I am currently using a program called PhoneTray on a Windows system. The software monitors my phoneline then using callerid to blacklist phone numbers or name data using a dialup voice modem with callerid. The software then plays a message for them to put me on their do not call list and and hangs up on them or any other custom message I want to play for a particular phone number.
I would like to move that system over to Linux. But I haven’t found any software equivalents that can do that. Does anyone have any suggestions for me to look into.
Maybe there is something in asterisk that will do the job.
Asterisk is software that turns an ordinary computer into a voice communications server. Asterisk is the world’s most powerful and popular telephony development tool-kit. It is used by small businesses, large businesses, call centers, carriers and governments worldwide. Asterisk is open source and is available free to all under the terms of the GPL.
I’ve never used the program you mention - but let me guess - does it filter the calls based on its own blacklist? Or do you have to create a blacklist yourself?
Either way, have you tried using it under Wine? I’ve got a few programs I “can’t live without” from Windows. A couple of them have come over successfully using Wine. Look up Wine in the software installer.
Thanks for the suggestion. I recall looking into last spring (didn’t try it though) If I remember correctly it needs FXO/FXS cards. I didn’t think dialup modems worked with it. I will have to look into it again.
It filters calls based on a list that I have created. If you check that phone number online you can usually get comments that make reference to additional phone numbers that can be blocked so the list grew pretty quick.
I also tried running it in Wine, but it didn’t work. Its tied to several Microsoft API’s.
I’m about to patent my device which will automatically detect telemarketers and send a zillion volts (two zillion volts if I’m having dinner) back along the phone line to the hapless phone monkey. I can send you a prototype soon.
Oh, it’s not legal to torture telemarketers? They’re humans too? Dang! lol!
Actually I have a good solution. I don’t have a landline, only a mobile. It will cost them to call me so they hardly ever do.
But this is serious, a friend of mine did have a real working solution for Linux. There are hardware devices (microcontroller based) that can detect the caller ID and pass it on to a computer (via RS232 I think). Then you can get the computer to pick up the line and do whatever you want with the call.
It was a bit embarrassing when his CID device detected his mother phone number and his computer automatically played a voice sample saying: Don’t pick up the phone hun, it’s only your mother-in-law. I assume he did that as a joke.
I looked into asterisk , but I think its over kill and I think I need an FXO card to make it do what I want. while being able dump them into IVR hell would be fun, don’t really need to go to that extreme.
I found ‘jcblocker’ that is a fairly small C script that should do the trick, but I haven’t tried it out yet. I probably will once I get time to though. for those interested the program was found at sourceforge.
This program sounds pretty similar to the kenyap described but doesn’t announce that call, which for what I wanna do isn’t needed. Although a little message to the telemarketers would be nice.