zxcvbob wrote:
> Would it work with an old laptop with a broken screen that still runs
> OK? It could be set-up on top of the upright freezer and dedicated to
> the MagicJack, and its aging battery would even provide a half-hour or
> so of uninterruptible power supply.

That's an interesting question. If you bought the thing, plugged it in and
it started to install a program, how would you enter the information it
needed and click on the appropriate things?

If you can get over that hump, then it will work. How well is another issue,
I can't predict that. :-) The other problem may be where you get your local
number. I have a friend in one part of Colorado and the only number they
can get is for a long distance call.

Kind of defeats the local phone number thing for them. If you can get
one where you want, it should be ok.

Note the UPS function of the laptop only is any good if your Internet
connection is through it or on another UPS. If you have a router, or some
other connecting box plugged into the wall, it will go off when the power
does taking your phone line with it.

> I have a Virgin Mobile cellphone that I don't use much. It costs me $5
> per month for more minutes than I use so they just accumulate.

You aren't by any chance in Eastern PA? My wife needs a cell phone there in
late July for a week. :-) We're looking at the AT&T $10 phone, with the
$3 a day plan. She gets "unlimited" calls for a day and only pays for
those days she uses the phone. We then plan to pass it on to another
relative who is going to the US in August.

A friend of mine in the US recommended it because he was using his cell phone
only a few days a month, and this was a lot cheaper. It has a "gotcha", to
keep the air time for a year, you have to buy $100, which comes out to 33 days
or 2 days a month average with 9 extra days.

>
> The land-line bill has so many taxes and surcharges added on (no matter
> who the carrier) it costs more for that than the actual phone service.
> I'm currently getting phone service from the cable company -- doesn't
> seem any better or worse than the phone company except now the phone
> goes out when we lose power -- and I can't dial out with my old rotary
> phones.

If you get your Internet from the same system, it won't help to get a
VoIP phone, no matter whose.

May I interest you in an Amateur Radio (Ham) license? :-)

Geoff.


--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM