using your Mac as a telephone/answering machine

[pusarf]

Is there anyway to cheaply use your Mac with Os X as a telephone and answering machine. I know that faxing is built in, and I've found alittle bit of expensive software/hardware combination that allows it, but nothing else. It'd be nice to use it for everything that I can..

thanks

 

[emw]

It's not cheap ($150), but it does a lot of cool things. You might want to check it out:

http://www.ovolab.com/phlink/

 

[JeffTL]

I have voicemail from the phone company and a Western Electric rotary phone next to my computer. That gives me everything I feel that I would get from using my iBook as a telephone, plus the voice mail hardware is Qwest's problem.

 

[dirtymatt]

I don't think it's complete yet, but http://www.astmasters.net/ is working on a port of Asterisk (an open source PBX). Eventually it will be able to make your Mac do exactly what you're asking (and a whole lot more), but I think for right now one of the other solutions will work better.

 

[Le Big Mac]

It's not cheap ($150), but it does a lot of cool things. You might want to check it out:

http://www.ovolab.com/phlink/

That looks pretty cool, but, yeah, the price is pretty high.

 

[emw]

That looks pretty cool, but, yeah, the price is pretty high.

The features it supplies are nice, though, and if you were looking to buy an answering machine with similar features, it would cost you. This solution e-mails your voice-mail to you. Nice if you're out of town. It also tracks all of the calls nicely.

It actually seems to duplicate a lot of features you get with a VoIP service (like the e-mailing thing), but without having to rely on VoIP (and potentially problematic 911, etc.).