Archive for April, 2009

MagicJack without the MagicJack

So I got a MagicJack awhile back.It worked as advertised…until it broke. Fortunately I had grabbed the login etc. information from the MagicJack software before this happened, so I could plug it into a softphone (MagicJack uses the industry-standard SIP system for their network). Which I’ve done.

If you want to grab your MagicJack login info, assuming you have the device, this site had more info.

Once you have that info, there are a few softphones that you can try. I would have loved to get the thing working on mycell phone (hey, it’s Windows Mobile, it should be able to handle it) but the SJPhone software didn’t work for long, and I don’t want to use the speakerphone to make and receive calls. Probably just a configuration issue but anyhow…

The first client I tried was Telephone. It’s ultra-minimalist and Mac-only but it works well. To set up the MagicJack account, I used [email protected] ([email protected] in my case) for the SIP address, proxy1.denver.talk4free.com as the proxy server (denver can be replaced with any number of US cities…more on this in a minute). User Name is the same as ProxyUserName and Password is ProxyUserPassword. On the advanced tab, check the Connect using proxy box and put your proxy server in there. The port is 5070.

The other client I tried, which is “heavier” and more cross-platform (Linux, Windows, Mac) was QuteCom. There, the login/username is the ProxyUserName, the Password is ProxyUserPassword, the SIP Domain/Realm is talk4free.com, the Server and Proxy are respectively the IP and the name of the proxy you’re using, and the port for the Proxy is 5070.

So about the proxy deal, choose yours carefully. Check out this list, then traceroute to all of ’em. The one in your city, or near it, may not have the lowest latency. For example, Denver’s proxy rings up at around 70ms, whereas the one in LA, where Comcast traffic hops off to XO, is a mere 40. If you’re wondering who XO is, it’s a second-rate internet backbone that MagicJack for whatever reason is connected to for their servers. On the other hand, Qwest gets the lowest latency to Dallas, weighing in at about 65ms. Decent considering that 45ms of that is between me and the Qwest DSLAM. Moral of the story: if you’re on Comcast and are in the western half of the US, use LA as your proxy. If you’re on Qwest, try Dallas.

If you have any more questions about MagicJack, I might be able to answer them. You never know unless you comment…

Yay ASCII Art!

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rocks!