Connecting a Hotel phone to a MJ

TransferCutter · Post by **TransferCutter** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 4:55 pm

As advertised on their TV ads.

Can a phone in a hotel room be plugged into a MJ and work.
Has anyone done this?

I ask, as I do not know if hotels use a standard phone or a special phone for their internal system.

Darkman90808 · Post by **Darkman90808** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 6:13 pm

It's been a while, but it seems to me, every hotel phone I've used in the recent past uses a standard phone jack. I'm dating myself here, but pre-broadband, I used to connect my computer via modem to dial-up service while traveling. If you remove the phone jack from it's wall mount, it should work just fine in your MJ. But, don't take my word for it. Try it and let us know.

lcompton · Post by **lcompton** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 6:52 pm

Good evening, TransferCutter.

TransferCutter wrote:Can a phone in a hotel room be plugged into a MJ and work.

It depends. I'm not trying to be coy, but some hotels use PBX's providing proprietary digital telephone lines to the room telephones. Unfortunately, you won't be able to actually tell whether or not a particular hotel's room telephones will function on a POTS (plain old telephone service) line jack, which is what magicJack is, until you try it. Calling a hotel in advance and asking if their room telephones are POTS or digital is not likely to result in a favorable experience since most hotel customer service representatives are likely to be clueless about this level of technology.

One good indication of whether a hotel room telephone is POTS is whether or not it has a digital display with a bunch of information on it and a bunch of feature keys on the keypad. These types of telephones are almost always PBX digital units that will not provide any functionality on a POTS line.

TransferCutter wrote:Has anyone done this?

No, I haven't had the need to.

TransferCutter wrote:I ask, as I do not know if hotels use a standard phone or a special phone for their internal system.

It's a valid question. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to tell unless you are in the hotel room and giving the room telephone a try in magicJack.

My suggestion is to have a headset/microphone in your laptop bag so if the room telephone doesn't function you can at least use a headset/microphone connected directly to your laptop.

Good luck!

Darkman90808 · Post by **Darkman90808** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 7:26 pm

some hotels use PBX's providing proprietary digital telephone lines to the room telephones.

I don't think I've ever stayed in a hotel that nice.

Seriously, that's good information, Lisa. I've never had the occasion to try it, either. Thanks for the clarification.

lcompton · Post by **lcompton** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 7:42 pm

Good evening, Darkman90808.

Darkman90808 wrote:
lcompton wrote:some hotels use PBX's providing proprietary digital telephone lines to the room telephones.
I don't think I've ever stayed in a hotel that nice.

LOL Well, I don't anymore. But, once upon a time I was a successful business woman and stayed at upscale hotels when traveling on business. Many of the suites in which I stayed had multiple telephones (one in the bedroom, one in the bathroom and one in the gathering room), each with its own extension. It's a shame that I'm not much of a drinker, a lot of the suites in which I stayed had really neat bars. I'm a wine girl, not a whine girl! LOL Although, I do enjoy the occasional glass of Stolichnaya served straight and at 28° F.

Alas, now I am a poor girl and these enjoyable times in my past are but distant and fond memories of my days in the game.

Darkman90808 wrote:Seriously, that's good information, Lisa. I've never had the occasion to try it, either. Thanks for the clarification.

Of course. I'm happy to be of some minor assistance.

I'm thinking that I'm either going to go see The Ugly Truth this evening or see if I can pick-up season two of Leave It To Beaver (yes, I realize that the show is corny, but I love old movies and television shows and the beaver is just too cute.)

TransferCutter · Post by **TransferCutter** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 8:39 pm

Thanks for your replies. Yes, I think the staff won't have a clue either.

I was going to travel with a USB (skype) phone but was wondering about the hotel phone. I hotel I'm going to be at in September has non digital phones. 1 or 2 buttons pre-programmed for the front desk and the restaurant. A light will flash if there is a message waiting. And it has a modem port. I was there last year and this is what I remember of it.

It's pictured in these pictures and my USB phone (yes, I have an iPhone)

lcompton · Post by **lcompton** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 8:53 pm

TransferCutter:

TransferCutter wrote:I was going to travel with a USB (skype) phone but was wondering about the hotel phone. I hotel I'm going to be at in September has non digital phones. 1 or 2 buttons pre-programmed for the front desk and the restaurant. A light will flash if there is a message waiting. And it has a modem port. I was there last year and this is what I remember of it.

It's pictured in these pictures and my USB phone (yes, I have an iPhone)

I've seen that style of hotel telephone before. In my experience, they have always been analog telephones, which are capable of functioning on a POTS line. I'm 99% certain that they will function with your magicJack. Just don't expect the message waiting indicator or speed dial keys to behave properly when the telephone is connected to your magicJack. I do hope you'll follow-up with another post after your hotel stay to let us know whether the hotel room telephone functioned with your magicJack.

As for your iPhone, I have one question... Does Apple know about that model?

TransferCutter · Post by **TransferCutter** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 9:45 pm

Apple should, they stole it

And I hope to remember to post back. It's a good reference for others who travel.

TransferCutter · Post by **TransferCutter** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 5:55 pm

I just remembered about this post. I forgot to get a picture of the phone but I found this on a Google search and it was just like this.

I left my iPhone at home and took a chance. If nothing else, I had the built in speakers and mic in my laptop.

Well, the phone in the hotel room worked perfectly. Had no trouble at all using my MJ except when the WiFi was slow. When the MJ started to skip words I did a speedtest and found the WiFi had dropped down to .95Mbps and it worked perfectly when the speed was up around 4.20Mbps. Do a speedtest before you make a call. http://www.speedtest.net/

I was very impressed with the MJ.

TransferCutter · Post by **TransferCutter** » Thu Feb 11, 2010 5:34 pm

Utada wrote: You cannot use the magicJack in a hotel if you are using there Internet connection. You have only limited access and some ports are being blocked by there administrator. Contact the administrators/owners/management and see if they can unblock or enable the service directly from their end.

If you had read my post.....I said you can and I DID use the MJ in a hotel using their phone.

What are you talking about in your very first post here?

Chuts · Post by **Chuts** » Thu Feb 18, 2010 9:37 am

Wow! .... and talk about digging up OLD posts!!

For anyone who wants a small usb phone that works with the MJ, USRobotics makes one for Skype. It's about 4" x 1.5" x 3/4"

conniemadagain · Post by **conniemadagain** » Tue Aug 24, 2010 10:13 am

Stayed at many hotels across the US and never had a problem using the hotels phone w/my MJ ...

Starting to like just using the laptop instead now ... lol

magicJack and magicJack Plus Support, Reviews, FAQs and Tricks

Connecting a Hotel phone to a MJ

Connecting a Hotel phone to a MJ

Re: Connecting a Hotel phone to a MJ

It's a Throwback To My Successful Days...

That's the Neatest iPhone...