XP MCE and caller ID

  • Thread starter Thread starter Hula Baloo
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Hula Baloo

I recently got caller ID for the 1st time ever and was very surprised
to see that my PC was giving me caller ID info every time the phone
would ring. Obviously I have a modem with caller ID (which has a phone
line plugged into it) which is passing the caller info along to some
software SOMEWHERE, but I'm curious to find out WHAT software. I
double-clicked the icon in the system tray where the balloon message was
coming from and up popped the Media Center screen. I'm running XP MCE
2005 SP3. I searched through the Media Center, but couldn't find
anything about telephones there. Anybody know what the story is? If
so, is there a log kept somewhere of all the incoming calls?
 
Hula said:
I recently got caller ID for the 1st time ever and was very surprised
to see that my PC was giving me caller ID info every time the phone
would ring. Obviously I have a modem with caller ID (which has a phone
line plugged into it) which is passing the caller info along to some
software SOMEWHERE, but I'm curious to find out WHAT software. I
double-clicked the icon in the system tray where the balloon message was
coming from and up popped the Media Center screen. I'm running XP MCE
2005 SP3. I searched through the Media Center, but couldn't find
anything about telephones there. Anybody know what the story is? If
so, is there a log kept somewhere of all the incoming calls?
Click to expand...
You need software to read the ID. Its not hard to do, you can get the
commands on a google search 'caller ID' probably. I've done it, even
just go into your built in Hyper Terminal and you can see the ring,
ring, ID, ring, ID etc.
But what you are looking for is some software, and there is a lot of it
out there to read and record those phone calls. Not answer the modem,
but just record the time and phone #. Or at least that's what I was
looking for. I gave up testing after the 3rd program since I really
had no functional need for it and I had by then proved that it worked.

Good luck.
 
Leonard said:
I'll bet your ISP knows.
Click to expand...
Why would my ISP know? I haven't installed the 1st byte of anything
from them? Nor have I installed anything that I know of that would
accomplish this. I don't understand why you'd think my ISP would know
when I have no idea why they'd have any reason to.
 
Big_Al said:
You need software to read the ID. Its not hard to do, you can get the
commands on a google search 'caller ID' probably. I've done it, even
just go into your built in Hyper Terminal and you can see the ring,
ring, ID, ring, ID etc.
But what you are looking for is some software, and there is a lot of it
out there to read and record those phone calls. Not answer the modem,
but just record the time and phone #. Or at least that's what I was
looking for. I gave up testing after the 3rd program since I really
had no functional need for it and I had by then proved that it worked.

Good luck.
Click to expand...
You must've misread my post. I'm not LOOKING for something to
display caller ID info, I already have that. My question is where is
it coming from. I haven't knowingly installed ANYTHING that to my
knowledge would do this. The modem is a software modem, so I suppose it
could be coming from the modem's driver, but I'm guessing it comes from
the Media Center software since I get the Media Center window when I
click on the balloon message when the phone rings.
 
Hula said:
You must've misread my post. I'm not LOOKING for something to
display caller ID info, I already have that. My question is where is
it coming from. I haven't knowingly installed ANYTHING that to my
knowledge would do this. The modem is a software modem, so I suppose it
could be coming from the modem's driver, but I'm guessing it comes from
the Media Center software since I get the Media Center window when I
click on the balloon message when the phone rings.
Click to expand...
I kinda thought I was on the wrong track, but I was on drugs. :-) No
seriously, I've got XP MCE myself and I don't see that on mine. My
understanding is that the modem sees the signal on the line, decodes the
Caller ID and then outputs the data on the COMM port. Then your
question as well as mine, is, what software is reading that data on the
COMM port? I never thought anything was loaded and running, or it ain't
on my PC. OF course I don't run the media center portion of this. I
think its useless. Sorry about being a bit off topic.
 
Caller ID is a function of Media Center.

There is no log that I know of.

A better place to ask Media Center questions is
microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter.


D
 
Thanks Doug. Yours is the best reply I've gotten so far. This little
Caller ID is the 1st good thing I've found in Media Center, and you know
what? They took Caller ID out of the Vista version! Go figure. :-)
 
Hula Baloo said:
Thanks Doug. Yours is the best reply I've gotten so far. This little
Caller ID is the 1st good thing I've found in Media Center, and you know
what? They took Caller ID out of the Vista version! Go figure. :-)
Click to expand...


Given a chance Media Center is really very nice. I use it as a "Tivo" like
DVR minus the subscription fee with the added benifit that it's also a
nicely powerful computer.

I have mine in a basement office. With dual tuners I can record two (cable)
shows at once. You can schedule recordings from any Internet connected
computer. I watch the recorded shows on a 57" Hitachi in the living room
which connects to the MCE computer via an XBox Extender.

It works great and doesn't cost anything monthly.
 
Datapod said:
Given a chance Media Center is really very nice. I use it as a "Tivo" like
DVR minus the subscription fee with the added benifit that it's also a
nicely powerful computer.

I have mine in a basement office. With dual tuners I can record two (cable)
shows at once. You can schedule recordings from any Internet connected
computer. I watch the recorded shows on a 57" Hitachi in the living room
which connects to the MCE computer via an XBox Extender.

It works great and doesn't cost anything monthly.
Click to expand...
Datapod, the "Tivo-like" facility you describe is certainly neat.
However you don't need Media Center to do what you describe. My tuner
card
came with software (Mediacenter 3) that does the same thing with much
less load on my computer. But usually when I want to record a TV
program, I just use my old stone age VCR! :-) It's not as fancy, and
it certainly doesn't "wow" anybody, but it still works well for my
purposes on my 3 year old 32" CRT TV.
 
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