Pros: 1) Affordable - and makes it worth a little more effort
2) Basically works as advertised as long as you have a strong internet connection
3) Getting the voice mails delivered to my emails is excellent!
4) The customer service folks via chat are quicker then trying to call 611 on a landline for help

Cons: 1) Best used with a dedicated system, not a computer you are trying to work on
2) Heavy internet traffic will make the sound pretty choppy
3) Don't count on ever getting number portability - they keep promising, but so far don't seem to really be too interested in ever delivering on that promise.

Bottom Line: No, it doesn't work with faxes, No, it's not a smart idea to rely on as your primary business phone line (but I wouldn't trust any VoIP line as my actual business line!)

I've been using 2 magic jacks for over 6 months now. One for my weekly work travel, set up on my laptop over whatever WiFi connection I can get on. That didn't work so well- due to weak unpredictable wifi connections, but over all in a few months It had still saved me enough cell minutes to pay for itself, so I can't really complain.
The second one I have used in my house, with a ethernet connection on both a mac and pc. It seems to be more reliable on the Macintosh then the dedicated PC. And like any phone line, it will only be as good as the quality of the phone you are using.

The overall sound quality with fast internet, and a decent phone is above that of a cell phone, and only slightly less then a hard line.

We are now using one of the magicjacks as a primary home phone. We also have a cable VoIP line and google voice so we can use which ever phone we want each time a call comes in. All in all, it's saving me over $80/month being able to dump Verizon. which is WELL worth the few hassles of rebooting, etc.  Permalink