I need suggestions on the beeping noises using magicjack

hrm_52 · Post by **hrm_52** » Tue May 05, 2009 11:35 am

I am in desperate need of anyone out there that is having the same problem that I am. I have had magicjack for months now, have had problems since day 1, I am now on my second magicjack, It seems that when using magicjack, the other person hears a beeping noise, like a button being pushed, but they are not pushing any, now I am hearing it to, so I have been emailing magicjack for several months, They tell me to this and that, no results, so they decided to send me a new one, still no better. I am at witts end, It is so annoying, Is there anyone out there that is having the same problem? and how did you fix it? any info would greatly be appreciated

bitstopjoe · Post by **bitstopjoe** » Tue May 05, 2009 11:58 am

I get that too from time to time. It has been suggested, on here, that in fact it might be one's voice which is triggering that tone. I do notice it more when I am talking to a female as opposed to a male. Maybe the freq of some voices causes it. Not sure but when it does happen I ignore it and it really doesn't mess up the conversation. Now if it was happening evey few seconds, then yes it would be a P.I.T.A.

Joe Sica

hrm_52 · Post by **hrm_52** » Tue May 05, 2009 1:34 pm

The beeping noises appear every conversation, no matter female, or male. It is hard to ignore, The other caller constantly reminds me there was a beep, then my words get cut off. Magicjack has sent me a new one to try, still haveing the beeps. I have made numerous live chat calls, I really don't think they have a clue how to fix this problem. I have also emailed "Dan", whom I have never talked to, to help me, so far, nothing, the last time I talked to them, they told me to try headphones, But I cant sit to the computer all the time using it.So, I really need some advice from someone who has the same problem, and wondering what else I can try

bitstopjoe · Post by **bitstopjoe** » Tue May 05, 2009 3:28 pm

Odd thing is when I hear the beeps I used to ask to whom ever I was speaking to if they heard them as well. They always said no.
MAYBE you have something running in the background which is causing your sound card to generate those beeps? Have you tried updating your sound card drivers? Also have you gone into control panel and looked at your sounds and checked all of your settings?
Other than that and since you got a new MJ to try I have to assume it is something on your PC causing it. Can you try the MJ on another PC to test to see if it still occurs the same way?
Just my 2 cents.

Joe Sica

hrm_52 · Post by **hrm_52** » Tue May 05, 2009 3:38 pm

Hey, I am not sure what the problem is, My computer is just a little over one year old, so I have no Idea what to do, I do not have another PC to try it on. I am computer illiterate, I don't no much about where the settings should be. Magicjack has told me to try several things, but nothing so far that they have told me helps.I was so hoping that someone would have some answers that I could try, besides magicjack.Where would I go to check out the soundcard drivers?

ralphn · Post by **ralphn** » Thu May 07, 2009 1:09 pm

I used to get beeps when my laptop was running wirelessly, then when I hooked it up with ethernet cable the beeps stopped. No more beeps. Could possibly have been picking up electrical sounds from water tank switch, switching on and off. Thats all I can think that would have caused it.

MJ-in-DC · Post by **MJ-in-DC** » Thu May 07, 2009 2:08 pm

hrm_52 wrote:the other person hears a beeping noise, like a button being pushed, but they are not pushing any

You don't mention whether you're using the SoftPhone (using the computer mic and speakers) or have an actual telephone hooked up to the MJ device.

If you're using an actual telephone set, have you verified that this problem is not happening when it's hooked up to a regular telephone jack? Could be that the phone device itself has become faulty.

You state your computer is about a year old so it should be OK. However, it could be the USB port you're connecting to is faulty.
Have you tried hooking the MJ device up to a different port on the computer? Fluctuating voltage can cause the strangest behavior on any USB device.
Your computer likely has at least 2 USB hub devices built-in. Each interal USB hub can accommodate 4 ports. There are multiple USB ports on the computer that are divided equally over the 2 internal hubs. If your MJ is hooked up in the front, try hooking it up in the back, or vice-versa. Try all USB ports if you have to.

You could also try a powered USB hub like the one I have. I had different problems (MJ and otherwise

) and the powered hub I got solved at least all the MJ problems. (don't ask about the others

) Here's a link that talks about that hub: http://www.phoneservicesupport.com/buy- ... t4822.html

Hope this helps! Let us know...

newtoncd · Post by **newtoncd** » Thu May 07, 2009 2:10 pm

Agreed, it is annoying.

It only happens with our magicJack when my wife uses the speakerphone portion of the Panasonic handset. It doesn't happen when I use the speakerphone. It we use the phone in non-speakerphone mode, it doesn't happen.

You don't mention what kind of setup you are using, but if you are using a telephone with your magicJack, the people we call have noticed it has happened much less often when I turned back the volume on the magicJack GUI, have you tried that (via the Menu -> Volume/Headset control)? I have the slider all the way to the left on both speaker/microphone.

carib909 · Post by **carib909** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 9:09 pm

That happens to me regardless whether I use speaker phone or not. Brand new Panasonic phone too.

newtoncd wrote:Agreed, it is annoying.

It only happens with our magicJack when my wife uses the speakerphone portion of the Panasonic handset. It doesn't happen when I use the speakerphone. It we use the phone in non-speakerphone mode, it doesn't happen.

You don't mention what kind of setup you are using, but if you are using a telephone with your magicJack, the people we call have noticed it has happened much less often when I turned back the volume on the magicJack GUI, have you tried that (via the Menu -> Volume/Headset control)? I have the slider all the way to the left on both speaker/microphone.

noodler2 · Post by **noodler2** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 9:15 pm

There is an upgrade available for this problem. See the other threads or download it

http://upgrades.talk4free.com/upgrade/2 ... pgrade.exe

carib909 · Post by **carib909** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 9:21 pm

Here is the "Fix" MJ suggested today.

Lloyd: 1.Click the “Start” button then “Settings” then “Control Panel” then go to “Internet Options”, under “Privacy” tab, slide the bar down to “Accept all cookies”. Under “Security” tab, click on “Trusted Sites” then click the “Sites” button.

Lloyd: 2.Un-check the box at the bottom left of the window that says “Require Server Verification”.

Lloyd: 3.Type the following address into the text bar, reg.talk4free.com then click the “Add” button, and also type in the following address, my.magicJack.com and click “Add” then “Close” then “OK”.

bitstopjoe wrote:Odd thing is when I hear the beeps I used to ask to whom ever I was speaking to if they heard them as well. They always said no.
MAYBE you have something running in the background which is causing your sound card to generate those beeps? Have you tried updating your sound card drivers? Also have you gone into control panel and looked at your sounds and checked all of your settings?
Other than that and since you got a new MJ to try I have to assume it is something on your PC causing it. Can you try the MJ on another PC to test to see if it still occurs the same way?
Just my 2 cents.

Joe Sica

MJ-in-DC · Post by **MJ-in-DC** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 9:36 pm

Don't know where you're located... I'm in DC... but I will bet you LUNCH that this "fix" won't make one iota of difference...

Don't want to burst your bubble, but it sounds like one of the many useless MJ support suggestions. They're grasping at straws...

I think it would be reaaaaaaaally beneficial if you could try to install your MJ device on another computer (show it to a friend?). then you can determine if the problem is device-related or if the problem is with your computer.

synchron · Post by **synchron** » Fri Jun 26, 2009 11:07 pm

Here's a cool beep test:

Dial Free 411 service (1-800-373-4311), listen to the recording advertisement, then at the main menu "she" will list the options and when she says "horoscope" and "free call" there should be 2 distinctive beep tones. You can say 'Main Menu' and when the above 2 words are repeated you should hear the beeps loud & clear. This is very repeatable on my end and it doesn't make a difference whether I use the phone or handset or whether its the 4/10/09 S/W or the 6/19/09 S/W.

I'd like to see if this hold true to others. Give it a try and report your results.

Synchron

CA-Genevieve · Post by **CA-Genevieve** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 5:20 pm

Everytime that I am using the magic jack, the person on the other end hears a sound as if I am pushing the push button on my phone. It cuts my voice off while I am talking, just as it was if you were actually doing that while talking.

I've only heard it once or twice on my end. Also, a friend has a MJ too, and I can hear the same constant push button sound on their end while speaking to them; however, they can't hear it.

I can assure you, our computer is high tech, so it doesn't have anything to with that. Therefore, I'm thinking it something to do with the service itself.

Has anyone been able to remedy the problem? Did the fix work?

bitstopjoe · Post by **bitstopjoe** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 5:41 pm

CA- Genevieve : This is what fixed it FOR ME. Seems it doesnt fix it for everyone..

http://upgrades.talk4free.com/upgrade/2 ... pgrade.exe

Joe Sica

dasmotiu · Post by **dasmotiu** » Sun Jul 05, 2009 9:58 am

I have just bought a Magicjack and my wife has this problem all the time.

I was not surprised to find others having the same problem. But I am suprised the problem is still there, read on...

But first I would want some kind of assurance that a downloadable exe file such as the one advertised (upgrades.talk4free.com) is safe. The usual rule is: NEVER run files of this kind.

Secondly I can explain what is happening but I don't necessarily have a fix - that will have to be a fix written by MagicJack's programmers.

This problem has been around for at least 25 years in other devices, I can remember encountering it in the mid 1980s. In those days the devices were hardware, so a fix was really expensive.

Magicjack is a conventional voice-over-ip application. When you talk, the analog-to-digital converter turns your voice into a set of digital packets which are sent over the internet to a gateway to the regular phone network (or another MagicJack), and converted back to analog, so the person at the other end hears your voice.

If you press a numeric key on your phone, in response to, say, a VRU menu, the phone generates a multifrequency (MF) tone for that key, and the analog-to-digital converter generates a specific packet that represents that MF tone, it does not (should not) simply convert the sound to digital. This allows the converter at the other end to generate a pure MF tone to pass to the analog network.

So how does our problem arise? When you talk, your voice is generating various combinations of frequencies, and from time to time the combinations match the same pair of frequencies as an MF tone, for perhaps a few milliseconds. Female voices generate these MF "lookalikes" far more often than male voices.

So the problem for the software makers all those years ago was to have the software only generate an MF packet if the MF tone lasts at least (I think) 50 millisends, ie one twentieth of a second.

I think I saw a fix in microcode to an IBM voice machine that had this problem in about 1987.

Magicjack can write this into their software in a short time. Will they? That is another matter.

MJ-in-DC · Post by **MJ-in-DC** » Sun Jul 05, 2009 9:33 pm

dasmotiu wrote: The usual rule is: NEVER run files of this kind.

That would indeed be the case is you were SENT such a file without ASKING for it. But in this case you're downloading it yourself. You're ASKING for it. I agree that EXE files are usually suspicious,. MJ could have ZIPped the file and then distributed, but in the end it's an EXE you're downloading and many people may not necessarily know what to do with a ZIP file.

dasmotiu wrote: When you talk, your voice is generating various combinations of frequencies, and from time to time the combinations match the same pair of frequencies as an MF tone, for perhaps a few milliseconds. Female voices generate these MF "lookalikes" far more often than male voices.

Fascinating explanation, I never thought about the fact that indeed the VOIP software needs to recognize the DTMF tones and NOT parse those.
However, if that were really the source of the beeps discussed in this thread then EVERYONE would encounter them from time to time. I've used MJ now for well over a year and have yet to hear my first beep.
Or maybe my voice and those of my counterparts don't trigger the system...

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