magicJack and magicJack Plus Support, Reviews, FAQs and Hacks

joshness · magicJack Apprentice Joined: 18 Jun 2008 Posts: 10

So, after a few frustrating moments, I finally have the Thin Client up and running on TinyXP (full installation). I upgraded the ram to 512mb and put in an old 6gb laptop drive. The little computer works great with the magicjack. However, I felt I wanted to do a little more than just using it for the magicjack. So, the first thing I did was throw on an external 500gb drive and made it a shared drive. It mounted effortlessly on my macbook pro. I also installed teamviewer so that I didn't need a keyboard/mouse/monitor hooked up to the thin client. Now, for the fun stuff.

I installed nzb-o-matic (deals with nzb files that are found at newzbin) due to its small size. I was downloading at over 1mbps and it didn't seem to have any trouble with the magicjack running at the same time. I may need to do some more tests to see if phone quality takes a hit, but so far so good. I also installed utorrent in order to deal with any torrent files.

I wanted FTP access to the thin client so I installed zFTPServer. It is a lightweight free ftp server that easy to setup. It started up no problem and was able to connect to it right away from work. Tested it out by downloading and uploading a small text file. It seemed to have no problem at all.

For the heck of it I wanted to see how far I could push the little server, so I wanted to see if I could make it serve as a media server. First thing I did was download a k-lite codec package. I had to download an older version due to the CPU not being up to snuff for the latest version. After that I decided to use Tversity as the media server software. Right away it had problems running the flash that is built into the configuration screen. Even with the configuration screen closed, it was sucking up 70% of the CPU. At first I was thinking that there was no way the Thin Client could handle being a media server, then I remembered another media server software called TwonkyMedia server.

Unfortunately it isn't a free piece of software, but it does have a 30 day trial. I thought I'd give it a go and went ahead and installed it. I have a PS3 and a 360 at home so I uploaded a few videos to the 500gb external and fired up my PS3. The PS3 had no problem recognizing the Thin Client as a media server. So, I crossed my fingers and played a video. I was expecting it to not run or be choppy as heck from trying to buffer. Boy was i wrong, the first video I played started up no problem and was smooth as butter. I tried making a call on my magicjack and there was noticeable distortion from the voice. However, I need to do further testing because I was transferring some other videos from another drive to the Thin Client. I can always try tweaking the settings on TwonkyMedia server to see if I can get a performance boost.

*****update* After the file transfer was finished, the movie was playing and I was back to normal quality of voice on calls.*****

Overall, I am deeply thrilled that this investment of roughly $300 (TC-$70, ram $15, IDE cable $10 (got two cables), 500gb external $100, twonkymedia server $40, magicjack $60) is giving me. One years telephone bill has gotten me 2 years of phone service and a kick ass file/media server.

If anyone needs any details on how I did anything let me know. I'll be more than happy to help you get the most out of your TC.

monkeyboy · MagicJack User Joined: 21 Apr 2008 Posts: 42

sounds great... I thought the whole point of using the TC was having a setup that didn't have a hard drive (power, noise...). Once you added the hard drive, seems like its equivalent to running MJ off a laptop, like many of us do...

joshness · magicJack Apprentice Joined: 18 Jun 2008 Posts: 10

magicJack and magicJack Plus Support, Reviews, FAQs and Hacks

The Wonders of the HP Thin Client T5700