Documentation

Introduction

VoIP is a new technology that makes it possible to make phone calls over the internet. The main selling point has been lower price for phone calls, but equally important (if not more) is the new ways you can have control over what you can do with your phone. Today, with an old PC and some free software you can setup a PBX (Private Branch eXchange) right at home that is more advanced than the PBX you have at work. You can have as many extensions (phones) connected as you like, then easily transfer calls between them. Maybe you want to setup a menu system for voice mail, so that everyone in your household can have their own. Why not have a new message mailed to you as soon as it’s recorded? No problem. All this is included with Trixbox.

Annoyed by telemarketers? Just use a blacklist to get rid of them. Do you want to be able to answer your home phone when traveling? Just use your laptop and JackenIAX, and you will be able to answer and place calls as if you were at home.


Preferences

There's a lot of different preferences to be set in JackenIAX. Here you can find a description on what they do.

Filters & Codecs

There are several kinds of filters to enhance the audio quality. For example the Echo Suppression. There’s also several different codecs.

What’s a Codec?

To transfer the audio over the internet it has to be compressed. There’s several different methods of doing that, with different advantages and disadvantages. Some have very good sound quality, but has to transfer a lot of information. Others send smaller amounts of data, but has lower audio quality. Both end of the call needs to support the same audio Codec.

 

Codec Bits per second
G711 ALAW 64000
G711 ULAW 64000
GSM 13200
SPEEX variable

Bandwidth usage

Preferred Codec

Here you can select the codec you prefer. If both ends have that codec, then that one gets used.

 


Misc

Play music to calls on hold

If this option is enabled, all calls put on hold will get pause music (if your asterisk server have this function enabled).

Pause iTunes when Dial/Answer

If you have music playing and you place or answer a call, iTunes will pause the music automatically if this option is enabled.

Show Call Log on startup

Shows the call log window at startup.

Address Book Preference settings
Replace “+” with

Under Preferences Address Book Settings you can set the dial prefix for international numbers. This is the numbers that is put in front of the international number. Here’s an example. Let’s say you have a friend in Athens, Greece. The international country code for Greece is 30, and the area code for Athens is 01. When dialing to Greece you don’t dial the zero, so I put it in parenthesis. In my Address Book I would then enter +30-(0)1-5555 5555. In my Preference setting I have put in 00 as my intl prefix. JackenIAX replaces the “+” with 00 and then removes the zero inside the parenthesis. Note: If you have an American number (starting with +1, nothing get’s replaced inside parenthesis to conform with the normal way of writing USA numbers)

Dial prefix

If you need to dial a prefix number to get a line, you can put it in this setting. So if you have to dial “0” before a call, just enter 0 in the setting. Now when you dial from the Address Book, a “0” is placed before the number.


So how do I set this up?

There is a lot of good tutorials on the internet on how to set up an Asterisk PBX Server. But to get going, you really don’t need to install a server. You can sign up for a free account at Free World Dialup and then use JackenIAX to try it out. Or you could sign up for an account at Voxee http://www.voxee.com/ and start to call all over the world for less. There is a plethora of VoIP providers available, just make sure they support the IAX2 protocol if you want to use JackenIAX.

Note: Currently FWDs IAX is still in testing. The server availability can be a bit spotty.


Downloading & Installing

After downloading JackenIAX You should have a file called jackeniax_latest.zip in your download folder. Double click on it to unpack the program. Drag the program symbol called JackenIAX that you just unpacked to the Application folder.


Connecting to an Asterisk Server

So you have an Asterisk server and want to connect to it? The first thing you have to do is to create an extension for JackenIAX. In this example I’m using Asterisk@Home, but any Asterisk installation that uses AMP works the same way.
Use your web browser and connect to your Asterisk server. Go to Asterisk Management Portal and choose Setup. Select Extensions and press “Add Extension”. Make sure you select IAX2 under Phone Protocol, enter an extension number you want to use. Fill out the rest of the information, make sure you remember the password. Here you can see that I have chosen 217 as my extension, with a password “test”.

Save and click the red bar to reload the Asterisk settings. You now have a new extension to use. Start JackenIAX and go into the Preferences. Under Account Name, from the example above, I would enter 217, and under the Account Password field I would enter test. IAX host is the FQN name or ip number of your Asterisk server. In my example the ip number is 192.168.1.230


Setting up using a FWD (Free World Dialup) account

Before we can begin you need to go to FWD and sign up for a new free account. So go to FreeWorld Dialup
Don’t forget to activate IAX in your account settings at FWDs homepage!
After signing up, you need some information to enter into JackenIAX. First of all you need your new FWD phone number. This is the number you can tell other users of FWD to call to speak to you. You also need the password you entered in your FWD account.
My FWD number is 748502. So the next picture shows how I would enter my settings in Preferences.If you have a connection problem (or Free World Dialups servers are down) you’ll see a small unplugged symbol in the Dialer display. If this happens, check your settings again.


Using JackenIAX

Main WindowJackenIAX is really simple to use. You have a number pad for entering numbers. There are buttons for placing calls, to hang-up and to put a call on hold. The interface is very similar to a regular phone. There's also a window that shows all active calls, and enables you to easily switch between them. The log window shows all the calls you called or received.


Answering an incoming call

When there is an incoming call, just press the Answer button (or press return)

Dial while talking

Normally when you press a number key, you get a DTMF-tone, but if you press the button you switch so you can enter a new phone number. Press the Dial button, and the current call gets put on hold and then dials the new number.
You can also double click any number in the Address Book window to put the current call on hold and then dial the new number.


Dialing

To place a call, just enter the phone number to dial, either by pressing the number keypad, or using your computer keyboard. To place the call, press the Dial button or press Return on your keyboard.


Dialing directly from the Address Book

JackenIAX is integrated with Mac OS X built-in Address Book. To dial someone in your Address Book, just search och browse in the Address Book window and the double click on the phone number you would like to dial. Easy Piecy.

Hanging up

To end a call, just press the Hangup button, or press the esc key on your keyboard. You can also select the call in the Active Calls window and press the hangup button.

Switch between calls

Active Calls WindowActive Calls WindowTo switch between calls, just double click on the call you want in the Active Calls window. You can also select the call and press the button Activate in the Active Calls window.