MagicJack-- Does it work? You bet!

I am sitting in an airport as I write this and I thought I would give you my experience with this product.

I purchased this product approximately 6 months ago and I have been very pleased with it. I use it extensively while I am traveling around the country and even Canada. I have used a Dell D610 and now a Dell D810 running Windows XP Pro.

Upon receiving the Magic Jack I read the instructions and then proceeded to install the product. When I plugged in the Magic Jack it did not autorun like the instructions said that it would so I opened the explorer window and located the setup file and opened it. The software installed without any problems. Now when I plug the Magic Jack into my laptop it automatically starts the softphone. There have been 2 updates since I installed the product and both time it has upgraded without any problems.

Since I travel alot, I don't want to carry a phone with me to use the jack portion of the Magic Jack so I use a headset on the laptop instead. I have used the analog headset that plugs into the Mic and Speaker jacks on the PC without any problems. I have now switched to a USB headset as I like the feel of it better than the ear bud I was using. As a matter of fact I am using the Nortel headset that you get when you purchase a i2050 softphone. Call quality has been exceptional and there are no popup windows unless the phone rings.

I am not always at my PC with my headset on so I set the Mic and Sound for the headset and the ringer to alert on the built in speakers of the laptop. This way I know when I get a call and can answer it.

The softphone has a listing of calls that you made and received. It also lets you know if you missed a call. There is a contact list on the softphone and a plugin for Outlook that allows you to initiate a call from your Outlook contacts. Love this feature.

The Magic Jack comes with Call Waiting, Voice Mail, Conferencing and 911 support. With the voice mail you also get an email with the wave file of the message so even if you are not on line you can still get your messages. For 911 support you have to set the location address in your mymagicjack page.

When I know that I am going to be away for an extended period of time I forward the Magic Jack to my cell phone using the mymagicjack page.

I am currently using this for my business and it has only failed one time, when the systems were down due to weather related problems. As of now I do not have anything bad to say about this product and I would recommend that if you are trying to cut costs, give this product a shot. I don't think you will be disappointed.

Nortel files for bankruptcy protection

Over the last few days there have been many questions surrounding the announcement that Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection. Some are legitimate and some are just a panic knee jerk reaction.

What does this mean?

Well first off this only means that they have requested protection from creditors. This does not mean that the doors are going to close.

Is Nortel going to survive?

That all depends on what the leaders decide to do in the reorginization of the company. There are several things they have done wrong over the last decade that led up to this point. There are going to have to be major changes in the leadership for the company to make a turnaround.

What about my job, is it secure?

In this economy there are no jobs that are secure. With that being said, the enterprise products are not going to go away. The product is to good and there are too many of them already deployed for Nortel to just close the doors. It may be that the product is purchased by another corporation and is rebranded but the base product will remain intact. I for one am not worried about my job even though Nortel is the product that I know. It is all up to you to survive and you must do all you can to increase probability of employment. Spend extra time reading and learning all that you can in order to increase your knowledge. Don't rely on others, it is all up to you.

What about support for my PBX, BCM or Norstar etc...?

Nortel is operating in a business as usual mode for the time being and it is my belief that they will continue to do so. There are also several distributors with their own support organizations that are capable of supporting your products. I would not hesitate to purchase a Nortel product at all even in this time of turmoil. Do not let fear drive your decision of purchasing the best product for your business.

What does Nortel need to do to get things turned around?

Get back to basics with your products. Bring your support back from overseas. Language barriers are the biggest issues with your support. Get back to your roots of providing a superior product backed up by superior service and support. Bring your training back in house and/or have the classes designed to teach technicians and customers to use the NTPs. Right now classes are designed to get you to pass a test. Passing a test is not proof that you know how to manipulate the product, just a confirmation of memory. This is going to be a long and tedious process for Nortel and there will be pains along the way. Remember the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. That is going to have to be the approach that Nortel will have to take inorder to come out of this whole again.

A wise high school auto shop instructor once told me that "90% of what you know is not what you remember but rather what you know how to look up!"

I follow this rule every day and it works. There is so much information in the NTPs that there are few people that can remember even half of them.