MacOS – SIP client alternative to Facetime

In the assumption that you have no software installed that would explicitly block those sites here is how to block and unblock web sites.

A Mac’s hosts file is a simple text file that dictates what the system should do when specific domains or IP addresses are accessed.

You can trigger a “page cannot be displayed” error or even redirect them to other domains/IPs of your choice.

For the sake of this tutorial, all blocked websites will be pointed to 127.0.0.1, which is the localhost or system itself.

• To get started, Copy and paste the following code in Terminal:

  sudo /bin/cp /etc/hosts /etc/hosts-original
  

• Terminal will ask for your password.

• Now we can start editing the hosts file. Copy and paste this code in Terminal (all one line):

  sudo /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit /etc/hosts
  

The hosts file will open in TextEdit.

Notice the following lines and do not delete them under any circumstances:

127.0.0.1 localhost

255.255.255.255 broadcasthost

::1 localhost

fe80::1%lo0 localhost

You should not have any further data here.

Create a new line directly under the last one shown above. Type the following, replacing the sample domain with the domain or IP address you want to block:

    127.0.0.1 sample.com www.sample.com

Continue adding lines following the format in step 6 for each website you want to block. When you’re done, quit TextEdit and save the hosts file when prompted. Back in Terminal, run the following command to flush the computer’s DNS and put the new hosts file into effect. You can restartyour Mac instead, if you prefer.

    dscacheutil -flushcache

That’s all there is to it! Websites added to the hosts file will no longer be accessible from any user account on that Mac.

In your case look for the blocked IP's

• re-enable access to blocked websites, just repeat this process and remove the lines you added in the hosts file. Just remember not to delete the original 4 lines shown in step 5.

Ok, figured it out myself. My first problem was that for some reason my phone hadn't activated properly with iMessage / FaceTime (my phone number was unchecked in the You can be reached by FaceTime At section in FaceTime settings). That required switching off FaceTime and iMessage and switching them back on again after a short wait so that they could activate properly, which they did.

Once that was done, my FaceTime settings (on my iPhone) had a new option: iPhone Mobile Calls:

My wife's phone also has that setting. Choosing which phone is used is just a question of only having this setting enabled on one phone at a time. I assume (all though I haven't tried it) that if both phones are enabled in this way, FaceTime on iPad or Mac gives you the choice of which phone/number to use. It wasn't giving me a choice earlier because there was only one phone enabled.