I once read on another site that all modems released after 1998 have this, though I cannot confirm that.

Caller ID comes at an extra cost through most Australian phone service providers.

I am using the Engin VOIP service but any analog line will work.

A landline phone line with caller ID enabled.

Other operating systems have software to do this though we are concentrating on Windows in this article.

Whilst this is ideal for a home theatre PC setup, read on and I am sure you will be able to find your own reasons for setting this up. Now as we watch the film and the phone rings, we know who it is and can decide to take the call or not. The reason I first set this up in my home and started to research how to get this happening, I would watch a fair few films with my wife and I didn’t like being interrupted by the phone if it was a sales person. You can always call the caller back, as once this is set up your computer will log all incoming phone numbers. To get out of the habit of dropping everything, this will give you the choice.

We always feel the need to answer a phone immediately, dropping everything we are doing, no matter the importance just to find out it is a telemarketer on the other end. Most other methods of communication don’t require this speedy response, such as email.

This could work well in the workplace depending on your workplaces’ phone system.

You are even able to use your computer as an answering machine, with advanced features such as replying with a pre recorded message depending on who the caller is. Attach your computer to a modem and you have a complete call management system. There are many free tools which can assist you in achieving this. You will never miss a call again unless you choose to. Using old technology we can easily acheive this. Now it is time to do the same for your landline phone. Already at Inspect my gadget, I have given you a How-to which shows you how to have your computer alert you of the incoming calls to your mobile/cell phone.

Bluetooth incoming call alert