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

isdn4bsd

[prisonernumber7]

In the FreeBSD 3.something days I remember to have used isdn4bsd - a very fine software package. I am not sure if that still holds true today, but iirc it did just what you asked for.

Vgetty

[lubeboy]

Vgetty From the web page: Vgetty turns your voice modem into an answering machine. It adds voice capabilities to mgetty. This means, that you can handle data, fax and voice calls on one telephone line. How good all this works depends strongly on the modem you have. There are many modems with bad voice implementations and quite a few more expensive ones with a good hardware and firmware.

Re:Vgetty

[The Vulture]

I used vgetty about five years ago with a U.S. Robotics ISA 56K VoiceModem, and it worked great, although it was a little flakey at times.

The one thing that I loved about it, which most typical answering machines don't allow for, is that I could call in and check my messages, and it could even tell me whether or not I had messages waiting by changing the number of rings before picking up.

Of course, I don't have a land line anymore, I don't keep any machines on 24/7 anymore (except the MythTV machine), and I get free voice mail with my cell phone.

-- Joe

Re:Vgetty

[jesboat]

Any that has a toll-saver mode, like a Lucent 1715.

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.

GNU Bayonne

[Anonymous Coward]

GNU Bayonne, the telecommunications application server of the GNU project, offers free, scalable, media independent software environment for development and deployment of telephony solutions for use with current and next generation telephone networks.

Here's one

[$exyNerdie]

I have not tried it but here's one:
EzVoice 2.0

Re:Vocp

[SenatorTreason]

I tried VOCP. It looks good, but I was never able to get it working due to weird modem issues. I will reiterate what an above poster said: Be very careful about what modems you use! Also, read all of the documentation before you get deep into it. Before attempting this, I didn't realize that that the sounds (answering message, etc) had to be in a *very* specific format for the modem, and that simple *.wav's would not do. VOCP comes with utilities to help this convertion though. Again, just read through everything, and make sure you understand what's going on and that your modem will actually work! Good luck. Here are list of modems!

Asterisk

[Halvard]

Features like: menu systems, custom greetings based on caller id, remote access, voice recognition ("igor hold" "holding") and such would be ideal.

Check out Asterisk. It's got all the features you ask about, supports POTS, ISDN, T-1, E-1, TDM, SIP, MGCP, etc., etc., ad naseum. You can easily setup a separate call queue based on the caller ID value, call-back, IVR, etc.I haven't been lurking in the list recently but you probably can do voice commands (roll your sleves up).

Re:Asterisk

[veneficus]

I've been using Asterisk successfully for over 6 months at my house. It's like a media center for your telephone -- You can connect so many disparate telephony technologies together to make the mother of all frankensteined phone systems!

Pound for pound, Asterisk is the best solution for computer telephony in the Linux arena. Bayonne is progressing, but it's not to the level yet that Asterisk has had for half a year now.

Asterisk supports SIP, H323, MGCP, SCCP, ISDN, PSTN, PRI, just about anything you can throw at it that has an ominous sounding acronym.

Besides that, the Asterisk people are helpful if you demonstrate that you're interested in learning, not just the quick fix.

Come check out #asterisk on freenode(openprojects) or http://www.asterisk.org to see what Asterisk can do for you!

Re:Asterisk

[brc007]

I agree, Asterisk will do everything you want and much more (click to check out the extensive feature list).

Drop by and say hi at #asterisk on freenode (try irc.debian.org) (if you need an irc client try mIRC for windows).

There's a good article by John Todd at o'Reilly here.

Here's a Guide to Asterisk.

There's also a Wiki

Re:Asterisk

[qaggaz]

Ok, here are the quick answers, check out the web sites for more info.

1. Is it possible to have Asterisk to be situated between my incoming (analog) phone line and the (analog) phones in the house?
   • Yes
2. What kind of hardware would that require?
   • For the scenario you describe above, you would need:
   • an FXO card for your analog phone line and
   • a 4 port FXS card for your analog phones in your house.
   You would need to connect each phone to a separate FSX port. Then setup extensions and a dialing plan and you will be able to call between them and make outgoing calls, setup IVR menus, voice mail, etc.
3. Does it have a power-failed pass-though mode?
   • No.
4. Is it possible to have Asterisk gateway calls to a cell phone, so that if I unplug the local telco, the house phones will still work?
   • I'm not sure that I understand what you are trying to accomplish here. You can forward calls to an internal extension, or you could "bridge" to an external "dial peer," but you would need to remain connected to the local telco. Of course your internal phones would work (i.e. you could make calls between your local extensions) regardless of whether you were connected to the outside world or not. Any way, please clarify your question.

Re:Asterisk

[mhesseltine]

Pound for pound, Asterisk is the best solution for computer telephony in the Linux arena. Bayonne is progressing, but it's not to the level yet that Asterisk has had for half a year now.

Shouldn't that read:

# for #, * is the best solution for computer telephony in the Linux arena. Bayonne is progressing, but it's not to the level yet that * has had for half a year now.

Danger! PHB Alert!

[Gothmolly]

What does your post actually say? Other than market-speak, I find no actual content. Curious that you post AC...

Boy are you lucky

[Phleg]

Someone answered your question in the very next story.

This Book ...

[doublesix]

... Linux Toys: recently reviewed on /. has a chapter devoted to exactly what you seem to want. I bought the book after reading the review ... havent tried the answering machine (busy w/the laptop picture frame) but it looks easy. There's a website: http://www.linuxtoys.net too.

You could implement it under Windows

[k4_pacific]

Hello, thank you for calling the Penn Central Company's chemical spill emergency hotline. This is an automated system. Press 1 for English, Press 2 for Spanish.

<2>

You have chosen Spanish. This change requires a system restart. Press 1 to reboot the call server.

<1>

Please stand by.

[Click]

[Dialtone]

[A few minutes pass]

[Phone rings]

Ole, gracious por ...

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 :)