Skype interference with magicJack & vice versa

[why-him]

I'm trying to help my neighbor with his new magicJack. He also uses skype. When both are running, he has problems. Specifically:

* On Skype, no sound either direction.
* On magicJack, choppy voice.

If he takes out the magicJack, Skype works fine. If he kills Skype, magicJack works fine.

How to get them to co-exist?

thanks,
Yosh

[vnecaxa]

what is his badwith? Both applications are competing for the same resources and if his bandwith is not high enough, one or both of them will suffer. Just like trying to use MJ while downloading music.

[why-him]

what is his badwith? Both applications are competing for the same resources and if his bandwith is not high enough, one or both of them will suffer. Just like trying to use MJ while downloading music.

His bw is 1.5mbps - which is plenty for mJ.

He's NOT trying to use both simultaneously - so I suspect it's more likely a conflict over the audio hardware. And/or CPU.

Any ideas how to find the source of the problem and eliminate it?

thanks,
Yosh

[VaHam]

what is his badwith? Both applications are competing for the same resources and if his bandwith is not high enough, one or both of them will suffer. Just like trying to use MJ while downloading music.

His bw is 1.5mbps - which is plenty for mJ.

He's NOT trying to use both simultaneously - so I suspect it's more likely a conflict over the audio hardware. And/or CPU.

Any ideas how to find the source of the problem and eliminate it?

thanks,
Yosh

1) Make sure MJ is set to use telephone and not headset. In the telephone mode MJ should be using the Tigerjet USB audio device.
If that works then it would be an audio conflict problem.

2) Try adjusting the process priority of Skype and/or MJ using task manager to see if this makes a difference. For instance if Skype is running with normal priority make MJ's High.

3) You may also want to check the port Skype has chosen for it's incoming connections to make sure there is no conflict with the ones MJ uses you can change this in Skype by going to Tools>>Options>>Connection where you can also allow Skype to use 80 and 443 to see if that is over riding Skype's installed choice.

These are just some thoughts that come to mind.

[why-him]

It was my impression that magicJack can run on a machine where skype is installed & vice versa with each performing OK. That's not what my neighbor experiences & he's been told by mJ tech support that they can't be running at the same time (not "in use" but "running").

Is that consistent with other people's experience?

thanks,
yosh

[MJ Problem Solver]

Magic Jack and Skype are not compatible.
You need to choose one or the other.

[VaHam]

Magic Jack and Skype are not compatible.
You need to choose one or the other.

Really what are the problems? I run MJ, Skype, X-Lite, Zopier and Gizmo all at the same time here on my desktop without issue as far as I can tell.

I only use the Skype for Skype to Skype calls however. I often use the others to call each other for testing purposes however.

Having the MJ line and dongle which is separate from my Asterisk extensions is very handy for testing.

[why-him]

I also thought mJ & Skype can co-exist. My neighbor isn't trying to make simultaneous calls even. If both are running then he has the problem I mentioned in the original post, namely:

* On Skype, no sound either direction.
* On magicJack, choppy voice.

Unplugging mJ makes Skype OK & killing Skype make mJ OK. When he uses Skype, he uses it for skype-to-skype video calls (he likes to see his grandchildren).

But I thought that VaHam's experience would be typical --- i.e., without issues. Any more info/ideas?

Thanks,
Yosh

[VaHam]

I also thought mJ & Skype can co-exist. My neighbor isn't trying to make simultaneous calls even. If both are running then he has the problem I mentioned in the original post, namely:

* On Skype, no sound either direction.
* On magicJack, choppy voice.

Unplugging mJ makes Skype OK & killing Skype make mJ OK. When he uses Skype, he uses it for skype-to-skype video calls (he likes to see his grandchildren).

But I thought that VaHam's experience would be typical --- i.e., without issues. Any more info/ideas?

Thanks,
Yosh

Can you confirm that he is using the telephone rather than headset on the MJ? That would eliminate conflicts with audio devices.

As for choppy sound there are many possible causes but if it is coming as a function of having/not having another program running(i.e. Skype) then process priority adjustment may solve the problem.

Try setting MJ process to higher priority in task manager.

[hsweiss]

Magic Jack and Skype are not compatible.
You need to choose one or the other.

This is utter bullcrap!

I have both the latest version of Skype and MJ running together on WinXP on a woefully underpowered 1.1Ghz celeron box. I can't run both simultaneously, but they coexist nicely and they both work - one at a time. Just be careful in Skype setting up the audio devices. Skype will adopt the default device which might turn out to be the MJ "tigerjet" device. For Skype, you'll want to ensure that you're using the built-in audio device or a USB Skype handset device.