bandwidth

[ejg528]

This might sound like sort of a silly question, but I'll ask it anyway.

Does anyone know how much bandwidth the MagicJack / MagicJack Plus uses? I should ask this in 2 parts, actually - how much bandwidth when it is on but the phone is not on a call, and how much bandwidth when it is on and the phone is on a call (presumably the latter would use more bandwidth than the former)?

I ask only because my cable company does cap my monthly bandwidth allowance, and I'm sure MJ uses very little bandwidth compared to the cap, but I'm still curious anyway.

If anyone has the answer(s) or even better can provide a way to test this ourselves, I'd love to hear it. Thanks!

--ejg528

[black_icon]

MJ uses at least 128 kb/s for both upload and download regardless of the activity of the MJ/phone.

Remember: MJ doesn't work on Satellite and dial up connections

[ejg528]

MJ uses at least 128 kb/s for both upload and download regardless of the activity of the MJ/phone.

Remember: MJ doesn't work on Satellite and dial up connections

That is an excellent point, black_icon - and also a reasonable deduction! Thanks!

--ejg528

[greenman]

Granted, this is a home phone, and we do maybe 10 or 15 calls a day sometimes for hours, sometimes only for a few minutes, so your mileage may vary...

EDIT: (My bad - wrong IP... Fixed now... )
So far, this month, our traffic for the magicJack alone is:
Download: 118.66MB
Upload: 115.11MB
Total:233.77MB

That's smaller than most any video you might watch on hulu -- about 5 forty-five-minute albums-worth of mp3's at better-than-CD quality. If you're filling a CD with data, it would be about a third of a CD.

Of course this is for the magicJack plus alone just for this month so far.
Even extrapolating out for the rest of the month it's only 334 MB. Less than a third of a GB in a month.



I was able to use the magicJack plus with very few problems when we were on an AT&T 1.5Mb/s down and 256kb/s up DSL line. It only suffered a little when my wife was viewing a youtube video.. and didn't suffer at all if she was listening to online radio or we were both casually surfing the web. Of course there are limits, but this was a relatively reliable stable connection DSL connection - not U-Verse and the mJ+ was still surprisingly clear. (Our neighborhood is so old we don't get anything else from phone DSL, even if we are less than three miles from the CLEC as the poles run.)

Now that we have Charter, it's 15Mb/s down, 3Mb/s up. We can both be watching a video and get a magicJack phone call and a skype call at the same time. The magicJack bandwidth is only a tiny drop in the bucket.

[ejg528]

Thank you very much for that detailed analysis, greenman!

I think your final point sums it up - that the MagicJack bandwidth is only a tiny drop in the bucket - both for purposes of how much bandwidth one is using at any given time (well, if you have a nice high-speed cable connection) as well as for total capping purposes if your "unlimited" data plan isn't really unlimited (sounds more like a cell phone plan I realize!).

All of this helps confirm my suspicions that using MagicJack or MagicJack Plus hooked up to a computer and/or router 24/7 shouldn't adversely affect most high-speed connections/limits.

Thanks again!

--ejg528

[fjawodfc]

MJ uses at least 128 kb/s for both upload and download regardless of the activity of the MJ/phone.

Where did you get that information? My router bandwidth monitor shows 80 - 90 Kbps downstream and 80 - 90 Kbps upstream while on a call.

[greenman]

MJ uses at least 128 kb/s for both upload and download regardless of the activity of the MJ/phone.

Where did you get that information? My router bandwidth monitor shows 80 - 90 Kbps downstream and 80 - 90 Kbps upstream while on a call.

I find a similar throughput for the floor, but when you consider the floor and ceiling, it may help to make sure you've got at least 128kbps up and down to guarantee less jitter. Perhaps some could get by with 80 up 90 down, but this quick call made to a local movie theater shows what might be typical for transmit and receive floor and ceiling values.

[SteveHC]

Just to confirm and throw my 2 cents in:

It's true that MJ uses a mere 80-90 Kbps when on a call (and virtually nothing when NOT on a call). Even so, audio and general call quality can be affected by qualities or aspects of one's Internet service beyond just it's "speed," as well as issues related to one's router and the use of other equipment and services on one's LAN while engaged in a call.

RARELY, a router's (or other type of access point device's or Ethernet switch's) internal settings might force it to consume significantly more than 80-90 kbps. But this is extremely rare and should never be the case but it is *theoretically* possible.

[doug900]

MJ uses at least 128 kb/s for both upload and download regardless of the activity of the MJ/phone.

Remember: MJ doesn't work on Satellite and dial up connections

Magic Jack plus works great on satellite, as long as you have Exede satellite internet. The only downside is a 1/2 sec latency. However, it doesn't work on the old WildBlue satellite system. I have been using MagicJack plus for over a year on Exede. Loving the $20/year, instead of $55/mo ma Bell!