Magic Jack - Chicago,IL

We've had it for nearly a year and added 5 yrs onto it. It's not the best, a hiss in the background, but my officemate said that that's probably due to the fact that we are using a regular phone rather than a VOIP phone. I haven't spent the money to see. But for a backup phone it works great. We were paying $25/mth to make 5-10 local phone calls - it wasn't worth it. We got faster internet (6 Mbps) and are fine. I am looking for a job and didn't want my cell phone number all over the internet, so it was a win-win. Yes, occasionally I lose a call, but I think that's only happened 3 times in the past 9 months. So, for the important calls (ie: interviews) I give them my cell number.

No service is as good as a land line - not VOIP or cell phones, it's just how it is. Decide money savings vs how good do you need the signal to be. We have a spare computer that we keep MJ running all of the time.

My brother bought it before he shipped to Iraq the second time and it was HORRIBLE. Totally not worth the money.

Why do you need a land line? We got rid of ours two years ago and havent missed it for one second :).

I dont know anything about Magic Jack, but we use Vonage and love it. No problems and cheap.
The only thing is that if your internet is down, the phone is down too, but that doesnt happen very often, and we can use cell phones during those times.

Agree with you on the Kristina thing!

we have it ONLY for my husbands conference reasons. Its ok. Its not great its not bad. Its not for oversea's or for clear and defined calling. We have it mainly for emergency and for his peer group conference. You are much better off with Skype or Yahoo for oversea's stuff. We do it all, we never rely on one or the other. We have cells, internet, and magic jack.

. You would be better off seeing if whomever you got internet from did a phone/net package . If you look up Magic Jack iit has over 1700 complaints. My mom had it and thats a case of you get what you pay for the sound quality like talking to someone through strung up tin cans.Beyond which you need to hook it up through your internet service so its ehh like said there are much better options

Updated

. You would be better off seeing if whomever you got internet from did a phone/net package . If you look up Magic Jack iit has over 1700 complaints. My mom had it and thats a case of you get what you pay for the sound quality like talking to someone through strung up tin cans.Beyond which you need to hook it up through your internet service so its ehh like said there are much better options

My brother has this. Like another responder said, if your computer is out, no phone. My bigger reason not to get this, if the power goes out your phone doesn't work. They live in Orland amd they loose power often, i think. I have teenage babysitters when my husband and I go out. Although most teenagers have their own phones, I don't feel that it's my sitters responsibility to have a phone on them
In case of an emergency. Our power does out at least once or twice a year with a good Chicago storm. Maybe once my girls get bigger and have their own phones it might be different, but right now I like the reliability of a landline. Drop any long distance plan you have and that will drop your bill. I use Skype (free face to face computer calls) for all long distance.I talk to my cousin who now lives in Amersterdam once a week and it's free!

We thought about getting the Magic Jack and asked around. We have friends that swear by Ooma. It's about $200, but then you only pay monthly local taxes. We are planning on getting one from Costco for $180. Good luck with your search.

I seem to be in the minority here... we have had a magic jack for 2 years and have had very few problems. It does run through the internet which means if the computer is off, the phone is out. For us, because we also have cell phones it's no big deal. We have great internet speeds & only once do I remember downloading interfering with a call. I regularly find myself on the phone, downloading videos & streaming music at the same time with no glitches. I like the fact that it's $20/year, the voice mail goes directly to my email & I still have all the features of call waiting, caller ID and even digital dial/phone-book. It may not be for everyone, if your internet is crummy then it wont work well. When my husband started his own business we opted for a second magic jack and just had the calls forwarded to his cell phone. (This gave us a local number as our cell phones are not local.) For $20 I'd say give it a try. I've heard their customer service is rough, but I've never had to use it.

My boss had this and gave it up because his service came and went. Sometimes it would be great and other times it was horrible. And I think he said he couldn't be on the phone when he was downloading something from the Internet - there just wasn't enough bandwidth.

A couple years ago, Consumer Reports magazine actually recommended Magic Jack. But it sounds like it has many drawbacks.

Have you seen the new cordless phones that are bluetooth enabled? So basically, you can have everyone's cell phones connected to the home handsets, and if you are in the house, you can answer your cell phone calls on the handsets. (I always leave my cell phone in my purse when I'm at home and I never hear it ring.) If you still have a landline, obviously, it will work on these handsets too. I've thought about ditching the land line completely and buying the new phones. No more calls from telemarketers. But then there is the issue of being able to call 911 and have them pull up your address immediately....

I know of one person that had it and hated it. Apparently it isn't very reliable.

My inlaws have one in Grenada so that they can still have a local Maryland number for their house there (number is attached to the jack wherever you plug it in).

They like it.

However, it's my understanding that it has to run through a computer. If your purpose in having a "land line" is to have a HOUSE phone, then in does the trick... but if you really need it to be a LAND line ... like running through the phone lines along the road and working even when power goes down... this won't really solve that problem.

Hope this helps.
T.