Internet Telephony: My Adventures with MagicJack, netTALK
My tiny apartment in one of the outer boroughs of New York City isn’t really set up to receive phone service without punching through more walls than my landlord would be comfortable with — but I still needed a desk phone for business. That’s when I decided that voice-over-IP (VoIP) Internet telephony might be the answer, since I didn’t need a phone jack and, at least in theory, it’d drive my phone bills down. So far, I’ve had the chance to try out MagicJack and netTALK. Here are my conclusions after weeks spent experimenting.
MagicJack’s been getting a lot of lip service, and it was the one I was most excited to try. The MagicJack device itself costs $39.95 with a 30-day free trial, and it comes with a year of unlimited domestic and service (additional years are $19.95 each). Plug the USB end of the gadget into your computer, plug the phone itself into the appropriate jack, and the device comes to life — the company pulled the very slick move of having it pull double duty as a flash drive, so all the software you need automatically installs itself when it’s powered up the first time.
Once I set up an account, I was able to start dialing. My favorite part of the whole MagicJack experience is that you can dial directly from the application – very handy if you need to input a long phone extension or password and don’t want to remove the handset from your ear. The voice quality was good and I experienced very little echo. Truthfully, my only problem with was that it needs to be connected to a powered-on PC running the host software to work. This is bad news if you like turning off your computer once in a while, though I already have Google Voice ringing my desk and my cell phones simultaneously at all times.
netTALK, which is $99.95 and comes with lifetime unlimited service, was much more of a mixed bag (at least in my experience). In this case, after setting up an account on their website, you run an Ethernet cable from your router directly to their trademark TK6000 box, and plug your desk phone into it, and it configures itself — if it worked, the phone will ring once and you’re on the grid. While it definitely addresses my major complaint with the MagicJack, I do find myself missing the on-screen dialpad. It’s definitely a tangible inedible cake scenario. It also opens up a whole new world of problems.
While I found netTALK to have generally good quality, it had the extremely annoying quality of rendering all incoming audio all s-s-s-s-stuttery to the point where I couldn’t make out a single word the other party said. This happened at least once per call. Everything else is nickel-and-dime stuff, but if I have to admit to someone on the other end that I couldn’t hear them for the better part of the minute before, it’s not doing its job very well.
Also of note: MagicJack has a reseller program, according to the company’s FAQ but MagicJack doesn’t say much about the partner program on its web site. We also scanned netTalk’s web site for partner program information but didn’t find any.
Of course, your experience may vary. If you have personal experience with MagicJack, netTalk and related options, I’m all ears.
Follow The VAR Guy via RSS; Facebook; Identi.ca; Twitter; and via his Newsletter; Webcasts and Resource Center. Plus, check out more channel voices at www.vartweet.com.
Good article, and I generally agree with your assessment of the MagicJack. It’s a good device with some serious ‘green’ issues (the need to keep your computer on 24/7).
With NetTALK However, I haven’t experienced the same problems as you. While I have on *very* rare occasion heard a moment of garbled voice, for the great majority of the time the quality is impeccable, perhaps better than MagicJack. Maybe there’s a peering issue between your ISP and whoever they’re using, but with Optimum Online, it’s fine. In fact, my only real ‘problems’ with NetTALK are an occasional lockup requiring a device reboot, and my concerns over the long term viability of the company, although for the price of admission, as long as they last more than a year, I’m coming out ahead.
hi,
Thanks for that article.
According to the nettalk website, that device can do usb or ethernet.
http://www.nettalk.com/tk6000
Not sure if you overlooked that or if the web page is a mistake?
matt
Phil: I never encountered the lockup problems, but your point about the company’s viability is well-taken. Only time will tell.
Matt: Thanks for pointing that out. I must have overlooked that, but that wasn’t my main concern with netTALK (in fact, it directly addresses the problem I had with magicJack). My problem was the stuttery audio. Everything else is just personal preference.
Matt L: As far as I can tell, the USB connection is only used to allow the TK6000 unit to utilize the computers internet connection (like magicjack) instead of straight ethernet. I’ve never found a means to originate a call from the host computer when it’s configured this way. If I’m wrong, someone please correct me.
I am looking for Voip and would like to know if you had the chance to use Ooma?
Matt,
I just placed an order for my TK6000 (it hasn’t arrived yet), and I just ran across your post. I know that there have been a few firmware upgrades since your post and was curious to know if you have tried your netTalk recently to if you are still experiencing the issue?
I’m personally excited for mine to arrive. If it works as well as advertised, I’m droping Time Warner as my telephone provider… and saving myself about $500 this year.
Again, just curious to have a current update on your experiences.
Chris: So glad you asked; I’ve been meaning to blog this for a little while now. In my own, personal, subjective experience, the new firmware updates make using netTalk an even more unpleasant experience: the audio is, almost as a rule, echo-y and undecipherable – assuming it doesn’t just drop the call in the middle altogether. The only reason it’s still on my desk is that I managed to misplace my MagicJack. I’ve been using my BlackBerry for all calls until it turns up.
That said, my experience seems to be relatively unusual, and I’m willing to admit it could be a hardware defect or similar on my end. But it’s been the single most unpleasant product I’ve ever had the misfortune of using.
Hmmm,
That doesn’t instil confidence. 😉
I guess I’ll have to wait to receive mine next week and I’ll let you know how it goes.
Matt,
As promised, I said, I’d follow up with my experience.
First and foremost, the install process should be broken down into two types. 1) Physical cabling and 2) Configuration Steps.
Part #1, the physical cabling… I asked my 7-year-old to plug everything in to see if it were easy enough for her to do. The short of it, yes… even a 7-year-old can make the physical cabling happen.
The real question is, what does just physically cabling the device get you? Well, in my experience, after getting everything plugged in, the phone rang (as expected) and what do you know we had a dial tone! Well, of course, we tested a call… to a cellphone. Outgoing call worked right off the bat! Granted the caller id at the receiving side was NOT anywhere near my current location.
We then tried receiving a call back to that caller id #… That was a no go. So, as long as you don’t plan on receiving calls, your 7-year-old can hook this up and make calls all day long with much effort at all!
Which takes us to #2: Configurations…
We in an effort to get the inbound calling to work, I started at their forums (forums.nettalk.com). There is a large, technical group of folks willing to pitch in and help. I was given several pointers on what to do… and tried them all. No luck. I finally broke down and logged a service ticket. After getting 2 new numbers and making a telephone call to technical support, I was finally in business. I could receive inbound calls and my # was local.
Call Quality: I know you had experienced several issues with call quality. I have NOT experienced anything like that. The only difference I can see between my other telephone line and this one is that the audio level on the TK6000 is slightly lower (fewer decibels) than the other. Besides that the quality of the audio has been quite clear and responsive. Definitely worth the money on call quality considering I will have it paid off in 3 months of savings. I cannot speak to the quality difference between this device an MJ as I don’t own an MJ. Although I have a server that’s left on 24/7, it’s Linux-based and thus MJ wouldn’t work on it anyhow.
Pros:
* Good audio quality,
* very simple cabling,
* no PC required, works on all telephones amp; fax machines
I’ve tested to date,
* I will save about $400 this year on telephone service,
and over $2000 during the next 5 (assuming the company
will still be around).
* Great support from both their Customer Service amp; member forums.
* Works GREAT with Google Voice!
Cons:
* May need to configure your router.
* Local #’s may be difficult to come by for some.
* Must dial a (1 + ) even for local #’s.
* Nowhere is there a list of the (firmware updates) to let
people who have been tracking the progress of the device
know if their issue / concern has been fixed or implemented
into a release of the firmware.
* Currently awaiting a firmware update to fix a known issue
where the device looses connectivity and thus you loose your
dial tone.
Overall, my experience has been positive. When I was a bit frustrated during the initial setup, I kept a positive outlook knowing that this is still an extremely new product. The support team has been very helpful and now that it’s up and running, I just smile knowing what I’m going to save.
Chris: I’m glad to hear you’re happy! I guess it’s time to seriously look into what’s wrong with my unit. 🙂
I ordered my TK6000 and it took 2 weeks to arrive after paying the $99.99, which included the rush shipping? It came with no instructions and I logged into the web site and found a customer service toll free number and called it. The rep went through all the steps and I had a local number in 10 minutes. The call quality was great, but I couldn’t call in area code 716. After last weekend’s (alleged) system migration, everything changed! The NetTAlk system was down for 4 days on my end, then it recovered with serious issues. Who can go without a phone for 4 days! Everything is choppy! The rings, the conversation and everyone I talk to said they now hear static. It wasn’t like that before! I can finally call the 716 area codes, but now I can’t call numbers in area code 706. Fix one problem, mess up something else. I still have one more week to decide if I want to keep it. I have a MagicJack in the unopened package and will rate it when I have time. I have no connection to any VOIP company and hope they all have quality service in the near future. Once someone comes out with a system as good as or better than my current land line, I will dump my overpriced $37 a month basic ATT home phone!
Spencer,
Definitely sorry to hear that you are experiencing issues.
My service is actually BETTER since the upgrade. I never lost service once the system came back up, and my call quality is actually better than ever! Although I’m not going to belittle your issues, they are not issues experienced by everybody. I haven’t tried calling area code 706, but all of the numbers I have called seem to work fine.
As a follow up to my previous post, they have implemented a new firmware that removes the dialing of the (1 + #) requirement. They have also changed up their forums and provided a dedicated thread to following the issues and their current status. My biggest issue, the one where my device was loosing connectivity, has also been fixed with a recent firmware upgrade.
That being said, I’m looking forward to telling Time Warner Cable where they can put their $40/month phone service come July 25th! 😉
I hope that your experiences get better, maybe I’m just part of the lucky ones…
Good Luck,
Chris.
I too tried the TK6000. When it worked, it worked well. The problem, which is VERY WELL DOCUMENTED on their website forum is dropped dialtone. It has no ability to reacquire and so I had to constantly reboot the device. I used a top quality router that was listed as one that workds (DIR-655). However, there was something not right with the setup. I used Sunrocket for 2 years and Viatalk for 6 months and never had to reboot or restart. Viatalk quality just wasn’t good enough. I just don’t think the TK6000 is ready for primetime.
Thanks for the interesting and helpful comments. For one thing, I learned not to all my eggs in the Nettalk basket. Even when I talked to the salesmen the voice was not clear. But for the price, I might try it. Here’s what I’m trying to do. I just cut my landline phone (got rid of cable and am using 4G wireless service for Internet access. I am switching my landline # to my cell phone. I still have the phone wiring installed in my five-room Manhattan apartment. Is there a way I could connect the TK6000 to that existing wiring? If it worked well (which after your article I now doubt), I would have the cell phone forward my calls to the TK6000. That way, I’d still have extensions trouggout my apartment. Does this seem possible?
Bob
Yep!
Just do what I call… “back-feeding”. In short… just plug in your nettalk… and then plug your phone wire (RJ-11) from your NetTalk TK6K into any one of your telephone outlets…
Each of your OTHER 4 telephone outlets now have access to your NetTalk TK6000!
Good Luck!
I used Magic jack and Nettalk. MJ for three years and Nettalk for one and half years.
On the programming part, MJ has more mature process. Everything works like a normal phone except keeping the computer run–however, if you have old XP you do not want any more, keep your phone on that everything will be just a charm.
Nettalk –there is some ethic issues with the company–TK 6000 came out in less than a year or so they turn out DUO– now DUO2. My TK 6000 was out of order in less than a year, they refused to replace with TK6000, They said they have no more TK 6000, I got a replacement of DUO, they voided my Lifetime usage. A little more than 6 months later, they sent me a message to pay annual fee–Now my phone is cut off–back to MJ.
Technical issues on Nettalk –1) if you try to calls to business as Verizon-press 1 for wireless customer, 2. phone service 3 for fios, 4 for high Speed internet,.. the press 1 for sales, 2. for installation, 3. for technical issues, 4 billing, aftr several rounds of transfering, when you reached the destination –you get a long piecing tone, …
2)It never gives you a busy tone. No matter the phone number does not exist or is in use–it just rings–you never why you cannot reach the person.
I just filed a complaint to Better business bureau to complain that they use model change to avoid business obligations.
I am very interested with using this thing with google VOice. just like OBI110? can anyone tell me how?