Magic Jack on a dedicated celery 600 box.

[EXman]

Hey I have old celeron 600 box laying around thinking about majic jack. I here I do not want to use it with a computer I use all the time for many reasons quality/security. But a dedicated celery 600 box might do the trick?

tired of lan line for $35 a month

 

[snikt]

Don't know if this is important to you or not, and I don't know if Magic Jack has this feature. But one advantage of having a landline, and I don't know if this is true nationwide, is when you dial 911, emergency personnel will know exactly where you are located. That's one of the few reasons why I haven't gotten rid of my land line.

 

[pm]

A Celeron 600 is below their minimum hardware specfications (Pentium 3 800MHz, 256MB RAM), but people have posted getting it working on boxes with a lot less compute power than that.
http://www.magicjacksupport.com/minimum-system-requirements-t2412.html

As far as 911, Magicjack supports a different form of e911. Basically you tell it where you are when you set it up, and then it will tell 911 services that you are there when you call. The system works more or less the same as a real 911 landline locator service, although the ability to move VOIP boxes around does make it more of a problem. For a dedicated server though, Magic Jack's e911 system should suffice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_911#Voip_enhanced_911

 

[Phynaz]

It's called crap jack for a reason. I have two family members that use it, and they are constantly having problems. Sounds like crap.

 

[Slick5150]

Get something like nettalk instead. It doesn't need a computer (it can connect to a PC via USB, or directly to your router via ethernet).

www.nettalk.com

 

[Binky]

Magicjack is a POS. Do this instead: http://nerdvittles.com/index.php?p=677

Buy a Linksys PAP2 or one of the lower Grandstream models like the 386 or 486 and you use your normal phone. Use a softphone without one.

If you want better call quality, subscribe to something like the callcentric pay as you go plan for $3/month plus call charges.

 

[pm]

I'm on Callcentric using a Linksys PAP2. No complaints. Base price is like ~$5/month + $0.02/min after fees and taxes for a real phone number. The quality is excellent, reliability is very good... it never gives us any trouble except that the longest call you can have is 2 hours.

 

[joutlaw]

I haven't had much issues out of magicjack. I have a WHS box that is always on. I had to setup MJ as a service to get it to autostart in WHS. I then set QOS in my wrt54gl with tomato to always give MJ highest priority. This helps when there is heavy internet usage (bit torrent, newsgroups, etc.)

My opinion is that hardware is possibly up to the task, but how much power does it consume. My WHS box is relately low power... It's a HP ex485 with a core style celeron. Pretty efficient little setup.

 

[arch113]

I did this with a spare computer I had laying around:
http://nerdvittles.com/?p=677

 

[pm]

I haven't had much issues out of magicjack. I have a WHS box that is always on. I had to setup MJ as a service to get it to autostart in WHS. I then set QOS in my wrt54gl with tomato to always give MJ highest priority. This helps when there is heavy internet usage (bit torrent, newsgroups, etc.)

My opinion is that hardware is possibly up to the task, but how much power does it consume. My WHS box is relately low power... It's a HP ex485 with a core style celeron. Pretty efficient little setup.

Sounds like my setup except that I have a PAP2 instead of MJ. But WRT54GL running Tomato with QoS sounds just like mine. I have WHS running on an Atom D525 (total system power is 16W idle with 4 SATA drives).

I agree with you on the power consideration. At roughly $0.12/kWh when used continuously all year, power costs roughly what the wattage is (rule of thumb, not totally accurate). So 100W system costs about $100/year to run. So it's worth investing in low-power stuff if you will be running it for a while. If you have a 150W system and then you pay $100 for a motherboard+CPU to take you down to 30W, you've saved money over the length of one year.

 

[EXman]

I'm on Callcentric using a Linksys PAP2. No complaints. Base price is like ~$5/month + $0.02/min after fees and taxes for a real phone number. The quality is excellent, reliability is very good... it never gives us any trouble except that the longest call you can have is 2 hours.

That is too much for me. "It is a just in case" phone. And from what I here is that most people have problems with MJ because they stick it on a computer they use for other things. I have a nieghbor that has a 1Ghz dedicated server then hooks that up to the house wiring and he can stick a phone at any plug and it backflows to the MJ stick. He has cable internet. The box has no keyboard, monitor and mouse. No worries about registry or no uninstall software in a dedicated MJ server.

Looking at some of the other options here as well but I want zero per minute calls. And I do not want the $200 up front fee of that one place either. I'd rather pay a yearly charge like MJ because I hate bills every month and I HATE TAXES even more. My phone internet taxes are almost $7 on a $50 bill

 

[Binky]

The nerdvittles link suggested several times in this thread (once by me) is free.

 

[EXman]

The nerdvittles link suggested several times in this thread (once by me) is free.

looking at that now thanks! Lots of info there! Just trying to pay the least amount possible I never never use the home phone and work pays for my cell.

 

[Binky]

The best way to set that up, IMHO, is to also integrate it with something like callcentric. Setup the basic "Incredible PBX" with built-in googlevoice free calling, then create a new trunk (trunk = outgoing phone line) for callcentric. Make it default to googlevoice, but if you dial 9 then a number, it goes through callcentric.

PAP2 adaptor is $30 (ebay, possibly fake) to $50 (Amazon). This is not necessarily a sunk cost if you abandon the plan since you can always sell it later for $30-$50 on ebay.

Callcentric cost without an inbound phone number ("DID") is zero if you dont use it, and $0.01+ per minute if you use it. International rates are very good but not the best around. If you want an inbound phone number from callcentric or any other provider, the cost is $3-$6 per month. Some include unlimited inbound with that fee.

Don't forget that with this setup, you do NOT have 911 service on the phone. This is generally $2 per month with any provider.

 

[EXman]

Hey in my mountain of crap I found a Motorola VT1005 that has vonage stamped all over the box. is this a pap2? i bought it for 2.14 at target at 94% off if you can believe that!

 

[pm]

A Motorola VT1005 is similar to a Linksys PAP2 in terms of function, but it's not the same box. The PAP2 is one of the few adapters out there that was sold in an "unlocked" form not tied to a specific provider (like Vonage in this case). It is also one of the few adapters that has had a software unlock available for it. The PAP2 also support pretty much everything out there and had excellent firmware support from Linksys for a really long time.

There's a procedure to unlock a VT1005 but it looks hard... it looks "fun" in a geeky sort of way, but these instructions look pretty difficult. http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r23822527-Unlock-VT1005V-unlocking-tutorial
Once you unlock it you can use it with any provider - Callcentric or any other SIP provider out there.