Thanks.
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Hello all.
I'm posting this in the newbie section because I know zilch about Pc-to-phone and
generally about using the computer for voice communications.
The situation is this: I pay my ISP CAD$29.90 per month for phone service, but I
barely use it. I do maybe 4-5 calls a month, and I receive about as much, mostly
from telemarketers, too.
On Puppy we have PSIP. If you search on the Web, you will also find Ekiga and
Linphone, and a couple of others. (Please, no reference to Skype or to Google-
phone. I love my freedom!)
Forum member Smokey001 has written quite a nice guide on how to use PSIP. That
got me interested initially. However, having read it, I was still not clear about PC-to-
phone and phone-to-PC. I probably read it wrong, but I was left with the impression
that PSIP was only offering voice communications between members of an Internet
phone network such as iptel.org.
Smokey, if you're reading this and I'm wrong, please correct me!
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some of you will say: "Get a mobile phone." Well, they cost as much as a
computer (~ CAD$600.00), plus the line fees. Or you get the mobile phone for
supposedly "free", but you're tied with say, Fido or Koodoo, for the next three
years at an unreal monthly rate. I'd be worse off than at present. Please see
this Canadian data: https://www.cellphones.ca/cell-plans. (The price data
for mobile phones will obviously be different in your country.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Doing a bit more research, I found that Ekiga has teamed up with DiamondCard,
which can provide PC-to-phone and phone-to-PC access. For inside Canada, at
2 cents/minute. DiamondCard has an office in Toronto, so it has a Canadian base.
Say I use the phone 30 minutes a month, that's sixty cents ($0.60) a month, not
$30.00 a month. The benefit is easy to see: shaving close to $360 a year off my
overall communications bill.
As I said I am still unclear, if I go with PSIP or Ekiga, about someone calling me
from a regular phone and me calling this person back from my PC.
I know that in my area, for less than $10 a month I can get a pager. This I
understand: family or friends or potential clients leave a message on the pager, and
I call them back ASAP from my PC. But maybe a good SIP network offers a pager
service as well?
If you have this experience and perhaps price data comparing the two situations,
and you are willing to share it, I would greatly appreciate it. (Or any other related
comment.)
Thanks in advance. "Talk"
with you later, hopefully.
I have got to get off my duff and do something about that... 
