Anyone use Magic Jack for home phone?

[Hoosier Cowboy]

Thought about trying it out and was wondering if anyone had any reviews of it?

 

[fordmanchris]

Check out the obi. They go through google voice. We have used it for almost 2 years now and love it

 

[Hoosier Cowboy]

I found Google Voice but what is OBI?

 

[Kingpin]

Magic Jack works well good clear sound only down side if you lose the internet you lose the phone,as long as you have a cell phone as a backup your good to go.

 

[9mmfan]

I used MG for about a year until my son got his latest cell phone for Christmas. It worked well; just don't expect do a lot on other stuff on the internet while your talking.

 

[DanVoils]

I use the original Magic Jack for the fax machine in the home office. Never had a problem with it. Occasionally I'll use it for voice calls and it seems clear but I do have a cheap phone on it.

 

[Reapermaxx]

Magic jack works good. The clarity is good and the price isn't bad. They tend to give you out of area phone numbers though. Depends on what city you live I guess. Your computer has to be left in order for it to work also last time I had it.

 

[Concerned Citizen]

I set up a MJ here before I went to Europe. Then I bought a cheap wired phone that plugged into the wall, that required no electricity to operate (funny thing was the only one I could find was a Cars-the movie phone). As long as I could get a wireless network on my laptop, which was just about everywhere, I could pick up the phone & call my family & friends as if they were next door. Pretty cool.

 

[Pinchaser]

I use the original Magic Jack for the fax machine in the home office. Never had a problem with it. Occasionally I'll use it for voice calls and it seems clear but I do have a cheap phone on it.

Magic Jack for a fax machine.......

 

[Suprtek]

I've been using one for my home phone for almost 3 years. I love it. I have comcast broadband internet so bandwidth is usually not a problem for me. Occasionally if my internet speed is low I will notice a performance issue with it. I still have one of the original units so I just have an old laptop that I keep running all the time just for the magic jack. That way if the log in on the main computer gets changed it doesn't shut down the phone in the meantime. The newer units don't require a computer to run them though. The voicemail feature is kinda cool. It actually just sends a .wav file to whatever email address you give it. The only thing I can say that I don't like about mine is the fact that the caller ID info does not show up on my phone. It shows up on the computer. That may be my phone or it may be the fact that I have an older unit. Other than that I've been very happy with the performance. You can also take it with you anywhere and plug it into any computer with a decent internet connection to make and receive calls using the same number (you'll also have to have a phone to plug into it). For 20 bucks a year with no limits on local or long distance, I don't know how you could do much better.

One interesting thing you might like to know. Instead of just plugging in a phone directly to the magic jack, run a phone cord from the magic jack to one of the wall jacks in your house. This will send dial tone to all the remaining wall jacks in the house allowing you to plug a phone in anywhere. Just make sure you're not using phones that require power from the phone line. The magic jack can't provide enough current for that. I use cordless phones that have a charger that plugs into the wall. In order to use all the phone jacks in your house this way you may want to make sure the incoming line from the phone company is unplugged from the house even if you're not using it to prevent any interference.

 

[Suprtek]

Magic Jack for a fax machine.......

FYI...some fax machines work with a magic jack, some don't. I'd suggest an internet search to check on this if its a concern.

 

[Bunnykid68]

OP, glad you asked this question. I have been missing having a home phone for a long time. Will have to give it a try.

 

[Ericpwp]

YES! I used one for a year. Then switched to a MJ+ after the year was up. (The power adaptor was bad on the MJ+ and I had to replace it out of the box.) First, I transferred my land line # to google voice, so it rings my magic jack and my cell phone. Works great for the money. Ted Weber told me about it back in '08. It's so much better then paying for a land line, or an internet phone bundle package.

^^^ I also have it running to all the jacks in my house.