MagicJack suggests on their FAQ's that to save power you can turn your monitor off and shut the hard drive down within the control panel of your computer. I believe they are suggesting the standby mode even though they don't say "standby"
Any ways my question is this. Instead of shutting the computer down it would be nice to put the computer in standby during the night so that calls could still be answered. However on my computer as long as the USB MagicJack is plugged into the computer the computer refuses to go into standby. Can you put your MagicJack equipped computer into standby, or is it just me that can't?
No, I can't, the lowest power consumption is by letting the drives and monitor turn off. Most boxes, especially laptops are surprizingly low on power consumption, however. I turn my box with MJ off at night along with the router and cable modem. In emergencies, folks know to call my prepaid cellphone. btw, I can retrieve cellphone VMs via magicjack with no air time charge, so I rarely use cellphone minutes.
I wonder if what you save in your phone bill isnt negated by computer electric consumption, 100w, 24 x 7 x 30 =3D $15 a month for me. Computers consume 100 to maybe 500w, think about that, my landline is cheaper I figured and my computer will last longer. Standby mode would help alot.
If the computer is solely on for the phone then yes you can spend $15 a month on electricity. Seeing how my computer is on anyway's I would only have the computer on for the extra 10 hours during the night and it would cost me $5 for 200 watts per hour.
I suspect you meant 100w x 24 x 30 to get the $15 per month, around
20 cents per KWH?
actually, typical computers 'idling' along (not in standby) draw somewhat less than most folks think. With the Monitor (40 watts for LCD and around 85 watts for CRT) powered down, laptops use around 35 watts and desktops around 60 watts). add another 15 watts for router and modem. These are broad swags drawn from:
formatting link
This would drop the idle computer's power noticably below 100 watts, especially laptops, when used for 24/7 MagicJack.
What does your landline cost monthly with all fees and taxes? Mine from ATT was $33/mo with *no* options and *no* long distance. $7 to $15 per month for MJ power is much cheaper. Not to mention a good set of call options and free domestic MJ LD.. Around $30 per month saved would buy a new PC in fairly short order.
My power consumption is much lower about 12 hours, 5 days a week. (I let MJ VM catch calls when powered off). I'm away from this location two days a week. I also use my PC, with a FM/TV/Graphics card for sound, cable, and ota tv, so I'm not burning power on a TV/Stereo.
I'm looking forward to the MJ port to linux, then we can do a flash drive based MJ 'ATA' on a cheap laptop with a busted display. A poorboy MJ thin-client.
I noticed today that Intel has launched a series of MotherBoards That can 'wake' on voip and lan. Looks promising.
Alternatively, you don't need a computer for something like Vonage (if you're already paying for high-speed internet). Some amount per month ($19.95) and you get a real telephone number (you get to pick your area code*) and all the bells and whistles: caller-id, call waiting, voice mail,
3-way calling, call forwarding, yak-yak-yak, plus all the long distance you can eat.
This $19.95/month is it. No sales tax, Spanish-American War tax, Al Gore tax, universal access fee, 911 connection fee, fuel surcharge, physical plant recovery fee, whatever. $19.95 per month, period.
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This comes in hand if all your relatives are in, say, Boston. You can get
617 area code and, when they call you, it's a local call. Or, if you live in Dead Rabbit, Oklahoma and want all your customers to think you're high-tech, you can get a Palo Alto, California area code.
Pretty much the same as MagicJack which is also 19.95 . . but per *year*
Pick your area code with MJ, as well. Can also dial/receive overseas MJ users, thru their US/Canada MJ number. A handy thing with MJ is that you can stick it in your pocket and use it on the road in any broadband connected PC. It's smaller than a pack of cigs and weighs one ounce.
It's about 4"x4"x2" tall, with no hard drive or keyboard or display, just connectors, including 3 USB. We added Ubuntu linux with a 1-wire file system (OWFS) on a $10 1 GB flash ram to handle a string of $2 Dallas sensors that respond with a 12 bit temperature after they see their factory-programmed 64-bit address go by on a single shared twisted pair.
The best part is Ubuntu's bwbasic, which is almost identical to gwbasic :-)
Unfortunately Magicjack needs an energy wasting full blown computer with a GUI OS running their proprietary client just to use it. When the class of machine you mentioned (or less) is all it takes to implement an ATA to support VoIP. We have VoIP in the office and the two line ATA is just an efficient tiny box with a dedicated processor.
Nope. Use an older XP laptop with a busted screen and/or busted keyboard. Plug in a monitor and keyboard and install MagicJack. Unplug the monitor/keyboard, plug a telephone into the MJ and you've got an ATA (analog telephone adaptor). Uses around
20 watts of AC. About a dime a day.
The MJ and its services are fully accessible from a standard phone, no need to use the MJ GUI/window on a computer screen. Screen and keyboard not required.
And I strongly suspect that you're paying a heck of a lot more than $20 per year to rent the ATA and the two line service, yes?
Another way to view the MJ is to use it as a simple, cheap computer accessory. We use sound cards to listen to music, tuner cards for radio and TV, why not add a phone to the mix? Especially a phone adaptor you can carry in your pocket and use most anywhere? Savings on long distance easily pays for it. I often spend 12 hours per day on a computer, it's mighty handy to have MJ/caller ID popup on incoming calls.
Any likely you know that laptops don't do well in 24x7 service. Pity you even need to haybale something like this.
Sure, but it needs to work and we needed to be able to port our existing numbers which is impossible with magicjack. Also when magicjack goes out of business it would likely be pretty involved to get our now unworking numbers released for porting.
I was showing that MJ doesn't require a 'full blown', power hungry computer nor a GUI. I really don't consider a laptop on an out of the way shelf 'haybaling'. And thank you for the pity, but I really don't need or appreciate it.
I have not and would not recommend MJ for business use. For that matter I'd not recommend any voip for business service without an automatic landline switchover. But, for personal, residential use, it's been more than adequate for me.
My desktop PC at home runs 24/7 regardless, primarily for business reasons. If I don't happen to turn of the monitor when I go to bed, it powers off after a specified period of time, as do the hard drives. While I don't have one (yet), I see absolutely no reason why Magicjack would add significantly to the overhead. If I had a MJ and tested successfully running a fax through it, I could also cancel my land line. We don't use it for phone purposes anyway. We either use our Blackberries or cell phones for all phone calls.
I really don't see what all the fuss is all about.
Well, pardon me for questioning one with such technical and business acumen. It took several posts, but you finally said you think MJ will fail, rather than hinting around. It may, indeed, fail but in the meanwhile I'm getting a great deal on phone service without feeding the telecom giants.
This sounds like the words of a condescending mindreader to me. You don't suffer from a lack of ego, do you?
Why? I agree that MJ may fail. I just intend to ride it while it hasn't.
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