A new project/hack using the MJ

Gerry_52 · Post by **Gerry_52** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 8:16 pm

It might be because I'm bored...I've been out on workmans comp with a shattered shoulder for a couple of years, or because I'm a ham radio kinda guy and can't leave well enough alone, but this little MJ is intriguing and I NEED to bust it open and reconfigure it somehow.
I recently retired my old Dell Lattitude C600 750MHz, 1 Gig of ram, 60 Gig HD, USB 2.0. I was wondering what I could do to it, kinda as an experiment to just give me something to do. The MJ was sitting next to the computer and as I was looking at the laptop I noticed the RJ11 jack on the side of it and commented to myself how long it has been since I used a RJ11 jack to get on the internet. OK, so to make a long thought process short...I think I'm going to install the MJ in the computer and use the RJ11 jack built into the laptop as the connector for the MJ. I am familiar with SMD's, wave soldering etc. I have opened up the laptop and there is room to put the MJ board in there. Power consumption shouldn't be a problem, however RFI may be.
I use a Sprint Wireless card to get on the internet, so all I would need to carry would be a small handset or a headset to be able to receive and make calls on the laptop. Any comments? I like to get some feedback before I start on the project.
Thanks,
Gerry
kc0cat

kumar · Post by **kumar** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 8:20 pm

It will void your Dell's warranty....And if you are still in waranty, you don't wanna void it....Dells suck...
kumar

LikeMagic · Post by **LikeMagic** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 8:28 pm

Dell C600 is an old beast

why would you want to integrate the "state of the art"

MagicJack device into a relic?

How about trying to integrate MJ into the Asus Eee PC? Here are some Eee mods

kumar · Post by **kumar** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 8:36 pm

@LikeMagic
you don't have to worry abt the laptop falling and ripping off the USB, but i guess he doen't have to worry about warranty. Cant you just wait until they all you to use an ATA?
pEace
Kumar

Gerry_52 · Post by **Gerry_52** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 8:38 pm

LikeMagic wrote:Dell C600 is an old beast why would you want to integrate the "state of the art" MagicJack device into a relic?

Why? Because I can!

Gerry_52 · Post by **Gerry_52** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 8:41 pm

kumar wrote:@LikeMagic
you don't have to worry abt the laptop falling and ripping off the USB, but i guess he doen't have to worry about warranty. Cant you just wait until they all you to use an ATA?
pEace
Kumar

Nope! Can't wait...need something to do that will keep me busy for a while.

Gerry_52 · Post by **Gerry_52** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 8:50 pm

Same topic, different thought. I would bet that 3 or years from now you will be able to order a laptop with a MagicJack installed. You can get Bluetooth, Wi Fi, broadband internet boards installed in a new laptop...why not have a telephone line that looks like a POTS line to most telco appliances built into your laptop as well. Wireless internet will become faster and more commonplace supporting a robust system for MJ to operate on. Seems logical to me...what do you think?

Gerry
kc0cat

LikeMagic · Post by **LikeMagic** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 9:03 pm

Three years seem too long in today's fast moving technology age. I'd say in about a year, some laptops would have MJ installed as a standard feature. And your cell phones would have dual modes: cell phone mode and MagicJack (interface) mode

I think it's good idea for cell phones (with their existing bluetooth interface) to talk to MagicJack (needs bluetooth interface). It's going to be a big sell to people!!!

Gerry_52 · Post by **Gerry_52** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 9:18 pm

LikeMagic wrote:Three years seem too long in today's fast moving technology age. I'd say in about a year, some laptops would have MJ installed as a standard feature. And your cell phones would have dual modes: cell phone mode and MagicJack (interface) mode

I think there has to be a synergy between the two primary technologies, one being the MJ, it will need to spend some time maturing, getting the bugs worked out, the customer service up to par etc. Then there is the wireless broadband coverage and speed that needs to come up just a bit more before the MJ will be stable on the cellular network >95% of the time. People have a hard time dealing with technology that doesn't work properly out the door every time without exception. To many people "properly" means how they envisioned the technology would work, which may have nothing to do with how the technology was designed to work. Mesh technologies will help tremendously in the future contributing to a more stable network. However, you may be correct as to the timeline, but I'll comprimise at 2 years if Dan and his group are on their game.

testing123 · Post by **testing123** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 12:09 am

LikeMagic wrote:Dell C600 is an old beast why would you want to integrate the "state of the art" MagicJack device into a relic?

How about trying to integrate MJ into the Asus Eee PC? Here are some Eee mods

If you know HOW MANY articles I see on the eee .... what is the deal w/ this thing??? Folks are surely in love with it.

kumar · Post by **kumar** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 12:15 am

Three words....

they are cheap....

Peace
Kumar

P.S you can pick one up cheap at new egg....only $299 anyone know if they are any good?

LikeMagic · Post by **LikeMagic** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 12:40 am

testing123 wrote:
LikeMagic wrote:Dell C600 is an old beast why would you want to integrate the "state of the art" MagicJack device into a relic?

How about trying to integrate MJ into the Asus Eee PC? Here are some Eee mods

If you know HOW MANY articles I see on the eee .... what is the deal w/ this thing??? Folks are surely in love with it.

Eee is the "Mini Cooper" of notebooks. People are drawn to it 'cause it's ... small

I wouldn't mind having one just to run Linux on it ... my other Linux box, in a microATX case, is huge by comparison

LikeMagic · Post by **LikeMagic** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 12:46 am

kumar wrote:Three words....

they are cheap....

Peace
Kumar

P.S you can pick one up cheap at new egg....only $299 anyone know if they are any good?

$299 now? Hmmm, very tempting

Gerry_52 · Post by **Gerry_52** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 12:53 am

Well, if you want to send me an Eee laptop I'll give it a shot, but I have been on workman's comp for 2 years and still can't go back to work, so for now I'll have to work with what I've got and if I fry this older laptop no biggie, I already have a new laptop that has replaced it. Also there are size constraints and in that Eee I'll just bet that things are real tight inside it. I'd also have to buy a different broadband wireless card because the Eee doesn't have a PCMCIA slot as I remember. It would be a fun project down the road though.

digitalnomad · Post by **digitalnomad** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 12:22 pm

I think Gerry_52 is just having some fun and making it a project computer. Heck, try slipping Asterisk in there and make it a portable pbx. Take your phone company with you.

Here is a video on it, kinda off topic, but fun nevertheless...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... &plindex=8

Gerry_52 · Post by **Gerry_52** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 12:38 pm

Sounds like an interesting addition to the current project. I'll give them a watch. Exactly the type of information I was looking for. I am involved in emergecy communications from the radio side, laptops that can give us other means of communications will be highly desirable. Thanks!

digitalnomad · Post by **digitalnomad** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 1:27 pm

Yep. People keep banging their heads on this board trying to interface with cellular. I know, I am one of them.

I am starting to think "screw that", and just get a wi-fi enabled phone and slap Asterisk in a lappy. Should work in most cases.

Then grab a landline or cellphone when it doesn't. Ha

testing123 · Post by **testing123** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 2:20 pm

digitalnomad wrote:I think Gerry_52 is just having some fun and making it a project computer. Heck, try slipping Asterisk in there and make it a portable pbx. Take your phone company with you.

Here is a video on it, kinda off topic, but fun nevertheless...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... &plindex=8

Interesting. Have you used WiFi phones at all? Interested in hearing the experience.

I have used fring on the cell phone, but the quality sucked.

Gerry_52 · Post by **Gerry_52** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 2:22 pm

I'm a Blackberry fan, I've been looking at the new Curve, it has Wi-Fi although from some of the reports, I think the Wi-Fi portion may not be ready for prime time. I'll give them a few more months to iron out the bugs. It will be fun to play with especially since I carry my hotspot with me in my vehicle by using a router that accepts my sprint wireless card. I'm using the Kyocera KR 1 router in the house and in the car.

testing123 · Post by **testing123** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 2:27 pm

Gerry_52 wrote:I'm a Blackberry fan, I've been looking at the new Curve, it has Wi-Fi although from some of the reports, I think the Wi-Fi portion may not be ready for prime time. I'll give them a few more months to iron out the bugs. It will be fun to play with especially since I carry my hotspot with me in my vehicle by using a router that accepts my sprint wireless card. I'm using the Kyocera KR 1 router in the house and in the car.

Ha ha, you sir are hard core ... so no need to wardrive huh? You just carry the hotspot around with you.

strndedinalska · Post by **strndedinalska** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 2:36 pm

I can already see how this is going to play out. He'll do it successfully. Next, he'll use it somewhere and someone will see his idea then run to the patent office and make billions. In the meantime, he'll get sued for patent infringement and have to go back to work at Wal-Mart so he can at least eat soup after the lawyers carry off everything but the kitchen sink. That's the American way.

I think he's onto something because I've wondered the same thing myself. It would make the device easy to carry, not the least cumbersome, and be a wonderful addition to any laptop or even a desktop model.

Gerry_52 · Post by **Gerry_52** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 2:41 pm

Wardriving used to be fun. Need to check your email, just pull off down any street in a residential area and within one minute you would find several open networks. Just pick one, download your email and move on. I'm sure it is the same now a days, but with having a Blackberry with push email and a mobile hotspot I take with me and the ability to check email using my ham radio from just about anywhere in the world my days of wardriving are pretty much over. However, my Pringels cantenna is still in the back of my vehicle...just in case!

testing123 · Post by **testing123** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 2:46 pm

Gerry_52 wrote:Wardriving used to be fun. Need to check your email, just pull off down any street in a residential area and within one minute you would find several open networks. Just pick one, download your email and move on. I'm sure it is the same now a days, but with having a Blackberry with push email and a mobile hotspot I take with me and the ability to check email using my ham radio from just about anywhere in the world my days of wardriving are pretty much over. However, my Pringels cantenna is still in the back of my vehicle...just in case!

Got any pics/links (i.e., Ham access)? You already know, I love this link.

Gerry_52 · Post by **Gerry_52** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 4:23 pm

The ham radio system is called winlink 2000. Winlink home page

dbarber · Post by **dbarber** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 5:22 pm

digitalnomad wrote: Here is a video on it, kinda off topic, but fun nevertheless...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... &plindex=8

From the video; "If terrorists are capable of detonating an IUD... (he meant IED)". I've had girlfriends where I wished I could detonate the IUD! Besides, I didn't think that terrorists believed in birth control!

Now back to your original programming.

Donn

Gerry_52 · Post by **Gerry_52** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 6:52 pm

The information in the video was good, however the guy is a paranoid conspiracy theorist type guy and he thinks he is way more important than he really is. It's funny the way he keeps saying that Bush is tapping all these phones. Bush doesn't have the time or know how to tap a phone and every administration since there were phones and threats has tapped phones. But now I have a better understanding as to what asterisk does. Is it available for Windows?

digitalnomad · Post by **digitalnomad** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 10:20 pm

Yep, Asterisk is "Linux only", and I wasn't trying to make a political statement about wiretapping...just thought the video explained the power of Asterisk pretty well, and there are not very many videos on Asterisk.

Although I will comment that the current administration is pushing for new legislation to stretch these powers. You have to search for it folks, cause it don't make the nightly news for a reason. If you are part of the "you should not worry, if you have nothing to hide" crowd, then you are buying into the misinformation program, hook, line, and sinker.

Back to the scheduled programming...

Actually, the best bet would be to install Asterisk in a clean cheap new box, and run it as a server to call into for call handling. I was kind of joking about running it on a laptop, but you could do that as well. You can even run it on a tiny Linux project computer like Picotux or Gumstix. I have not done this...just researching it for some time.

People I know in Telecom and VoIP say that Wi-Fi and WiMAX are going to be a big deal, and already is in Europe and Asia. We just don't here about it, because the rest of the world is ahead of us, and we are stuck with 3-4 closed networks, instead of one universal standard (GSM), open devices, and a lot of competitive service providers.

China is already deploying 4G in Shanghai. http://www.slashphone.com/74/6379.html

Here is a link to a more in depth video on Asterisk (kind of long). Lots of good informational links all in one place.
http://digital-nomads.blogspot.com/2007 ... k-and.html

kumar · Post by **kumar** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 11:03 pm

Easier and cheaper and less power method is get a Fon and flash it with dd-wrt theres some asterisk stuff with it....or just use mysipswitch....poo is doing the fon thing....but i have't been in contact for like 2 weeks or so...
Peace
Kumar

Gerry_52 · Post by **Gerry_52** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 11:17 pm

What is a Fon?

LikeMagic · Post by **LikeMagic** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 1:11 am

Here's FON!

Gerry_52 · Post by **Gerry_52** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 1:41 am

LikeMagic wrote:Here's FON!

I actually have one of those. I used to have it setup at the house, but since I rewired things I haven't set it back up. So, what can I do with it and where can I read about it?

kumar · Post by **kumar** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 12:22 pm

Well according to poo[xxx] I think that if you install DD-WRT you can use it as a an asterisk box. So what this means is you can point your ATA or softphone to the Fon's IP address and in the fon you can enter in call of the sip info (i think up to 20+ services). I am interested in trying this, but want to see if anyone else tried this before. I don't know here poo is at right now. Maybe he will show up in this thread

Also I can't find anything on the asterisk part of dd-wrt, BUT here is how you flash your fon to dd-wrt firmware. Warning: I am no responsible for any bricks because i gave you the link
Peace
Kumar

http://uselesshacks.com/?p=23

EDIT: you may wanna check http://openwrt.org/ and dd-wrt.com for the firmware

digitalnomad · Post by **digitalnomad** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 12:58 pm

This sounds like a lofty and worthwhile project. My question is "Have you tried it, and does it work?" The cost of the router is not bad, but does it work...

Yes, it would be helpful to know in making a decision. Does this interfere with any other wireless routers you might have set up, like a Linksys, Belkin, etc.?

testing123 · Post by **testing123** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 1:07 pm

digitalnomad wrote:This sounds like a lofty and worthwhile project. My question is "Have you tried it, and does it work?" The cost of the router is not bad, but does it work...

Yes, it would be helpful to know in making a decision. Does this interfere with any other wireless routers you might have set up, like a Linksys, Belkin, etc.?

Wow, when did YOU become a skeptic?

LOL

kumar · Post by **kumar** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 1:12 pm

I can get ya hooked up with a fon for $13 with the fontenna...
Kumar

digitalnomad · Post by **digitalnomad** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 1:36 pm

Kumar,

How do I complete the transaction with you. where do I send the money for the router? Send me a pm, please...

Gerry_52 · Post by **Gerry_52** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 2:24 pm

I've had this FON wireless access point for about 2 years. It is a wireless access point only. I say only because on the back of it there is 1 RJ45 jack. The jack is used to connect this tiny wireless access point to your router. I wonder if this is still the access point they are currently supplying. Does anyone have one? The sticker on the bottom lists the units MAC address, a S/N and the part number, which is WiFi Model FON2100A/B/C.

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A new project/hack using the MJ

A new project/hack using the MJ

$13 FON