magicJack and magicJack Plus Support, Reviews, FAQs and Hacks

phenonymous

I did some research some months ago, and although the official MagicJack.com site doesn't tout support with things like home security systems or FAX machines, I have managed to get a FAX machine to send faxes around the US.

For the sake of mention:

You can have Magic Jack assign you a telephone number in a different state than that from which you reside, but I have experienced latency problems with the service - such can erode connection quality with tone based devices.

A wireless connection to the computer with your device can cause intermittent connectivity drops.

Other computers wired (or wireless) to your Router can use bandwidth, and cause choppy connections on your Magic Jack, thus problems with tone based devices.

On your FAX device, you will want to set the minimum connection speed (9600 baud is ideal), and turn off error correction.

I have successfully sent a 17 page FAX from Salt Lake City to New York City, but receiving is only a half a page at best per receive.

When you install your Magic Jack Device, disconnect any other USB devices (not keyboard or mouse) such as USB printers, cameras, etc, so that the Magic Jack device can configure the dialing device first, and then the secondary USB drive that has the Magic Jack software.

Your Internet Connection should be at least a 1.5 MegaBit connection - any slower and the service might not work right.

Your computer should be at least a Pentium IV 1.6 Ghz or higher, with 1 Gig of Ram.

You might think to bring up the Magic Jack Service and application in the Task Manager, do a right click on it, and make it a high-priority task/application.

Let me know if you have any success with receiving a full 3-page fax as well as sending.

crackerjack · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 16 Nov 2007 Posts: 784

The Ymax network is very well suited for fax transmission as long as you don't use their dongle!!!!!

The ideal methodology to implement reliable fax functionality is to plant your SIP details on a Linksys PAP2/PAP2T.
These devices allow for tweaking the parameters for packet size, jitter buffer and can help overcome or minimize latency, all of which can play havoc with analog communications via digital circuits.
There are excellent tutorials on massaging the pap2 parameters to facilitate faxing available at your nearest google search station.

Alpman · Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 7:47 am Post subject:

EBC3610/667/256 thin client w/ XPe SP3 on HP C6180 AIO 9600bps & error correction off, recent "Downgrade" applied and locked, 3rd gen mJ with local number, DSL 3M down/768 up, Airlink101 150N router w/ QOS enabled for mJ. Fax works a near perfect 95%+ on incoming/outgoing. Tested same fax with HP t5530/800/128, HP t5520/800/128, TermTek 3370/1G/256, TermTek 3350/533/128, Neoware CA15/400/256, Neoware CA10/800/256, WYSE 9455XL/550/256, WYSE 9450/550/128, old Celeron PC/366/96 all with same results...great!! The key is the downgrade, the 01/10 "Upgrade" killed my faxing until I downgraded. We just had another "Lucky You" this morning (3/02/10), so I will be testing that with the fax soon and reporting back...

Darkman90808 · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 27 Feb 2008 Posts: 701

Alpman · Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 4:50 am Post subject:

Update - My TC took the "upgrade" and now fax is dead. Can't downgrade any more either.

conniemadagain · Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 1:44 pm Post subject:

crackerjack · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 16 Nov 2007 Posts: 784

Can someone who has a MJ dongle working sniff the wire while having a conversation or sending a fax??

Wireshark would be the ideal vehicle

I suspect they have implemented a compressed codec to save bandwidth. This would account for the diminished voice quality of late and would definitely put the kibosh on faxing as well.

magicJack and magicJack Plus Support, Reviews, FAQs and Hacks

Unsupported Magic Jack with a FAX machine: