Suggestions for Computer Answering Systems?

{e}N0S asks: "Just got done watching the movie Brainscan and it got me wanting my computer to handle my telephone again. Features like: menu systems, custom greetings based on caller id, remote access, voice recognition ("igor hold" "holding") and such would be ideal. Have you Slashdot readers implemented something like this, and do you have tips on good software?"

Comments

POTS is obsolete: use internetphone systems

[flok]

Since POTS is obsolete, one should also handle calls initiated from the internet. Via GnomeMeeting/NetMeeting for example using OpenAM (http://www.openh323.org/code.html).

ZyXEL

[Monkelectric]

Back a long long time ago when porn was huge and modems were slow, a company called ZyXEL made *awesome* modems. I'm sure you could pick one up on ebay for nothing (this one seems to be going for about 2$. IIRC the bit depth was an incredibly poor 4 bits, but what do you want for 2$? :)

Long story short, it came with dos software to run a complete little voicemail system, even a 486 could handle it nicely (as long as it had a 16550a uart). If not, you could still use vgetty or role your own as other people have suggested and you still have a cool voice modem :)

Re:Vgetty

[NateTech]

It's called "toll-saver" and I haven't seen an answering machine without it for ten years.

My GE Phone/Digital Answering-Machine/900 MHz cordless base (model: 26958GE1-A) is four years old and has it. There's a switch on the back that causes it to answer on the fourth ring if no messages and the second ring if there are messages in memory.