ikeandcj wrote:When I do the resistor fix I can make calls but I can't receive calls.
When I call my MJ from my cell, the soft phone pops up and then it disconnects??
Hi, I know this was posted a long time ago but its my first time here. I'm a professional phone service technician of 9+ years and I can tell you exactly what is going on.
Ok so what is what we call a "ringing short". Name is self explanatory. The technical details are as follows. When a phone is not ringing, being used or not, it sits with about -48v and 30ma . But when it rings the phone goes to a simulated alternating current of roughly 120v, the alternating is what made the old bells ring with the bell solenoid forced in quick opposite directions. Now everything is electronic bells but how they are activated remains the same. Ok now Snafu i appreciate your ingenuity but this "fix" is really a bad idea. Whether your phone service comes from the phone company or off a magic jack, they have to power your phones the same way. I havent broke out my meter yet on the MJ's output and listened to the CID data burst after the first ring yet to know whats preventing it from working yet, though i probly will soon because mine just goes to 1 base phone with a multi handset. What i do know is that a perfect phone line to me has over a 3.5meg tip to ring short (thats the resistance between the red and green wires, or solid/stripe depending on your wiring), and over a 3.5meg tip to ground and ring to ground (thats each individual wires resistance to earth). And any short below 1 mega ohm is capable of producing static. And if you introduce a 100k short to your phone network then your lucky if never hear the static then I would say thats because the MJ is probly a little underpowered and the electrons are not jumping that 100k gap. But when the phone rings, that first ring has enough power to jump that gap, in some cases. That jump completes the circuit thereby technically answering the call itself and soon as that happens the ringing stops because it sees the short, assuming it was answered, but since you actually have not yet gotten to the phone and its still on hook the call terminates itself thinking it was hung up as soon as it was answered.
I hope I was able to dumb this down enough for everyone. The problem with knowing how to do this stuff is the people you normally talk about it with also do the same job and its really not a easy thing to put into simple terms. If anyone has questions please email me directly at
[email protected]. I'm not much of a forum checker unless its something im investigating for myself so I probably will not be checking replies, I just hope this helps some of you. The one downside of this kind of service is you have to be your on support, and if you do not have the training, a small problem could be difficult for you. I'll look into the CID issue, but my gut feeling without checking it yet, is a lack of power, milliamps specifically, from the MJ to push the data pulse to your phones. I'm having the same issue so if i get around to finding a non damaging solution I'll post again.
One last thing, there is an old saying "If it works, don't fix it". So if this fix works for you great! I wouldn't recommend it but it does not cause permanent damage and is easily undone. Just keep in mind if you experience a "ringing short" don't blame the MJ, blame that resistor first, and if thats not it. check your cordless phones first, then fax/sat. receivers and alarms second, and finally hard wired phones last for the cause. Because most shorts are caused by customer equipment and all it takes is 1 to be the problem to knock all of your phone devices out. Again, email me if anyone experiences any other issues they can not find answers to. I'll be happy to help.
C.I.D. ON MAGICJACK ASS WITH THE 100K RESISTOR DOES NOT WORK!
I went thru all the fixes I tried the resistors this worked but had other problems like not hanging up I also bought a powered hub ,but after all the hours on with MJ tech support 2x they make like this never happened before They told me to get a new phone like a panasonic. I told them it can be done I will let them know when I figure it out "its going to be a long night"... 
I figured a way to do this I used a old caller ID box in line with the uniden cordless phones and everything works perfect This takes the extra power from the ringer and thus no resisitors are needed.It goes from the MJ to the caller ID to the uniden and the ID works perfectly on the phones.Im sure you can use an old corded phone in the line as well. 