9 Jul
2000
9 Jul
'00
9:59 a.m.
I wrote:
AFAIK, *ALL* phone switches are weird proprietary
things. Some of the
latest small ones happen to be based on PCs, but their still weird
proprietary things.
Sellam Ismail <foo(a)siconic.com> replies:
Actually, the PC-based ones generally use standard
off-the-shelf
pc-telephony hardware from either Dialogic or Natural Microsystems. There
are other manfacturers such as Pika and Brooktrout (formerly Rhetorex).
Their drivers and APIs are usually available for free download from their
FTP sites (if you know where to look) and the boards are relatively easy
to program (if you know what you're doing).
I've seen PC-based voicemail and other voice response systems that work
as you've described. But all of the PC-based PBXes (switches) that I've
seen contain huge amounts of proprietary crap.