[asterisk-biz] MagicJack

Fri Mar 21 22:05:04 CDT 2008

Be very careful if you intend to purchase one of these dongles. I purchased 
1, got notification that I have purchased 2 that will be ready for shipping 
soon but a discount can be given if I make it an initial  purchase of 3. 
Keep in mind that I only purchased 1. I also noticed that they have a 
special if you purchase 5. Hmmm not sure if I fall for the offer of 3 what 
is going to happen. Will I then get notified that I have purchased 5 ???. 
Ps: still have not received the initial 1 that was bumped up to 2. There is 
a delay for Canadian orders.

>From: Trixter aka Bret McDanel <trixter at 0xdecafbad.com>
>Reply-To: trixter at 0xdecafbad.com,Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk 
>Discussion<asterisk-biz at lists.digium.com>
>To: Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk 
>Discussion<asterisk-biz at lists.digium.com>
>Subject: Re: [asterisk-biz] MagicJack
>Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:32:51 +0100
>
>
>On Fri, 2008-03-21 at 04:29 -0400, Matthew Rubenstein wrote:
> > 	I saw an ad for MagicJack on TV, a USB VoIP dongle with a $20:year
> > unlimited calling subscription,  and looked into it. I am in no way
> > affiliated with MagicJack, except that I saw the ad and was curious. It
> > was introduced at the TED conference last April, and was buggy through
> > last Summer. But it's been around a year now, has a budget for
> > mass-market advertising.
> >
>
>you have to use their dongle (which appears to be a softmodem packaged
>as an FXS port) and their service.  They do not have linux support for
>it, only windows and osx.
>
>I have already approached them about linux stuff, but that was just
>today, so nothing yet has happened more than finding out who exactly to
>contact and a proposal submitted to do the work.
>
>Based on their webpage they use G.711 as the codec (they say you need
>80kbps of bandwidth per call).  It is unclear at this time if they
>support any standard VoIP protocol or not, they specifically state they
>are not compatible with asterisk, and imply they are only compatible
>with their device.
>
>It is my belief that the dongle itself is not smart enough to do
>anything but act as a FXS port, and that the software that controls it
>is what controls everything else.  I do not know if they are receptive
>to linux support (which should be most BSD/POSIX compatible systems if
>my proposal is accepted).
>
>I also do not know if they are even receptive to the idea of a 3rd party
>writing and maintaining drivers for their hardware since it can cause
>them some problems in terms of support queries.  My hope is yes, but I
>probably wont know until well after the weekend since it is a holiday in
>many places around the world.  I further do not know if they will allow
>open source or not, I do not know if they will allow support for their
>service (regardless of the device itself) which would allow open source
>switches to utilize it.
>
>Worst case I may just get one and sniff the usb bus to see what they do
>and how they do it and code based on that, if the inet part isnt
>terribly difficult I may write something that would interface, for all I
>know its just generic SIP.
>
>
>--
>Trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com     Bret McDanel
>Belfast +44 28 9099 6461        US +1 516 687 5200
>http://www.trxtel.com the phone company that pays you!
>
>
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