# MagicJack Phone, how much do you like/hate it?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magicjack-phone-how-much-do-you-like-hate-it/484796
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [February 7, 2009, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magicjack-phone-how-much-do-you-like-hate-it/484796 "2009-02-07T10:44:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2009, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magicjack-phone-how-much-do-you-like-hate-it/484796/1 "2009-02-07T10:44:55Z")
I’m in the mood to gamble on it.
Is it as good as the ads say? Please tell all.
Do I try it and then fire AT&T or must I fire first?
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### Author:  [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2009, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magicjack-phone-how-much-do-you-like-hate-it/484796/2 "2009-02-07T11:57:33Z")
I was just told you must keep your computer on 24/7
to use it properly.
Seems like a huge power waste.
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### Author:  [@hekk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hekk)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2009, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magicjack-phone-how-much-do-you-like-hate-it/484796/3 "2009-02-07T16:42:28Z")
> [@BarnOwl](#):
>
> I was just told you must keep your computer on 24/7
> to use it properly.
>
> Seems like a huge power waste.
Because we already have a home theater PC in the bedroom that doubles as a file server, leaving a computer on 24/7 wasn’t a big deal to me.
The MagicJack works. It does. With some tweaking, the sound quality is comparable to regular analog phone service.
I haven’t had any problems with dropouts, but I have noticed a time delay sometimes (up to half a second). It can get annoying, but isn’t that bad.
For the price, it is an amazing deal. We got rid of our landline long ago and I wanted to try out the MagicJack for the hell of it.
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### Author:  [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2009, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magicjack-phone-how-much-do-you-like-hate-it/484796/4 "2009-02-07T16:50:39Z")
> [@hekk](#):
>
> Because we already have a home theater PC in the bedroom that doubles as a file server, leaving a computer on 24/7 wasn’t a big deal to me.
>
> The MagicJack works. It does. With some tweaking, the sound quality is comparable to regular analog phone service.
>
> I haven’t had any problems with dropouts, but I have noticed a time delay sometimes (up to half a second). It can get annoying, but isn’t that bad.
>
> For the price, it is an amazing deal. We got rid of our landline long ago and I wanted to try out the MagicJack for the hell of it.
Thanks, **hekk** for your reply.
We’re old, so we kinda need 24/7 phones, and I have a thing about wasting so much energy by keeping the computer on all day.
A thought—probably dangerous. 🙂
With my PC on standby, would **incoming** calls activate the mputer/MagicJack?
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### Author:  [@hekk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hekk)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2009, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magicjack-phone-how-much-do-you-like-hate-it/484796/5 "2009-02-07T16:54:46Z")
> [@BarnOwl](#):
>
> Thanks, **hekk** for your reply.
>
> With my PC on standby, would **incoming** calls activate the mputer/MagicJack?
No, at least not IME. With the computer on standby, there is no software running to enable the MagicJack.
ETA:
Also, I think that placing the computer in standby disables the USB port power. I’m not certain about this though.
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### Author:  [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2009, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magicjack-phone-how-much-do-you-like-hate-it/484796/6 "2009-02-08T05:46:39Z")
One thing you need to consider - if you have DSL, you can’t kill your landline service or you’ll kill your DSL as well. (Some phone companies do allow what’s called “naked” DSL on a line without voice service, but that’s pretty uncommon and often limited to business accounts.
If you do have DSL, this may still be a valid thing to get if you make a lot of long-distance calls.
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### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2009, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magicjack-phone-how-much-do-you-like-hate-it/484796/7 "2009-02-08T06:00:22Z")
We had it for about a week. I doesn’t play well with a lot of other programs (running on XP), and wanted to be the only one running at all. There’s a few reviews out there that say the same thing, so apparently it’s not that uncommon for it to interfere with other programs. There aren’t many local phone prefixes either.
Here’s [a link](http://www.infomercialratings.com/product/magic_jack_reviews) to a review site, by the way.
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### Author:  [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2009, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magicjack-phone-how-much-do-you-like-hate-it/484796/8 "2009-02-08T12:54:14Z")
I have had mine for about a year with no problems. I have my cell phone I leave on at night so I don’t need to run my computer 24/7. One feature I like is you can copy and paste phone numbers right off the internet to make calls.