magicJack and magicJack Plus Support, Reviews, FAQs and Tricks

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 2:01 am**

As you can see i am a newbie. My uncle had the same problem last night. I asked him to reset the ata and dump again the sip credential. Now, he is back online too.

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 2:04 am**

this is great and I am really happy there might be some hope, but can you still post what you have? It probably will not make a difference but you never know

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 2:13 am**

I think MJ is just playing around. Try it again sometime. It will work.

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 2:16 am**

for me look like mj have a new security to check for dongle, today my internet was down two time and that two time my password change.
I was able to get the info and putting in my ata device, and my innomedia work without a glitch.

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 4:20 am**

You can try other proxy. Maybe some proxies are not working

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 4:38 am**

I was using my mj on asterisk pbx and it went down last night, I updated sip with new password but no luck... here is the error message from asterisk log : chan_sip.c: Failed to authenticate on REGISTER to '[email protected]'

any ideas what's happening?

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 6:50 am**

As I posted previously - I'm not able use my ATA but I'm able to use the softphone without the dongle. So it appears that it's not looking for a dongle.

D

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 6:58 am**

I successfully upgraded my software using the dongle. I saw that the password changed, as well as my proxy (they added "proxy01" instead of "proxy1"). MJsuite v1.6 works just fine for me to grab my SIP credentials.

I updated my ATA (WRTP54G), got it to register, can receive calls, but all outgoing calls get a fast busy. I did not change my proxy (left it as "proxy1").

I think it is just a matter of time before I lose incoming calls too. It doesn't surprise me that MJ has found a way to force us to use the dongle.

I'm an intermediate-level user, I can set up the SIP and know my way around my ATA settings. But I don't have the experience to figure out how to get around MJ's latest upgrade.

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 12:44 pm**

I am dead too. PBX stopped registering with MJ around 9:30 PM CDT. Work up with morning with no work MJ for outbound or inbound and the PBX reports SIP registration failure.

I plugged in my MJ to get the software update and exacted the new credentials, put them into my Asterisk config and didn't work. Still can't register.

I hope someone figures out the changes that MJ made.

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 1:11 pm**

I've got the new credentials after the update, but cannot register. Same as most people on here. Whats going on?

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 2:12 pm**

Using Linksys RTP 300, just changed to new password and all appears to be fine.

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 2:40 pm**

Guys, remember - MJ uses SIP, so all they can examine and verify are the SIP packet headers. So if you can make your ATA/asterisk/whatever to generate exactly the same headers as MJ dongle does, it should work. The problem however is that in many ATAs, as well as in different VoIP softwares, you can't control certain headers, or can only control them to a point.

For example, REGISTER message sent by MJ dongle in response to authorization request looks like this:

Code: Select all

From: "unknown" <sip:[email protected]>;tag=14562541e5e2
To: <sip:[email protected]>
Contact: <sip:[email protected]:57022>
Call-ID: C0B599D96037466AB3840HG39SD316840xc0a80104
CSeq: 3 REGISTER
Expires: 0
Max-Forwards: 70
User-Agent: MagicJack/1.80.484a (SJ Labs)
Authorization: Digest username="EXXXXXXXXXX01",realm="stratus.com",nonce="*******_****",uri="sip:talk4free.com",response="f*************d",algorithm=MD5
Content-Length: 0

Notice the "Expires: 0". Someone on the other thread mentioned that setting "Registry Expires" setting on the ATA to 0 made it to successfully register again. MJ very well may be checking for the "Expires" header, and reject the registration if it's set to non-zero value. But not all ATAs allow setting it to 0, and when you specify defaultexpiry=0 for Asterisk, it will use default value - 120 - instead (unless you patch and recompile the Asterisk).

There could be other headers in INVITE packet as well that they can verify... Or they can check for a certain format of some headers, like "Call-ID" - there's no way that any standard SIP software or ATA will let you control the "Call-ID". Or they can use a non-standard way of encoding the userid/password... Anything...

Of course, it will make MJ a "non-standard" SIP provider, but they can easily do these kinds of checks by compiling a special patched version of Asterisk (I believe they use Asterisk) with these few extra checks included.

I do not know why not all users are affected the same way so far - but probably because they are gradually moving customers to a new system, and everyone will end up the same sooner or later.

So my point is that if MJ decided to fight the ATA usage, there's almost no chance to get it working again. If someone figures out all the MJ tricks, then probably there's a chance of patching Asterisk to work with MJ - but that would be hell of a work unless you're one of the Asterisk developers. And MJ can keep changing things every couple months making you to redo all that work...

Oh well, Im' due to renew for my 3rd year in a month. My dongle became unreliable since last November - it still works, but only sometimes. And since I can't use Asterisk any longer, I suppose MJ just lost $20/year from me...

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 3:05 pm**

I can confirm the above. Changing "registry expire to 0" on my PAP2, allowed me to successfully register, again.

But all is not well. Incoming calls go straight to voicemail, outgoing gets a fast busy.

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 3:09 pm**

But can you make/receive calls, or does that just get it to register?

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 3:10 pm**

Oh, maybe I should read the whole post

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 3:14 pm**

i did the same changed it to 0 on the softphone but no calls come in no outbound either

i am assuming that we are not getting the right password from the Stroth utility or something or might be some trick someone hopefully will figure out whats going on

my magicjack stopped working
i ran the credentials password was changed updated it on my ata everything working fine

but my uncle's and my dad's are not working
my dad's proxy is the same as mine and his password got changed and it wont register

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 3:29 pm**

teddy_b wrote:If someone figures out all the MJ tricks, then probably there's a chance of patching Asterisk to work with MJ - but that would be hell of a work unless you're one of the Asterisk developers.

It seems to me Dan could eliminate ATA usage if he wanted to. Simply by using times like these to identify failed authentications and terminate service. He used to terminate service 18 months ago. The threat of that kept a lot of people from trying an ATA.

Less draconian, it seems like the softphone could generate dynamic credentials. Like two-factor authentication.

1. At connection, receive from the provisioning server:
- Unique seed value for this connection.
- Heartbeat marker plus offset in seconds to next increment.

2. Every 30 seconds, the softphone increments the heartbeat marker (so the decimal value will match the server's).

3. For each re-authentication request (every 15 minutes?), the softphone generates a hash value using the unique seed and the incremented heartbeat marker. It sends that hash as the credential.

4. The server generates the same hash using the unique seed provided to the client, and 1) current marker value, 2) previous marker value, 3) next marker value (to account for time drift).

That wouldn't break the SIP protocol. But, it would require the server to be customized (assuming MJ uses Asterisk).

If an MJ user uses Asterisk as a client, they could modify it to simulate this softphone behavior.

But, the unique seed could be combined with some other unique (yet hard to find) piece of information during the prov1 handshake. Or, a "sub-key of the day" technique. One day it's your phone number. Another day it's your serial number. Another day your proxy IP address. Another day, two of those items joined together.

What's used could be signified by an ordinal value obtained from prov1, simply "encoding scheme." It could change with every connection.

MJ would just have to keep the unique seed and encoding scheme values on their server.

Of course, in the softphone these values (especially encoding scheme) should be stored in variables using non-descriptive names. "Last-Route-type". Something that wouldn't give away how the ordinal is used.

Mark

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 3:29 pm**

connecting4less wrote:i did the same changed it to 0 on the softphone but no calls come in no outbound either

i am assuming that we are not getting the right password from the Stroth utility or something or might be some trick someone hopefully will figure out whats going on

my magicjack stopped working
i ran the credentials password was changed updated it on my ata everything working fine

but my uncle's and my dad's are not working
my dad's proxy is the same as mine and his password got changed and it wont register

I find it really interesting that some people have managed to update and keep it working and others have not. I'm very curious to see whether those who have ATAs working lose that eventually, or whether those who have lost it are able to get it working once more.

In the meantime I've started researching other SIP providers, seems there's a dizzying array of available services, nothing in the same price range as MJ that I've found so far (as expected) but perhaps something out there is close. I don't need a lot of free minutes, just a reliable local number to receive incoming calls, with the ability to make outgoing calls that don't even have to be free/unlimited as I have unlimited evenings/weekends on my mobile phone.

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 4:05 pm**

I have two MJ's. One I bought in November and the other in April. Both have been updated.

I was using the November MJ's SIP info in my ATA and the the April's MJ's in Xlite. After the update I had to switch the ATA's SIP info with the newer MJ to get my ATA to work.

So either they haven't gotten to my newer number to make a change or they haven't monitor my account enough to determine that I'm using an ATA. I think it's only a matter of time.

I wouldn't mind using the dongle if it wasn't so unreliable. By using the ATA I had better sound and I never had a dropped call. I really don't think I can go back. I guess I'll have to start looking for other alternatives.

D

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 4:08 pm**

Subscribe

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 4:10 pm**

GregD wrote:Subscribe

???

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 4:18 pm**

Mr_Dasher wrote:I wouldn't mind using the dongle if it wasn't so unreliable. By using the ATA I had better sound and I never had a dropped call. I really don't think I can go back. I guess I'll have to start looking for other alternatives.

I'm not sure what an ATA device costs, but you can get a thin client for $60-$100. Or, redeploy an old, unused laptop and replace its hard drive with an ATA-to-CF flash adapter for $20-$40. The energy use between the two should be about the same (sitting idle most of the time, LCD not displaying).

Mark

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 4:27 pm**

mjsbz wrote:I've got the new credentials after the update, but cannot register. Same as most people on here. Whats going on?

Magicjack_utilites is not working to get the sip credentials anymore. Anybody knows another way to get them? Thanks.

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 4:28 pm**

I'm crying now! I just replaced my ata device 1 month ago cant return it now!

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 4:31 pm**

iyassin wrote:
mjsbz wrote:I've got the new credentials after the update, but cannot register. Same as most people on here. Whats going on?
Magicjack_utilites is not working to get the sip credentials anymore. Anybody knows another way to get them? Thanks.

Try more than once. SIP credentials are pretty much useless for us at this point.

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 5:10 pm**

they now reg. every 30 minutes(1800 seconds) instead of 15. Add "/lf logfile.txt" to the startup shortcut and check the logfile.

Ref:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/MagicJack/ ... ash_Screen

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 5:13 pm**

it still works for getting sip credentials, i had to change my time out from 3 to 7 to get it to work though

my pw changed and so did the user agent, but i still cant get my spa 2102 to reg

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 5:45 pm**

OK Dan:
You finally turned off ATA access even though you clearly have a unique service that people desire to use with an ATA. I, for one, would gladly pay $60.00 a year to use my ATA legally with MagicJack.

Now that you have it fixed so that you can differentiate subscribers who use the dongle from those using ATAs, please offer an ATA (byod) service to those who pay for a premium account.

A premium account would allow ATA use whereas a standard account would not. Use the technology you have developed to prevent cheaters from using ATAs on standard accounts.

Sincerely
DTM

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 6:09 pm**

would gladly pay $60.00 a year to use my ATA legally with MagicJack.

yep allot would

twice

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 6:40 pm**

domingo wrote:well lets start looking for patterns , where the devices unlocked or did they come unlocked from where they were purchased ?

My mj is working fine on an ata so I will try and help as much as I can.

It has been mentioned before, but if you could take print screens of all of your configuration menus for your ata, it would help.

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 6:41 pm**

I wouldn't pay $60 for their crappy service. I would rather buy a OOMA...

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 7:06 pm**

thisiskate wrote:I wouldn't pay $60 for their crappy service. I would rather buy a OOMA...

The service is only crappy when using the USB dongle. When it worked with an ATA, it was actually quite good. $60/year I'd pay. For me it's a secondary service, not really essential, I just prefer to hold a "real" phone than my cellphone when I'm around the house. $5/month is kind of the magic number for me, more than that and it's not really worth it.

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 7:08 pm**

Was excellent with ATA.

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 7:09 pm**

UncleRunkle wrote:
domingo wrote:well lets start looking for patterns , where the devices unlocked or did they come unlocked from where they were purchased ?

My mj is working fine on an ata so I will try and help as much as I can.

It has been mentioned before, but if you could take print screens of all of your configuration menus for your ata, it would help.

YES!

Lets post some screenshots please.

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 7:11 pm**

A $60.00-100 dollar a year premium plan that would allow BYOD users to use MagicJack might be very successful addition to MagicJack's service offerings. I don't think MagicJack can sustain itself on just the hardware margins. It is a novelty item that some people will use and others will dispose of because of the bothersome usage limitations that USB poses. Once the potential pool of buyers dries up and has been exploited where will the revenue come from? Will the revenue possibly come from advertisements that will be displayed on the softphone. I seriously doubt it! The problem with this type of advertising model is that it can be misleading if a company like MagicJack states for example that 1 million ads are viewed a day by users of their softphone. This may in fact be true but what about the percentage people who legitimately use MagicJack on a dedicated thin client or computer that does not even have a display hooked up to. I personally would not spend my companies advertisement budget on such inaccurate claims. If the market for such advertisement truly exists why have I only seen ads pertaining to MagicJack on the softphone. Where are the advertisements? One may reasonable assume that MagicJack is waiting until all the techical difficulties have been worked and they can respresent the highest user figures inflating ads served on the softphone to potential advertisers. I don't believe this to be the case. Also one must factor the overall health of our economy into the advertising revenue outlook as companies are not foolishly tossing large sums of money into untested advertising vehicles at this time.

The second factor is overall VoIP market is becoming more competitive with every tick of the clock. Sipgate has just announce a service called Sipgate One which offers free USA phone numbers with many free forwarding options. Google Voice when publicly launched will crush the majority of the VoIP service providers for two simple reasons they give a free USA phone number with free forwarding options and several mays to place free local and long distance calls. Who will need to pay if Google rolls out Google Voice in the seem way as they offered their free G-Mail service. If Google Voice is not limited and truly accessible to everyone this changes everything the voice communications market period. I hope big Dan the man understands this and is not taking on the persona of carnival side show salesman selling a bottle of magical elixir for the easy buck!

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 7:23 pm**

The thing with the ads has always made me wonder. I've never actually seen an ad for anything other than Magic Jack itself, but regardless of that, I always minimize the softphone when it pops up if I'm at the computer and the rest of the time I'm around the house on a cordless phone. Does *anyone* sit and look at their computer screen while talking on the phone? That alone has made me wonder from the start about the sustainability of the company.

Doesn't help that the all the advertising including the infomercial they have reek of carnival huckster sleaze that would undermine the image of even the best product. Anyone see that one where they're going on about regular price $69.95, on sale now for only $39.95, BS, it's been $39.95 anywhere you buy it, right from the start.

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 7:23 pm**

Interesting Development:

Change your register expires / session expiry setting on your ATA to 600. If this doesn't work try 0. They may be setting this differently for your setting. This seems to be how they are sorting ATA and non-ATA for now. Changing this on my ATA got incoming to work, BUT not outgoing. Just discovered this. I did some PMDump sniffing and found that this value for Session-Expires was previously different.

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 7:25 pm**

macman4hire wrote:A $60.00-100 dollar a year premium plan that would allow BYOD users to use MagicJack might be very successful addition to MagicJack's service offerings.

If it was just $40 a year it would be a 100% profit improvement without any loss due to advertisements. (They're not serving ads except those promoting MagicJack, which I'm sure Dan sees value in, but not like real revenue.).

Mark

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 7:51 pm**

Sipgate One looks brilliant! Thanks to whoever mentioned them!

I've just signed up for an account and will try it out when I get home. Looks like it will do everything I need. It lacks unlimited local calls but they're so cheap that it doesn't matter. Might even work out cheaper than MJ over the long run since I make relatively few calls. Funny, I no longer particular care about hacking my Magic Jack

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 7:59 pm**

james1095 wrote:Sipgate One looks brilliant! Thanks to whoever mentioned them!

I've just signed up for an account and will try it out when I get home. Looks like it will do everything I need. It lacks unlimited local calls but they're so cheap that it doesn't matter. Might even work out cheaper than MJ over the long run since I make relatively few calls. Funny, I no longer particular care about hacking my Magic Jack

This is exactly what Dan should be afraid of and try to avoid at all costs if he is truly in it for the long term and hopes to keep his company viable!

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 8:05 pm**

To bad they only have numbers for the 415, area code....

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 8:21 pm**

i signed up for sipgate one and entered my credentials in the ata made phone calls noone could hear me and can;t hear them but when i did the test call from the dashboard it rang my phone and it was a clear call

do you get unlimited incoming calls on sipgate one?

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 8:23 pm**

I too find the call quality to be much better with an ATA rather than the dongle or a thin client. Initially, finding the password and configuring the ATA was kind of fun and I really liked saving money. In fact, I used the second line on my ATA for the Gizmo VOIP service since I could use my Gizmo account with my Google Voice number. After recently losing what little money I had in Gizmo due to not adding more money before the 1-year anniversary and now with mj disabling the ATA, I finally decided to give up on all the cheap solutions and go with something more reliable. After mj's latest efforts, I went ahead and ordered a Ooma.

Although Ooma cost more initially, it seems to be hassle free and offers great voice quality. I don't know how they can stay in business any more than other VOIP companies, but I figured that Amazon, Newegg, Best Buy, and other large companies wouldn't be selling their product unless they were somewhat stable. I've reached a point where this is no longer a fun hobby and I now just want reliable phone service (and I'm sure my family will be happier as well). Between the mj dongle, thin client (which never worked that well for me), upgrades to the thin client, and the cost of the ATA, this became an expensive hobby. I've also never liked mj's advertising and how they treat their customers, which is why I stopped recommending them to others a long time ago.

I've learned a lot from reading these forums and I realize there are a lot of really smart people working this and helping others and I appreciate all of the help I've received. I wish you guys luck in finding a long-term solution for using the ATAs.

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 8:40 pm**

[quote="domingo"]well lets start looking for patterns , where the devices unlocked or did they come unlocked from where they were purchased ?

My mj is working fine on an ata so I will try and help as much as I can.[/quote]

Last night my ATA wan not able register after entering new password. I changed few things, cannot remember which one make it register. Now it can successes fully register but cannot make out going calls as some said on this thread. Incomming is fine. I did some analysis and if I am not mistaken, MJ is using a different password in Invite message. I can see it is being rejected as unauthorized. But registration message still goes through.
I would also belive, this password for Invite is/may change every time you startup MJ service using the secure communication with some web server. MJ askes for user username/password before dongle works using a webpage. I am not sure if anyone noticed it...

look_ahead.

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 9:04 pm**

look_ahead wrote:
domingo wrote:well lets start looking for patterns , where the devices unlocked or did they come unlocked from where they were purchased ?

My mj is working fine on an ata so I will try and help as much as I can.
My Ata was not working this morning. I unplugged my telephone from the ata and plugged the dongle into the computer, it took the upgrade and had me sign in with my username and password. After that the dongle started worked. I ran the stroth ultilites and found a new password, but I didn't change the version number in my ata. I did change the password though and it registrd fine and has been working fine since. If that helps anyone.

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 9:38 pm**

look_ahead wrote: MJ askes for user username/password before dongle works using a webpage. I am not sure if anyone noticed it...

look_ahead.

Yeah, this time around, they forced evry1 to validate their web username/pw in order to go through that "Lucky You" process unlike the update in December 08. Perhaps their tracking system was faulty/corrupted and they needed this info to extend SIP authentication.

At any rate, this is a sad day to see so many already looking at VOIP alternatives. I'm still hoping that there will be some kind of exploit to get the ATA working again. I'm already getting complaints from my family about random beeps, crappy audio, etc. The new OOMA Telo system looks interesting.

Synchron

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 10:05 pm**

The new OOMA Telo system looks interesting.

Synchron

I am not bashing OOMA but please be careful as $250.00 is not inexpensive for the OOMA device and service. If you get a years worth of service from OOMA you would paying about $21.00 a month for the service which I could live with. OMMA business model seems scarier to me than MagicJacks. I have listed some of my concerns below.

1. How will pay the taxes to FCC and Government Agencies (Universal Service Fund, 911 Recovery Charges, etc.) as OOMA clear provides voice communication using existing POTS network. Several of the larger VoIP service providers are already charging taxes to pay the FCC its cut of the pie.

2. If OOMA does not go out of business. What happens when your OOMA hardware fails? Do you have purchase a new device for $250.00? Not the seem as dropping $40 for a new MagicJack.

3. Do some research on how many companies promising goods or services for life are still in business. A great marketing ploy but often not economical feasible.

4. If your reading this thread you probably already invested in an ATA device and there a boat load of inexpensive VoIP service providers out there.

Anyways just looking out! Good luck on what ever you decide.

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 10:56 pm**

If MJ did one thing it was introduced me to the wonderful world of VOIP.

But time to move on.

Now I like using VOIP with an ATA so I will be looking for an alternative to MJ. In Canada I can get an number in my area code and free North American long distance for about 10 dollars a month with no contracts. It may be more expensive than MJ but I'm sure more reliable. I also think that as time goes on VOIP is going to be come even more competitive and in turn cheaper. There's even a company in Canada that will give you a free local telephone number that you can use they're softphone with or they will sell you a SIP account for life for $50.00 one time charge. By the end of this year I'm sure MJ won't be the only kid on the block.

For now I have the novelty of having an American numbers in L.A. and New York. I'll just forward them to my new home number.

D

D

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 11:10 pm**

How about we start a new thread for people whose ATAs are still working and compare notes. Perhaps we can find something in common?

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2009 11:28 pm**

Ok who is connecting to what proxy thats a start

I use the Chicago one
and I was prompted with the web authentication ..

I am a asterisks user

I have done nothing othere then stop my trunk and plug in my mj just now.. will test when i have more time tommorow..

so tell me you

proxy
and what you use ata and type or asterisk
and if it works..

magicJack and magicJack Plus Support, Reviews, FAQs and Tricks

UH OH! - No more ATA?

password change every time you disconnect ata

Got incoming working, but no outgoing

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Magicjack_utilities

Re: Magicjack_utilities

An open letter to Dan

Interesting Development

Think mj is using two passwords

Re: Think mj is using two passwords