I have just come across the MagicJack

It is a usb device that allows you to connect a telephone handset to your computer.

Once installed and registered it gives you a US phone number so that people can call you,

no matter where you are in the world, and you can call US/Canada numbers free.

The first year calls are free, included in the price of the device. Ignore all the "deals"

when registering, unless you feel you really need them.

Subsequent years are $20.

Worth checking out if you call the US or want people there to be able to call you.

Not sure if the device is available in Thailand yet.

Have had one for years.....works great.

Some shops in Fortune IT and MBK have been selling it for a couple of months.

Crappy service on weekends but works fine on weekdays.

Service qaulity all depends on your internet connection and the internet connection to the USA.

Edited February 8, 201016 yr by gosompoi

You get what you pay for,maybe.In the us ,I understand ya need a broadband connection.

I apologise upfront for being an old computer illiterate.

If I'm bringing my laptop(Windows Vista and IE7) with an a magic jack purchased and installed in US,will I be able to use a wireless connection in a hotel room to make and receive calls to US?

Can I just turn on my laptop and use it in Thailand,just like at home in us or does something have to be downloaded to use my US computer on Thai internet providers?

I just don't know much about computers other than checking e-mail and surfing the web with google.

Thanks ahead of time for any helpful responses

Once registered, which only takes 2 minutes, you can make calls from anywhere you computer is.............

As with all internet, the quality will depend on the local internet service connection.

Yes, you can just plug it in and use it as if you were at home. The only caveat, and it's been mentioned, is that your performance will depend on the quality of your connection. If your hotel's wireless is slow or heavily loaded, you will have degraded performance. It'll very hotel to hotel and the time of the day.

Quite a longish thread here...

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Magicjack-Un...mp;hl=magicjack

Many of us have been using MJ for several years.

I guess it was about a year ago I bought one of these. It was actually highly recommended by a Professor from Johns Hopkins. He told me all about it when I asked him to please explain the phone connected to his laptop. It was odd picture with this small older gentleman with the Hopkins ID hanging from his neck, lounging in a big chair at Starbucks with a laptop tethered corded telephone phone atop the chair arm. I should have known...

So I get the thing. The service was usually very lousy. I remember it being very difficult if not impossible to uninstall the software. (Any decent software should always include clear instructions on how to remove it) But the most shocking discovery was that it uses NO ENCRYPTION. So it is very easy for someone to eavesdrop on your conversations. I was able to very simply record my conversations from the ethernet packets using a program called wireshark.

No Encryption, Mostly Lousy Service and no software removal tools

IMO Magicjack is a lot of hype and little substance.