Is this possible: Connect to home pc via internet then dial out for free calls via home phone?

Hi all,

Im wondering if this is possible:

Say have always a pc thats always on and connected to broadband
internet, and you also have a dialup type modem in your pc which is
plugged into your landline phone socket.

What im wondering is if there is some way when you are away from home
to connect to your home PC over the internet and make telephone calls
via the computers modem, thereby using your home phone remotely? Does
anyone know of any software that will let you do this, or some method
of doing this?

cheers for any replies,

G T

In article <(E-Mail Removed). com>,
says...
> Hi all,
>
> Im wondering if this is possible:
>
> Say have always a pc thats always on and connected to broadband
> internet, and you also have a dialup type modem in your pc which is
> plugged into your landline phone socket.
>
> What im wondering is if there is some way when you are away from home
> to connect to your home PC over the internet and make telephone calls
> via the computers modem, thereby using your home phone remotely? Does
> anyone know of any software that will let you do this, or some method
> of doing this?
>
What the hell for? Yes it can be done but it'll be shite.

--
Conor

Opinions personal, facts suspect.

In MsgID<MPG.1bf90a141f44a46c9896a8@127.0.0.1> within
uk.telecom.broadband, 'Conor' wrote:

>> What im wondering is if there is some way when you are away from home
>> to connect to your home PC over the internet and make telephone calls
>> via the computers modem, thereby using your home phone remotely? Does
>> anyone know of any software that will let you do this, or some method
>> of doing this?
>>
>What the hell for? Yes it can be done but it'll be shite.

Well, if calling from the right place the local call will be free and
you have up to a 33K (? I think) connection to your ISP.

Could be useful in certain circumstances.

To the OP, under XP setting up RAS for incoming ppp connections is
easy enough, just go to 'new connection wizard' and choose 'set up
advanced connection' under the connection type dialog. It then allows
you to choose the device and username/password combos that are allowed
to connect. AFAIK that is all that is required.

I don't know about setting it's auto-answer options, but if you get
that sorted then I _think_ the standard ICS junk will allow relay
to/from your internet connection, and you might not even need that.
I'm sure someone will correct me where I'm wrong.

If you're not 9x or something then I think it's still doable by adding
the windows plus pack from $soft's website.

--
Dave Johnson - (E-Mail Removed)

Conor wrote:
> In article <(E-Mail Removed). com>,
> says...
> > Hi all,
> >
> > Im wondering if this is possible:
> >
> > Say have always a pc thats always on and connected to broadband
> > internet, and you also have a dialup type modem in your pc which is
> > plugged into your landline phone socket.
> >
> > What im wondering is if there is some way when you are away from
home
> > to connect to your home PC over the internet and make telephone
calls
> > via the computers modem, thereby using your home phone remotely?
Does
> > anyone know of any software that will let you do this, or some
method
> > of doing this?
> >
> What the hell for? Yes it can be done but it'll be shite.

well ok, imagine this scenario for example, say you are away from home
and have free internet access on your laptop or pda or similar, say
from a public wifi hotspot, and you want to be able to make free
telephone calls, i know there are a few VOIP providers that provide a
few minutes free telephone calls per month, but imagine you have free
calls via your home phone using OneTel or TalkTalk or something
similar, wouldnt it be cool if you could connect to your home computer
through the internet and get your computer to dial out using your free
calls, and make free calls through the internet?

can you please explain why will it be shite, is 56k not enough
bandwidth for speech applications?

best regards,

G T

Dave J wrote:
> In MsgID<MPG.1bf90a141f44a46c9896a8@127.0.0.1> within
> uk.telecom.broadband, 'Conor' wrote:
>
> >> What im wondering is if there is some way when you are away from
home
> >> to connect to your home PC over the internet and make telephone
calls
> >> via the computers modem, thereby using your home phone remotely?
Does
> >> anyone know of any software that will let you do this, or some
method
> >> of doing this?
> >>
> >What the hell for? Yes it can be done but it'll be shite.
>
> Well, if calling from the right place the local call will be free and
> you have up to a 33K (? I think) connection to your ISP.
>
> Could be useful in certain circumstances.
>
> To the OP, under XP setting up RAS for incoming ppp connections is
> easy enough, just go to 'new connection wizard' and choose 'set up
> advanced connection' under the connection type dialog. It then allows
> you to choose the device and username/password combos that are
allowed
> to connect. AFAIK that is all that is required.
>
> I don't know about setting it's auto-answer options, but if you get
> that sorted then I _think_ the standard ICS junk will allow relay
> to/from your internet connection, and you might not even need that.
> I'm sure someone will correct me where I'm wrong.
>
> If you're not 9x or something then I think it's still doable by
adding
> the windows plus pack from $soft's website.

hi dave,
thanks for your reply, but i think u might have misunderstood what i
was trying to do?

im not trying to connect to my home pc over the dialup line, im trying
to connect to my home pc over my broadband internet connection, then
somehow get my pc to dial out using the modem so i can remotely use my
phone to make free phone calls.

would this be possible with the instructions you have provided?
cheers,

G T

On 8 Nov 2004 08:36:55 -0800, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>then
>somehow get my pc to dial out using the modem so i can remotely use my
>phone to make free phone calls.

you would need a voice modem as a minimum to do this, and more likely
a VoIP software application with a POTS line card.

http://www.asterisk.org/ runs on Linux

Phil
--
spamcop.net address commissioned 18/06/04
Come on down !

On 8 Nov 2004 in uk.telecom.broadband, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>then somehow get my pc to dial out using the modem so i can remotely
>use my phone to make free phone calls.

Free calls to what ? Send your voice to someone in the UK ? Surely it
would be easier and more convenient to pick up a phone, use some PAYG
mobile, or a calling card. If you will be working elsewhere and want to
make voice calls from somewhere with a suitable connection then BT's BBV
(BroadBand Voice) with 'included' off-peak calls, or the BT Communicator
software on some PC (which would make outgoing calls and have your home
number as the calling ID), or use something else, like sipgate.co.uk
from the remote PC and pay at some fairly low per-minute charge.

Where will you be (which country) when you are making these calls ?

In MsgID<(E-Mail Removed) roups.com> within
uk.telecom.broadband, '(E-Mail Removed)' wrote:

<snip total wrong end of stick>

>hi dave,
>thanks for your reply, but i think u might have misunderstood what i
>was trying to do?
>
>im not trying to connect to my home pc over the dialup line, im trying
>to connect to my home pc over my broadband internet connection, then
>somehow get my pc to dial out using the modem so i can remotely use my
>phone to make free phone calls.
>
>would this be possible with the instructions you have provided?
>cheers,

No. Sorry about the misunderstanding.

You'd need the sort of voice-modem that allows hands free telephone
calls (via PC mic and speaker), and some sort of VOIP linkup between
your home computer and the remote one. You would then need to patch
these pieces of software together. Probably not that difficult, maybe
even halfway possible with crafty settings in your sounds/multimedia
control panel plus some way of telling the modem which number to dial.

However, when I say 'not that difficult', I mean that I might be able
to bodge something together if it was my equipment, but I cannot think
of anything that would do it straight out of the box.

Maybe someone else can?

I agree that it's a nice idea, and one I hadn't thought of. My
version, which I had already thought of for the time I finally get
broadband, is a setup that allows a linkup to the modem port for
_data_ calls. Not for any particular purpose, just as a toy. (Playing
with BBSs etc)


--
Dave Johnson - (E-Mail Removed)

Phil Thompson wrote:
> On 8 Nov 2004 08:36:55 -0800, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>
> >then
> >somehow get my pc to dial out using the modem so i can remotely use
my
> >phone to make free phone calls.
>
> you would need a voice modem as a minimum to do this, and more likely
> a VoIP software application with a POTS line card.
>
> http://www.asterisk.org/ runs on Linux
>
> Phil
> --
> spamcop.net address commissioned 18/06/04
> Come on down !

is a voice modem equivalent to a POTS line card?

ive looked at asterisk before but from the website could never figure
out exactly what it does, it seems really complicated. I guess it would
do what i require, but i might need to spend ages learning how it works
hehe. Plus i dont have a linux pc, running windows 2000, might have a
look at installing it on Knoppix or some other "live" linux
distribution though,

cheers for the reply,

G T

Peter M wrote:
> On 8 Nov 2004 in uk.telecom.broadband, (E-Mail Removed)
wrote:
>
> >then somehow get my pc to dial out using the modem so i can remotely

> >use my phone to make free phone calls.
>
> Free calls to what ?

free calls are free calls, what difference does it make :?
im basically interested in utilising whatever free call plans i have on
my home phone line, when i am actually away from home.

> Send your voice to someone in the UK ?

yes

>Surely it would be easier and more convenient to pick up a phone, use
some PAYG
> mobile, or a calling card. If you will be working elsewhere and want
to
> make voice calls from somewhere with a suitable connection then BT's
BBV
> (BroadBand Voice) with 'included' off-peak calls, or the BT
Communicator
> software on some PC (which would make outgoing calls and have your
home
> number as the calling ID), or use something else, like sipgate.co.uk
> from the remote PC and pay at some fairly low per-minute charge.

yes it would be more convenient but it wouldnt be free, i didnt ask you
for the most convenient way of using a telephone, i was just enquiring
about a specific way of making calls remotely through a home telephone
line.

Havent tried BT communicator yet, but will give it a go one day. They
do offer one month of free calls as a trial period, which is nice, but
after that its back to normal expensive BT rates.

> Where will you be (which country) when you are making these calls ?

thats the beauty of it, it wouldnt matter which country i was in, as i
would be connected through the internet.

cheers,

G T