabytes of RAM running Windows XP Home — and it’s always worked fine as long as the CPU isn’t being asked to do anything else (which, of course, it no longer is) even when our connection was only one step above dialup. When it was our main system, though, anything from live “gadgets” on the screen to loading up the calendar or calculator would cause the MJ audio to break up. I’m sure your wife’s laptop is miles beyond my “dedicated phone server,” so memory and connection speed probably aren’t the cause of her problems. I’d suggest taking a look at the Task Manager to see what other programs and processes are running, especially things like “Instant Messengers,” Skype and live weather, etc. gadgets.

Just wondering – is the hard drive in the computer you’re using for MJ of the 5400 RPM type? If it is, and you’re having no problem, then I can eliminate that as a possibility…

Thanks,

DC

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Some time ago I got MJ. Never really used it for a variety of procrastination reasons. I did spend a lot of time reading forums for more information. There are some people who eat and sleep MJ and they love to share their experiences. I set mine up on an old laptop. Power goes out and the phone service still worked. I wired it into the house wiring so there was no need to be at the laptop. I was amazed at how some people used PCs that were stripped down and had no moving parts to run their MJ.

Anyway, search around for the various forums to help you. There is a wealth of info and support.

Good luck.

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I set mine up on an old laptop. Power goes out and the phone service still worked.

Uh, surely you don’t mean that the MJ worked without power?

DC

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Since MJ IS a Voip system, how do you have internet access when the power is out. Are you using a Cell phone as a hot spot?

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If the power goes out we just use our smartphone/cellphone for internet access. If we run down the batteries we can re-charge using the car adapter/charger thingy while we’re out running errands. You could “tether” your cellphone to a computer or use the phone as a wi-fi hotspot, etc. The main risk is using up your monthly allowance of data too quickly.

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I have had MJ for 3 or 4 years now with almost no issues. A few months ago we got a wireless router for the kids laptops, iPods, etc to be able to connect. Every time the phone rings or someone tries to call out, everyone loses their wireless signal. After the call is done, no more problems. The wireless works great. I haven’t seen anything anywhere that can help me with this. Has anyone else had this issue? Thanks. :confused:

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You shouldn’t lose internet when receiving or making a call on MagicJack. Not sure how to fix that but check the QOS (Quality of Service) feature on your router’s setup screens. It allows you to prioritize certain things. Maybe yours are prioritized too much? :rolleyes:

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I uninstalled then reinstalled the MJ program. Now it does not COMPLETELY boot us off but there is severe lag, causing pages to time out, music to stop streaming etc. How would a technologically backwards person check the router priorities?

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I can’t imagine that the problem would be with the amount of RAM unless the computer has several applications running simultaneously when the telephone calls are made or recieved, and the speed of the hard drive shouldn’t be a factor either. It seems to me that there could be 2 likely possibilities:

1. Conflicting software – something in your wifes laptop conflicts with Magic Jack … go to the Magic jack Forum and see if others have had software conflict and with what they had it with.

2. A problem with your wifes wireless receiver … you could test this by going to a Broadband Testing Page like http://www.dslreports.com/doconcern . While you’re at it, do the same tests with your desktop and compare results.

Of course, there could be other reasons, but they are much less likely.

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We’ve had our MagicJack for several years. Currently, it’s plugged into our living room PC ( Intel Core-i3 3.0GHZ with 3GB of memory). It’s running on a USB wireless adapter that connects it to our router in the next room with good signal strength. No problem there.
But I wonder if maybe there’s a problem running two MagicJacks on the same router and the same IP address (assigned by your internet service provider). Maybe two MJ’s are competing with each other and confusing the router? Maybe the router can’t handle Quality of Service (QOS) data packets from two MJ’s?
We have a pair of modern Panasonic cordless phones (DECT-something, which does not interfere with the 2.4GHz frequency of other equipment). The main base unit of the Panasonic is plugged into the MagicJack in the living room. Our phones work fine all over the house. Some friends who also have MagicJack have a 4-phone setup and it also works great.
So, let me ask you this: why do you need two MagicJacks? Why not have just one and your wife can have a cordless phone & charger stand right on her desk?

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Desktops and laptops may run on the same track but they’re 2 very different horses.
Generally MJ runs fine on the config you state. Any problems would arise with the LAN
connection and with underpowered USBs. For example, MJ may not run plugged into an
usb in front of PC but may do well in back, directly plugged into MB.
If you think you’ve eliminated the network issues, then try another usb plug on the Dell.
I’ve seen dell do strange stuff with their hardware to keep it proprietary to them as well
as to keep the cost down.
Not familiar with your laptop, but there’s a chance MJ may not run on it.
You can run 2 MJ from your desktop, just plug in an extension line to it for whatever
way it works to do what you want.
You can plug into the house wiring for whole house distribution. Most houses have the 4 wire
line which handles 2 numbers. Basically treat MJ as the line coming from ma bell.
Good luck.

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The last post from wmill mentioned the USB port as a possible problem. I had a problem with my MJ which I traced to the USB dongle used to connect the MJ device to the port since there was little room to fit the actual MJ. It turned out that I needed a USB 2.0 certified USB connector cable to ensure that MJ worked correctly.

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I would like to know more about how you wired the MJ. After you plugged the MJ into the wall plug, where do you have to plug the USB in to make all of the house phones work?

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I would like to know more about how you wired the MJ. After you plugged the MJ into the wall plug, where do you have to plug the USB in to make all of the house phones work?

That isn’t how it works. magicJack is a small matchbox size device. On one end of the little box there is a USB plug sticking out. You plug that into any available USB port on your computer. The other end of the little box has a standard telephone jack (just like a telephone wall jack). You plug a phone cable into this jack, and plug the other end of the phone cable into your home telephone or, more likely these days, plug the phone cord into the phone jack on the charging base of your cordless phone (usually called a base station).
If you are connecting the magicJack for the first time, I seem to remember that you boot up your computer first and wait until it’s ready to use. Then you plug the magicJack USB plug into a free USB port on the computer. Then sit back and wait while magicJack goes on the internet to its website and downloads its software to your computer. Then it walks you through registering your name, choosing a phone number, etc. You can choose a phone number in your local calling area or somewhere else. For example, our daughter lives about 50 miles away in a different town. We chose to have a phone number in her local calling area so she can call us anytime from her regular home phone without any long distance charges. Or, just choose to have a number in your own town if that makes more sense for you.
Once the account is set up, your chosen phone number will be activated within a day or two so you can make and receive calls. (In our case, the number was activated within about 4 hours.)
If you don’t answer an incoming call then the caller can leave a voicemail just like on a regular phone. You can forward all calls to your cellphone or other phone anytime you wish, then un-forward calls anytime later. You click on “Menu” on the magicJack display on your computer screen. This opens a webpage on the magicJack website where you can navigate to call-forwarding and choose what number to forward the calls to, and you can change that number anytime.
Now, here’s a nice feature. You can unplug the little magicJack box from your computer and take it with you when you travel on vacation, or to someone else’s home, or with your laptop so you can use it anywhere there’s an internet connection.
The purchase price (is it still $40?) gets you the little magicJack box plus one year’s calling to anywhere in North America (yup, Canada too, I think). A basic phone line from the phone company costs about $25 or more per month once they add on all their little surcharges and taxes. That’s about $300 per year if you don’t incur any other charges on your bill. So, magicJack will save you about $240 in the first year. That $240 could go towards paying for high-speed internet service or towards the cost of a cellphone contract or whatever.
You can renew the service for about $20 per year. We liked the service so we chose a 5-year renewal deal for even less per year.
We have cellphones, too. That way we’re covered for home phone and mobile calling as well as making calls if the power goes out at home. After all the hassles we had with Qwest over their incorrect billing and slow internet service, our current setup is simply way better.
There are other devices out there that do pretty much the same job as magicJack. One of them is called Oova. It’s a stand-alone box that connects to your internet router instead of connecting to your computer, and a phone cord to connect to your home phone. So it doesn’t need a computer connection at all; just connect it to your router with a standard ethernet cable. Call quality is very clear on Oova (at least it was when I tried it). However, the device casts a whole lot more than a magicJack.
Most of us have cellphones anyway, so an inexpensive home calling device is a good way to keep down how many cellphone minutes you use every month. Those savings can help pay for a magicJack or an Oova or whatever you choose.

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This will not be a factor in your case, but to add to the various helpful (to me, at least) reminders about hardware limitations, I might point out that there are significant differences among Ethernet cables, both in maximum speed and physical condition.

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