Preserving Land Line Number

[joe123]

I am not holding my breath to MagicJack to offer users to be able to port their land line number to their setup.

So, what are the current options available to use who want to keep our current Land Line number?

I want to keep my land line number for emergencies only paying the minimum 8 bucks a month ( measured calls ).

I am looking for the $least$ expensive solution folks.

[tony]

I am not holding my breath to MagicJack to offer users to be able to port their land line number to their setup.

So, what are the current options available to use who want to keep our current Land Line number?

I want to keep my land line number for emergencies only paying the minimum 8 bucks a month ( measured calls ).

I am looking for the $least$ expensive solution folks.

If you are going to keep your landline for emergencies, then you don't need any change. Use the landline for incoming calls and local calls. Use the MJ for free long distance calls. Your cost is $8/month landline + $20/year MJ = $116/year. Essentially, you have your emergency landline plus low cost long distance.

This assumes your landline plan allows unlimited incoming and unlimited local calling. This may not be the case, I was surprised to hear from friends in New York City that they pay by the minute for local calls.

[joe123]

Thanks for the reply!

Yes, I checked with our land line carrier AT$T and all incoming is free.

Ok, so how do I do this? I have a Uniden DECT 6.0 system with 5 wireless phones. This is the only telephone system throught our house. One base, multiple wireless phones to the base.

Our land line currently connects to the Uniden base. Now that I have MagicJack, how do I connect both the land line and MJ to one base?

Is there some kind of a Y connector which only allows one phone system through at a time? Y would have to be a Y setup that lets the MJ connection out only and land line in only.

Is this possible?

[joe123]

Hey, I just came across this thing on eBay called Combine-A-Line.

The title says: VOIP PSTN adapter Magic Jack CLT PHONE SWITCH NoN USB!

Would this work? Its about 30 bucks. Not bad if it works?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0359626597

[joe123]

I found more info on this device Combined-a-line.

It's not the ideal solution, here is why.

If someone calls in on VoIP (MagicJack), the switch remembers that and uses that route for when you make a call, however:

If someone calls in on the land line, the switch remembers that and uses that route if you make a call.

So if your kids or anyone in the house makes a long distance call and the Combined-a-line uses the last known route, the land-line route, it will be using the land line jack to make the call. Bingo, you get a nasty bill from the land line phone company! Not good

Anyone else with a solution to this?

[tony]

Anyone else with a solution to this?

Hi,
The combine a call is an interesting concept. I never really thought of running just one phone system. We have two parallel systems. A landline running 3 corded phones along with 2 cordless phone systems and an ATA running a corded phone plus 2 cordless handsets. People only have our landline number and incoming calls come in on that. For local outgoing we pick up a landline phone. For long distance, we pick up a phone on the ATA. I stopped using MJ some months ago as the call quality was not very good (it's since improved). I moved to using an ATA with a paid subscription. But the principle being a landline + Internet phone.

Just checked my voip.ms account. I've used about $10USD in 4 months. At this rate, my VOIP phone will cost $30 a year. And I use it for reliable business calls too, so not much different in cost than MJ over a year.

Anyways, have you thought of running 2 sets of phones?

[joe123]

Hi Tony.

The two phone concept wont go well in our house

If you have kids, that's one problem. Also, having two sets of phone and remembering which one to pick up for incoming verses outgoing calls can be, well, let's say a "challenge" even for me to remember.

I would have to have two sets of phones in very room and that's not going to fly very well with the wify either. Would look weird too

Until we can port our 20 year house number to VoIP, I am trying to find a solution. I thought combined-a-line was it, but it is not practical either.

As for the service you talked about, I am new to this so forvive my ignorance. Why do you pay extra for VoIP? I thought once you got the MJ unit, you don't need to buy any other service (other than the Internet connection we already have).

[tony]

As for the service you talked about, I am new to this so forvive my ignorance. Why do you pay extra for VoIP? I thought once you got the MJ unit, you don't need to buy any other service (other than the Internet connection we already have).

I have a home office and was looking for inexpensive long distance. I gave MJ a try for a year, including many of the tweaks discussed in these forums. I even got into thin clients which worked well most of the time. The quality for calls to friends and family was acceptable but wasn't sufficient to give that professional image I needed for a business. So I got into analogue telephone adapters (ATA) which is an adapter to connect a regular phone to the Internet. I'm finding the call quality equivalent to a land line and people can't tell I"m using voice over Internet. I've given one MJ away and have the second in my computer bag as a backup and hardly use it.

I can understand where you'd want one seamless phone system for ease of use. I'll have to leave it to others to come up with a solution. I can also see where you'd want the land line to work from any phone in an emergency. In our case, if a visitor picked up one of our phones, 911 wouldn't work which could have serious consequences (by the way MJ's 911 don't work in Canada either).

[joe123]

Well, looks like there is / was a box to do this after all.

It is called "AT&T 2-Line Switch"

Here is the Linky but expensive at 50 bucks
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/ ... dition=all

[Alpman]

A simple solution, really...What about changing your phone to a 2-line model. This would solve your problem and you could switch lines at anytime.

[tony]

A simple solution, really...What about changing your phone to a 2-line model.

I think the original poster wanted to pick up any phone in the house and outgoing calls would go out on the MJ line.....unless I'm missing something.

[joe123]

A simple solution, really...What about changing your phone to a 2-line model.

I think the original poster wanted to pick up any phone in the house and outgoing calls would go out on the MJ line.....unless I'm missing something.

Yes, exactly. Here is what I want to do.

One phone only using two telephone connections ( LandLine & VoIP ).

- Incoming calls are accepted from LandLine or VoIP.
- Outgoing calls are made on VoIP ONLY automatically.

This way using ONE Phone only, I can keep my current LandLine number paying the minimal setup and be able to use it for emergencies and to keep receiving calls on our 20 year old land line number. All outgoing calls are then made through the VoIP connection (and not the LandLine connection) to save money on long distance calls, etc.

I hope I am not the only trying to do this?

If there is an easier way of doing this, please let me know.

[finder216]

I'm another that wants to keep my phone number until the "coming soon" happens, but I don't want to pay out the nose to keep it. This is the cheapest number-parking service I've found:
http://www.parkmyphone.com/plans-rates.php

The only other option I've considered is T-Mobile pre-paid, which would be about $10 every three months, but there is a porting delay...not really sure what that's about.

Not meaning to hijack the thread...good luck!

[joe123]

Careful, in their fine print, they want 6 months minimum commitment.

Not that cheap...

[finder216]

joe123...guess what your saying is you really think MagicJack will having porting within the next 6 months? Really?

OK, all kidding aside, I'm going to hang on to my land-line until January and if MagicJack really does give us the ability to port to them, it will have been worth the wait (and the $24 I'll have spent on 2-months of service with my land-line provider).

[joe123]

joe123...guess what your saying is you really think MagicJack will having porting within the next 6 months? Really?

OK, all kidding aside, I'm going to hang on to my land-line until January and if MagicJack really does give us the ability to port to them, it will have been worth the wait (and the $24 I'll have spent on 2-months of service with my land-line provider).

No No NO!

Porting your Land Line to that web site parkmyphone.com, they want 6 months minimum comitment AND there is a one time charge. That's not cheap.

I don't know when Majic Jack, or TK6000 or Google will have porting of land line.

What I do know is that I am going with the TK6000 and Google to port my home phone if/when it's available.

[fala]

Thanks for the reply!

Yes, I checked with our land line carrier AT$T and all incoming is free.

Ok, so how do I do this? I have a Uniden DECT 6.0 system with 5 wireless phones. This is the only telephone system throught our house. One base, multiple wireless phones to the base.

Our land line currently connects to the Uniden base. Now that I have MagicJack, how do I connect both the land line and MJ to one base?

Is there some kind of a Y connector which only allows one phone system through at a time? Y would have to be a Y setup that lets the MJ connection out only and land line in only.

Is this possible?

It was clear from your post if you already own an ATA. However, in order to combine your VOIP (MJ) and your POTS line (AT&T), you need a Linksys/Cisco SPA-3102. You would plug your POTS line into the "LINE" port of the device and the base unit of your Uniden into the "PHONE" port. You can then setup your dialing plan for all outgoing to use the VOIP line (from any of Uniden phones). Incoming from either the POTS line or MJ line can also be answered from any of your Uniden phone with the proper setup. The SPA-3102 cost about $68 at Amazon!

I hope this helps....I have 3 of these units. There are older SPA-3000 that you can probably get for less (used), just don't get them from ebay if they are coming from Hong Kong.