First let me say that if you expect wire line (hardware phone service from your local telephone company) quality from this product, stop here, you are wasting your time.

If your still reading this let me explain, The magicJack/plus works on a high speed internet service connection, digitizes your voice, places it on the internet to be sent to a telephone switching network.  Your old wireline service directly connects your phone to a switching network.  You can see the complexity this adds and the additional problems using the internet for VOIP (Voice over IP)

More on the voice quality and what you can compare it to,  Vonage, Ooma, Skype, Nettalk and others provide a similar service what sets MagicJack apart is the price and quality.  I found the voice quality to be very comparible with both Vonage, Ooma and superior to Nettalk and Skype.  Nettalk is very poor and like using a very bad cell phone connection but thats another review.

Connecting the unit.  Setup is fairly staight forward.  Connect the magic jack unit to your computer via a USB port. 

The computer should automatically identify and configure the software for use.  A MagicJack setup screen will pop up within a minute or so. At this point you can  setup an account (DONT SIGN UP FOR THE OPTIONAL STUFF UNTIL AFTER YOUR 30 DAY TRIAL, JUST SAY NO) and after a number of sales questions you will be given your telephone number.  Remember, if you can always add extra's anytime by logging into your newly created account.

If you purchased the standard Magic Jack your done, start using your new service. If you purchased the Plus version you can leave it connected to your computer or unplug it from the USB and plug it into your network router.   Once connected to your network router via the RJ45 connector the magicjack plus will automatically request a connection.  This is done though your router, over the internet to Magicjack's telephone switch.   Please note, this process takes a few minutes to occur.  If you experience problems you should unplug power to your router for 30 seconds and re-connect.

Using the MagicJack.  Making a phone call using the service is much like making a cell call.  YOU MUST DIAL THE AREA CODE for all calls including local ones.  This is a real drawback in my opinion.

Features, thing like callerid only provide the calling telephone number and not the name. Call forwarding is activated and deactivated by logging via PC into your account.  You can't do it from your phone.

MagicJack is a little fussy about the phones you can use and trying to feed your whole house can be an issue.  This is because of the limited amount of power the MagicJack has to power your inside phone line.  I was able to use it with my home alarm system as well as my Wireless phones.

Would I recommend MagicJack to a friend? yes with some provisions.  Those depending on a phone for life critical events, No. The E911 system works differently on VOIP services. Another thing, if you loose your internet service, or your router goes bad or you have any problems with your networks you will not have phone service! 

Need a second line for the kids? how about a family member who lives on long distance calls, then I say sure.

Recommended: Yes