At 10:34 AM 1/16/2009, Tony B wrote: >I dunno, but remember - Magic Jack requires a dongle to run. >Specifically, it requires *a whole gd computer*. Cynics would simply >point out that, once you have the computer, you don't _need_ the Magic >Jack to do VOIP.
But you can carry the Majic Jack dongle with you and plug it into any computer, anywhere, that has broadband access (so it's advertised, I haven't tried it). The "dongle" is an interface. Vonage requires an interface. You can't plug a telephone RJ-11 plug directly into the RJ-45 jack on a router. How big is the Vonage interface/dongle? Can you take it with you and plug it into any router anywhere? Does it require independent AC power? The Magic Jack is powered from the USB port. One does need to remember an account number and password (IIRC, maybe just a password) for first installation of Magic Jack on a particular computer, but that's it. The software needed to run Magic Jack is stored in ROM in the dongle. I don't use the Magic Jack for hot incoming calls. If the party calling me leave a voice mail message, I receive an e-mail message with the voice mail message attached as a .wav file. (maybe mp3?) That's good enough for my purposes. It's an extra phone line at home. So both my wife and I can be on the phone at the same time. And saves $ for toll calls. Measured bandwidth used by the Magic Jack is approx 80kb -- a little bit faster than a 56kb dialup modem, but a very small fraction of the bandwidth available from any kind of broadband connection. Fred Holmes ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
