Newsgroup: it.comp.macintosh
Titolo: Call Waiting "Smart" Modem and/or PPP software?

Hi,
Is anyone aware of a modem or PPP software or other application that can
detect a Call Waiting beep on your telephone line (i.e. another caller
trying to get through) and pause the connection to your ISP, ring the phone
or make a computer generated noise of some sort?
I don't even care if it breaks the connection to my ISP, as long as it
allows the phone to ring and notify me of the other call.  
I'm trying to avoid getting a second phone line or pager or something. 
Just tried of hearing that I'm very hard to get a hold of over the phone...
Would this capability have to be in software I'm currently running, i.e.
NewsWatcher or Netscape ?
Any help would be appreciated!
Tia - Dave
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dave Chia  (
xdc...@usa.net
)
Please remove the "x" in front of the e-mail address to send me e-mail
Don't you hate un-solicited, junk e-mail !!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 or make a computer generated noise of some sort?
 
[snip]
Instead of call waiting you, at least from my local phone provider, Bell
Atlantic, can subscribe to a service which calls you back as soon as you
hang up your phone and alerts you that you have had calls while your phone
was busy. The service has quite a few options which include letting it act
just like an answering machine, or automatically calling back the numbers
of those who were unable to reach you because your phone was busy.
That aside, I think the real answer is a second line. I'd be lost without mine.
-- 
James L. Ryan   --  
bosw...@waterw.com

ChiaPet (
xdc...@usa.net
) wrote:
: I'm trying to avoid getting a second phone line or pager or something. 
: Just tried of hearing that I'm very hard to get a hold of over the phone...
Why not get a second phone line if you use your modem a lot? I got a
second phone line installed for my modem by the local phone company for
about $45 and only pay about an extra $15 per month for the line. This
extra money is well-spent, especially since I don't have to put up with
interruptions by call waiting or pay for the call waiting service! If
you're really on the phone using your modem a lot, a second phone line is
probably going to be a great investment for you, especially since you can
talk with people on the other line while your computer is online. 
--
This message was written by Stan Horwitz. 
My views are my own and not necessarily those of my employer. 
Check out my home page! The URL is 
http://thunder.temple.edu/~stan
Note that my Web page requires Netscape or some other viewer that
recognizes frames and tables.
*** Please DO NOT include my name or E-mail address in any mailing lists 
    unless I explicitly make the request. In addition, please do not send
    me ANY unsolicited advertisements via E-mail.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   I don't know of any  But there is a program that is coming out in
September some time that pages you like a personal pager does  If you are
on the internet anyone can contact you by either sending a message via
internet (by going to the web page and typing a note) or by calling this
long distant number (soon to be a toll free number) and sending the note
that way.İ Pretty cool isn't it?  Personally I can't wait.  It sure beats
having to spend $20 or so a month to have a separate line.
    Go to 
www.pagoo.com
 for more information.
Frank
p.s.  there is another program out but people can only contact you via
internet.  It's called IRCpager or something like that.


Technical Writing; Internet & WWW Consulting

Thanks for all your responses (so far) !  I wasn't sure if I'd get any...
Here are my responses to your responses;
Hi James L. Ryan,
I'll look into that option (with US West in Arizona).  But I'm not too
hopeful.  Sounds like it's going to be at least $10/mo, which is how much
the US West Voice Messaging service costs.  At the very least, that'll act
like an answering maching, even when your line is busy.
My other fear is that this service (if they have it) will be as reliable as
Last Call Return (activated by *69).  Which is to say, not very reliable
(like Caller ID).  Most, if not all, long distance calls are "UnAvailable"
and can therefore Not be identified or returned.  In addition, many of my
friends have their number "blocked", which results in the same situation...
Hi Stan Horwitz,
I don't talk on the phone that much.  Especially not so much that I need to
be online And talking at the same time...although that might be nice, but
My CPU may not be able to multi task that much :-)
But the main reason that I don't get a second line is that I'm always
trying to minimize my expenses (aka cheap).  $240 a year ($20/mo, not
including installation) for something I shouldn't need seems like a lot to
me.  Even $10/mo for Voice Messaging seems like a waste if I'm going to
have to keep disconnecting to see if I got any calls.  No one likes to
leave messages, plus I'd like to know instantly if I've got another call. 
Which is why $5/mo for call waiting seems pretty cool, even if I'm not on
the net.
PS - Does your request not to receive unsolicited e-mail in your signature
file actually work?  I don't think Spam-Bots or for that matter Spammers
care (that's why they must all die...but I digress).  Anyway, I think it's
pretty cool to at least ask them not to.  I hope congress passes the
anti-junk e-mail law pretty soon!
Hi Frankie White,
The new program/service sounds pretty cool, but...
If someone is one the net, they can already contact me with an e-mail
message.  Not instantaneous, but close enough sometimes.
Messaging Pagers are at least twice as expensive as your basic
pager...maybe as low as $60, which includes activation and one year of
service.  After that, it may cost as low as $2/mo.  Whereas the MPs will
probably cost more than $5/mo...maybe even $10/mo.
Plus, I don't want make my friends to have to remember or even dial another
number if possible.  Looks like if I go the pager route, I should check
into the MCI One program (which should ring over to my pager if my phone
line is busy).  Anyone know how much that costs?
My sister has a messaging pager, which is supplied by her employer.  For
the reason you state, it is pretty cool to be able to send her pager a
message from Netscape.  But she isn't that hard to reach and I hardly use
this method.
However, I appreciate your suggestion and will check out 
www.pagoo.com
 out
of curiousity and in case there's something I missed.
Hi Jerry Kindall,
Thanks for your technical advice.  I wish I was able to try it...
The manual for my Supra Express 288 didn't Anything about S-registers or
even carrier loss time-outs.  I also search through all of the OT/PPP 1.1.2
settings I could find...but nothing.  If there's something I'm missing,
please let me know.
I don't mind trying this, but I'm a little skeptical.  I used to use
FreePPP (2.5v2 I think) with the latest MacTCP and would get randomly
disconnected all the time.  Talk about frustration!   After I switched to
OT/PPP, my connections have been Much more reliable...I suspect that this
S-Register value may have been higher somehow with OT/PPP.  Possible?   
Anyway, I'm sticking with it (even though it uses about one MB more RAM). 
I like it so much, I haven't even tried FreePPP 2.5v3
Hi Mad Lion,
I normally connect with Call Waiting disabled (via *70), but recently tried
keeping CW enabled (by removing the *70).  Had a friend call during a
YA-NewsWatcher download session (my most common use of the internet).  And
even after 10 rings, there was no noticeable glitch with the download or
the connection...
Thanks again for all your responses!
- Dave
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dave Chia  (
Xdc...@usa.net
)
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/7750/index.html
Please remove the "X" in front of the e-mail address to send me e-mail
Don't you hate un-solicited, junk e-mail !!!  Spammers Must Die!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

have a USR 33.6 sportster and windows95.
	Yes, it is possible, and if you've got an external Sportsters
(with the volume control knob) the sound wouldn't even be all that bad
since you have complete control over it.  On internals, well, that
depends on how USR has set the sound for your particular modem (USR
changes their sound settings with every new version of the Sportster
they produce it seems, and they've made a lot of different versions of
the Sportster 33.6).  Anyway, the way to do it is to set M2 in the
additional settings box within Win95 (actually, there may be a setting
somewhere to "Leave speaker on all the time", I dunno, don't use Win95
myself).  Now, mind you, hearing the call waiting beep still may not
be possible among all the background noise that the modem is making,
but you will definately be able to hear the modem retraining, which it
will do when the call waiting beep comes through (although it may also
retrain at other times, but hopefully not often).  A retrain sounds
just about the same as the original training sequance (all those bings
on bongs that you here when you first connect to the remote site).
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