incoming call software

[Relztrah]

For the time being I'll continue using old, slow dial-up due to, shall we say, budgetary constraints. I get my dial-up free at home with my DSL account at work, so I'll bear with the slowness.

Now here's my question. I've seen adds for software that alerts you to incoming calls when you're online. Is anybody familar with any of these products? How do they compare? Any freebies out there?

Thanks,
Relztrah

[Paul Komski]

It is dependent on your modem's capabilities which must have at least the V92 protocols as well as the relevant software. The PCI Creative Modemblaster V92 comes bundled with the software and works fine for me.

THE OTHER PROVISO is that your telecom has Call Waiting available and enabled, since the software must listen for the tone that an incoming call generates for this to succeed. Very few ISPs have fully implemented V92 at their end but if they have you can hold your internte connection while you take the telephone call. Without this all you can get is a prompt about an incoming call and you decide to take the call (and lose the internet connection) or not.

[MRBONES2U]

Can anyone tell me how to configure my internet options to have an incomming call knock me OFFLINE? I have call waiting and enabled it & disabled it and callers still get busy signal. THANK YOU, MRBONES2U

[Paul Komski]

This PCGuide Link (http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/comp/modem/wait.htm) might be helpful.

Disabling Call Waiting is not the way to go. The only hope of detecting the incoming call (when you are on line) is Call Waiting. Either the beep it generates will knock you off line or if your modem is V92 capable you might be able to get the modem to issue you with a warning.

The Creative Labs PCI V92 Modem Blaster (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Creative-Labs-Modem-Blaster-V-92/dp/B00005V7D4) (and the default installation software that comes with it) will create a pop-up on the screen asking you to either accept or decline the incoming call. This has always worked for me in Ireland on DialUp with Call Waiting ENABLED but there is no guarantee that it would work in other countries where the protocols might not be equivalent. The caller will get whatever message they would normally get from your telecom for as long as they hang on while you decide whether to accept the incoming or not. I don't know of any V92 capable ISPs whereby they could hold the internet connection while you took the call.

Consider using IM (MSN, AIM, Skype) when on line and circulate your contacts with your screen name as a workaround.

[MRBONES2U]

We Must Have Gotten Confused. I Have Disabled And Enabled With Same Results. I'm Trying To Stay Away From Buying Additional Hardware. On My Old Computer I Had A Internal Modem And I Could Get Bumped Offline By Enabling Call Waiting But,on My New Computer I Have An External (best Data 56k Usb) Modem I Cant. Any Ideas Without Buying An Internal Modem? Thanks For Quick Reply And Help, Mrbones2u

[Fruss Tray Ted]

A friend of mine used some notification software when he had dial-up and liked it but now he's gone cable.

I used to think an incoming call causing my internet connection (which happened often) to be a fault, not a feature!

They still have dial-up these days? ;)