MagicJack Caller ID Fix
If you haven’t heard of MagicJack, its a device that plugs into the USB port of a Windows/OS X computer in which you can plug in any regular home phone and get cheap phone service to everywhere in Canada and the United States. You can also (depending on location) get a local phone number so that people in your local area can call you without incurring long distance charges. MagicJack is the first VOIP provider that I have found that offered a local number here in Newfoundland, Canada. In total, for 1 full year of service, local Canadian phone number, taxes and shipping, it cost me $63,85. Not a bad deal.
After receiving my MagicJack, I got a loan of a crappy home phone from my girlfriend’s parents (I haven’t had a home phone in years!), to test it out. After a bit of trouble with getting the installer to see the internet on my Windows 7 64bit machine, I finally got the MagicJack installed. Went through the registration process, was assigned a local number, tested it out and everything went well. I then went onto Kijiji and found someone selling a cordless phone set with 3 handsets for $20, so I went and bought them. Hooked them up, and they work great throughout the apartment.
Now, the only problem I was having was that Caller ID wasn’t working on the cordless phones, only on the softphone on the computer (speaking of the softphone, it is rather annoying, but luckily can be removed, more on that in a later tips article). After some Google searching, and browsing on MagicJackSupport.com (sorry, don’t have exact thread link here, email me if you know it so I can credit), I found out that you can get the caller id working with different hacks:
Method 1 – DSL Line Filter (Easy!)
The first method, which I found buried in a post, was to use an ADSL line filter. While the technical differences between a DSL line filter and the 100k ohm resistor method mentioned below are a little different, it works. I just happened to have one laying around here, so I tried that, and it worked perfectly. Plug one end of it into your MagicJack, and plug your phone into the other end of the filter, and voila, it works. This is by far the easiest method, especially if you have a filter laying around. I didn’t see this method mentioned much online, so, it may not work for everyone, or every type of filter, but it worked for me and that’s why i’m saying its the easy way. Let me know if this didn’t work for you.
Method 2 – 100k Ohm Resistor
The other method is to use a 100k Ohm resistor which you can get from any RadioShack (US) and wherever you can find it (Canada). Next, you can get a phone jack coupler like the one pictured to the right, and add the resistor to the coupler as shown. All you need to do is unscrew the screws holding in the red and green wires slightly, add in your 100k ohm resistor, and tighten them up again. It appears that the majority of people who do this hack have the most success.
As I stated, I did not discover either of these hacks, the pictures I used are from one of the members on the forum, and if I can find the post, I will post credit to the user.
Any questions, please post below and I will try my best to answer them.
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