I have phone service provided by my cable company. EB has phone service provided by her telephone company — of all things!
Anywhale…
One day I was sitting at the computer and the phone rang. My cable company provides caller-ID service free and it displays the calling number on the telephone as well as on the TV screens. 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 watching soap operas. Why can’t I just see it displayed on my computer monitor, I wondered. 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 screen.
After some searching I found a really cool program that lets me see, at a glance, who’s calling. But it does a lot more than that, not the least of which is that 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. You can also set different ringtones for different callers — and a lot more.
If you’re using 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 either.
Here’s some information from the PhoneTray Free Website.
“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 find it has many 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 this Cloudeight freeware goodie called PhoneTray Free.
Gory details:
PhoneTray Free
For Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7
Works on both 32bit and 64bit Windows
1.3 MB Download (Windows Installer)
It’s awesome. Thank you very much.