A4M — Asterisk for Mac OS X
Asterisk for Macintosh Distribution
The Asterisk for Macintosh Distribution (A4M) comprises a MacOS X specific build of Asterisk, a software PBX for Linux, further utilities and scripts which turn a Macintosh running MacOS X into a private branch exchange (PBX) telephone system and multi-protocol voice over IP (VoIP) telephony server providing many of the features usually found in proprietary PBX systems such as auto-attendant, call forwarding, call screening, call transfer, interactive voice response menus (IVR), music-on-hold (MoH) and voicemail.
Macintosh Asterisk builds from Sunrise Telephone Systems are based on the 1.0.x branch of Asterisk which is the most reliable and stable Asterisk branch on MacOS X to date. These builds have received many more hours of testing on MacOS X than newer branches. Mac users interested in more recent features may want to wait upgrading until the migration to Afelio is complete. Until then A4M is the reliable choice on MacOS X.
Installation Packages
A4M Base
A MacOS X build based on Asterisk 1.0.7 is available for download as a tarball which contains an installation and upgrade script. This build has been released in April 2005 and it has since been tested and proven to be reliable on both MacOS X 10.3 ("Panther") and MacOS X 10.4 ("Tiger") in hundreds of installations. It will run on MacOS X 10.3.8, 10.3.9 and 10.4 or newer. The MD5 checksum for this tarball is 6f6d6cd5777666a6ca078cdcd3bcb1b0.
A4M Update 2006
A MacOS X build based on Asterisk 1.0.10 is available for download as a MacOS X installation package which updates a previous installation of Asterisk for Macintosh. Improvements have been made to the Linux code base to derive a version that integrates into the MacOS X environment. Some parts only relevant to Linux have been removed and some modules and features not present in the Linux release have been added.
- click here to download the installer for this update
- click here to see the ReadMe document for this update
MacOS X specific Asterisk Plugins
- Bonjour, Cepstral, Macintalk and Music-on-Hold support
- Privacy Manager with support for international telephone numbers
MacOS X specific Asterisk GUI Utilities
Asterisk is a faceless Unix server application which runs as a background process (daemon). The Asterisk server
application consists of a variety of files which are installed in the BSD layer of MacOS X, it does not have an
application icon and it will not show up in the /Applications folder in the Finder. It also does
not have a graphical user interface.
To control and configure Asterisk from the MacOS X GUI, a variety of Cocoa based front end utilities are available from Sunrise Telephone Systems:
Asterisk Launcher
Asterisk Launcher is a Cocoa based GUI utility to control and monitor automatic and manual launch, stopping and reloading of the Asterisk server process. Click here for details on Asterisk Launcher.
Asterisk Assistants
The Asterisk Assistants are a collection of Cocoa based GUI utilities to carry out various configuration tasks for the Asterisk server process. Click here for details on the Asterisk Assistants.
Asterisk Console
Asterisk Console is a Cocoa based GUI utility to monitor the Asterisk server process via the Asterisk console management interface. Click here for details on the Asterisk Console.
Macsterisk
The integrated Asterisk GUI application for MacOS X "Macsterisk" is now being migrated to Afelio, our new PBX software, specifically designed and developed for BSD and MacOS X.
Asterisk AppleScripts
Asterisk AppleScripts is a collection of clickable AppleScript script applets for basic control of Asterisk, such as start, stop and reload, further to set and query some of the entities in Asterisk's internal database.
Click here to download the Asterisk AppleScripts.
Asterisk Shell Scripts
Tarball installers include shell scripts to install and uninstall Asterisk and to make a backup of your Asterisk configuration, log files etc. These shell scripts are also available as a separate download.
Click here to download the Asterisk Shell Scripts.
Asterisk for MacOS X 10.2.8 "Jaguar"
An outdated MacOS X installation package which was based on Asterisk CVS-28/10/03 works with MacOS X version 10.2.8 "Jaguar" and is still available for download here. Note that this release is not being maintained any further and its use is not recommended.
Uninstalling Asterisk and backing up configuration
Use the uninstall and backup scripts from the Asterisk Shell Scripts archive to uninstall Asterisk and to make a backup of configuration and log files etc.
Asterisk HOWTOs
The following HOWTO articles are available:
- Using ENUM with Asterisk
- Using SIP URIs with Asterisk
- Using a POTS line with Asterisk via SPA-3000
- X-Lite soft phone and Asterisk (PDF document)
Join the Macintosh Telephony Mailing List
List membership is free. Click here for details.
Screenshots
Macintosh Asterisk Update 2006
Legal Disclaimer
Asterisk is a trademark of Digium Inc. Apple, AppleScript, Bonjour, Cocoa, Macintalk, Macintosh and MacOS X are trademarks of Apple Inc. The Asterisk software is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL). The Asterisk for Macintosh Distribution is maintained and released by Sunrise Telephone Systems in accordance with the GPL whilst Apple's and Digium's trademarks are mentioned for reference only in order to inform about the origin and purpose of the software. The mentioning of those marks does not imply any kind of endorsement neither by Apple Inc nor by Digium Inc. A4M is a trademark of Sunrise Telephone Systems. A4M specific icons shown on this page are the property of Sunrise Telephone Systems, their use for other purposes than use or redistribution of the unmodified A4M software distribution or parts thereof requires written permission.
