voice mail

[borredo]

I like magic jack a lot after using it for a week.

I have an issue that maybe can be resolved here. I turn my PC off at night and I can't get voice mail to kick in. When I dial my magicjack number from another phone service with my PC off I get a long delay then a busy signal.

That feature would also be useful when traveling away from home.

Any help would be appreciated. TIA

[az2008]

That feature would also be useful when traveling away from home.

It's supposed to work the way you expect it to. The other day I was testing something and called my MJ number from Skype (while my MJ wasn't running). I got a busy signal too. But, when I called back a few minutes later, I got my voice mail.

MJ goes through periods of instability like that. With reports that MJ (and retailers) couldn't keep up with demand over the Thanksgiving weekend, I expect we'll see more instability as things like their voicemail server(s) are overloaded with new users, oversold capacity, etc.

You could try it a few times over a few days. If it's consistently a busy signal, this would be a safe thing to report using the chat support feature at the MJ website. They'll have no reason to make you destroy your system as part of a scripted diagnosis. You can report it and ask that it be escalated to engineering (if they don't see anything wrong with the way your account is configured/provisioned). Keep reporting it and requesting escalation once or twice a week (sometimes success depends on which dead chat person you get).

Mark

[borredo]

Thanks Mark.

I'm moving soon and don't want to pay for a land line, now have DSL with a phone bundle. I'll be using cable internet in the future.

I also have a cell phone. MJ is a nice backup.

I'll test it for a couple weeks then I'll contact MJ like you suggest.

Good reply, thanks again.

Tom

[tada]

borredo,

I am just guessing here, but have you tried unplugging the magicjack USB device, giving the softphone a moment to notice the now missing device, and then shutdown the machine?

If I've understood things correctly, this might work.

-tada

[borredo]

tada,

Thanks, I did what you suggested, I unplugged the mj and turned the pc off, it worked. However there was just one ring and then my unavailable message. One ring? Is that normal?

I plugged the MJ back in rebooted the pc then shut the pc off again with the MJ plugged in. No voice mail.

Am I doing something wrong?

Voice mail works with the pc off if I unplug MJ before I shut it down. If I leave the MJ plugged in and then I shut it down voice mall will not activate.

Thanks for your time.

Tom

[az2008]

One ring? Is that normal?

I think so. Their server apparently knows you're not connected, so there's no point letting the caller hear 4-6 rings before going to voicemail.

I plugged the MJ back in rebooted the pc then shut the pc off again with the MJ plugged in. No voice mail.

There must be something about the act of unplugging the device that lets the softphone gracefully communicate to the server that you're offline.

Try that again, but wait half an hour before calling your number. I've read people say that MJ's servers eventually detect that you've disappeared, and they delete your profile from the server, etc.

This may have been why I got a busy signal, and a few minutes later I reached voice mail. I use the "dongleless" form of MJ. So, to exit, I have to go into task manager and kill magicjack.exe. There is no USB device to unplug. It probably has the same effect of shutting down with the USB device attached, not giving the softphone time to gracefully disconnect from the proxy.

This is good information to know.

Personally I think MJ's exit process is problematic. For one thing, you shouldn't disconnect the USB device without using the "safely remove" thing in the task bar. The softphone opens the USB as writeable every 3 seconds. Just pulling it out is bound to corrupt the flash drive. The softphone detects this condition and exits. It should display a warning that the softphone should be exited using the "exit" button on the softphone. (And, then provide an "exit" button as the preferred way to exit the softphone.).

The way it's handled now, they kind of encourage people to unplug it without any hint they could corrupt the unit. If you don't unplug it, they even penalize you by not letting the server know you disconnected from the network (causing voicemail to be messed up for probably 10-30 minutes).

Mark

[borredo]

I tried this, it works.

Click on the storage icon (not the MJ icon) on the task bar. Safely remove hardware. When the window pops up hit stop. A message comes up, it's now safe to remove hardware. You don't have to remove it. Just shut the PC down. When it boots back up your good to go. And voice mail works when the PC is off and MJ is still plugged in.

I guess that tells the server your computer is off? When you stop the device.

Now I got to remember to do that when I shut down. LOL

[tada]

I plugged the MJ back in rebooted the pc then shut the pc off again with the MJ plugged in. No voice mail.

There must be something about the act of unplugging the device that lets the softphone gracefully communicate to the server that you're offline.

Yes, this is what I was betting on, but I still haven't gotten to the lengthy work of doing a full code audit to "prove" it.

I tried this, it works.

Click on the storage icon (not the MJ icon) on the task bar. Safely remove hardware. When the window pops up hit stop. A message comes up, it's now safe to remove hardware. You don't have to remove it. Just shut the PC down. When it boots back up your good to go. And voice mail works when the PC is off and MJ is still plugged in.

I guess that tells the server your computer is off? When you stop the device.

Now I got to remember to do that when I shut down. LOL

From what I've read, here and elsewhere, there is no "easy" way to properly shut down the softphone in a way which it can tell the remote magicjack servers (which sends the calls to your system) that it will no longer be available. On the other hand, it makes a lot of sense they would have code in the softphone to tell the remote server about it becoming unavailable when it no longer has access to the USB device. --This was my wild hunch, and it seems to be correct.

Though some devices/programs can play well with just ripping the USB out of the socket, many do not, so you should always use the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon on the taskbar before physically unplugging any USB device. Sadly, many idiots will tell you using the "Safely Remove Hardware" is not necessary or doesn't matter, but all of them are wrong, dead wrong. It does matter and it is important, particularly with the magicJack USB device since it is constantly accessed/polled by the softphone and/or other programs. If you just blindly yank the device at exactly the wrong time (i.e. when it is being accessed by a program or the operating system), bad things can happen.

The only alternative solution I can dream up is potentially using the "Do Not Disturb" feature of the softphone before shutting down the compter. This also should tell the remote servers that your softphone will no longer be available.

WARNING: I have never actually "run" a magicjack device or it's software, so I'm only guessing from what I've learned through reading and passive inspection. It's probably a good idea to take my opinions with a grain or two of salt, well, ummm, maybe with a whole shaker of salt, a lime and some tequila. :-)

-tada

[az2008]

Sadly, many idiots will tell you using the "Safely Remove Hardware" is not necessary or doesn't matter, but all of them are wrong, dead wrong. It does matter and it is important, particularly with the magicJack USB device since it is constantly accessed/polled by the softphone and/or other programs. If you just blindly yank the device at exactly the wrong time (i.e. when it is being accessed by a program or the operating system), bad things can happen.

I agree with you. But, this is another example of what was discussed in that other thread about MJ being its own worst enemy, ignoring low-hanging fruit to manage its reputation, customer delight, etc.

The softphone detects that the USB device was removed/unmounted. It could display a pop-up saying "Important, always use 'safely remove hardware'" before removing your MagicJack (checkbox -- do not show this message again)."

I disagree that the softphone couldn't have an "exit" choice. If it had that choice it could stop opening the USB device (for write) every 3 seconds. It could flush its buffers. And, display a message saying "Please use 'safely remove hardware' to remove your MagicJack."

And then, if it detects the device removed before choosing the "exit" option, it could display a warning that "the 'exit' choice should always be used before removing MagicJack."

As a customer, I feel like MJ helps customers do the *wrong* thing (buy 4 years thinking they'll get 5; enter a redemption code which they may not have received via email; etc.).

Mark

[tada]

Mark,

I totally agree with you. MagicJack is advertising to, and selling to, the absolute lowest skilled market (end users), but failing miserably to compensate through properly designed code.

I disagree that the softphone couldn't have an "exit" choice.

Either I wrote things very poorly (likely), or you misread it (unlikely), but I never intended to say anything like the softphone could not have an exit choice. You're right, it is very possible for the softphone to have a an exit function like every other typical program. :-)

The part I find most disturbing about magicJack is they have been at it for, what?, like two plus years now, but they *still* haven't figured out or fixed the blatantly obvious stuff? -Why?

For example, there is absolutely no excuse for giving a "busy" signal when a phone cannot be reached, and said phone has voicemail enabled. In this case, the ONLY correct logic is to try to detect a ring-back signal and if you don't get that signal, you send the call directly to voicemail.

This nonsense of needing to find ways to "trick" or "force" the softphone program into telling the remote magicJack server that the phone is now unavailable is pure nonsense... but on the bright side, it works. :-)

My initial assessment is really simple; magicJack does not really have control of the design for either the software or hardware they are using/selling. All of the custom designs are done by other companies; typically they just minor modifications of existing products (i.e. SJphone, TigerJet, ...), and everything else (mostly on the server-side) is probably just open source.

Their claim of owning a "network" is very interesting, but since there are no public records of peering arrangements, the only way to prove the "network" even exists is through testing. To their credit, I do know they have a staggering number of FQDN's and associated IP addresses, so at least some of this "network" most likely exists. What is yet to be seen/proven is whether or not they are using private or public routing between their nodes. If it's public routing, then it really is not *their* "network" at all.

-tada