Tag: installation

MagicJack Installation, Firewall Setup and Port Settings

Posted on by M o u s h i g o

UPDATED ON APRIL 7, 2011 Magic Jack, this amazing usb device will allow you to make unlimited calls to the US and Canda for $20.00 per year and better yet, you get a registered landline number that allows you to receive calls. I’ve found a lot of sites on how to set up routers, firewalls and access points to allow Magic Jack to pass through. None of them worked. It was agitating so I had to do some tests on my own. Read on for the complete port lists.

 

magic jack dongle

 

Magic Jack is very easy to install in the first place. Just plug it in and then plug your phone to it. The executable or installer should run automatically, if not open the flash drive, find it and then run it. The next part will deal with firewalls and port settings.

 

I used Active Ports to find out what ports MagicJack was using and it turns out that it uses a lot of UDP ports and two TCP ports. Their website specifically states that the device only uses UDP ports 5060-5070 (reference: LINK (removed) – GOOGLE’S WEB CACHE OF THE PAGE UPDATE April 7, 2011:The knowledge base has been down for a while but I managed to retrieve Google’s cache of the site.) which I found out was clearly not true. I found this out by performing calls to a random list of phone numbers (except 911 numbers ^_^). I dialed at least 40 phone numbers repeatedly. After this, I was able to conclude that MagicJack uses random UDP ports in the high range. UDP ports might seem a bit less important than TCP ports but as a Systems Administrator this will create a highly unsecured and exposed network. I was only able to achieve 100% connectivity with the 40 phone numbers after opening a range of UDP ports.

 

magicjack ethernet dongle

 

I also stumbled upon a lot of sites and forum posts that tell magic jack users to setup port forwarding, this is NOT true!

 

Below is the exact list of the TCP and UDP Ports that I had to open in my firewall and router (NOT port forward) to achieve 100% connectivity:

 

TCP Ports List: 80 (HTTP), 443 (HTTPS)

UDP Ports List: 5060, 5070, 10000-65535

 

It is really strange why the device was designed like this. My guess is that the device is intended solely for home use and not commercial use.

 
 
 

Basic Home Theater Setup and Installation for Newbies

Posted on by M o u s h i g o

Looks complicated doesn’t it? Nowadays home theater systems are getting cheaper and more affordable and I still can’t find a decent guide about installing, setting up and basics of these home theaters. Then I realized there are not a lot of good guides because there are hundreds of home theater variations and so I created this guide. This is a very basic guide for home theaters. It won’t deal with how DTS works or how HDMI works. I won’t bother with very technical details because technology changes but the basic fundamentals do not. This guide just tells you how to connect the devices, the two types of experience you get from a home theater and to understand what __ IN / __ OUT jacks are so that you can use the system without paying for the expensive installation cost.

 

A. Before setting up, try to read a little about these topics:

1. RCA Cables
2. HDTV
3. Component Cables
4. Digital Theater System
5. Surround Sound
6. TOS-LINK Cables
7. TRS Connector

 

A. Understanding the common setup for Home Theater Systems

Before starting the setup you need to understand that in a home theater there are only two things you can experience, the audio experience and the video experience each of which gets data from a source, and so by putting this in mind it will be easier for you to understand how to create basic setups and troubleshoot problems.
 
Video Experience Devices:
– Television / HD Televisions
– Projectors
– Computer Monitors
 
Audio Experience Devices:
– Amplifiers
– Speakers
– Subwoofers
 
Possible Sources:
– DVD Players / Blu-ray Players / VCD Players
– Xbox 360
– PSP / PS3 / PS2
– Digital Camcorders
– Digital Cameras
– Personal Computers
– Cable TV
 
How do these devices work together/communicate?
After knowing these, the next thing to understand would be to learn how these devices communicate with each other. These devices communicate using IN/OUT jacks. No matter how complex the jack may look like (RCA,TOSLINK,DVI,HDMI) or how many there are (RED,WHITE) they only can only do one action. IN jacks receive data/video/audio signals from other devices while OUT jacks send data/video/audio signals to another device. Like the principle of north and south poles of a magnet they need to bind together.
 
 
Now that you have read about the basics on the next page I will be showing some examples and jack scenarios on basic Audio and Video Experience connections for home theaters. Don’t like HTPC? I will also include a scenario wherein your PC will be used as a source. ^_^
 
On to Page 2!

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