March 15, 2008 12:03pm by swood | 
Even though the Magic Jack Terms of Service refers to an uninstall option within Add/Remove programs, you will find that it does not exist. Stuff like this frustrates me to no end and makes me instantly and irrevocably suspicious. Programs and devices that do not provide a user-friendly method for removal project an attitude of laziness, disrespect, and fly-by-night onto the company that provides them.
Here is what to do if you want to remove MagicJack from your computer forever. I assume you are running Windows XP.
1) Unplug the Magic Jack device from your computer. This should remove the virtual devices that MagicJack installs:
- Disk Drive: YMax MagicJack USB Device
- CD Drive: YMax MagicJack USB Device
- USB: TigerJet USB Composite Device
- USB: Generic USB Hub
- USB: USB Mass Storage Device
Don’t ever plug it back in again.
2) Delete the “mjusbsp” directory from the following location: C:\Documents and Settings\[YourUserProfileName]\Application Data
3) Delete any MagicJack directories from the following location: C:\Documents and Settings\[YourUserProfileName]\Local Settings\Application Data
4) Delete any desktop icons
5a) Clean up your registry using a registry cleaning tool. I highly recommend TuneUp Utilities 2008. Among many other features, it will keep your registry sparkling clean.
5b) Clean up your registry manually. Use regedit to locate the HKEY Current User > Talk4Free entries and Delete the Talk4Free Key and all Subkeys.
6) Reboot and you should be all set.
** UPDATES ** – mostly from user posting in the comments
How to uninstall from Windows Vista:
“To uninstall from vista, simply go to the search bar and look up “mjusbsp”. Right click and open explorer. Delete whole folder. Use CCleaner (free) to clean rest up. That easy. Vista isn’t perfect, but things like the search function rock.”
Here is a link to the Magic Jack Customer Service Phone Numbers
This device is garbage. It worked fine for the 1st week or so but know…..
I have a dedicated PC just for this. No other apps running besides Majickjack.
If I dial home it doesn’t ring…just goes staright into the mail box.
If I try to dial out it dials the number then I get the dial tone…over and over again.
When I chat with their support (what a JOKE) They tell me the SAME thing…their
enginners are upgading the system. Plesde install upgrades, unplug MJ, restart PC….etc etc etc
My biggest mistake…I disconnected my regular phone….SSTUUUUUPPPIDDD!!!!!!
Really considering talking to a lawyer.
I really don’t understand why so many of you are having these problems with MagicJack. The only glitch I’ve had was audio breaking up on received calls. That was fixed by placing a checkmark next to "phone" in the volume control properties for the system sounds. Four of my friends have it and we all have had a positive experience with it. I travel a lot and it has worked well except for a motel in Quantico, VA. I’ve had it since the 1st week of March, 2008 on a Road Runner Turbo connection. Maybe that extra speed makes the difference. I work from home on a 10 computer network and all of them have at least 2GB of RAM. Really saving money on long distance. I have only one no frills phoneline for my fax which is setup on one of the Vista machines to keep from printing "junk" faxes to save on ink and toner. Hope this helps someone.
If it is too good to be true, it probably is!!!
This is a perfect example of "too good to be true"
This product is a scam, that is for sure. these guys need to
get a class action lawsuit…
the product worked once for me and then never again. I spent 6
hours chatting with customer service and couldn’t get anywhere.
save your money!! DON’T BUY.
I posted before "s" on 9/3- I think I know whats causing my major uninstalling it’s self- problem, I just don’t know how to fix it. The devises with removable space is where its installed, so are our games, We hae to unplug the mj to play games or it uninstalls, but not totally-mj is gone – no softphone, nothing in "my computer", but still somewhere because I can’t reinstall it. If my kids or hubby forget to unplug mj while playing a game, I have to do a system recovery to reinstall mj. Does anyone know how to fix this?
I don’t understand why so many people are having problems. I don’t believe the qos is purposely messed with after the 30 days. I bought one mj 4 months ago, and 2 more after that. I have given them all to friends who love them.
Your internet connection speed is the main issue but all three are running on cable internet now and they continue to work great. One was using satellite internet at first and was having inconsistent quality so I wouldn’t recommend it if you have satellite internet. You can’t depend on it for faxing either because it only works sometimes for that.
I also used the chat feature on their website and got excellent help.
There’s a glitch now and then. I wouldn’t say it’s perfect, but over all this is a great product. IMO
I plan to get a couple more of them soon.
I have MJ and it is ok… I don’t have a regular house phone so this takes place of that. However I usually use my cell phone. Anyway I have some minor glitches with it. My major problem I have is that I no longer can hear any sounds from the internet. I have removed MJ from my main computer and put it on a old one here at the house. I still can’t get my sound to work. I can hear system sounds just fine. I don’t know what I need to do to fix it. I have deleted it from my computer by following the above instructions (THANK YOU btw!!). Still no sound. I can play a DVD or movie and the sound is fine. But if I go to YouTube no sounds. However I can get in to pogo and hear those sounds. I am not sure what it did to my sound. I even updated my driver…. Any ideas?
people here who are anti magicjack are maybe jealous…
Try magicjack first and feel the real magic…
I have tried Magicjack and have felt the "magic"…briefly. Installed it and it worked brilliantly. First few weeks flew by without a single problem. I could call abroad (from the Philippines) and there were no big audio quality issues.
I think it was around a month or two when it started to screw up. I tried the website and the chat service which didn’t really help. It still works but it works when it wants to not when I want to – in other words it doesn’t work most of the time. The lack of an uninstaller is annoying as well. Hopefully this method of uninstalling works (with my limited computer knowledge and all).
You are all nuts and apparently done know how to use a computer. Magic Jack is awesome, if you leave your pc on ALL THE TIME like you are supposed to
you will have no issues. Ben using it for months no problems. Do I sometimes have to dial twice, sure. A dropped call or two, sure, but no worse than the cell phone.
ITS $20 a YEAR people expect some hiccups for about 1/12 the price of the other guys. I for one am glad their customer service is slow and unresponsive, you know why??
They are running a super lean business with no wastefull spending in order to keep the PRICE AS LOW AS POSSIBLE. Wake up morons and save the $$ or go back
to paying 35 dollars a month to make a local call. I call home from INDIA to the USA with now issues. I suspect some of you are also using slow DSL. For MJ to work well
you have to have a decent upload speed like 512k. Dont blame the MJ ………….your the jackoffs.
I have read a lot of reviews on Magic Jack. Many positive and many negative. What I notice is many of the positive ones are using a very high speed connection like cable. Seems like a slow connection can create problems. I also suspect that many of the problems people are having may not be Magic Jack but possibly errors in their own computers. I would recommend first having a computer with sufficient RAM and a fast processor. Next I would do these things in this order. Run registry cleaning software, defragment you hard disks then run separate registry defragmenting software. Many of the problems with Magic Jack may be related to a under maintained PC. If you noticed your computer was slower than when you first bought it, experienced more crashes and slower boot times before intalling Magic Jack it may be your registry is corrupted and that is what is preventing Magic Jack from working properly. Corrupted Registries can create all sorts of problems on a computer and prevent many new plug and play devices from working properly or working at all.
Please wait for a site operator to respond.
You are now chatting with ‘Zack’
Zack: Hello, how may I help you?
catherine: in regards to your terms of service etc, and the "unusual call volume on our account"
catherine: how much are you going to charge us to reinstate our service and what exactly will i get in return
Zack: Okay
catherine: how much are you going to charge us to reinstate our service and what exactly will i get in return
Zack: One moment please…
Zack: The cost of the magicJack is $39.95 which includes the 30 day free trial and the one year of service. After your one year, you can renew the service for only $19.95. This $19.95 is not constant cost, a possibility that it will increase next year or the other year. And it will be shipped through USPS, which cost $6.95 for standard mail and $10.90 for priority mail.
catherine: i already know that
Zack: The 30-day guarantee starts on the date of order.
catherine: im not asking about the 30-day guarantee
Zack: If you purchased the magicJack directly from our website and if for any reason the magicJack does not perform just as we say, you can return it to us during the first 30-days, and get a full refund of the purchase price minus shipping and handling. In order to receive a refund or you must request and receive a magicJack RMA number by e-mail and the magicJack device must be returned in its original packaging, be accompanied by proof of purchase and you will pay for the return shipping. If you purchased the magicJack from one of our authorized agents, please contact the distributor or retailer directly to learn about their refund policy.
catherine: our magic jack service was cut off last month around Oct. 23rd, and the message indicated for us to call a certain phone number, we left them a message and until now no call back from them. so it sounds like magic jack cut us off just because we call out too much. what is the hook? what are you going to charge us just to buy more minutes>
catherine: please read my question carefully
Zack: Yes you are asking about the 30-day guarantee
catherine: no i am not]\
Zack: Okay
Zack: Sorry
catherine: i have had the service since august 23rd 2008; i know how to count that i’m over the 30 days
catherine: our magic jack service was cut off last month around Oct. 23rd, and the message indicated for us to call a certain phone number, we left them a message and until now no call back from them. so it sounds like magic jack cut us off just because we call out too much. what is the hook? what are you going to charge us just to buy more minutes
Zack: May I know if you cannot call until now?
catherine: obviously
Zack: Okay
Zack: Please hold
Zack: Thank you for your patience. I will transfer you to a higher level of support. Please hold while I transfer you.
Please wait while I transfer the chat to the best suited site operator.
You are now chatting with ‘Cherry’
catherine: "due to unusual amount of calls from this phone please call 218-884-5124 to get important update" th
Cherry: Hi Catherine
catherine: this is the message that i got and need more clarification on; nobody is ever calling me back from that number
catherine: hi
catherine: i want to know how much are you going to charge me to reinstate my service and exactly what will i receive in return
Cherry: You mean you want to return the device?
catherine: i know how to count; i am an adult and i know that i am over the 30 days; i did not once mention that i want to return the device to you or to zack
catherine: "due to unusual amount of calls from this phone please call 218-884-5124 to get important update" ===this is the message that i got and need more clarification on; nobody is ever calling me back from that number
catherine: this is my question=== how much are you going to charge to have us reinstate the service and what exactly will i get in return (ie. back to unlimited calling out)
There may be a problem communicating with Cherry. Please wait while your chat is transferred to another operator.
You are now chatting with ‘Ezekiel’
catherine: "due to unusual amount of calls from this phone please call 218-884-5124 to get important update" === why do you give this message to your "customers" and don’t have a clear-cut answer? it’s easy, in plain words, if you want more business from me, as a customer, how much money do you plan to ask from me
catherine: how can i, the consumer, make an informed purchase of your product, if you don’t tell me in advance the price of buying more minutes….
Ezekiel: Please call that number Catherine.
Ezekiel: Once you can call that number, you will be able to get the updates that you should have from us regarding with this matter.
catherine: we have left 10 messages already. that is not good enough answer
catherine: nobody answers, nobody calls us back….what are you going to offer to make your customers happy?
catherine: how do you expect us to call that number t
Ezekiel: We are advice by our higher department to tell the customer to tell them to call that number to a non magicJack Catherine.
Ezekiel: Sorry if I cannot give you any other answer aside from that and hope you uderstand my situation from here.
catherine: when you cut off our service; dont even tell me to use another phone === it is long distance===the reason why we bought your product in the first place
catherine: what do you mean "to a non Magic Jack"
Ezekiel: non magicJack telephone number
catherine: so you’re telling me that 218-884-5124 is not a magic jack number ; that has nothing to do with anything or the solution to my problem
catherine: i have to understand your situation from there? wow. what about customers who have paid for the service and device and can’t call out. wow, that doesn’t sound fair
Ezekiel: We are advice by our higher department to tell the customer to tell them to call that number to a non magicJack Catherine.
Chat session has been terminated by the site operator.
Hi all, I’ve had similar issues that everyone else has posted on this board… Works like a miracle when you first receive it, but then after a certain amount of time you see the damage it does to computers. I too disconnected my landline thinking I would be able to save a ton of money, and it did give me my money’s worth for some time but, in the long run, the fiddling, hassle and amount of time dedicated to computer fixes have negated anything positive about it. I have tried using their customer chat care once and ended up disconnecting them them because they are just not smart. I have fixed it each and every time myself using it on 2 self-built media centers. We were leery to put the magic jack on our regular work stations in the house because of the missing uninstall feature. I am terrified of leaving their product in my high end stations and laptops. So thankful we didn’t do it with the other computers. Here’s what happened though:
1st comp – running xp pro athlon, worked well a few months then little disruptions and corruptions on apps were noticed. Eventually Mozilla browser refused to work, magic jack completely crashed. Couldn’t get the install to work even when reformatting the USB drive, which usually does work. Nothing else was done to computer besides using the MJ. Only explanation is that MJ. Next Comp: P4 xp media center – ran ok for 3 weeks then started hearing the bad quality sound, no fixes helped we formatted both computers out to negate the MJ install but what a pain, computer is running super slow and spikes easily at just an app opening which it never did before. In the end result, if you think messing your comp system up and having it work for a couple of months to save 400 dollars is worth it, then go for it….
If not keep your money and invest in skype or yahoo phone in and out service. They do sell head phones in wal-mart that advertises it works directly with skype I believe…
If only I could contact the people I recommended it to a few months back I would to let them know I was sorely wrong.
Also to the smart folks saying that we’re just out here as a competitor, you poor things. Not only are you had but you’re such a stupid skeptic too. Who’s competing with them? Everyone else’s stuff is a paid mo to mo service… They’re from two sides of different tracks.
Oh and to add, I have the highest speed internet service from brighthouse available… So even that does not help with issues we had with the MJ on 3 different comps. Seems this thing is built to crap out on your after a certain time. It did work for a record 7 months with normal issues that I dealt with.
I had this Magic Jack for 8 months, worked very nice on my PC , but recently it is getting disconneted on its own , not being able to restart this #@$* magic jack application, have to restart my pc 10 times , calls started getting disconnected while on the phone. Customer Service dont know anything and they give the same BS answers of all different issues , for example, UNPLUG IT , RESTART , GO HERE , GO THERE….end result nothing works…iam going to see if my magic jack gets fixed in few days, otherwsie i am not going to renew this service…
I have no problems using MajicJack. The only time there is an echo is when some uses the speakerphone. The reliability and sound is as good and my land line.
So will someone translate the TOS for me? Does MagicJack spying on your computer using habits mean that they can collect bank account #s and passwords and empty your bank accounts?? Please, will some knowledgable computer tech folks out there tell me if that’s possible? Should all magicjack users who do online banking and trading close their bank and brokerage accounts?
why don’t all of you that were ripped off go to abc.com, cbs.com
or nbc.com and erge them to do a story on this matter.
That way more consumers will NOT be ripped off in these
hardtimes and we as one can close this company down…
One voice CAN make a difference, imagine hundreds…
I just saw the commercial for the first time and am interested in making cheap calls however it’s clear I’d be opening myself upto a lot of computer issues from virus attacks from competing phone companies to processor speed issues to program fragmentation to internet trffic overload. I think I’ll have to pass for now. good luck to the company I hope they can work out the bugs. Cheap phone service would be cool.
MJ has disabled my internet connection on BOTH my computers. It is a destructive product.
Thanks for all that posted. I will not be buying this piece of junk.
Poor performance
Spyware
No-uninstall program
No support phone number for a phone product
No warranty
worse thing i ever bought. should did a search on line before buying this junk. iam not sure if this had happen to anyone else or not. after i plug it in and and filled out the info. my screen kept freezing up. i couldn’t do anything. i rebooted few times didn’t help it at all. i went to live support clicked to talk to a live agent . never got nothen just took me to next page. also i never get the dialer icon after i reboot. i have to click on the upgrade to get it. then it takes forever to load then once it does load my screen freeze back up. i have tryed other usb ports. same problem. amd iam on cable. my pc is fast enough so. don’t waste your money on it. lucky i bought mine from radio shack. i will have to mail it back to magic jack.
I just bought Magic Jack, I installed it, then i made a call, but I CANNOT receive calls,
I received this damned thing as a gift and it keeps saying I owe on it until it finally refused to connect me. c.s. knows nothing and now I need to remove this damned thing from my xp system. I had probs with echos and clicking etc as well. I DO NOT recommend it.
wow, lots of anger and frustration here. I’ve been using the MJ for several months now with mixed performance. in the beginning yes, seemed to work rather flawlessly unless I was doing some large file transfers. understood, really since there’s no way to prioritize the voice traffic unless you have a router or firewall that supports it.
I’m skeptical about all this virus/adware/malware/MJ-trashed-my-computer stuff. as an IT pro, I troubleshoot computer performance problems tied to adware/spyware/malware rather frequently. I’ve got MJ running on a modestly configured machine, and I haven’t had any of the doomsday problems most of you document here. do I have more problems with my MJ as of late? yes, that’s how I ended up here, but it’s with intermittent performance and reliability issues — jittery call quality, calls sometimes not completing, able to answer incoming calls in which the caller can hear me but I can’t hear them — stuff like that. is their product tech support lacking? yes, it is. but come on, MJ trashed your computers? I can’t speak for anyone else here, but I haven’t seen any of the problems many of you are reporting, and I’m inclined to believe that the affected computers were already compromised before MJ was installed. you guys might try downloading Spybot Search & Destroy, and make sure you have a decent virus scanner installed (you can get AVG for free).
I don’t know what’s going on with the MJ or how they work things with our accounts once we’re on for a few months, but I will admit that mine’s not working as reliably as it did in the beginning, and that I’m not sure I’ll continue. I’m considering checking out Vonage or Skype or something, but the MJ is remarkably convenient when it works. As far as MJ’s concerned, I’d like to see some additional features, and other issues I’d like to see addressed, but overall, for the forty bucks? come on folks, switch back to local phone service if you’re really that unhappy with it. if you’ve used it for two months, the MJ’s paid for itself, and it was worth the "hassle" at least to give it a shot.
MJ’s not a scam. it’s just a cheap, entry level type VoIP product that works acceptably most of the time. you want flawless service, ah dehr, you’ll probably have to pay a little more than forty bucks for a years worth of local and long distance service.
well i bought it and the volume of my calls goes from loud to soft to completely dead for a second or so. calls get cut off, its like using a cellphone going thru a tunnel. i had vonage, and cancelled them for the same reason…yes, magic jack is really bad, but for the price, what do you expect? i did notice they have goons posting positive messages all over the web, and when you tell the truth about the product, you are ridiculed. its bad.
I agree with one of the other posters who suggested that the biggest bitchers about MagicJack are idiots who wouldn’t know if their computer was plugged in or not. There are a lot of satisfied MagicJack users, and their numbers are growing all the time. I’ve had four people buy it based on my experiences so far, and they are having good luck, too. So just remember, those of us who post about positive experiences are NOT company goons. Frankly, I doubt that the company is substantial enough to be able to afford an army of goons. Get real, if you don’t like the product, don’t use it. Simple.
I have used magic jack for over one month now and have relatively few problems, using XP. I have already saved over 25 dollars this month alone as I usually have a 65 dollar phone bill. In order for magic jack to work properly I think you really have to run only the magic jack in one USB port with no other peripherals in any other USB. Have had relatively few problems. I think the people complaining are from rival companies. I would recommend this product to anyone. To the guy that had the mold problem related to the magic jack, give me a break, keep money in your hecking account and you won’t have problems and how does your mold issues relate to the use of a telephone…… now that is BS.
What type of site is this, usually the most recent posts are at the top, the first one is in early 08. You can now buy this product at Radio Shack and Best Buy and if you have a problem you can return it with no problem……so let’s end all the BS about this revolutionary product that can save American’s money in a time when most people have this need.
So far so good, and running from a WAP tied into cable broadband. There were three releases of the USB port tiger jet product, only the last one stablized the complaints of the former two. So, I cannot help but wonder how many of the negative reports here were off the first two. I have to admire a business plan which takes on the cash flow needs of this post September 2008 melt down economy, with good intentions and probable continuance. It is a little dark however, when each day’s posting on their website states that that day is the last day of the free thirty day offer due to limited quantities, always of the same posted number, each and every new day. I believe the guy behind it is a marketing wiz, and will make it work in time, when it is more an up and running enterprise. As half my local bill was taxes, I wonder how long it will take Obama and the think tank to realize that VOIP generally avoids all taxes on interstate commerce, FCC regulated entities, etc. I’ve already placed what would be ove a hundred dollars of in nation LD calls, so it has already paid for itself. I hope afterward that it keeps on keepin on. Tiger Jet, the manufacturer now is releasing newer and different products than the USB port phone card that has their current, soon to be discontinued chip. The businessman at MagicJack will need to pin down the chip availability to continue his gig. I did find that going to the site for the software update took care of all installation problems, with a 2GB memory and dual core 32bit Vista machine. My tendency is to cheer for the underdog, for a race over which I hope MagicJack will win. The product has a one year warranty, has anyone tried to return vsn. #1 or 2 for card vsn. #3 to solve their gripes? Definitely it has issues on DSL, so cable or T1 is the way to go if it is important to have this as your provider of voice calls. In Colorado, in the metro area, it seems to function well. Time will tell.
we’ve used m.jack with qwest 1.5mbps service for 8 months with no problems other than it loads very slowly at bootup. as to the complaints on customer service you get what you pay for. to hire and staff a call center cost big bucks. i’m sure they could do that but then the service would cost as much as other services such as vonage. i also don’t know why everyone seems to be paying more. we purchased ours online not from their annoying tv infomercials and it cost $29 for the hardware and $14.95 for one yrs svc and $10.95 for a second. even if it were to die now and it never gets used again we’ve still saved more on long distance to date than had i made those calls using qwest. lasty i’ve never had any problems with hearing someone i’ve called, them hearing me, getting through or my vmail not working. i think many of these issues are related to users isps rather than the majicjack. my background,13 years this month working for ibm global services division as well as my own i.t. company on the side since 2000, so i’m not a newby by any means.
I installed magicJack recently. It is
phenomenal. Working without any
issues. An oustanding product.
I’ve had it about 6 months now, its only worked maybe the first few weeks with any decent quality. Hard to uninstall and even harder to make work properly, too good to be true is certainly the feeling I have after 6 months of struggle.
Customer service is a joke so don’t even bother, they can’t tell you anything you don’t already know and always seem to try and make you feel like your doing something wrong lol, its sad really.
Oh mine! I went halfway into the installation and I removed mj. Now the installation won’t continue…
I did this cause down there it said: click here for details, then I did, next it read ready to use. Then I’m like.. okay…
ready? what? nothing! I’m like what am I supposed to do now? Like, the software and registration part didn’t even get a chance…
Well I been using mine for a year, some of these people have no clue, most of the problems
our with these people computer, to much junk and probally got virus that make problems with the magic jack
Also tryed it on My brother cp and my buddy next door and it worked on all four I have tryed. You have to make sure the issuse is not in the phone your using. I did have buddy phone act silly and he got another one he had.
Im sorry that so many have a problem with it, If you have kids that use the computer and play like on limewire and crap you will probally have problems. Why shouldnt you. Good Luck
Im keeping mind
I have use my magic jack for about 4 months now and everything seem ok. no problems whatsover. I am a distributor of magic jack for a company in California and I am looking for distributors. We have our own technical support and since we launch mid-January this yr we have grown to over 400 distributors. We are in constant contact with our customers and so far have not had any problems to date. Like I said we have grown since we wtarted and still have a long way. We distribute the magic in a different way. If anyone is interested in becoming a distributor, let me know we have live webinars and trainings. My email address is ilovemagicjack@gmail.com and my name is art92881. We have helped a lot of people save money on phone bills and phone cards.
i refomatted my pc with windows xp and i cannot install my magic again some a jack again somebody help me resolve this
When you reformatted your hard drive, you erased the driver. You need to load the driverof the magid jack again. http://www.wooviiinc.com/ME2277 or email me at ilovemagicjack@gmail.com
I have had no problems with calls on the magicjack other then the simple internet jitter to be expected. Here is what I don’t like about Magicjack. When I use Norton and block magicjack, within a few hours, its back online. Its like it has an internal VPN client that can defeat your computers firewall. SCARY. Also reading about how they collect your information, dedicate a PC for this and place it in a DMZ (between two external firwalls). Lastly it really is anoying not having an uninstall and there seems to be about a half dozen uninstall proceedors out there. I recommend follwing them all using you common sense. Great concept having a years calling so cheap, but invasive programs like this should be outlawed. Its against the law for you to invite someone into your house and have them steal your documents, this really is no different.
i have had one since the begining of december and am reasonably satisfied.
the first one crapped out in about 40 days where i often could not hear the incoming voice. the online chat support was ok as long as you use one simple question at a time. eventually they asked if i had tryed a new one yet (i guess i should have asked for that sooner because this screwing around went on for weeks as the unit got worse). the new one arrived quickly, and has been working ok.
it is my only land line, and only my wife has a mobile. i run it on a very old laptop with a Pentium III CPU, 320 MB RAM, WinXP, and CA antivirus, over cable internet connection. i need to unplug/plug magicjack and or reboot roughly once a month (as it says in the insructions) when it gets glitchy.
it works well enough considering the price!!!! there is a problem maybe 5% or less of the calls, and then you just replace the call. at this point i have had about 5 months of good service for less than the price of one month cable digital phone with all those damned taxes and fees!! so if it dies now it is not too bad anyway.
by the way, performance and customer support is way better than Earthlink VOIP was.
I have been using MagicJack for over a year with no real problems. I did have Vonage for awhile and, yes, Vonage was much nicer. I had a router that plugged into my network with an RJ11 jack off of it and didn’t need to leave my computer running.
However, Vonage is also more money. You can’t expect a $20/year phone service to perform the same as a $300/year service. That’s like expecting a Kia to keep up with a Ferrari.
I would never rely on MagicJack as my only phone service. It’s simply a backup to my mobile phone. I did have problems with the phone not working every once in awhile, but I solved that by installing it as a service and adding a scheduled task to restart MagicJack every day at 3 AM.
If you don’t like the idea of having to leave your PC on all the time, go for a real VoIP service that lets you use a standard SIP device. However, if you want something cheap, IMHO, it’s worth $20/year. Just remember that you do get what you pay for.
I know that in order to call out with MagicJack, you have to let it act as a server on your PC. How safe is this? Will this allow no-gooders to access my computer? What about my bank account and credit card numbers?? I do not have a 2nd computer, nor do I have money for a 2nd computer. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I bought a MJ in 2008 and it was CRAP. I am using RR Turbo with 10 down and 512 up and it was still a joke. Noise, dropped calls, static, and more. I finally just hung from a pine tree limb and shot it with a .22 rifle. I did a system total recovery to get any MJ files out of the PC. Prolly not necessary but thats how much I hate the little P.O.S.
DONT BUY A MAGICJACK! They suck and its a ripoff. I hope that lying scammer who does the 30 minute ads gets the clap.
It is truly disappointing to see how many folks buy a product without ANY research at all, then complain loudly if it does not work perfectly AND turn water into wine. For crying out loud, it is a $30 (from Radio Shack) product and service that saves HUNDREDS of dollars a year! Does it work? YES! Does it work perfectly all the time? NO! (although in our case it has, but we’ve only used it for 6 weeks for calls to and from Europe…) Is the customer service awful? Sometimes.
But if it only does a tenth of what the vendors claim, it is still a bargain. We purchased it for a relative going overseas for a few weeks to dodge long distance international call rates. In six weeks it has saved probably $50 to $100 in phone bills. And later I’ll probably install it at our home for just outgoing long distance calls, and change our primary phone to a minimal service. Likely save another $100 per year. Even after buying a tiny computer called a thin client to just run the Magic Jack 24/7.
But I searched the web about the magic jack even before spending $30 at Radio Shack. I knew the customer service was very limited. Poor, even. And I saw a few folks had some technical problems. But heck, its only $30!
If you need technical help, I recommend searching the web. Then you will likely find some unofficial, but very useful, magic jack support forums. Searching the web for a little help is faster and cheaper than posting useless complaints on random internet sites. Try it – you will likely save a lot of money and time, AND get a working, useful Magic Jack.
Cheers…
I bought MJack a month ago. I am pleased with its operation despite some limitations, and MJack does not support fax calls on VoIP.
From time to time when I fail to get a dial tone, I insert MJack into another USB port orjust reboot my PC.
Two applications conflict with it: Roxio software will lock up unless Mjack is disconnected and must remain disconnected while using Roxio. MJack sets up as anothe CD drive, which it is not and conflicts with other apps attempting to set MJack as an operating CD drive, which it really isn’t. In this situation AnyDVD must be configured not to recognize the MJack as a CD drive, but start AnyDVD before connecting MJack. After AnyDVD has started, connect MJack and to set the AnyDVD settings to ignore the CD drive letter assigned to MJack. Also set the Startup in MSCONFIG not to auto start AnyDVD during the PC bootup. Start AnyDVD manually.
Other apps will likely conflict with MJack that set up a CD drive. Hopefully MJack will repond to the technical issues I have found, but they are not deal killers. For $20 bucks a year I can put up with a few kinks and get unlimited free minutes for USA calls or 2.2 cents a minute to Germany! Beat that!
JohnG … at what speed setting is your fax set? I think it needs to be 9600 baud rate to work with magicjack
I removed the MJ software successfully with these steps in Windows XP. Make sure to backup the registry before editing it.
1.) Remove the Magicjack dongle from the USB port (Use the “Safely Remove Hardware” applet in thr System tray)
2.) Delete (or rename) this folder: C:\Documents and Settings\User Name\Application Data\mjusbsp
3.) Delete all Magicjack shortcuts
4.) Delete these registry settings (you can also find the by searching the registry with the search term: Magicjack:)
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MountPoints2\{bc9e01c6-6c13-11de-9df0-001676c9da89}]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MountPoints2\{bc9e01c7-6c13-11de-9df0-001676c9da89}]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]
“cdloader”=”\”C:\\Documents and Settings\\User Name\\Application Data\\mjusbsp\\cdloader2.exe\” MAGICJACK”
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\MUICache]
“C:\\Documents and Settings\\User Name\\Application Data\\mjusbsp\\magicJack.exe”=”magicJack”
“C:\\Documents and Settings\\User Name\\Application Data\\mjusbsp\\cdloader2.exe”=”magicJack USB Softphone (cdloader2)”
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\talk4free]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ESENT\Process\magicJack]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ESENT\Process\magicJack\DEBUG]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\StandardProfile\AuthorizedApplications\List]
“C:\\Documents and Settings\\User Name\\Application Data\\mjusbsp\\magicJack.exe”=”C:\\Documents and Settings\\User Name\\Application Data\\mjusbsp\\magicJack.exe:*:Enabled:magicJack”
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\StandardProfile\AuthorizedApplications\List]
“C:\\Documents and Settings\\User Name\\Application Data\\mjusbsp\\magicJack.exe”=”C:\\Documents and Settings\\User Name\\Application Data\\mjusbsp\\magicJack.exe:*:Enabled:magicJack”
Replace User Name with your computers user name
yo. if you’re having problems, contact the BBB (Better Business Bureau) for magic jack or it’s parent company “ymax”. After looking at their site (which gave me the chills–in a really bad way) and LOTS of comments, message boards and reviews, and speaking with customer service via a chat (horrible experience) I will not purchase it b/c I value the worth of my personal information and believe people cannot afford to allow such TOS and (lack of) privacy agreements to come in to existence or survive! I can’t help but feel this is a ripoff…and some skype plans are less expensive. I wonder if they’re this bad security-wise.
Gracias por este espacio ya tengo el magicyack. al conectarme sale un aviso asi error, broken storegen. que debo hacer o que le paso al magicjack. gracias
I my name es francisca I would like to know how to use magicjak in my pc I get it in the radioshakc for $39.99 plus tax plese send me the answer.
How do you uninstall majic jack?
I don’t have a problem with the service, I have a problem with It saying my service is about to expire when I purchased two years and I needed to renew. I ignored it and all my contact numbers vanished without a trace and I have no way of replacing them that I know of, can anyone help? Is there a phone number to talk to a human other than to order their product? Thanks for any help.
I like MagicJack! By now it is certainly not junk as many people say. Remember it is dirt cheap, it costs me as much for a year what I before paid per month.
True, if installed on your main computer MJ is annoying with its pop up on every call, slow boot up times, etc.
So I uninstalled MJ from my main PC, set up an older 1 GHz PC with Win XP on it with MagicJack and use it as a server (24/7) without monitor, keyboard and mouse, just internet. Worked very well for a month now with a lot of phone traffic!