In a time where most homes have no land line ane 5 cell phones voip can be verry useful. I personaly haven't had a real phone line in years. I wouldn't use the magic jack personally but I have about $2000 worth of various voip gear in my house. I also do verry little outbound calling. I have a 2 free did's that terminate in to my system. I have hacks and scripts that allow me to do mosof my outbound calling free as well. I just got a google voice account which allows me to do free calling as well this is all cheaper than the magic jack service. I think its a neat option for the non technical. My father in law is as bad as it gets with computers and I didn't get asked at all to help him install it. If you are even mildly more technical there is no reason to pay for anything phone related.
On 7/12/09, Lisa Kachold <lisakach...@obnosis.com> wrote: > On Sun, Jul 12, 2009 at 2:34 PM, mike Enriquez<myli...@cox.net> wrote: >> I saw a demo of Magic Jack which a USB thumb drive like device that >> lets you plug in a telephone jack and make all your phone calls via the >> internet.It claims to work only on windows. >> They claim that the annual fee is $20.00. Does anyone on the list know >> if this is available on Linux or something else exist that is similar. >> Boy, I like the price of $20.00 per year to make all my phone calls. >> Thanks >> Mike Enriquez >> >> >> >> --------------------------------------------------- >> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us >> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: >> http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss >> > Hello Mike! > > The utilization issues for all VOIP, IAX systems replacing land line > phones include networking complexity, security and E-911 issues, > wherein emergency services can immediately verify your address. I > wrote the PHP/SQL extension to the Affinity Voip Telecom SER switch > for their E-911 registration process so I have a good idea that most > people are not bothering to register their VOIP service; E911 is a > federal VOIP requirement at the provider level, however must be > maintained by the user at the time of service registration. > > The network issues with all VOIP, IAX2 include NAT traversal which can > add more than a little bit of instability during setup and when the > network chances or is reset. > > I am curious as to why anyone would even sanely consider buying a USB > "device", when you can easily use softphones like Ekiga (with a PSTN > VOIP trunk from axvoice.com $9.99 a month for instance) or Skype > ($30.00 unlimited a year)? > Skype allows you to skype2twitter; your incoming calls can be > forwarded and recorded, various other cool voice analysis plugins are > available, etc. > > https://extras.skype.com/ > http://www.asteriskvoipnews.com/skype/5_most_useful_plugins_for_skype.html > > There's an article/review that mirrors my sentiment exactly saying, > quote: "there's a whiff of sleaze about it all". > http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2009/03/12/magicjack_far_from_enchanting/ > > Having built (and used home based and professional solutions) Trixbox, > SER, and Asterisk for AffinityVoip, GST Telecommunications, > Skymall.com and maintained intelligent dialers, programmed and > administered a Stromberg Carlson DCO, I am fairly well versed in VOIP > and I just have to ask "Why MagicJack"? and "Where's the Magic"? > > Why have essentially a client running on a USB key? ...scratch > head... When you can have it on your computer? > There are a great many hardware based solutions also around $30.00 > (which is what the USB client will cost you after you pay for your > $30.00 a year throughput fees): > > Grandstream ATA's: > http://www.grandstream.com/products/ht_series/ht503/ht503.html > http://www.grandstream.com/products/ht_series/ht486/ht486.html > (axvoice.com ships one of these with signup) > > > Of course, in a disaster situation, where power goes out, your client > will not work, unless you have your phone tethered to your battery > laptop running your client. And it's certainly a great deal easier > to just have a client, since USB devices are not many on most > notebooks and it's not exactly the best time to be troubleshooting > UDP/NAT Stun traversal settings, during a disaster? > > (In the old days with our digital PSTN POTS lines with 20 feet > "wireless answering machine phones", we had to get a plain butt-set to > make calls during power failure, but at least they still worked > usually.) Hardware based VOIP phones, don't! > > -- > http://linuxgazette.net/164/kachold.html > (623)239-3392 Skype: obn0sis > (503)754-4452 www.obnosis.com > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > -- James Finstrom Rhino Equipment Corp. http://rhinoequipment.com ~ http://postug.com Phone: 1-877-RHINO-T1 ~ FAX: +1 (480) 961-1826 Twitter: http://twitter.com/rhinoequipment IP: gu...@asterisk.rhinoequipment.com --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
