I have phone service provided by my cable company. EB has phone service provided by her telephone company of all things! One day I was sitting at the computer and the phone rang. My cable company provides caller-ID service free and the calling number is displayed on the telephone and on the TV screen. But, I was sitting at the computer and didn’t feel like going to the phone to see who was calling – and the TV wasn’t on. I thought, wouldn’t it be nice if I could tell who was calling without answering the phone or having to have the TV turned on. Why can’t I just see it displayed on my computer monitor. So that set me off on a search to find a program that would let me see who’s calling without taking my weary eyes off the computer monitor.
After some searching I found an amazing program that lets me see at a glance who’s calling – and a whole lot more. It lets you zap telemarketers and play an authentic sounding “I’m sorry. The number you are calling has been disconnected or is no longer in service” message. It also lets you set different ringtones for different callers and a whole lot more.
If you’re using cable internet phone, listen up! Take a standard phone cord from your cable modem’s phone line output and plug it into your computer’s dialup modem input (yes, I said dialup – don’t worry it has no affect on your connection or phone service). Run another telephone cord from your computer’s dialup modem’s “Phone out’ jack and plug it into a home phone jack. Your calls will then be routed through your computer (intercepted as it were) and then to your house phones. Your phones will ring normally – except for the calls you want to zap. You can even set a quiet time when you don’t want your phones to ring. Callers will receive a message that you’re not accepting calls at this time.
If you’re using dialup Internet you cannot use the free version of PhoneTray. You’ll have to buy PhoneTray for dialup users. You cannot use PhoneTray Free with DSL connections.
Here’s some information from the PhoneTray Free Web site.
“Identify callers and zap telemarketers with this FREE Caller ID software.
Easy to use FREE Caller ID software – shows Caller ID, speaks name and number, logs all your incoming calls. Reject any unwanted call, zap telemarketers with special tone or play Federal do-not-call warning to remove you from their lists – by law!…”
PhoneTray Free is a really handy program – if you’re using Cable Internet – with or without Internet phone. You can use it with regular phone service too – as long as you have a cable Internet connection. For more details or to download this really cool freeware program called PhoneTray Free visit this page. Try it, and play with it, you’ll see it has a lot of features we haven’t mentioned here. Be sure to read the help files and other documentation that comes with the program – you’ll get more out of the program and you’ll learn about all of its features.
Get more info about and/or download our freeware pick of the week – PhoneTray Free.
PhoneTray Free
Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7
32 bit and 64 bit
1.3 MB Windows Installer
For personal use, what is the difference between PhoneTray FREE and PhoneTray PRO?
See their web site for details and differences.