Disable call waiting available yet?

doghaus · Post by **doghaus** » Wed Aug 15, 2012 7:11 am

I installed Magic Jack Plus in May 2012. Does this version offer an option to disable call waiting?

redpepper · Post by **redpepper** » Wed Aug 15, 2012 7:50 am

The answer to your question is no. The only way to turn off call waiting is to plug your magicJack Plus dongle into your computer and use the Magicfeatures Plugin.

doghaus · Post by **doghaus** » Fri Aug 17, 2012 8:31 am

So my Magic Jack Plus dongle will have to be connected to my computer all the time in order to use the magic feature plug in or just long enough to disable call waiting?

SteveHC · Post by **SteveHC** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 11:35 pm

Try checking the "settings" (if any) available on/within your phone itself to see if you can disable its call waiting feature.

greenman · Post by **greenman** » Wed Sep 05, 2012 6:05 pm

There is no way to disable call waiting while the mJ+ is connected directly to your router.

SteveHC · Post by **SteveHC** » Wed Sep 05, 2012 9:51 pm

greenman wrote:There is no way to disable call waiting while the mJ+ is connected directly to your router.

- Unless one's MagicJack-connected telephone itself has a call waiting on/off setting.

greenman · Post by **greenman** » Fri Sep 07, 2012 9:02 pm

SteveHC wrote:- Unless one's MagicJack-connected telephone itself has a call waiting on/off setting.

Thanks Steve. I've never heard of that. I'm curious if this is a dect6-only thing, because I cannot see how that could work on an old trimline by doing *70, for instance. Does magicJack somehow retrieve the dect6 capability of your phone and not beep when a new call comes in, or is this some other method?

SteveHC · Post by **SteveHC** » Fri Sep 07, 2012 11:34 pm

If you're using an old Trimline, forget it. I think pcphonesoft's suite of add-on features might include turning it off, but that would necessitate using either the old, "standard" mj or a mj+ that's connected to an always-on pc's usb port. Time to get a new phone dude.

greenman · Post by **greenman** » Sat Sep 08, 2012 1:33 pm

SteveHC wrote:If you're using an old Trimline, forget it. I think pcphonesoft's suite of add-on features might include turning it off, but that would necessitate using either the old, "standard" mj or a mj+ that's connected to an always-on pc's usb port. Time to get a new phone dude.

I've got a panasonic dect6 and an old trimline. I can't see anything on the panasonic that would disable call waiting. I can see a 'do not disturb' button, but it still beeps when people call in.

Are we talking about the same thing here?

SteveHC · Post by **SteveHC** » Sat Sep 08, 2012 2:57 pm

If your phone doesn't have any means of disabling call waiting (and I'm not talking about using a phone company "star" code) then you're stuck with the beeps for as long as you use MJ - unless of course you're willing to always keep your MJ device connected to an always-on PC's USB port, and you download/install pcphonesoft's suite of MJ add-ons.

pcphonesoft.com

- As far as I know, that's your only option.

greenman · Post by **greenman** » Sat Sep 08, 2012 6:11 pm

SteveHC wrote:If your phone doesn't have any means of disabling call waiting (and I'm not talking about using a phone company "star" code) then you're stuck with the beeps for as long as you use MJ - unless of course you're willing to always keep your MJ device connected to an always-on PC's USB port, and you download/install pcphonesoft's suite of MJ add-ons.

pcphonesoft.com

- As far as I know, that's your only option.

I apologize for not being clearer.

I'm not interested in hooking up my mJ+ to my computer and using pcphonesoft, since that defeats the purpose of having a mJ+. Also, I'm glad to understand you're not talking about star codes, though it would be useful if mJ enabled that some time in the future.

I understand you to say there is a way to get some modern phones to disable router-enabled mJ+ call waiting.

The thing is, I'm trying to parse exactly how the phone itself could stop the phone company -- in this case the server at mJ -- from beeping your phone if you have call waiting -- which in this case is mandatory with mJ and mJ+.

I have a Panasonic KXTG6644B. The only thing the 'call waiting' button does on this phone is allow you to switch between calls - like the old fashioned hook method on a trimline, just with a fancy button. The KXTG6644B is DECT 6.0 - bought last December. It even has voice Caller ID. This is the manual for my phone. I see nothing in it for disabling call waiting.

If DECT 6.0* is the current standard, and this phone is at that standard, I'm still at a loss as to how you get your phone connected to the router-enabled mJ+ to disable call waiting when the service is mandatory.

But since pcphonesoft can obviously do it when the mJ or mJ+ are USB-enabled on a computer using software, there's got to be a way for a DECT 6.0 phone to do it with a router-enabled mJ+ too, right?

Could you show me the manual for the phone you're talking about? I can't find one that does what you suggest.

* Panasonic has also created 'DECT 6.0 plus' that enables cell-phones via blue-tooth to pickup and dial via the mJ+ connection, but this still doesn't seem to include a 'disable call-waiting' function button in the mix. It's also not standard.

SteveHC · Post by **SteveHC** » Sat Sep 08, 2012 11:07 pm

No, I cannot show you a manual. Not all phones have this capability. But, for example, my Dect 6 system - a Panasonic 3-handset system - can do it. When such a programmable feature is available on a particular phone it's usually embedded within a special features menu or - like in my phone system's case - you have to enter a sequence of special programming code numbers to switch it on or off (turning it off turns it off for ALL calls). Sometimes the call waiting tone is referred to as an "interrupt" tone or something of the sort. And usually the programmability of it is not a feature that's on a phone's outer packaging or the like but is buried deep within the user's manual.

But honestly, the only time it's worth disabling the call waiting tone is if you really need to use an old-fashioned fax machine or a dial-up modem on that LINE.. in which case having the ability to turn off that tone from within a PHONE becomes useless unless you NEVER want to use call waiting and find the tone really annoying. Obviously, given that you're using MJ you don't use dial-up Internet. So that just leaves using an old fax machine. If you really need to use a fax machine on a MJ line - the *consistently* successful use of which is NOT guaranteed by MJ (not that *anything* is truly "guaranteed" by MJ LOL) - your best bet (other than going the pc/pcphonesoft route) is to simply spring for a 2nd MJ device and number to use strictly as your fax line (don't forget - you can go into your MJ account online to set a given device to only receive calls or only dial out if you want to... I'm pretty sure if you set one to only be able to dial out, the call waiting tone will not be produced should someone attempt to call you at that device while you're on an outgoing call - but don't quote me on that 'cause I'm not 100% certain of it... and even if I'm wrong, you can always set that device's number to go to voicemail after only 5 seconds if it doesn't automatically go immediately to VM when you set it for only outgoing calls).