[RndTbl] VOIP

[Trevor Cordes]

> Does anyone out there have experiences to share about VOIP service 
> providers?  Is there software +/- hardware that will allow me to use my 
> computer as an answering machine (with call display info) on regular 
> phone lines?

You can do it without VoIP.  Just use a regular MTS phone line and the
linux software mgetty/vgetty.  You'll have to find an old compatible
modem (externals are best) on ebay or something.  I've used vgetty with
a Cardinal 33.6k external for voice for over 4 years.  It is caller ID
capable though I don't use it (too cheap).  It is also a little tricky
to get working, but no worse than any other linux package.

You can have vgetty pass voicemails off to scripts to do whatever you
want with the message.  I convert them to WAV's on the fly and put them
in an incoming folder.  You could use it to rename the messages to the
caller-id.