HP Thin Client and Magic Jack

Heritage227 · Post by **Heritage227** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 11:27 pm

Hi All,

I bought a Magic Jack about a Month ago and the darn thing has worked perfect from the onset.

I didn't want to leave my computer on all of the time, But I wanted the phone so I went to eBay and Bought a used HP Thin Client.

I never even heard of a Thin Client before but came across them on a google search.

It arrived yesterday and was locked out with Admin and User passwords. It also was set up as some kind of Kiosk unit.

I was a little upset at first but then went to HP's site and downloaded the Newest XPe Flash file.

Put in a 1 gb USB Flash drive in my computer, Double clicked on the .exe and then clicked on Make a Bootable USB image.

Set the Thin Client to boot from USB in the bios.

Took the USB Flash drive out of my Computer and put it in the TC and Hit the start button.

I couldn't believe how easy it was. I just sat back and watched as Windows XPe SP2 was reflashed into the TC.

After all was said and done, I hooked up the MJ to the TC and BAM !!! Telephone.

I think I called everybody I know to see how it would work and I have to say I'm really happy with it.

Just wanted to pass this on.

P.S. Good site to learn about TC's

http://www.ediblesites.com/HpT5710ThinC ... tAppliance

gooney · Post by **gooney** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 11:44 pm

Heritage227 wrote:Hi All,

I bought a Magic Jack about a Month ago and the darn thing has worked perfect from the onset.

I didn't want to leave my computer on all of the time, But I wanted the phone so I went to eBay and Bought a used HP Thin Client.

I never even heard of a Thin Client before but came across them on a google search.

It arrived yesterday and was locked out with Admin and User passwords. It also was set up as some kind of Kiosk unit.

I was a little upset at first but then went to HP's site and downloaded the Newest XPe Flash file.

Put in a 1 gb USB Flash drive in my computer, Double clicked on the .exe and then clicked on Make a Bootable USB image.

Set the Thin Client to boot from USB in the bios.

Took the USB Flash drive out of my Computer and put it in the TC and Hit the start button.

I couldn't believe how easy it was. I just sat back and watched as Windows XPe SP2 was reflashed into the TC.

After all was said and done, I hooked up the MJ to the TC and BAM !!! Telephone.

I think I called everybody I know to see how it would work and I have to say I'm really happy with it.

Just wanted to pass this on.

P.S. Good site to learn about TC's

http://www.ediblesites.com/HpT5710ThinC ... tAppliance

how much did you buy it for?

Heritage227 · Post by **Heritage227** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 1:26 am

Hi Gooney,

I paid $85.00 for the TC on eBay.

You can usually find them for under $100.00 there.

HolmanGT · Post by **HolmanGT** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 3:15 am

Heritage227,

Does it have a regular Ethernet port or is it coaxial, what speed it the Ethernet? Does it have a USB port?

And last but not least would you mind posting a link to the eBay shop you purchased yours from?

Thanks

PS - Obviously it has a USB port or your one of those kind of guy that will stick it any hole he finds. (that's a joke for the sane). Also would you explain this "Put in a 1 gb USB Flash drive in my computer, Double clicked on the .exe and then clicked on Make a Bootable USB image." Double clicked what EXE? Oh ya and a link to the XPe thing you downloaded.

I don't mind telling you you have me really excited about this does your look like the picture in the link you posted - As Will would say "I gotten get me one of these"

Sorry you have me so excited about this thing that I am not sure my questions even make sense to me - sorry for the lack of clarity.

Heritage227 · Post by **Heritage227** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 11:00 am

Hi HolmanGT.

I'll try to answer your questions the best that I can.

The Thin Client has a built in 10/100 ethernet card that uses a standard cat 5 connection.
Mine has 6 USB 2.0 ports. 2 in the front and 4 in the back. ( HP Model # T5720 )

Just type in HP Thin Client in eBay and you'll see a whole bunch of the come up.

Here's an example : http://cgi.ebay.com/HP-COMPAQ-T5700-THI ... dZViewItem

I would suggest trying to get a Model T5700, T5710 or T5720. that has XPe sp2 on it
Atleast that's what I narrowed it down to when I bought mine.

Explain >>> I have a 1 Gig USB 2.0 Flash drive that I plugged into one of the USB ports on my computer.

The link to the XPe Flash is in the link at the bottom of my original post.
Click it then go to the botom to.....How to reinstall or update the operating system.

Remember, I never heard of a Thin Client until a few weeks ago and only got mine a few days ago.

The thing really does amaze me though. It's about the size of a book. Has no moving parts so there is NO NOISE at all.

And I'm answering your post on it.

Take Care.

HolmanGT · Post by **HolmanGT** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:07 pm

Heritage227,

Yes - you have answered everything Thank You!

You bought a used one - did it look OK aesthetics are somewhat important to me. It doesn't have to be perfect, but if it is going to sit on my desk... well you get the point.

I have never heard of these things either, When you said thin net - I thought that is what they used to call coaxial cable Ethernet, but obviously "what the hell do I know".

Thanks again for helping me spend my money -

Heritage227 · Post by **Heritage227** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 3:35 pm

HGT,

Aesthetically speaking, Mine looks like it's brand new. Of course you can only see so much on the eBay pictures.

These usually sit on a desk somewhere, So how beat up can they be ?

Anyhowsa, Glad I could help you spend your $$$$$

HolmanGT · Post by **HolmanGT** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 3:49 pm

Heritage227,

The thing that amazes me about these gadgets is I have never heard of them before. I have consider myself a toy freak!

These things look like a really great gadget, I hate turning on my machines just to check email or in this case leave a big machine on to service MJ. As far as my legal expertise goes I don't see anything about these gadgets that would offend MJ's TOS either.

Very Cool in my opinion.

Oh and you can help me spend my money anytime you come up with something as slick as these things. They have to be one of HP's best kept secrets, or I have been living in a cave.

HolmanGT AKA Mr. Troglodyte

ir_efrem · Post by **ir_efrem** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 1:43 am

I remember seeing these devices and then POW a ton of bad press. Especially when (at the time) emachinces was selling a complete computer for the same price.

The techies all called them crap - limited memory, limited upgradability, etc etc etc

So the public ignored them (for the price I can't say that I would have ever considered one)

now $80 on ebay makes it seem like a pretty cool device..........

There were models before the HP Pentium 3's. There seems to be a little added usability (added hype??) with the idea of using one for a kiosk or for corporations using them to connect to servers.

HolmanGT · Post by **HolmanGT** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 2:23 am

ir_efrem,

I must have fallen asleep during that portion of the movie because I never heard of them.

But like you say for $80 buckaroos they are pretty cool and make for a great MJ computer. I like the size about the size of a cigar box and stone quiet.

Heritage227 · Post by **Heritage227** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 11:17 am

Hi Guys.

I think the original purpose was to use them in a Corporate enviroment to link to a Main Server to run specific applications.

The way the things are set up, There is virtually no maintenance at all so I don't now why any Techies would complain.

But, For whatever reason they are on eBay for $80.00 is fine by me.

ALTHOUGH..... I BELIEVE THE REASON WHY THERE ARE SO MANY COMING OUT OF CORP. ENVIRO'S IS BECAUSE ALL OF THE CORP'S ARE CLOSING THEIR US OP'S AND MOVING THEM TO CHINA.

Hey Guys : Check this out : http://cgi.ebay.com/Lot-of-3-HP-Compaq- ... m153.l1262

HolmanGT · Post by **HolmanGT** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 5:17 pm

Heritage227,

I notice that you said you have a T5720. I ordered a 5710, but I wished I had ordered a 5720 for the extra USB ports and it looks like it has much better ventilation.

Does yours get hot at all. Looking at the 5710 it doesn't have near the ventilation that yours does.

Dam, I am usually not cheap when it comes to buying toys but this time I was. I don't even have it yet and I am already regretting my decision.

Also the one I purchased only has 256/256 of memory do you think that will be adequate for MagicJack? Also is it possible for the end user to up the memory like a regular computer?

Thanks,

Post by **laserjobs** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 6:00 pm

HolmanGT wrote:Heritage227,

I notice that you said you have a T5720. I ordered a 5710, but I wished I had ordered a 5720 for the extra USB ports and it looks like it has much better ventilation.

Does yours get hot at all. Looking at the 5710 it doesn't have near the ventilation that yours does.

Dam, I am usually not cheap when it comes to buying toys but this time I was. I don't even have it yet and I am already regretting my decision.

Also the one I purchased only has 256/256 of memory do you think that will be adequate for MagicJack? Also is it possible for the end user to up the memory like a regular computer?

Thanks,

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quic ... 82_na.HTML

Heritage227 · Post by **Heritage227** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:39 pm

HGT,

My brother has a T5710 with 256/256 and it works great. It doesn't get hot at all.

You won't regret it. If you really want to up the memory.....Flash or Ram ....Later ....you can.

He said he may add more in his later if he uses it for more than MJ. Also, He said you can get memory cheap for them.

The T5720 that I have has 6 USB port total. 2 in the front that I'll never use.....

and 4 in the back.

I like the looks of the T5710 better than the T5720 but I wanted a "BUY IT NOW" on eBay at the time and the T5720 was available for a cheap price.

P.S. Mine's been on going on 2 weeks now and there is No Heat or ((((( NOISE )))))

curiousgeorge · Post by **curiousgeorge** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:46 pm

I have an old small Compaq iPaq desktop Computer( bigger than a thin client) but was wondering if it is worth using a seperate computer/laptop or thin client to run MJ 24/7 instead of just leaving my main pc on 24/7, I would technically be using more electricity and still sharing my broadband connection,except that my router might be working a bit harder to support another pc on the network(might cause more burps and bleeps)so this is what has kept me from using this method with my MJ.The way electricity rates are going up here in California and everywhere for that matter would it still be a good idea?

ps. my computer is on 24/7(p4 3.0ghz HT,2gigs ram and 500w power supply I only rebbot once a week and my wife uses her laptop once in a while.

Heritage227 · Post by **Heritage227** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 11:13 pm

curiousgeorge,

I would imagine any old computer that would run XP sp2 would work fine as a stand alone MJ system.

The thing about thin clients.....So I've read, Is they hardly use any power at all. Only consuming Supposedly 25% of a regular computer.

I used to leave my main computer on 24/7 but my wife was convinced the electric bill would go down if I shut it off every night

Time will tell.

HolmanGT · Post by **HolmanGT** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 2:10 am

curiousgeorge,

George, I don't think you would ever notice any additional loading on your router and most of the time the MJ machine is coasting and when it is work to run MJ it is only using 80kbps, which is nothing to most router.

I feel about the same way on the electricity, don't think you would notice much difference.

Now here is my reason for wanting to run MJ on the Thin Net:
1.No moving parts to wear out
2.No fans to make noise and for me a big point here is have you ever looked at the internal fans and general interior of your Big machine after say six months of continuous running, I am sure your wile is a great house keeper (clean and all) but you won't believe the dust and crap in the machine on the components, heat sinks and rapped around the leading edge of the fans.

I don't know where all the crap comes from but the amount of it is staggering. I am always concerned about degrading the efficiency of the heat sinks and wearing the fans out at an early age because of the extra load all that crap on the fan blades presents.

I do have my Hard Drive set to shut down after an hour of inactivity, and for my XP machines that always seemed to take care of my concerns about unnecessary wear on them - BUT - Vista never seems to leave my C: drive alone long enough for it to shut down and the few times it does it is not shut down for long before Vista feels obligated to go out and check something and up comes the HD for another hour.

I am not paranoid they really are out to get me.

curiousgeorge · Post by **curiousgeorge** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 6:08 pm

thanks alot heratige and holman, I was not aware that a thin client only wasted 25% electricity of a regular pc and for holmanGT: you have to see how much money I spend on those cans of compressed air.

,they are like 4 to 5 bucks and I use them to clean out the dust that forms on my cpu's heat sink,I repair computers for family and friends(and the friends of their friends) some of which have not been open or cleaned for years,some are so bad that I waste the whole can on one pc. keeping your pc clean and cool will increase speed and reliability for years,now excuse me I have to convince the wife that my experiment will only increase our bill by a small amount,wish me luck!

kumar · Post by **kumar** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 6:25 pm

curiousgeorge wrote:thanks alot heratige and holman, I was not aware that a thin client only wasted 25% electricity of a regular pc and for holmanGT: you have to see how much money I spend on those cans of compressed air. ,they are like 4 to 5 bucks and I use them to clean out the dust that forms on my cpu's heat sink,I repair computers for family and friends(and the friends of their friends) some of which have not been open or cleaned for years,some are so bad that I waste the whole can on one pc. keeping your pc clean and cool will increase speed and reliability for years,now excuse me I have to convince the wife that my experiment will only increase our bill by a small amount,wish me luck!

Ahh I don't think that dust will shorten the life of the computer....but i could be wrong... I do know for sure that it does make the compute heat up more, which also usually doesn't matter sicne you usually don't hit the max temp if your computer isn't running 24/7. But dust is not the only thing you needa get out over time... Most computer manufactures put thermal paste that is bull shit. I ALWAYS take that stuff out and put Arctic Silver Paste. My CPU temp had went down 10 c when I did replace the paste. Finally, about using a whole can of compressed air....I think that you usually can get out the big stuff with a paper towel or those wet clothe things.....or a vacuum (highly not recommended). Just wanted to point out that dust is not an only factor of a computers heat. On the otherside for running the computer 24/7 I think it costs about $10 a month to keep an average computer running 24/7. I do not know about these thin clients though.
Peace
Kumar
P.S
... pc clean and cool will increase speed and reliability for years.... Speed can not really be increased.... Keeping it cool makes it run like new.... but dust which heats up teh computer slows down the CPU. So speed isn't really being increased.... just kinda restored.

VaHam · Post by **VaHam** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 9:43 pm

HolmanGT wrote:Heritage227,

I notice that you said you have a T5720. I ordered a 5710, but I wished I had ordered a 5720 for the extra USB ports and it looks like it has much better ventilation.

Does yours get hot at all. Looking at the 5710 it doesn't have near the ventilation that yours does.

Dam, I am usually not cheap when it comes to buying toys but this time I was. I don't even have it yet and I am already regretting my decision.

Also the one I purchased only has 256/256 of memory do you think that will be adequate for MagicJack? Also is it possible for the end user to up the memory like a regular computer?

Thanks,

I just bought a couple of the 256 T7510s also in looking around the best price I found for expansion memory is Thin Client T5710 Memory

HolmanGT · Post by **HolmanGT** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 11:24 pm

VaHam,

Thank you very much for the link - I'm off to find the wizard ... now that is another movie, I am off to purchase some right now the link that heritage posted on the how to(s) of thin net said 512 makes a hell of a big difference.

I can't wait to get my 5710, I emailed the guy I bought it from and it was put in the mail yesterday - so now we are talking patience something I know nothing about.

VaHam · Post by **VaHam** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 1:08 pm

HolmanGT wrote:VaHam,

Thank you very much for the link - I off to find the wizard ... now that is another movie, I am off to purchase some right now the link that heritage posted on the how to(s) of thin net said 512 makes a hell of a big difference.

I can't wait to get my 5710, I emailed the guy I bought it from and it was put in the mail yesterday - so now we are talking patience something I know nothing about.

Your Welcome for the link! I intend to try the 5710 with 256 to start and if it works ok then I'll keep it cheap. Even at the low price of memory enhancement it would be half what I paid for the 5710. If it doesn't work out well or I decide to more with the 5710 than serve MJ then I will consider upping the memory then.

I read with great interest the link information heritage posted also and got excited about the use of the 5710 as a simple internet appliance. I have two older sisters who would like to be able to browse and use online email but are not and will never be very techie. One of them has an old windoz box and drives me crazy with questions like "this box popped up and said to update windoz......what should I do"

I got to thinking that I may be able to really lock down these thin clients and keep an image backup in case the worst happened to them I could just have them insert the stick and rebuild the system. I may try and play with remote administration also but don't intend to invest in any special server to do so unless I can figure out how to write one myself. If all this really works out well then I'll buy another one for my other sister and dump her windoz box too.

If this stuff catches on watch the price of 5710s go up on eBay

HolmanGT · Post by **HolmanGT** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 2:23 pm

For remote assistance try the TeamView (Client only) on the 5710. It is tiny works well on my XP laptop and it is free for non-commercial use.

Really Great program and it knows how to walk thru Firewalls.

http://www.teamviewer.com/index.aspx

PS - Heritage's brother uses it on a 256/256 unit so you shouldn't have any problem.

VaHam · Post by **VaHam** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 6:03 pm

HolmanGT wrote:For remote assistance try the TeamView (Client only) on the 5710. It is tiny works well on my XP laptop and it is free for non-commercial use.

Really Great program and it now knows to walk thru Firewalls.

http://www.teamviewer.com/index.aspx

PS - Heritage's brother uses it on a 256/256 unit so you shouldn't have any problem.

Thanks for the info. I have used Remote Desktop before to help out friends remotely but it is always a pain working thru firewalls. I just downloaded TeamView and will try it out asap.

I thought if I could get PXe working across the internet it would allow complete control by being able to reload their entire OS. Never tried to use DNSmasq to intercept DHCP before and not sure if it will work on a different subnet; but it is fun looking into it. Of coarse I'd have to add a router which included DNSmasq or the like such as the dd-wrt buffalo I run here to direct the operation.

HolmanGT · Post by **HolmanGT** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 6:25 pm

VaHam,

I can almost promise you will like TeamView.

I have tried and used them all - VNC, Dameware, Remote assistance, PC-anywhere, etc. Oh ya and trying to make any of these connect from Vista to XP is just insane.

TeamView, has the smallest foot print, and simplest UI and walks thru Firewalls like they are not even there.

One setup item I would suggest is to apply a fixed password when you install it that way it will not ask you to supply the password on the remote client that it generates for each session. Which also may be hard to read if you don't have a monitor hooked up to the 5710.

PS - all you should have to put on the remote client is the QClient (I think that is what they call it) and it is so small I don't see how it even works.

PS2 - Did you happen to notice the price of this TeamView, it is one of the more expensive remote control programs I have ever seen so much so that I gave them a call just to see what the hook was allowing non-commercial use for free (totally the honor system). The guy I spoke to just said it was a marketing strategy and there is no hooks or timeouts on the program. They even send me emails when there is a new version, hell some of the stuff I have paid for is not that considerate.

dbarber · Post by **dbarber** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 7:37 pm

Hi all,
The remote control program that I have been using lately is Crossloop, available at http://www.crossloop.com. It is based on VNC. It requires an invitation and a confirmation in order to gain admittance. My clients like that. It's small and quick. It works on any flavor of Windows from Win2K up. Oh, yeah; it's FREE!
Give it a try.

Donn

saxman · Post by **saxman** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 6:05 am

The power rates here in the Northwest are less then the East but I called them and they told me it would cost me about 3-4 dollars more a month to run my pc 24-7-I shut it off at night so I'm looking at half that or about an extra 24 dollars a year-not bad! Question-as far as by-passing the use of a pc to run MJ, I use a network switch now because I added the Hawking Broadband Booster. If the dsl cable and the phone were both plugged into the switch would the phone work? If not why?Excuse my ignorance on this but it would be nice to not have to use the pc to run the phone.(the switch has ethernet ports, so the cable would need to be converted from usb to ethernet)

testing123 · Post by **testing123** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 7:58 am

saxman wrote:The power rates here in the Northwest are less then the East but I called them and they told me it would cost me about 3-4 dollars more a month to run my pc 24-7-I shut it off at night so I'm looking at half that or about an extra 24 dollars a year-not bad! Question-as far as by-passing the use of a pc to run MJ, I use a network switch now because I added the Hawking Broadband Booster. If the dsl cable and the phone were both plugged into the switch would the phone work? If not why?Excuse my ignorance on this but it would be nice to not have to use the pc to run the phone.(the switch has ethernet ports, so the cable would need to be converted from usb to ethernet)

If you are curious enough to want to know how much electricity your electronics are actually using ... buy one of these (Kill-a-Watt $20) -- works great.

saxman · Post by **saxman** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 8:20 am

Thanks, but I told the power company what my pc was and they gave me the price and broke it down in about 2 minutes they had the number for me. I was wondering because another poster on DSL Reports was talking about the cost to run the phone 24-7 and his rates seemed high. Turns out, the East coast, New York electric rates are about twice as high as mine in the Northwest. So, just depends where you are on that. I talked to Dan about it and he had a good point. He said it was cheaper in the long run to just keep the computer running ,as the hard drive and the power supply were usually the first things to go down and thats normally caused by turning it on and off alot.-So, if I keep it on all day and shut it down at night it means an extra $2.00 a month or $24.00 a year. This now brings my yearly phone cost to $44.00 a year-or $3.60 a month-sweet!

HolmanGT · Post by **HolmanGT** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 11:56 am

saxman,

Did they take into account the power conservation of the modern PC (My bet is they didn't). When the hard drives spin down and the monitory goes into standby mode the power consumption can drop a significant amount.

testing123 · Post by **testing123** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 12:36 pm

saxman wrote:Thanks, but I told the power company what my pc was and they gave me the price and broke it down in about 2 minutes they had the number for me. I was wondering because another poster on DSL Reports was talking about the cost to run the phone 24-7 and his rates seemed high. Turns out, the East coast, New York electric rates are about twice as high as mine in the Northwest. So, just depends where you are on that. I talked to Dan about it and he had a good point. He said it was cheaper in the long run to just keep the computer running ,as the hard drive and the power supply were usually the first things to go down and thats normally caused by turning it on and off alot.-So, if I keep it on all day and shut it down at night it means an extra $2.00 a month or $24.00 a year. This now brings my yearly phone cost to $44.00 a year-or $3.60 a month-sweet!

With all due respect to the power company ripoff artists, there is no substitute for measuring it yourself.

But, alas, not everyone wants to bother (and that is absolutely your prerogative) ... just giving you another cheap, accurate option.

HolmanGT · Post by **HolmanGT** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 1:04 pm

testing123,

I agree with you completely.

I have not seen one of those Power Meters in a long time. Would you mind sharing where you got it from? It looked new in the picture so I am assuming one of two things you recently purchased it or you are a "Neat Freak" and take real good care of you equipment.

testing123 · Post by **testing123** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 1:19 pm

HolmanGT wrote:testing123,

I agree with you completely.

I have not seen one of those Power Meters in a long time. Would you mind sharing where you got it from? It looked new in the picture so I am assuming one of two things you recently purchased it or you are a "Neat Freak" and take real good care of you equipment.

The pic was from SuperMediaStore.com -- I either got one from SuperMediaStore OR Buy.com ... can't remember.

I was a special that appeared on Bensbargains.net -- something like $14.99 w/ free shipping about a year ago.

I love this thing -- I can immediately tell EXACTLY how much electricity something is using ... and, for example figure out if I am working a Power Supply too hard after some upgrades.

So it helps with Electrical Consumption/$$ and determining if Hard Drives or other components need to be mounted in their own chassis ... (for those smart*sses that will respond "buy a bigger power supply", I am actually referring to other devices like DVRs that come with hard drives that you can upgrade; but don't have upgradeable power supplies or even embedded PCs that use tiny power adapters.)

saxman · Post by **saxman** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 2:20 pm

How's this thing work and if it shows me using less then what my bill shows then what? Will the power company come out and read it again and adjust my bill, give me a refund or credit me or will they tell me that their real expensive equipment is right and my $20.00 Radio Shack meter is wrong? Have you had this happen, a dispute on the usage? How was it handeled?

testing123 · Post by **testing123** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 2:33 pm

saxman wrote:How's this thing work and if it shows me using less then what my bill shows then what? Will the power company come out and read it again and adjust my bill, give me a refund or credit me or will they tell me that their real expensive equipment is right and my $20.00 Radio Shack meter is wrong? Have you had this happen, a dispute on the usage? How was it handeled?

Dude, it does NOT measure all the electricity being consumed in your house ... it is very helpful in giving YOU an idea exactly how much electricity your individual electronics (up to 15Amps) are consuming -- at least that is what this cheap model does. Ever wonder if your super-overclocked-pc is REALLY using more electricity than a lightbulb? Well wonder no more.

Tells you Voltage (helpful to see if you are having brownouts or surges), amperage, Wattage, Hertz, KWH etc. etc. etc. Digital Readout accurate to tenths I believe.

Some who live in power-outage/natural disaster prone areas who often have to use generators may be interested because you can get an idea if you are within the operating range of your generator.

Again, if it is not for you, don't bother with it. But then again I am trying to get here (be your own power company {and get the electric company to pay YOU}) ... you sir, probably are not ... Cheers.

HolmanGT · Post by **HolmanGT** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 2:47 pm

saxman,

You have to be kidding SaxMan - who ever argued with a power company and won or any utility for that matter.

Besides the Electrical meter they hang on the side of your house is a pretty fancy and very accurate metering system. I don't think I would want to go up against a Power Company with my $20 dollar hand held instrument. Those things are really meant to estimate electrical consumption, not be the last word on the actual amount being used.

gooney · Post by **gooney** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 3:10 pm

saxman wrote:How's this thing work and if it shows me using less then what my bill shows then what? Will the power company come out and read it again and adjust my bill, give me a refund or credit me or will they tell me that their real expensive equipment is right and my $20.00 Radio Shack meter is wrong? Have you had this happen, a dispute on the usage? How was it handeled?

Does your electric company have a website? they should show you how to read your meter, i have an option that is sent with my electric bill to dispute the meter numbers if i think its wrong. They used to come out and read the meter thats in the back of my house... a few months ago they installed something back there so they can just scan it from the street without getting out of thier car, lazy bums lol... I think its more accurate this time then before.

saxman · Post by **saxman** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 3:15 pm

Dudes-chill dudes-lol-of course you can't get the power to admit overbilling mistakes-Christ, I had a big outdoor hot tub running 24-7 year around and I used to dispute the bills from time to time-they were big! Now, at that time I could have used some kind of a gauge to double check their readings but they never beat me as far as I could tell. It would be nice to check the juice though just to get an idea. The pc don't matter. I did catch my phone company a few weeks back. My pc was running slow , since I quit their phone service and got the stand alone DSL, noticed a drop in speed. I called them and they said oops! Your not presently running 1.5 mb. -They had me reboot the modem and bingo, she reset the thing and put it back to 1,5-much better-tech error or sabotage for quitting their landline? who knows

HolmanGT · Post by **HolmanGT** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 3:19 pm

gooney,

Down here in the southern part of Utah they have the radio gadgets on the Water and Electric and some guy comes screaming around once a month on a motorcycle with a gadget that looks like a walkie-talkie collecting water and electric readings (at least I think he does both who knows there may be some other guy that comes around also).

I just found out they put them on the water when I wanted to turn the main off and couldn't get the damn radio gadget out of the way.

saxman · Post by **saxman** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 3:32 pm

hey 1234-test-"you sir, probably are not ... Cheers." what's this mean? Are you just being a smart ass or funny?- How do you know what I do?-you may want keep your stowed. I could care less about how many pennies a day my pc uses. It's definetly not worth taking the time to measure such a small output. I use Network switches and a booster and they use virtually nothing per day.I live on the Columbia River Gorge on the Washington side. Wind power is used alot as the wind blows evey day in some areas. For someone wanting to produce electrical power to sell, this area is ideal and the sun and wind are already suppling many people here.

HolmanGT · Post by **HolmanGT** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 3:33 pm

saxman,

I don't know if it was intentional cutting your speed back, but I know they hate people that just keep the DSL and not the phone. Back in the day you couldn't do that, just keep DSL but I think the Government got after them for that practice and made them allow people to do that.

Give-em Hell Sax's

PS - you really can argue with the power reading but you have to have some professionals come out with some damn fancy equipment and prove their meter wrong. But to pursue that ain't cheap. And if there meter is correct you get to pay for all the testing - Ouch!

saxman · Post by **saxman** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 4:21 pm

Holman-yea-if I still owned a home with a power suckin hot tub, I would have it checked but I'm in a apartment now and it's good the juice. All double panned everything and plenty of insulation. Well, for this area. The places out West would never work in the Midwest and East. The insulation is about half as thick here as there.

About the DSL-funny story-I told it in another thread here somewhere but last week I had some downloads going and left the pc runnin all night. I wake up and the internet is off. I checked everything as I just added a network switch and the Broadband Booster and thought maybe something inline had gone South on me. It was all good but the modem internet light was out. Because I have a internet phone I had to go to the store to call the phone company to get DSL tech support. The guy actually laughed when I told him I had to go to the store to call because I had no internet. Thought that was funny because I shut off my phone from them a few weeks ago, and your right, they don't like providing stand alone dsl so people can run their VOIP phones. They said the "computer shut off my internet for no reason at all! A mistake. and "We are really sorry" chuckle chuckle!-sure they are-I was not behind in the bill and there was just no reason why it was shut off. They said it would be back on in two hours. It was.

Now, when I called Qwest to cancel the phone and keep the DSL they said that I was breaking the Price For Life Contract by doing that. So, they raised my dsl price by 10.00 more a month, to $36.00 because I broke the deal.I have one more year left on this deal then I will drop them and go to cable where I can get much faster cable for $43.00 a month. I can go from 1.5 mb to 7 mb for for $7.00 more bucks a month! If I want to quit their contract now it would cost me 300.00 fee for quitting early.-So, I'll wait the year. But Yea-I say their messin with me for using "their" line for MJ-first they drop the speed in half and say it was an error-then their "computer" "accidently" shuts me down completely. I think they should let me out of the deal without the 300 fee due to their bad service. They are breaking the contract by not keeping the line running.I may have to call my little sister-she's a lawyer.

HolmanGT · Post by **HolmanGT** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 4:43 pm

saxman,

I am certainly sympathetic about having someone mess with your broad band connection. I have 6mbps cable and the only way I would ever go back to 1.5mbps DSL is at gun point.

gooney · Post by **gooney** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 5:05 pm

HolmanGT wrote:saxman,

I am certainly sympathetic about having someone mess with your broad band connection. I have 6mbps cable and the only way I would ever go back to 1.5mbps DSL is at gun point.

lol yup

saxman · Post by **saxman** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 5:06 pm

lol-that good eh? Man, that say's alot for sure. I can't wait; to be honest with ya; because I do lots of downloads it's going to make things a little easier. Well' I got the phone audio dialed in using the braodband booster, I won't need that with cable. I can't bitch, my phone's working good and it's surprising that people would be happy to go so much slower with DSL. Hopefully Comcast dosen't jack the rates way up in the next year. Ya know, it's getting real expensive to watch tv anymore. We need Dan to get us a cheap signal-say $29.00 a year for 300 channels-that's fair don't ya think?-Magic Jack Television-(you think your phone bleeps now! hahahah)

gooney · Post by **gooney** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 5:11 pm

saxman wrote:lol-that good eh? Man, that say's alot for sure. I can't wait; to be honest with ya; because I do lots of downloads it's going to make things a little easier. Well' I got the phone audio dialed in using the braodband booster, I won't need that with cable. I can't bitch, my phone's working good and it's surprising that people would be happy to go so much slower with DSL. Hopefully Comcast dosen't jack the rates way up in the next year. Ya know, it's getting real expensive to watch tv anymore. We need Dan to get us a cheap signal-say $29.00 a year for 300 channels-that's fair don't ya think?-Magic Jack Television-(you think your phone bleeps now! hahahah)

I download 600mb to 13gb files every night with no problems... cable is the way to go... you wont be disappointed.

saxman · Post by **saxman** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 5:38 pm

good! and yet if you go to some sites like DSL Reports you will hear people swear up and down the advantage of DSL over cable-most say the service with cable is spotty, going down alot. Well, maybe where some people live but I have cable tv and it's never been off. I asked people why they would want DSL 1.5 when for not much more they could run 5 times faster. Like 7 or 8 mb and they said dsl was more stable. Didn't make any sense to me. I have a new big screen with HD and I'd really like to use it as a monitor. A big monitor-I may have to call the Geek Squad for that one.

testing123 · Post by **testing123** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 9:38 pm

To the OP, you had me a bit intrigued by these "thin clients" (sure looks more and more like we are going BACK to the age of "dumb terminal" + Mainframe ... lol)

So I had to look into running Linux on these

... this article is an interesting read (albeit from 2005).

Note: HP has Linux-based Thin Clients, but I was interested to see if Linux could run on the so-called Windoze version.

magnum68 · Post by **magnum68** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 2:35 pm

Heritage227 wrote:Hi All,

I bought a Magic Jack about a Month ago and the darn thing has worked perfect from the onset.

I didn't want to leave my computer on all of the time, But I wanted the phone so I went to eBay and Bought a used HP Thin Client.

I never even heard of a Thin Client before but came across them on a google search.

It arrived yesterday and was locked out with Admin and User passwords. It also was set up as some kind of Kiosk unit.

I was a little upset at first but then went to HP's site and downloaded the Newest XPe Flash file.

Put in a 1 gb USB Flash drive in my computer, Double clicked on the .exe and then clicked on Make a Bootable USB image.

Set the Thin Client to boot from USB in the bios.

Took the USB Flash drive out of my Computer and put it in the TC and Hit the start button.

I couldn't believe how easy it was. I just sat back and watched as Windows XPe SP2 was reflashed into the TC.

After all was said and done, I hooked up the MJ to the TC and BAM !!! Telephone.

I think I called everybody I know to see how it would work and I have to say I'm really happy with it.

Just wanted to pass this on.

P.S. Good site to learn about TC's

http://www.ediblesites.com/HpT5710ThinC ... tAppliance

Thanks Heritage227 for posting this wonderful information about the HP Thin Client. I just bought one off ebay for $81 and that's including the S/H fee. I can't wait to get it. I was going to keep one of my PCs on for 24/7 for the MJ but when I get the Thin Client I will use that instead. Thanks again for sharing your experience with us. You just made life simpler.

HolmanGT · Post by **HolmanGT** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 3:05 pm

magnum68,

What model did you purchase and how much Flash and how much Ram does it have.

If the one you purchased had 512/512 you are all set to go, just as soon as you figure out how to make it do some of the tricks it needs to do to run your MJ. If you purchased a unit with 256/256 flash and ram you will need to come back here and ask Heritage227 or me what you have to do to make it run MJ. All the tools and such are available on the HP WEB site.

Don't let me scare you if you purchase the 256/256 unit there is just some minor things you have to remove to allow enough room for MJ to run i.e. remove Media Player for one. I also took off things like their security client and a couple of others to give MJ the most possible elbow room on my 256/256 unit. After you set it up remove the monitor, keyboard and mouse and stick it under your desk someplace. Oh and the thing generates about as much heat as a cigarette shitting in an ashtray. I don't know how they make a 1.2 GHz machine with no fans run so cool but they do.

Also I use Team Viewer 3 on mine for remote control so when I need/want to make an adjustment I don't have to hook up a monitor, keyboard and mouse each time. (TeamViewer is free for non-commercial use).

magicJack and magicJack Plus Support, Reviews, FAQs and Tricks

HP Thin Client and Magic Jack

HP Thin Client and Magic Jack

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Re: HP Thin Client and Magic Jack