Sponsor: VoiceMeUp - Corporate & Wholesale VoIP Services

VoIP Mailing List Archives
Mailing list archives for the VoIP community
 SearchSearch 

[asterisk-biz] MagicJack

Goto page 1, 2  Next
 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    VoIP Mailing List Archives Forum Index -> Asterisk Business
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
email at mattruby.com
Guest





PostPosted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 3:36 am    Post subject: [asterisk-biz] MagicJack Reply with quote

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.

Anyone know any more details? How do they offer $20:year, when most
VoIP competitors charge at least $15-35:month? Are they using Asterisk
for infrastructure - any thing more than maybe just voicemail?

If this isn't a scam, or a bubble loss-leader that will collapse under
a $20:year subscription, is it instead a new force pushing down prices,
and pushing ahead the mass marketization of Internet voice?


I tried to send this message directly to the list WED afternoon, but
once again the Digium filter is silently rejecting my posts. Digium
really should fix that. And soon. These lists are badly broken by it.


On Thu, 2008-03-20 at 12:00 -0500, asterisk-biz-request@lists.digium.com
wrote:
Quote:
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:34:15 -0500
From: "Kevin P. Fleming" <kpfleming@digium.com>
Subject: Re: [asterisk-biz] Asterisk - SIP - H323 - IAX
To: Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion
<asterisk-biz@lists.digium.com>
Message-ID: <47E1A2F7.7010905@digium.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Seysan wrote:

Quote:
If yes, what have you used for H323 part? I'm not concerned about
RTP
Quote:
Passing through the Asterisk Box (except maybe for IAX), and it is
not used
Quote:
as an User Agent.

IAX2 does not use RTP. Asterisk is always a User Agent. SIP and H.323
channels using RTP will always start out with RTP flowing through the
Asterisk box, and based on my understanding of H.323, it is not
possible
to redirect the RTP media to a different endpoint once the channel is
setup.

In summary, while Asterisk is in a lot of ways 'like a softswitch', it
is not a softswitch.

--
Kevin P. Fleming
--

(C) Matthew Rubenstein


_______________________________________________
--Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--

asterisk-biz mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
Back to top
trixter at 0xdecafbad.com
Guest





PostPosted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 6:50 am    Post subject: [asterisk-biz] MagicJack Reply with quote

On Fri, 2008-03-21 at 04:29 -0400, Matthew Rubenstein wrote:
Quote:
Anyone know any more details? How do they offer $20:year, when most
VoIP competitors charge at least $15-35:month? Are they using Asterisk
for infrastructure - any thing more than maybe just voicemail?

I dont know this specifically, but some stuff to look for. I have seen
unlimited calls advertised but it was voip only. One advertised it in
such a way to indicate that you could call the pstn, but in reality you
had to buy their ATA (at several times the normal price) which has both
FXO/FXS jacks and plug in your regular landline. And for this they
charged a subscription fee.

"unlimited" is also the most abused term in the industry. I have seen
people advertise unlimited and mean fewer than 2000 minutes a month.
That works out to just over 1 hour per day in the course of a month, or
1/24 of what unlimited really is (1/48 if you count the fact they give
you 2 channels to use).

Many advertise "unlimited" when they mean "flat rate" and regulators
arent doing anything to stop this. Personally I think its false
advertising to say unlimited and define that as "with limits", but its
common place.

The other end is that a couple years ago skype offered $15 unlimited
calling to US48, then increased it to I think $30/year. I dont know if
they still offer this price, but basically its a "well funded company
trying to steal customers".


So if you do look into this company a bit more you may want to see if
they are doing these things, and if so does that explain the hows and
whys of their pricing regime.
--
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!


_______________________________________________
--Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--

asterisk-biz mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
Back to top
mroberts1818 at gmail.com
Guest





PostPosted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 8:42 am    Post subject: [asterisk-biz] MagicJack Reply with quote

I've heard he offsets some of his costs by recip comp revenue

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: Trixter aka Bret McDanel <trixter@0xdecafbad.com>

Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 12:42:44
To:Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion<asterisk-biz@lists.digium.com>
Subject: Re: [asterisk-biz] MagicJack



On Fri, 2008-03-21 at 04:29 -0400, Matthew Rubenstein wrote:
Quote:
Anyone know any more details? How do they offer $20:year, when most
VoIP competitors charge at least $15-35:month? Are they using Asterisk
for infrastructure - any thing more than maybe just voicemail?

I dont know this specifically, but some stuff to look for. I have seen
unlimited calls advertised but it was voip only. One advertised it in
such a way to indicate that you could call the pstn, but in reality you
had to buy their ATA (at several times the normal price) which has both
FXO/FXS jacks and plug in your regular landline. And for this they
charged a subscription fee.

"unlimited" is also the most abused term in the industry. I have seen
people advertise unlimited and mean fewer than 2000 minutes a month.
That works out to just over 1 hour per day in the course of a month, or
1/24 of what unlimited really is (1/48 if you count the fact they give
you 2 channels to use).

Many advertise "unlimited" when they mean "flat rate" and regulators
arent doing anything to stop this. Personally I think its false
advertising to say unlimited and define that as "with limits", but its
common place.

The other end is that a couple years ago skype offered $15 unlimited
calling to US48, then increased it to I think $30/year. I dont know if
they still offer this price, but basically its a "well funded company
trying to steal customers".


So if you do look into this company a bit more you may want to see if
they are doing these things, and if so does that explain the hows and
whys of their pricing regime.
--
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!


_______________________________________________
--Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--

asterisk-biz mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
_______________________________________________
--Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--

asterisk-biz mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
Back to top
nk3569 at yahoo.com
Guest





PostPosted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 1:36 pm    Post subject: [asterisk-biz] MagicJack Reply with quote

Quote:
Matthew Rubenstein wrote:
Anyone know any more details? How do they offer $20:year, when
most VoIP competitors charge at least $15-35:month? Are they using
Asterisk for infrastructure - any thing more than maybe just
voicemail?

It's $20/yr, but you have to buy their device ($40) that connects to
your computer via USB. They then (plan to) proceed to spam you with ads
using the software you need to install to run the device. You cannot
use an ATA or any SIP device with their service as far as I know.

They do have CLEC status in some state (all of them?), look up YMAX
Corp. So they should be getting some price breaks (and reciprocal
revenue?) from that. But I think their main business model is to steal
as much customers and start spamming them with ads.

I dunno about this business model though. They're basically selling
service way below cost, assuming they can recoup it back in
advertisements. I doubt this will work long term.

More likely, they'll go out of business, taking all the cash they
amassed with them and leaving the users to hang out dry. I've seen some
people buy ahead 5 years of service with their device. Dunno about
everyone else but I'm not so sure they'll be able to stick for 5
MONTHS.. let alone 5 years.

(having said that, they started last year, and are backed by a guy with
pretty deep pockets. So who knows...)

--
Nitzan Kon, CEO
Future Nine Corporation
www.future-nine.com


_______________________________________________
--Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--

asterisk-biz mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
Back to top
trixter at 0xdecafbad.com
Guest





PostPosted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 2:41 pm    Post subject: [asterisk-biz] MagicJack Reply with quote

On Fri, 2008-03-21 at 04:29 -0400, Matthew Rubenstein wrote:
Quote:
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!


_______________________________________________
--Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--

asterisk-biz mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
Back to top
jared at compuwizz.net
Guest





PostPosted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 6:50 pm    Post subject: [asterisk-biz] MagicJack Reply with quote

From what I remember reading on DSLReports Forums and looking around, they do use sip and there are ways to extract the credentials if anything uses SIP.

There are some unofficial forums that have popped up if you google for them.

On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 3:32 PM, Trixter aka Bret McDanel <trixter@0xdecafbad.com (trixter@0xdecafbad.com)> wrote:
Quote:

On Fri, 2008-03-21 at 04:29 -0400, Matthew Rubenstein wrote:

Quote:
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!


_______________________________________________


--Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--

asterisk-biz mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz


Back to top
AFShin9 at gmail.com
Guest





PostPosted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 8:05 pm    Post subject: [asterisk-biz] MagicJack Reply with quote

I have bought this device for $39, it includes the Jack + one year subscription.

I called any US Numbers and also Canada Cell and Land line in Ontario, All worked fine.

There is no SPAM on their Program, it is just their own advertising that says if you want to call to UK, GErmany and .... You have to pay for the extra fee of about 2 cents per min for landlines!

As I checked it, their are using Asterisk. Also You will get a DID for Free.

Seysan




On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 5:44 PM, Jared Geiger <jared@compuwizz.net (jared@compuwizz.net)> wrote:
Quote:
From what I remember reading on DSLReports Forums and looking around, they do use sip and there are ways to extract the credentials if anything uses SIP.

There are some unofficial forums that have popped up if you google for them.


On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 3:32 PM, Trixter aka Bret McDanel <trixter@0xdecafbad.com (trixter@0xdecafbad.com)> wrote:
Quote:

On Fri, 2008-03-21 at 04:29 -0400, Matthew Rubenstein wrote:

Quote:
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!


_______________________________________________


--Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--

asterisk-biz mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz







_______________________________________________
--Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--

asterisk-biz mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
Back to top
stotaro at totarotechn...
Guest





PostPosted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 8:29 pm    Post subject: [asterisk-biz] MagicJack Reply with quote

If it sounds too good to be true... Sunrocket had a more sustainable
business model and a few commercials too. I guess if the device can
be used for something else if/when they fail, it's not such a bad
thing.

Thanks,
Steve Totaro

On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 8:59 PM, Seysan <AFShin9@gmail.com> wrote:
Quote:
I have bought this device for $39, it includes the Jack + one year
subscription.

I called any US Numbers and also Canada Cell and Land line in Ontario, All
worked fine.

There is no SPAM on their Program, it is just their own advertising that
says if you want to call to UK, GErmany and .... You have to pay for the
extra fee of about 2 cents per min for landlines!

As I checked it, their are using Asterisk. Also You will get a DID for Free.

Seysan






On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 5:44 PM, Jared Geiger <jared@compuwizz.net> wrote:

Quote:
From what I remember reading on DSLReports Forums and looking around, they
do use sip and there are ways to extract the credentials if anything uses
SIP.
Quote:

There are some unofficial forums that have popped up if you google for
them.
Quote:





On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 3:32 PM, Trixter aka Bret McDanel
<trixter@0xdecafbad.com> wrote:
Quote:

Quote:


On Fri, 2008-03-21 at 04:29 -0400, Matthew Rubenstein wrote:

Quote:
I saw an ad for MagicJack on TV, a USB VoIP dongle with a
$20:year
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
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
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
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!


_______________________________________________



--Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--

asterisk-biz mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz



_______________________________________________
--Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--

asterisk-biz mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz



_______________________________________________
--Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--

asterisk-biz mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz


_______________________________________________
--Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--

asterisk-biz mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
Back to top
nigel.dennis at sympat...
Guest





PostPosted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 10:10 pm    Post subject: [asterisk-biz] MagicJack Reply with quote

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.


Quote:
From: Trixter aka Bret McDanel <trixter@0xdecafbad.com>
Reply-To: trixter@0xdecafbad.com,Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk
Discussion<asterisk-biz@lists.digium.com>
To: Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk
Discussion<asterisk-biz@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:
Quote:
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!


_______________________________________________
--Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--

asterisk-biz mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz



_______________________________________________
--Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--

asterisk-biz mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
Back to top
trixter at 0xdecafbad.com
Guest





PostPosted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 2:44 am    Post subject: [asterisk-biz] MagicJack Reply with quote

On Fri, 2008-03-21 at 19:44 -0400, Jared Geiger wrote:
Quote:
From what I remember reading on DSLReports Forums and looking around,
they do use sip and there are ways to extract the credentials if
anything uses SIP.

yes its hashed with md5, and that isnt that hard to brute force, its
fairly fast as well. It wouldnt be bad to have a USB FXS supported
somewhere, it also wouldnt be bad to have something more official that
they wont change. For example if they determine that obtaining the
password out of sip headers is a problem, perhaps just because they dont
like it, then they could somewhat easily modify their client to get a
session password which is used for sip, so in essence it would be
rotating and make it harder to use elsewhere.


--
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!


_______________________________________________
--Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--

asterisk-biz mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
Back to top
nk3569 at yahoo.com
Guest





PostPosted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 2:47 am    Post subject: [asterisk-biz] MagicJack Reply with quote

--- Seysan <AFShin9@gmail.com> wrote:

Quote:
There is no SPAM on their Program,

Yet.

If you read their Terms of Service you will see they specifically say
that they will run advertisements over the software. It makes sense
too, since they need a way to make money off of this thing. $40 for the
device and $20 for the second year will not come even close to covering
the expenses.

For those of you thinking about running it via Linux, Asterisk, etc.
Even assuming you succeed in doing it, they are very likely to have a
problem with that since you bring no ad revenue in. I don't know if
they have the means to detect that now, but I'm sure they will
eventually if many people try to work around having to use their ad
platform.. I mean, software.

--
Nitzan Kon, CEO
Future Nine Corporation
www.future-nine.com


_______________________________________________
--Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--

asterisk-biz mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
Back to top
trixter at 0xdecafbad.com
Guest





PostPosted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 4:50 am    Post subject: [asterisk-biz] MagicJack Reply with quote

On Sat, 2008-03-22 at 00:43 -0700, Nitzan Kon wrote:
Quote:
For those of you thinking about running it via Linux, Asterisk, etc.
Even assuming you succeed in doing it, they are very likely to have a
problem with that since you bring no ad revenue in. I don't know if
they have the means to detect that now, but I'm sure they will
eventually if many people try to work around having to use their ad
platform.. I mean, software.


Rather than speculate about that, lets see what they have to say about
my proposal to be the one that writes and maintains linux support for
their device Smile

They arent running ads now, and their price isnt that different from
Skype. There are also things they can do to keep the price down which
can ultimately mean that they arent losing money at that price (at least
with sufficient volume).

I also havent looked yet at their TOS to see what they define unlimited
as, so far I have yet to find anyone that defines unlimited as "without
limits". If they define it similarly to say betamax (voipbuster, sip
discount, voipcheap, etc) then they are charging the same price as
betamax.

There are more companies that are charging about that price. There are
ways to make that price profitable as well (betamax actually gives you
more countries to call, magicjack I believe gives you only one).

--
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!


_______________________________________________
--Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--

asterisk-biz mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
Back to top
jack at jackearl.com
Guest





PostPosted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 12:04 pm    Post subject: [asterisk-biz] MagicJack Reply with quote

I am under the understand that this is a skype product, it might not be sold by skype but it is on there back bone, so I would suggest that is you are use to using a voip phone on skype then this will be no different except they have this adapter so the average person can use there existing home phone and plug in to the network or the voip network, so one trying to make a lot of money, wish i came up with the little box, but the jury is not in yet, when the wrong people get duke out of there money, then the courts will have the final say as to what the technology really is, and I am not boshing you.

Jack Earl

1 800 559 1959 Office
1 866 568 9648 Fax
1 412 589 5389 Cell

Http://www.jackearl.com

Quote:
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [asterisk-biz] MagicJack
From: <nigel.dennis@sympatico.ca>
Date: Fri, March 21, 2008 11:05 pm
To: asterisk-biz@lists.digium.com (asterisk-biz@lists.digium.com)

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.


Quote:
From: Trixter aka Bret McDanel <trixter@0xdecafbad.com>
Reply-To: trixter@0xdecafbad.com,Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk
Discussion<asterisk-biz@lists.digium.com>
To: Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk
Discussion<asterisk-biz@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:
Quote:
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!


_______________________________________________
--Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--

asterisk-biz mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz



_______________________________________________
--Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--

asterisk-biz mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
Back to top
m345 at netvision.net.il
Guest





PostPosted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 3:11 pm    Post subject: [asterisk-biz] MagicJack Reply with quote

I read somewhere that they have CLEC status in most of the states, so they maybe able to terminate calls for almost nothing.
But even if termination cost you nothing, it is still very hard to make money on $20 a year. Even if your costs are zero...

Nitzan Kon wrote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Matthew Rubenstein wrote:
Anyone know any more details? How do they offer $20:year, when
most VoIP competitors charge at least $15-35:month? Are they using
Asterisk for infrastructure - any thing more than maybe just
voicemail?

It's $20/yr, but you have to buy their device ($40) that connects to
your computer via USB. They then (plan to) proceed to spam you with ads
using the software you need to install to run the device. You cannot
use an ATA or any SIP device with their service as far as I know.

They do have CLEC status in some state (all of them?), look up YMAX
Corp. So they should be getting some price breaks (and reciprocal
revenue?) from that. But I think their main business model is to steal
as much customers and start spamming them with ads.

I dunno about this business model though. They're basically selling
service way below cost, assuming they can recoup it back in
advertisements. I doubt this will work long term.

More likely, they'll go out of business, taking all the cash they
amassed with them and leaving the users to hang out dry. I've seen some
people buy ahead 5 years of service with their device. Dunno about
everyone else but I'm not so sure they'll be able to stick for 5
MONTHS.. let alone 5 years.

(having said that, they started last year, and are backed by a guy with
pretty deep pockets. So who knows...)

--
Nitzan Kon, CEO
Future Nine Corporation
www.future-nine.com


_______________________________________________
--Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--

asterisk-biz mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz

Back to top
mdiehl at diehlnet.com
Guest





PostPosted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 6:12 pm    Post subject: [asterisk-biz] MagicJack Reply with quote

On Friday 21 March 2008 12:29:38 pm Nitzan Kon wrote:
Quote:
Quote:
Matthew Rubenstein wrote:
Anyone know any more details? How do they offer $20:year, when

Quote:
They do have CLEC status in some state (all of them?), look up YMAX
Corp. So they should be getting some price breaks (and reciprocal
revenue?) from that. But I think their main business model is to steal
as much customers and start spamming them with ads.

So how does one get CLEC status? Say, in only one state? Just curious....
<evil grin>

--
Mike Diehl

_______________________________________________
--Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--

asterisk-biz mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
Back to top
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    VoIP Mailing List Archives Forum Index -> Asterisk Business All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page 1, 2  Next
Page 1 of 2

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group

VoiceMeUp - Corporate & Wholesale VoIP Services