Renew regular Majic Jack, or switch to MJ Plus?

KidJoe · Post by **KidJoe** » Thu Jan 05, 2012 3:00 pm

My Magic Jack account is coming up for renew... I always liked the idea of not having to keep the PC on, so the MJ+ is interesting.

I use it as a 2nd phone line for when my wife and I both work from home. However the MJ is connected to my personal PC, not my work one (so the personal PC needs to be on while I'm working)

The current MJ works pretty good, however sometimes with large data transfers going on (i.e. Lotus Notes replicating), I do experience some choppiness in the MJ.

Is the MJ+ a good option instead of renewing my current MJ?

I missed the 1/2 price offer email, it says expired now. so I'd likely have to pay full price for the MJ+

bitstopjoe · Post by **bitstopjoe** » Thu Jan 05, 2012 3:42 pm

KidJoe wrote:My Magic Jack account is coming up for renew... I always liked the idea of not having to keep the PC on, so the MJ+ is interesting.

I use it as a 2nd phone line for when my wife and I both work from home. However the MJ is connected to my personal PC, not my work one (so the personal PC needs to be on while I'm working)

The current MJ works pretty good, however sometimes with large data transfers going on (i.e. Lotus Notes replicating), I do experience some choppiness in the MJ.

Is the MJ+ a good option instead of renewing my current MJ?

I missed the 1/2 price offer email, it says expired now. so I'd likely have to pay full price for the MJ+

You will experience the same choppiness with the Plus as it is a bandwith issue. As you are D/L'ing you will hear the choppiness as you are U/L'ing the party to whom you are calling will hear most of it. By setting up QOS ( Quality Of Service) in your router ( if it supports it) will help with the issue.
Bottom line, if your orig MJ is working well, why try the Plus? Unless of course you buy it locally, try it and if you like it better, keep it. If not, bring it back.
To me if you didnt get the 1/2 off price seems like a waste of money, of course that is up to you. Don't forget it costs 10$ more a year to renew the Plus. Also a lot of pople seem to have problems between their router and the Plus ( it doesnt like them all). If keeping your PC on for the orig MJ is a problem, just forward your MJ number to another phone while it is off.

Just my 2 cents.

cell14 · Post by **cell14** » Thu Jan 05, 2012 8:43 pm

The nice thing on MJ is the very low price. IMO the expenditures for the new dongle plus the $ 10.50 extra a year are not warranted. If you want to spend more money, there are better options.

KidJoe · Post by **KidJoe** » Fri Jan 06, 2012 11:23 am

bitstopjoe, Yup, I realize its a bandwidth issue... so when its choppy, I usually stop everything I can.

Forwarding MJ to another line when PC off would be fine, except I use the MJ for calling out more than in-coming.

I'm using a Netgear WNR3500 with DD-WRT. I've tried to setup QOS for this PC using MJ, it didn't seem to help, but its possible I set it up wrong. Then again, QOS setup for UMA with my T-Mobile BB 9780 works.

I guess I'll just renew my current MJ for one more year...

bitstopjoe · Post by **bitstopjoe** » Fri Jan 06, 2012 2:13 pm

I am not sure if you can one of these as they no longer make them. I can d/l and u/l with no effect on my VIOP. It is called a Hawking BB1 ( Hawking Broadband Booster, HBB1). It is a hardware QOS device and it works great. It goes between your moden and router. It gives priority to your VOIP packets and even using Bit-torrent I have no choppiness at all.
You might see if you can find one on Ebay or if you are lucky on your local Craiglist ( unlikely though)

KidJoe · Post by **KidJoe** » Thu Jan 12, 2012 6:43 pm

well, now it seems that the rates for the regular MagicJack go up effective Jan 20.. 29.99 per 1yr... (ad that showed in the MJ software on my PC)...

mjplus2000 · Post by **mjplus2000** » Thu Jan 12, 2012 7:21 pm

KidJoe wrote:well, now it seems that the rates for the regular MagicJack go up effective Jan 20.. 29.99 per 1yr... (ad that showed in the MJ software on my PC)...

Oh boy. Let the fun begin. God for bid mj grandfathers all the original users.

bitstopjoe · Post by **bitstopjoe** » Thu Jan 12, 2012 7:39 pm

I was only renewing mine as a backup for my Obi and Google Voice. I guess come this Aug and 4 years of using MJ I won't be renewing if they raise their renew rates for the Orig MJ.

cell14 · Post by **cell14** » Thu Jan 12, 2012 9:13 pm

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 6:39 pm Post subject:
I was only renewing mine as a backup for my Obi and Google Voice. I guess come this Aug and 4 years of using MJ I won't be renewing if they raise their renew rates for the Orig MJ

I just spent 15 minutes with MJ chat. First they declined a price increase, but later they admitted that an increase is coming . The renewal fee for the standard MJ will be 29.99.( plus that mysterious 4.8%)

It is highly unlikely that I will be renewing my remaining MJ once the time is up. I will get for my mom an Obi before she goes overseas in May. Maybe they will have the new Obi version ready so I can give her mine and get the new one which will allow for more providers/lines.

arnold35 · Post by **arnold35** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 8:06 am

IF I RENEW MY MJ WILL MY TWO YEARS I HAVE LEFT BE ADD TO THE FIVE I PURCHASE AS LONG AS I STAY WITH THE OLD MJ?

cell14 · Post by **cell14** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 12:25 pm

IF I RENEW MY MJ WILL MY TWO YEARS I HAVE LEFT BE ADD TO THE FIVE I PURCHASE AS LONG AS I STAY WITH THE OLD MJ?

Maybe. Contact their customer " service". better like 3 times, because they have the tendency to give different answers every time you ask.
But you have to be a heck of an optimist if you believe that your MJ dongle will work in seven years or that the service will even be available in the same form!

old vic · Post by **old vic** » Tue Jan 17, 2012 3:48 pm

Given that the MJ+ doesn't work, better stick with the old one.

Why waste money on a new widget that doesn't work any better than the old one.

vic

Paul777 · Post by **Paul777** » Tue Jan 17, 2012 8:33 pm

I've had two MJ+ working flawlessly since November. I realize different people may have different setup (routers, modems, etc), but mine work perfectly.

Melman · Post by **Melman** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 11:08 am

My magicJack was up for renewal in October 2011 the same time the new MJ+ became available. Since I had a good connection using the original MJ, I had decided to purchase the MJ+ in October 2011 instead of renewing my original MJ and port my MJ number to MJ+. My experience has been flawless and excellent and my MJ+ works much better then the original MJ. Most users here are posting problems with their MJ or MJ+ and I think it is more related to their computer setup, router and ISP issues.

MelMan
Windows 7
Hawking HBB1
Netgear Router WNDR 3400
ISP Comcast

cell14 · Post by **cell14** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 2:02 pm

Most users here are posting problems with their MJ or MJ+ and I think it is more related to their computer setup, router and ISP issues.

That is certainly (partially) true but there are many issues specific to MJ. I am with MJ since Nov 2008 and there are reasons why I am gradually disengaging and moving on to other providers.

magicJack and magicJack Plus Support, Reviews, FAQs and Tricks

Renew regular Majic Jack, or switch to MJ Plus?

Renew regular Majic Jack, or switch to MJ Plus?

Re: Renew regular Majic Jack, or switch to MJ Plus?

WILL MY TWO YEARS I HAVE LEFT BE ADD