I've got this crazy idea that, since my modem is an internal PCI voice-enabled modem, that I should be able to place voice telephone calls with it.

Without needing an actual telephone.

In other words... If I have speakers and a microphone connected to my sound card, and the modem connected directly to Ma Bell, I should be able to...

- Open up Microsoft Phone Dialer
- Enter a phone number
- Hear "Ring Ring... Hello?" coming out of my PC speakers.
- Begin my conversation by speaking into the mic plugged into my sound card.

Everything *seems* to be in order for doing this. As far as I can tell from the help file on Microsoft Phone Dialer, all is working. The device driver for the modem clearly shows in its name that it's a voice-modem, there are no yellow boo-boo icons, the volume controls are all ungrayed unmuted and turned up, I can hear my own voice through the PC speakers when I speak into the microphone, etc. The modem works fine for detecting a dial tone, dialing, detecting a busy signal, connecting to the internet, etc.

I just can't hear the "Ring Ring... Hello?" or any other telephone-line sounds coming from the modem.

Anyone have any idea where things are going wrong in this equation? Microsoft's knowledge base has been sadly unable to give me any hints as to what's going wrong.

As far as I know, the phone dialer simply existed to allow a person to quickly dial a number from an address book or similar. A normal phone would still be needed for it.

I'm not really sure what software to recommend to do what you want, as my experience with it was with a Gateway specific application, and software that came with an old US Robotics voice modem. A search for PC answering machine software might turn up something, as many of those programs allow phone use.

You're a Windows guy, right?

This thread made me remember the "If Microsoft made cars" bit...

Jim

This seems to lead nowhere even though it is the URL in the about box. How handy of MS to buy this program and inclide it, then conviently drop support for it.

Quote:
Everywhere it's all talking about using your PC as an answering machine or a fax machine, but not a speakerphone. I want to use my PC as a speakerphone.

Product bloat. Not sure there is a plain-old phone app. I used to use an older version of that one by Communique and another bundled one by L&H. I just turned all of the other stuff off.