How to Use My PC to Make/Receive Phone Calls

[Cyberdude]

Several years ago on an older PC I was able to use my PC in much the same way as I now use my telephone handset. To answer an incoming call, I would click on an icon, then speak into the microphone atttached to the top of my monitor. I could hear the caller via the PC's speakers.

My problem is that I have no idea how I connected things so that my PC would become "another phone in the house". Can anyone point me to a reference that tells me how to set it up? I'm not looking for Skype-type free phone calls. I want to use the capabilities of my modem, but I don't know how.

[PC509]

I knew of PhoneTools, and I've used other speakerphone apps before (Old 3.11 days, though). Here are a couple that I've found.

PhoneTools is a program that turns your PC into a speakerphone. It used to come bundled with USR modems, but this one isn't free.
http://www.bvrp.com/ENG/products/PhoneTools/

WillowPhone is another one, but it's free. I'm not sure on the compatibility with Windows XP or other OS'es other than Win95/98.
http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/B...llowPHONE.html

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.

[Cyberdude]

Hey, PC509, thanx for the one and only response I've gotten on this. I appreciate the leads, and I'll follow them up.

I already made an abortive try on my own, and (of course) failed. However, the next time I went to FAX something, the FAX system said my modem wasn't properly initialized. I did my panic dance, then by doing a little here and a little there, I got the FAX going again. Whew!

As I said I actually did this trick under Win 98 a few years ago, but I have only a fuzzy recall in the deep recesses of my mind that when using the PC as a speaker phone I had to disconnect and reconnect the speakers or microphone or something. It seems like I couldn't use my audio system as long as the speakerphone was connected. It was a real pain.

But I'll try again. Thanx a lot.