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Archive for October, 2009

My Magic Jack Review
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Darnell_F_Vega]Darnell F Vega

The other day I was in Best Buy and I noticed the MagicJack product that I’d seen on TV several times. Since I was looking for a VOIP application I decided to give it a try.

What is Magic Jack—My Review
Magic Jack is a small plastic device a little bit smaller than a credit card that plugs into the USB port on your computer. The purpose of Magic Jack is to place telephone calls through the Internet. There is also a telephone plug on the device. I paid $45 at Best Buy for MagicJack and the first year of service. This includes unlimited domestic calls to any phone all in the one fee.

In addition to the device, the $45 included a free voice mail account and a free US telephone number, which is important since I spend so much time overseas.

Installation
installation was very easy. I plug the device into my computer on at the USB port and the Magic Jack software installed automatically. After a brief update, I plugged my telephone into the plug on th device and it was ready to go. Surprisingly when I picked up the telephone I had a dial tone immediately and was able to place a call.

So does it work
In short yes MagicJack works very well considering the inexpensive cost. My first test call using the telephone through MagicJack resulted in a call that was very clear and easy to understand. The initial call was clearer than most cell phone conversations and nearly to the level of using a landline. I experienced no voice delay as I had with other VO IP applications.

After testing several calls, I’ve concluded that Magic Jack is at least as good as most cell phone providers. Using the telephone handset I’ve had great results with the quality of my phone calls. When using a cheap computer headset, the call on my end was clear, but sometimes the other end had static. For best results use Magic Jack with the telephone handset.

For a more difficult task I placed a call overseas. Dialing from the US to an overseas number is not free of charge so I did need to set up an account with Magic Jack and pay for the minutes I used. Magic at rates to most countries is quite reasonable. This call went fairly well, but since the cell phone reception on the other end was for, sometimes it was hard to hear on the call. Surprisingly, there was little delay between speaking and hearing. While overseas, I placed several calls to US telephone numbers. These calls are free of charge on Magic Jack, making this an outstanding bargain for travelers. Most of the calls I placed were very clear although occasionally the person I was talking to would have trouble hearing and a small delay would occasionally occur between speaking and hearing. Overall, the quality is again comparable to the cell phone reception I was getting in the same country.

Conclusion

I am quite please with Magic Jack. The sound quality has ranged from excellent to adequate, the price is amazing, and I’ve been able to place and receive US calls while I’m overseas. MagicJack will require a broadband connection and your call quality will vary depending on the quality of your Internet connection. Overall I’ve had no calls were I could not communicate, and many calls where it was almost like being on a landline.

If you’re interested in Magic Jack, the one mistake I made was buying it in the store. If purchased online, Magic Jack comes with a 30 day trial that is completely risk-free, and is available online for less than the costs in the store. As long as you have a broadband connection, give Magic Jack to try, it is risk-free and they have proven to be a reliable and quality company.

Darnell is a technology guru and aspiring author. [http://purelybargains.com/2009/06/magic-jack-review/]Magic-Jack Review.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Darnell_F_Vega http://EzineArticles.com/?My-Magic-Jack-Review&id=2508179

Does My Office Need Cat5e or Cat6 Cabling?
By Steve Norris

We have seen a growing percentage of installed data cabling shift from Cat5e to Cat6 in the past year. A common question we hear, since there is a substantial price difference between the two, is do I really need Cat6 and gigabit capacity internally?

What is the difference between the two? Essentially both cable types are rated for distances up to 90M, but the difference lies in the data carrying capacity of each cable. Cat5e is a 100Mbit/s cable, and Cat6 is a gigabit cable standard. Gigabit = 1,000Mbit/s, or roughly ten times as fast at Cat5e.

Cat5e cable, or Category 5 cable, is a copper standard for 100Mbit/s transport speed. Cat5e (enhanced) replaced the old Cat5 standard. Each Cat5e cable actually can carry 100Mbit worth of data per second.

Is this adequate for your network? In order to answer this, it is good to know a few more details about your network. Do you use an internal server that hosts databases or bandwidth intense features? Do you only use the data connection in your office for internet browsing? Do you use a VOIP telephone system?

It is common for the average business to use a T-1 worth of bandwidth or greater. An average T-1 connection is 1.5Mbit/s, so if the main use of your data usage is browsing the internet, the 100Mbit/s connection with Cat5e cable will never be a cause for lack of network performance.

If you use very bandwidth intensive applications hosted on a common server, and you need real time performance internally, you may actually use a large portion of that available bandwidth.

If you use a VOIP telephone system, remember that each voice conversation only represents 64kb. On a Cat5e cable that supports 100Mbit/s, you can actually handle up to 1562 conversations at one time across each Cat5e cable. Unless you are using bandwidth intensive applications internally, Cat5e capacity and performance should not be an issue with VOIP systems. If you phone system is not VOIP, most digital phones operate on a single pair of wires, and they are often best accommodated with Cat3 cabling.

As more and more businesses turn to fiber optic data connections to the internet, higher bandwidth internally becomes a necessity. Not only does Cat6 cable represent a higher installation cost, it will also require gigabit switches internally to handle the faster gigabit speeds. If 10/100 switches or standard 100Mbit switches are used with Cat6 cabling, the actual performance of the cabling is limited to smallest transport mechanism. Cat6 Cabling also requires the more expensive Cat6 Patch Panels and Cat6 jacks.

If your office is using a fiber connection, or if your office uses bandwidth intensive applications, Cat6 cable may need to be a consideration. We recommend that you speak to your local Cabling Contracting Experts to help make a recommendation that best suits your application and budget.

Steve Norris is a Texas based cabling contractor that provides Cat6 Cabling solutions and Cat5e Cabling solutions.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Norris
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