didn't know where to post this question, been reading and couldn't find the answer.....
I'm thinking about jumping into getting MJ, my brother already has it, however I'm skeptical about needing a pc running all the time.
I heard that if you have a gizmo like the Linksys (those installed by Sunrocket...now Teleblend) you can configure the gizmo with all the MJ configuration to bypass the MJ usb hardware...
MagicJack is a USB device for making or receiving phone calls. It runs on Windows XP/Vista or Mac machines. You don't need to run a computer all the time, only if you want to make or receive a call. If you search this forum, you will find that using an ATA such as Linksys is limited at best, requires much work, and probably against the Terms of Service.
maine-iac wrote:You don't need to run a computer all the time, only if you want to make or receive a call.
right......but.....it wouldn't make sense to boot up the pc just when you know you want to make or receive a call, so if I want to buy this to replace my other voip phone (Teleblend) then it is obvious that a computer should be running all the time....
anyway to avoid this?
would it be possible to connect the device directly to the usb port of the router ?
maine-iac wrote:You don't need to run a computer all the time, only if you want to make or receive a call.
right......but.....it wouldn't make sense to boot up the pc just when you know you want to make or receive a call, so if I want to buy this to replace my other voip phone (Teleblend) then it is obvious that a computer should be running all the time....
anyway to avoid this?
would it be possible to connect the device directly to the usb port of the router ?
No, it is not possible to connect the device directly to the usb port of the router. The magicJack relies of software (the softphone) that runs on your PC, in conjunction with the actual device.
Technically, it is possible to run the MJ service on your old Teleblend/sunrocket ATA, but that is a clear violation of the magicJack Terms of Service
When (if) a Linux version of the software becomes available it might be possible to build this to work on one of the Linux routers that are available (most routers are Linux machines). But at this point we don't know when the linux software will appear and we don't know what it will look like when it is delivered.
I also agree that having to run your PC all the time to have phone service is a major draw back to this device. In part because my machine even with the displays turned off and the CPU is idle draws almost 200 watts. That works out to about $0.72/day or 262.80/year just for electricity! Yikes. It would be much cheaper to buy a low end low power consumption device to attach this to. Unfortunately this currently requires Windows and it will cost more for Windows than for the low end hardware needed to support this. Again a linux solution solves that problem since you could very likely build a low power consumption linux box to be your phone server and this could also be your router and print server at the same time.
