Magic Jack with Ekiga Soft Phone

[Guest]

I want to know more about Ekiga Softphone and it's compatibility with magic jack on my imac running Ubuntu 8 PPC. Anyone with hints and tips?

[GreyGeek]

Re: Magic Jack with Ekiga Soft Phone

Why buy MagicJack?
You have to leave your computer on all the time to receive calls, unless you want it on only when you make calls. That will cost you an extra $20/mo on your electricity bill. It's quality is poor and some people report that it is dead on arrival. They further add that "support" is difficult to get and not very good when they get it. There are also complaints of double billing.

Skype is free and for connections to landline phones of folks who do not use VOIP you can purchase that through Skype at 2 cents/min anywhere in the USA or Canada. Rates to other places around the world are almost as cheap. So, for $20/mo you can talk to landline phones for 16.7 hours. But, for $20/mo you can usually add an extra cell phone to your cellphone account and have 24/7 talk to most of the country.

My wife and I dropped our landline phones several years ago and we both have cellphones. Her cellphone is "home" because where ever she is IS home! Our total charge is $72/mo through Vorizon and we can talk to any other vorizon cellphone, anywhere in the country, for free.

With Skype I can talk to any other Skype user in the world, via VOIP, for free. I also put all my cellphone numbers into Skype so I can call them anytime I want when I have my notebook on.

One word of caution about Skype. On Windows there is an option in Skype to turn off the Skype SuperNode. In Linux there is not. So, while running Kubuntu and with the Skype deamon runniing in the system tray, IF you notice about 200-300kb/sec of Internet packet activity and you are not browsing, then Skype fired its SuperNode daemon. You'll have to quit skype in the system tray to remove it and then reboot. Just quiting Skype and removing it from the system tray does not stop the SuperNode. That's why you need to reboot. When you use Skype, the Skype daemon appears in the system tray. After you close your call and close the Skype client interface, also quit the deamon in the system tray. Never let it set there. You usually know when you are going to expect a call anyway.

What is the Skype SuperNode. It is an additional application that comes with Skype. It sets up your computer as a Skype VOIP server to process calls from the millions of Skype users who are on line all the time. It chooses its targets by their speed and bandwidth. The faster your PC is and the greater bandwidth your Internet connection has, the more likely your PC will be converted into a Skype VOIP server. Although it's free, when Skype starts "borrowing" your bandwidth that is the same as charging your for using Skype, because you are getting less bandwidth for your own personal use than what you are paying for.

Because most Windows users are not aware of the Skype SuperNode they usually experience a surfing slowdown and don't understand why. However, even though it is due to their ignorance, I want to thank them for sacrificing their PC and bandwidth to the Skype community. It's a fair trade for not being able to shut down the SuperNode in Linux (IF it starts up). I suspect that they target Linux machines because Linux boxes can take much heavier loads without bogging down. While that is true as far as the number of running applications, the bandwidth of an Internet connect isn't under Linux's control, and while Linux will run apps AND the SuperNode faster than Windows will, the SuperNode still makes a noticeable drag on Linux desktop performance.