Using My PC For Plain Old Telephone Service? 248
TheJerbear79 writes "I recently accepted a work-from-home job that will involve using my landline to talk to customers. When I log into the phone queue, my landline will ring, I'll put in a three digit code, and then calls are routed to the phone line I'm on. It essentially turns my landline into a softphone. Rather than using a regular handset or obtaining a nice business phone with a headset and speakerphone, I would like to use my PC's modem in conjunction with a normal PC headset and soundcard. I know the hardware is capable, but the modem didn't come with appropriate software. Has anyone found anything cheap/free that would suit this kind of usage? Just for clarity, I don't want to use a VOIP solution; I need to use my plain old landline. My reason is this: if I'm watching a movie or listening to an MP3 while I'm waiting for a call, I don't want it to ever be apparent to the person who is on the phone with me, and I want to route all the audio I use through a single headset. I've scoured Google for anything close to this application, and all I've managed to find is information on VOIP software or programs that turn my PC into an answering machine, neither of which will work."
I realise this is totally unacceptable (Score:5, Insightful)
My reason is this: if I'm watching a movie or listening to an MP3 while I'm waiting for a call, I don't want it to ever be apparent to the person who is on the phone with me,
It won't be.. because you'll have paused it before answering the phone because you can't hear what they are saying if it is still playing.
Your hardware probably isn't capable at all. (Score:4, Insightful)
"Dear slashdot, I have a work at home job and want to watch porn during business hours. How do I stop callers from listening in? My budget is exactly $0."
*sigh*
You probably can't get the raw audio from your modem. Hardly any modems do full-duplex audio.
Get a phone with a headset jack and an automatic audio switch.
If you really want to go ghetto you could have one earphone connected to your PC and the other to the incoming call. That's probably the cheapest way to make sure the callers never hear you listening to porn.
Re:Perhaps a better solution... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, that's what I'd do as well. Keep It Simple, and all that. Of course, another solution would be to mute the speakers before answering the phone...
Which OS? (Score:5, Insightful)
Is this for your Amiga box, or the C64?
Really, if you don't tell us what OS you are using, it will be hard to suggest software. Not all /.ers still run slackware.
Re:I realise this is totally unacceptable (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't agree - the poster is smart to want the entertainment audio to *forcibly, automatically* lower when his (money making) phone call arrives.
Re:Perhaps a better solution... (Score:5, Insightful)
What use would a piece of studio equipment (rack mounted, at that) have in his setup?
Because you can? I mean, come on, this is slashdot, we'd come up with a remote controlled robotic flyswatter that runs Linux and is also a webserver given the slightest opportunity.
And the OP only suggested using a sidechain "if you wanted to get really fancy". And it is really quite fancy. Also, it would make for an extremely elegant solution to the original question.
Re:I realise this is totally unacceptable (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Maybe it's not really a problem. (Score:5, Insightful)
this guy will be doing a lot of "hard work" from home.
Better at home than at the office.
Re:Not a softphone (Score:4, Insightful)
He is asking...
I read his guy's "question" a few times, I've got no idea what he's asking, you could both be right, for all I know. I'm not even sure how what he's asking for will solve the problem ("no body should know I'm slacking off and watching TV when I'm supposed to be working").
I think this guy's just bragging about having a work from home job, while trying to act all old skool and cool by dissing VOIP.
Re:I realise this is totally unacceptable (Score:4, Insightful)
The first thing I though of when I read this (Score:4, Insightful)
I recently accepted a work-from-home job that will involve using my landline to talk to customers.
Please take me off your call-list :)
Lets talk about the KISS method... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Asterisk? (Score:3, Insightful)
Telemarketers don't have anything I'm interested in buying (partly because my budget can't take it) but from experience I know that it's better to just hang up and let them get on to the next call than to sit there and yell at them or worse, give them false hope that they are about to get a sale.
Next time a telemarketer calls during a nice dinner with your family, remember, you don't have to answer the phone, so if you do, you're the one interrupting your dinner, secondly, they most likely have a family that they wish they could be with, but instead they have to call you.
Re:I realise this is totally unacceptable (Score:5, Insightful)
It sounds like you are doing customer service work at home, which is exactly what my wife does. So here's a hint regarding watching or listening to other media during your scheduled work hours - don't. First, your call volume is likely to be such that, unless you can comprehend media in 5 second increments, the experience is likely to be unsatisfying. Second, assuming you do run into some slack time, changing over from media to active customer service can be mentally jarring, and you are likely to fumble through your first few seconds of the call while you reorient yourself. My wife sticks to diversions on the computer - [alt-tab] is like a mental switch for her, and she doesn't get into anything too in depth.
As for hardware, buy the best CONVENTIONAL setup you can afford. A decent wireless handset and good headset isn't really that expensive, and it is equipment you are relying on to make your money - your customers (and employer) aren't going to take "hold on while I fix my software config" as an excuse. You emphasized that VOIP is NOT an option - my guess is that's an employer mandate? the reason for that is that they do not want their users to get to cute with the fancy getups.
There's a reason it's called PLAIN Old Telephone Service - running it through hardware and software so you can fill time with entertainment sort of defeats the purpose, does it not?
Re:Asterisk? (Score:3, Insightful)
Only in the sense that, absent enforced rules prohibiting them, they will spring up because someone can make more profit, at a social cost, through them; i.e., in exactly the same way that the world "needs" muggers and pickpockets.
Re:Why? Overkill? (Score:2, Insightful)
The far more expensive computer which I already own, which will be wasting power while I'm at work regardless, and has more up-time than the viagra mascot? If you're not going to be helpful you could at least not assume I'm retarded.
I dunno, you clearly are somewhat retarded, when your problem could be solved by a) getting a phone that supported a standard headset, and b) installing a mute switch on your PC audio and mic input, and c) mixing the PC audio and phone audio together before your headset, and d) being smart enough to mute and unmute them in the correct order.
Here's a free clue for you: No VoIP setup is going to pause your other apps when unmuting your mic. They only do that when they answer the phone, and you have a weird setup where that doesn't apply. So, at best, you'd have to hit a button to pause whatever, hoping you can remember whatever keystroke it is for whatever you're doing, and then another button to unmute the audio.
Which is obviously much much easier than just having two big mute buttons on your desk, and completely muting your computer audio, despite the application, before unmuting your mic.
Actually, there are apps that will let you assign global keystrokes to mute audio, or you can just rely on your app pausing...so what you actually need is a phone with a headset plug, an adapter to turn that into a 'normal', two-plug headset, and a stereo 'splitter' backwards that merges in your computer audio, and a computer headset with a mute button. It's entirely possible you have the first and last of those already.
Re:Perhaps a better solution... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Why? Overkill? (Score:2, Insightful)
The point is there is going to be a delay between when the customer can hear everything that's going on, and when I'll be able to get to the pause button.
And you completely ignored the obvious solution, the one I actually was talking about when I said 'two mute buttons' which is to mute your telephone microphone, and only unmute it after you mute the other audio. If people appear on the phone line without any input from you, I am rather baffled as to how you currently operate without a mute button.
This, of course, requires you to be able to a) purchase a phone that has a headset input, and b) purchase a headset with a mute button, (Or purchase a phone and headset in one.) and as you are probably incapable of finding the door in and out of the room you are in and so are currently building a complicated series of ladders and slides out the window for 'convenience', who knows how long that could take.