MJ works great after blocking over-used proxies

hsweiss · Post by **hsweiss** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 1:52 pm

I just wanted to report that since I've blocked the over extended NY and LA proxies, the voice quality of MJ calls has become essentially indistinguishable from land-line toll quality. Screeches and tone noises have gone away as well as the "dreaded" echo.

My MJ has a New York City phone number and was "homed" on the NYC proxy. We suffered from miserable echo on calls to the home area code (718) and also adjacent (516) area codes. The only saving grace was the *67 dialing tweak which made the calls decent but not great.

I have recently created a .bat file containing routes to the NY and LA proxies which are rat-holes on WinXP. That is, I have packets destined to those two proxies (and their associated vms1 machines) routed to my networked HP printer which has no idea what to do with them and promptly drops them into the bit bucket. MJ then appears to go through a list of alternate proxies to SIP register and make calls. Using Wireshare I have seen calls being made through Philly, Cleveland, and Houston - but those are the only ones I've seen since I don't run Wireshare all the time.

What I have determined is that any proxy other than NY and LA work great - or at least better than those two. (At first I only "blocked" the NY proxy and found my way to the LA proxy which was equally as bad as NY.)

az2008 · Post by **az2008** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 2:24 pm

hsweiss wrote:That is, I have packets destined to those two proxies (and their associated vms1 machines) routed to my networked HP printer which has no idea what to do with them and promptly drops them into the bit bucket.

Just as an FYI to those who may read the above, that's only necessary for if you run Vista. You can route to a non-existent LAN address if you use XP.

Mark

Darkman90808 · Post by **Darkman90808** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 3:28 pm

You can route to a non-existent LAN address if you use XP.

Can you post how this is done, or point to where it's been posted before? I thought that with the "upgrade" last year, the host file was no longer used, so there was no longer any control over proxies. TIA

az2008 · Post by **az2008** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 4:21 pm

Darkman90808 wrote:
You can route to a non-existent LAN address if you use XP.
Can you post how this is done, or point to where it's been posted before? I thought that with the "upgrade" last year, the host file was no longer used, so there was no longer any control over proxies. TIA

See the wiki FAQ "how can I find/change my proxy" (in the hack's subsection).

It's a little bit kludgy because some people report having to block their vms server. There are some problems with doing that. Especially when you receive a call that would have come from the vms server you blocked. You receive the call, but hear nothing. Two more calls to your number go to voice mail. Then, it finally rings your phone again and you hear the voice. But, the next incoming call might go back through that process of no voice, voice mail twice, then voice.

I only experimented once with blocking vms servers, and receiving an incoming call.

It would have been less disruptive if Dan had just continued to use hostnames.

Mark

hsweiss · Post by **hsweiss** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 5:25 pm

az2008 wrote:
hsweiss wrote:That is, I have packets destined to those two proxies (and their associated vms1 machines) routed to my networked HP printer which has no idea what to do with them and promptly drops them into the bit bucket.
Just as an FYI to those who may read the above, that's only necessary for if you run Vista. You can route to a non-existent LAN address if you use XP.

Mark

Mark - I am running XP and if I routed to a non-existent address it would NOT work. When I route to an existing address (i.e., an IP address on my internal LAN with a live machine at that address), it works.

hsweiss · Post by **hsweiss** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 5:33 pm

Darkman90808 wrote:
You can route to a non-existent LAN address if you use XP.
Can you post how this is done, or point to where it's been posted before? I thought that with the "upgrade" last year, the host file was no longer used, so there was no longer any control over proxies. TIA

This does not use the host file. First, using Wireshark I found the vms and proxy I was connecting to (default was proxy1.newyork.talk4free.com and vms1.newyork.talk4free.com). So I created a .bat file that I can click on after the system reboots - or it can be put in the autoexec.bat if you want it executed automatically - which changes the routing as such:

route add 216.234.64.12 mask 255.255.255.255 192.168.1.253 metric 1

which blocks vms1.newyork.talk4free.com.

Adding

route add 216.234.64.8 mask 255.255.255.255 192.168.1.253 metric 1

blocks proxy1.newyork.talk4free.com

To block others, just do an nslookup on vms1.cityname.talk4free.com and proxy1.cityname.talk4free.com. E.g.,

nslookup proxy1.houston.talk4free.com

which results in an IP address of 67.88.84.6 and add the route to that address as above.

You can check that the routes were inserted using

"netstat -r"

and you should see the IP address you blocked.

Darkman90808 · Post by **Darkman90808** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 5:37 pm

Thanks to both of you... I can't work on it till this evening, but I'll try it out. Muchas gracias, as we say in L.A.

az2008 · Post by **az2008** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 7:48 pm

hsweiss wrote:I am running XP and if I routed to a non-existent address it would NOT work. When I route to an existing address (i.e., an IP address on my internal LAN with a live machine at that address), it works.

Thanks. I think you mentioned that before but I forgot. Are you running SP3? It's strange that I don't have that problem (behavior) running SP2.

There is a way to use ipsec in Windows and then use the iptables rule to drop the packet (described on the wiki). But, I haven't tried it. That might be a solution if someone doesn't have a live IP address on their LAN.

Mark

mberlant · Post by **mberlant** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 8:32 pm

For what it's worth, you can make the exact same routing table tweaks in any DD-WRT router.

hsweiss · Post by **hsweiss** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 10:34 am

az2008 wrote:
hsweiss wrote:I am running XP and if I routed to a non-existent address it would NOT work. When I route to an existing address (i.e., an IP address on my internal LAN with a live machine at that address), it works.
Thanks. I think you mentioned that before but I forgot. Are you running SP3? It's strange that I don't have that problem (behavior) running SP2.

There is a way to use ipsec in Windows and then use the iptables rule to drop the packet (described on the wiki). But, I haven't tried it. That might be a solution if someone doesn't have a live IP address on their LAN.

Mark

I am still running SP2 on the box w/MJ.

Boondocs · Post by **Boondocs** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 8:47 am

mberlant wrote:For what it's worth, you can make the exact same routing table tweaks in any DD-WRT router.

I'd like to know how to do this.

I tried the fix listed above an in the wiki with much success. I was getting a lot of echo calling local numbers and by blocking some of the heavily populated proxy's it made the calls much better. I was even able to increase the mic volume almost all the way up which is a huge plus. Thanks guys

mberlant · Post by **mberlant** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 1:46 pm

I am running Version 24 SP1, so things might be a little different with another version.

Go to the Setup / Advanced Routing tab. On that page you will see two main sections. The top section is where you tell the system that it is a gateway router. The bottom section is where you enter your special routes.

You have twenty slots available for putting these routes. In this case, we are going to use some routes to dead-end proxies we don't like, so the softphone seeks out the ones we do like.

"Select set number:" is where we choose which of our 20 slots to program. As you program slots and give them names, those names will show up between the parentheses for that slot number. So, choose an available slot to begin. All of the entries will be blank or zero to begin. Enter the IP address of the proxy you want to block in "Destination LAN NET", or if you want to block a range of addresses, you can do that. Next, for a single address, enter 255.255.255.255 as the "Subnet Mask". For a range of addresses, put in the appropriate value. In "Gateway" put in either a live address of a device on your LAN or a dummy address within your LAN's subnet numbering space.

Now, when a request goes out to the undesired proxy server it will not get where it should and the MJ softphone will walk down the proxy list to the one you want.

Good luck.

Boondocs · Post by **Boondocs** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 4:48 pm

mberlant wrote:I am running Version 24 SP1, so things might be a little different with another version.

Go to the Setup / Advanced Routing tab. On that page you will see two main sections. The top section is where you tell the system that it is a gateway router. The bottom section is where you enter your special routes.

You have twenty slots available for putting these routes. In this case, we are going to use some routes to dead-end proxies we don't like, so the softphone seeks out the ones we do like.

"Select set number:" is where we choose which of our 20 slots to program. As you program slots and give them names, those names will show up between the parentheses for that slot number. So, choose an available slot to begin. All of the entries will be blank or zero to begin. Enter the IP address of the proxy you want to block in "Destination LAN NET", or if you want to block a range of addresses, you can do that. Next, for a single address, enter 255.255.255.255 as the "Subnet Mask". For a range of addresses, put in the appropriate value. In "Gateway" put in either a live address of a device on your LAN or a dummy address within your LAN's subnet numbering space.

Now, when a request goes out to the undesired proxy server it will not get where it should and the MJ softphone will walk down the proxy list to the one you want.

Good luck.

Thanks man I will try it out and let you know how it works for me.

hsweiss · Post by **hsweiss** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 7:30 pm

I had been running MJ on a motherboard-based USB 1.1 port, but this old box only had 2 USB ports. I was having problems with all the other USB devices on a non-powered hub plugged into the other USB port. Sometimes plugging in a flash drive would work, sometimes not, Likewise with my digital camera.

So either I was going to buy a powered hub or a USB 2.0 PCI card. Turns out, I was able to get a USB PCI card with a VIA chip set for less than $7 on eBay (with free shipping) and the same card was also available from www.dealextreme.com for just under $8 (also free shipping). In either case, it was cheaper to buy a PCI card than a powered hub and this way I upgraded to USB 2.0 and got 5 USB ports (4 external, 1 internal).

I popped in the card and XP found the new hardware, loaded it as a USB 2.0 device and we were off to the races. I plugged the MJ into the new USB 2.0 slot (which I could do w/o the MJ-provided extension cord as I need before) and wow - not only did it work fine but now the volume is almost deafening if I leave my phone on the same settings as when using the old USB 1.1 port. Calls are now louder on both ends and also much clearer. I'd suggest this as a definite good (and cheap) upgrade path if you are in the market for a powered hub.

Boondocs · Post by **Boondocs** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 1:18 pm

Boondocs wrote:
mberlant wrote:I am running Version 24 SP1, so things might be a little different with another version.

Go to the Setup / Advanced Routing tab. On that page you will see two main sections. The top section is where you tell the system that it is a gateway router. The bottom section is where you enter your special routes.

You have twenty slots available for putting these routes. In this case, we are going to use some routes to dead-end proxies we don't like, so the softphone seeks out the ones we do like.

"Select set number:" is where we choose which of our 20 slots to program. As you program slots and give them names, those names will show up between the parentheses for that slot number. So, choose an available slot to begin. All of the entries will be blank or zero to begin. Enter the IP address of the proxy you want to block in "Destination LAN NET", or if you want to block a range of addresses, you can do that. Next, for a single address, enter 255.255.255.255 as the "Subnet Mask". For a range of addresses, put in the appropriate value. In "Gateway" put in either a live address of a device on your LAN or a dummy address within your LAN's subnet numbering space.

Now, when a request goes out to the undesired proxy server it will not get where it should and the MJ softphone will walk down the proxy list to the one you want.

Good luck.
Thanks man I will try it out and let you know how it works for me.

BTW it worked great!! Thanks

tony · Post by **tony** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 1:28 pm

mberlant wrote:For what it's worth, you can make the exact same routing table tweaks in any DD-WRT router.

I'm wondering if I can do something similar with a Linksys WRT150N router with the stock firmware? I'm looking at a page in the setup called Internet Access Policy. Seems I can set up a policy and indicate an application name, ports it uses and block certain URLs. And I can specify which PC (or TC) it will apply to. Seems promising. I'll experiment and report back. For me this is easier than the route using wireshark etc. If anyone else has tried this, how'd it work?

My MJ number is 646 NY number. Can I assume I'm also using the NY proxy?

az2008 · Post by **az2008** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 1:30 pm

tony wrote:My MJ number is 646 NY number. Can I assume I'm also using the NY proxy?

The wiki how-to explains how to find (and change) your proxy. Changing your router's access policy isn't the same thing.

Mark

tony · Post by **tony** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 1:39 pm

az2008 wrote: The wiki how-to explains how to find (and change) your proxy. Changing your router's access policy isn't the same thing.
Mark

Thanks Mark,
I've got a TC running the MJ. I tried finding out the proxy, but the pmdump won't write the dump file to the Z: drive for some reason so I can't tell which proxy I'm using. I haven't had time to do any more testing. I'd say half the time my calls are indistinguishable from a land line, the other half, the connection is not usable, but I don't know how each call will turn out when I dial so I haven't been using the MJ as much lately -- mostly to my wife and that's just a local call which I could have done on the landline . I'm hoping switching proxies will help improve the calls.

tony · Post by **tony** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 1:45 pm

tony wrote:I'd say half the time my calls are indistinguishable from a land line, the other half, the connection is not usable,

Update. Since posting the previous message, my call quality has gone back to being excellent again meeting or exceeding land line quality according to people I call. I haven't changed anything on my part. Life is good.

hsweiss · Post by **hsweiss** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 10:49 am

For the 1st time in the year that I've had MJ I made a MJ-to-MJ call yesterday and the other end was in the mid-east. The call quality was as if they were sitting next to me. I was astounded.

tony · Post by **tony** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 11:32 am

tony wrote:Update. Since posting the previous message, my call quality has gone back to being excellent again meeting or exceeding land line quality according to people I call. I haven't changed anything on my part. Life is good.

Spoke too soon, made a call Sunday morning on MJ but the connection was very broken up. I hung up and called back on a landline. Have to figure out how to get the thin client to do a pmdump to a file so I can try changing proxies.

[update]. Calls Monday Feb 16/09 are un-usable too.

pagemen · Post by **pagemen** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 1:30 pm

tony wrote:
tony wrote:Update. Since posting the previous message, my call quality has gone back to being excellent again meeting or exceeding land line quality according to people I call. I haven't changed anything on my part. Life is good.
Spoke too soon, made a call Sunday morning on MJ but the connection was very broken up. I hung up and called back on a landline. Have to figure out how to get the thin client to do a pmdump to a file so I can try changing proxies.

check here:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/MagicJack/ ... le_proxies

tony · Post by **tony** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 3:20 am

tony wrote: I've got a TC running the MJ. I tried finding out the proxy, but the pmdump won't write the dump file to the Z: drive for some reason so I can't tell which proxy I'm using.

The thin client won't write to the Z: or C: drive. I finally plugged in a USB memory key and wrote to that. I can get a dump now.

tony · Post by **tony** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 3:39 am

az2008 wrote:
tony wrote:My MJ number is 646 NY number. Can I assume I'm also using the NY proxy?
The wiki how-to explains how to find (and change) your proxy. Changing your router's access policy isn't the same thing. Mark

Hi,
I'm still trying to block access to the NY and LA proxies. I found an area in my WRT150N router setup called "advanced routing" with fields as Mberlant described.

I entered
Destination LAN IP: 216.234.64.8
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.255
Gateway: 192.168.1.253 (no device at that address)
Interface: LAN & Wireless

I also tried a gateway of 192.168.1.102 (another PC at this address)

In both instances when I try dialing, the call goes back to dialtone. It's 11:30 PM here and 2:30 AM in NY, I don't think the lines are busy.

Will try again tomorrow. Anybody have any tips? I'm damned and determined to get my $2/month's worth!

hsweiss · Post by **hsweiss** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 10:32 am

I have found that if I block access to a server while MJ is running, I have to restart it to get around the goes-back-to-dialtone problem. Sometimes I have to restart it a couple of times. Or sometimes I have to reboot the machine because even removing the MJ and reinserting doesn't clear the problem.

tony · Post by **tony** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 12:27 pm

hsweiss wrote:Sometimes I have to restart it a couple of times. Or sometimes I have to reboot the machine because even removing the MJ and reinserting doesn't clear the problem.

Thanks for the tip re: rebooting the PC/thin client. I had to restart 3-4 times.

I tried redirecting to both a device on my network and to an address where there was no device (192.168.1.253). This is Windows XP embedded. Things seemed to work redirecting using the router's advanced routing table (WRT150N) to 192.168.1.253 where there is no device. Doing a ping to 192.168.1.253 on my network results in a time out.

Below is an excerpt from pmdump. Seems I'm using the Washington DC proxy now instead of the NY proxy. Correct?

v=0
o=- 1844796583 1844796583 IN IP4 67.90.177.70
s=ENSResip
c=IN IP4 67.110.56.203
t=0 0
m=audio 20914 RTP/AVP 0 13 101
a=fmtp:101 0-15
a=ptime:30
a=rtpmap:0 PCMU/8000
a=rtpmap:13 CN/8000
a=rtpmap:101 telephone-event/8000
a=sendrecv

Here's the table from the WiKi sorted by IP address which makes it easier to look up IP addresses. Note the IP addresses may change, consult the Wiki for the latest table. http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/MagicJack/ ... le_proxies

64.1.213.70 proxy1.sanfrancisco.talk4free.com
66.104.81.70 proxy1.phoenix.talk4free.com
66.104.96.198 proxy1.columbus.talk4free.com
67.106.133.198 proxy1.newark.talk4free.com
67.107.71.134 proxy1.dallas.talk4free.com
67.107.82.70 proxy1.austin.talk4free.com
67.108.236.70 proxy1.saltlakecity.talk4free.com
67.109.32.70 proxy1.sacramento.talk4free.com
67.110.56.198 proxy1.stlouis.talk4free.com
67.111.250.134 proxy1.baltimore.talk4free.com
67.111.81.6 proxy1.sandiego.talk4free.com
67.88.10.198 proxy1.cleveland.talk4free.com
67.88.11.6 proxy1.pittsburgh.talk4free.com
67.88.183.70 proxy1.minneapolis.talk4free.com
67.88.208.198 proxy1.portland.talk4free.com
67.88.218.6 proxy1.seattle.talk4free.com
67.88.84.6 proxy1.houston.talk4free.com
67.90.152.70 proxy1.nashville.talk4free.com
67.90.16.6 proxy1.tampa.talk4free.com
67.90.177.70 proxy1.washington.talk4free.com
67.90.80.134 proxy1.lasvegas.talk4free.com
67.91.177.70 proxy1.detroit.talk4free.com
67.91.233.134 proxy1.boston.talk4free.com
67.91.96.134 proxy1.memphis.talk4free.com
71.5.113.6 proxy1.philadelphia.talk4free.com
71.5.91.70 proxy1.chicago.talk4free.com
207.155.164.198 proxy1.denver.talk4free.com
216.234.64.8 proxy1.newyork.talk4free.com
216.234.70.8 proxy1.losangeles.talk4free.com
216.234.78.8 proxy1.atlanta.talk4free.com
216.234.79.8 proxy1.miami.talk4free.com

tony · Post by **tony** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 12:43 pm

pmdump can show you a list of running processes and the associated PID number. At the command line run:

pmdump -list

Mark, for the Wiki the command above can replace step 3 in Preparation where you use Task Manager to find the PID number. In Final Steps, there can be a new step 1.

1. Using the DOS (command) window and PID as described above, execute: pmdump -list
From the list find the PID number for the process magicjack.exe and substitute the number for {pid} below.

2. Using the PID number from step 1, in the DOS command window run
pmdump {pid} mj_dump.txt

hsweiss · Post by **hsweiss** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 12:50 pm

It seems to me that using pmdump is way too hard - Wireshark is much easier to find out which proxy you're using. I run it on the same machine on which I have MJ installed (but its not a TC). I just fire up a capture session and make a call. I watch the SIP connection and then the RTP packets and then do an nslookup of the IP address to whom my packets are going.

tony · Post by **tony** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 1:04 pm

hsweiss wrote:It seems to me that using pmdump is way too hard - Wireshark is much easier to find out which proxy you're using.

Agreed, pmdump is a bit of hassle to use. I just downloaded wireshark. Installation takes 89 MB of space. It may not fit on TC's with smaller storage capacity whereas pmdump is 40 kb in size and runs from the command line (i.e., not installed). So there are two tools, depending on resources you have. I'll try wireshark on my desktop.

az2008 · Post by **az2008** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 2:12 pm

hsweiss wrote:It seems to me that using pmdump is way too hard - Wireshark is much easier to find out which proxy you're using. I run it on the same machine on which I have MJ installed (but its not a TC). I just fire up a capture session and make a call. I watch the SIP connection and then the RTP packets and then do an nslookup of the IP address to whom my packets are going.

I use Tomato's QoS graph/details page. It takes 10 seconds.

Mark

tony · Post by **tony** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 3:01 pm

az2008 wrote:I use Tomato's QoS graph/details page. It takes 10 seconds. Mark

Good tip. I checked and my Linksys router provides a log of incoming and outgoing connections under "Administration". I make a test call on the MJ and I can see what address it goes to. Definitely Washington now and not New York. Yes, much faster and I can access the router set-up from any PC on the network so can easily check which proxy server I'm using. Thanks!

free2talk · Post by **free2talk** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 4:33 pm

I did this on my xp sp2 notebook "route add XXX.XXX.XX.XX (whatever LA proxy ip i got from pmpdump) mask 255.255.255.255 192.168.1.253 " to a non existent IP on my LAN , restarted mj but when i make a call it directly goes to dial tone.What am i missing ?

I am in LA area code and gotta do this.The quality is very iffy.
Thanks for the help.

tony · Post by **tony** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 2:40 am

I'm getting the same results (I'm visiting and don't have access to my host's router, and anyways I don't want to mess with his wifi router). Have blocked the NY proxies but calls are going back to dialtone. I'm on a notebook with XP SP3. Have now deleted that routing.

Using route, can we just route to the desired proxy instead of blocking it? In other words intercept the NY (or LA) address and re-route to some other less used proxy? So instead of putting up road blocks, just lead the packet to the desired destination?

mberlant · Post by **mberlant** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 5:13 am

This was the preferred method before MJ changed the way the softphone targets the proxy server. Before, they targeted the server by its domain name. Now they target by the IP address. When they targeted by domain name it was easy to put an entry in the PC's HOSTS file to redirect that call to a different IP address than a normal DNS lookup would return. That option is closed to us now.

az2008 · Post by **az2008** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 12:27 pm

tony wrote:Using route, can we just route to the desired proxy instead of blocking it?

You have to block the addresses you don't want MJ to connect to. Just follow the instructions on the wiki how-to. The order of addresses an individual MJ connects to is the same as the list of proxies you're instructed to obtain (in that how-to).

Some people have to go further because they find that MJ connects to vms servers from the same region as the blocked proxy(ies). You have to block a proxy, restart, make a phone call, and then follow the how-to instructions to see which vms server was used for the call.

Some people also find they can't route to a non-existent IP address within their LAN. In that case it will continue to connect to the undesired proxy(ies). "Pagemen" described a solution for this, but I didn't understand it well enough to put it in the MJ wiki.

Mark

hsweiss · Post by **hsweiss** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 12:32 pm

free2talk wrote:I did this on my xp sp2 notebook "route add XXX.XXX.XX.XX (whatever LA proxy ip i got from pmpdump) mask 255.255.255.255 192.168.1.253 " to a non existent IP on my LAN , restarted mj but when i make a call it directly goes to dial tone.What am i missing ?

I am in LA area code and gotta do this.The quality is very iffy.
Thanks for the help.

You have to restart the MJ *after* you block the proxies. Sometimes you have to restart twice. I have also had the problem that "soft" restarts (from the advanced user menu) don't solve this but killing MJ entirely from the task manager and then clicking on the MJ icon on the desktop (which unfortunately takes a few min to restart because you have to watch the "a minute for savings" crap) will fix this. Apparently the software is "fixated" on the old proxy and won't try another one.

az2008 · Post by **az2008** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 12:45 pm

hsweiss wrote:but killing MJ entirely from the task manager and then clicking on the MJ icon on the desktop

If there is a concern about it picking up the old proxy, I would recommend the "safely remove hardware" and *NOT* killing the magicjack.exe process. When the hardware is safely removed it informs the process to shut down, and it gracefully informs the proxy that it is doing so. When the process is abruptly killed (from task manager, the tskill command or reboot), it doesn't communicate to the mothership. This leads to problems where calls to your phone number ring 6 times instead of going directly to voice mail. (The server doesn't know you went offline).

Therefore, it stands to reason that the client itself may not know its own condition when it restarts.

Unfortunately for those of us who use the dongleless method, we don't have a choice. We have to kill it. And, I've not experienced any problem with it refusing to "failover" to the next proxy.

hsweiss wrote:(which unfortunately takes a few min to restart because you have to watch the "a minute for savings" crap)

That can easily be fixed by following the "bypass the splash screen" instructions described on the wiki how-to.

Mark

hsweiss · Post by **hsweiss** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 5:06 pm

az2008 wrote:
hsweiss wrote:but killing MJ entirely from the task manager and then clicking on the MJ icon on the desktop
If there is a concern about it picking up the old proxy, I would recommend the "safely remove hardware" and *NOT* killing the magicjack.exe process. When the hardware is safely removed it informs the process to shut down, and it gracefully informs the proxy that it is doing so. When the process is abruptly killed (from task manager, the tskill command or reboot), it doesn't communicate to the mothership. This leads to problems where calls to your phone number ring 6 times instead of going directly to voice mail. (The server doesn't know you went offline).

Therefore, it stands to reason that the client itself may not know its own condition when it restarts.

Unfortunately for those of us who use the dongleless method, we don't have a choice. We have to kill it. And, I've not experienced any problem with it refusing to "failover" to the next proxy.

But the tech chat dweebs always ask you to just pull out the dongle - let alone ask you to reboot your machine. I certainly agree that its "kinder and gentler" to poke the process in shutting down nicely. But it should not affect anything because upon re-registration, the calls "should" resume to come in normally. Unfortunately I have never tested this because I use MJ primarily for outbound calls and in fact I have the inbound calls always forwarded to my Verizon land-line (I still do not have the confidence in MJ to break my ties with Ma Bell). At least in my case, the dongle is plugged in the back of my machine down low and rather than crawl under the desk (and then have the headache of trying to put it back in the USB slot w/o a flashlight), its a lot easier to just kill the process.

Under UNIX/Linux, a 'kill' tells the process to clean up and exit whereas a 'kill -9' just terminates. I don't know if there is an equivalent in Windows that would provide the same service?

mberlant · Post by **mberlant** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 6:09 pm

hsweiss wrote:But the tech chat dweebs always ask you to just pull out the dongle - let alone ask you to reboot your machine.

As we all have been reminded so often, the MJ softphone writes something too the dongle about once every 3 seconds. As some have mentioned, this is possibly a gambit at expediting planned obsolescence, since flash memory has a limited write lifetime. Similarly, flash memory is susceptible to memory space corruption if it loses power while a file is open for writing. It is quite possible that whoever wrote the scripts that the chat folks use know this and intentionally gave this instruction in order to hasten the demise of the dongle.

az2008 · Post by **az2008** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 6:20 pm

hsweiss wrote:it should not affect anything because upon re-registration, the calls "should" resume to come in normally.

That's true. I'm just saying that, if I were experiencing the condition you and the other guy described (where it seemed stuck to a proxy even when it's blocked, I would exit MJ the standard way (unplug it or "safely remove hardware). Just killing the process may contribute to the problem because I've seen that leave the previously used proxy thinking you're still online (for about 15 minutes, presumably when the softphone is supposed to re-authenticate but doesn't.).

Regarding chat support telling customers to unplug the MJ, for the point I'm making it doesn't matter whether the device is unplugged or "safely removed." Both actions give the softphone a chance to contact the mothership, signaling that it is going offline.

I just always say "safely remove hardware" because unplugging it seems like a guaranteed way to corrupt the flash drive.

Mark

jcteck88 · Post by **jcteck88** » Thu Apr 01, 2010 1:44 am

If i want to re route my calls to a different server, how would I do that with Windows 7?

Thanks in advance!

Jeremy

hsweiss · Post by **hsweiss** » Thu Apr 01, 2010 4:22 pm

jcteck88 wrote:If i want to re route my calls to a different server, how would I do that with Windows 7?

Thanks in advance!

Jeremy

Sorry I don't have access to a Win7 machine. But I somewhat doubt that they changed the "route" command. Try it - open a command window (aka, a DOS box) and try the "route add...." commands from the 1st message of this thread and see if the commands are accepted. BTW, nothing permanent or destructive will occur - routes are not permanent unless you make them permanent. A reboot will flush any temporary routes. Also, you can make the same sort of routing changes in your router and not worry about it in Win7. I originally had a .bat file to add the routes in my XP machine. But I decided that it was easier and more reliable if I did it in my FiOS Actiontec MI424WR router using essentially the same syntax as the DOS "route add" commands.

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