Re: Phone dialer for Linux

[Ken Irving <fnkci@uaf.edu>]

On Wed, Feb 11, 2004 at 11:46:38PM -0500, David P James wrote:
...
> > David P James wrote:
> > > I've searched and searched and I just can't seem to find a simple,
> > > command-line phone dialer for use with pulse/rotarty (ie non-touch
> > > tone) phone lines. I find it amazing that I can send out faxes via
> > > my modem in linux but can't just dial a number. I've never used PPP
> > > but obviously one has to dial out there too. So, I'm a bit
> > > perplexed.
...
> Right... but what I'm looking for is just a way to pass a phone number
> as a command line parameter so that I can then pick up the telephone
> handset and start chatting away with the person or answering machine on
> the other end. My understanding of PPP is that it will then attempt to
> make a connection with a remote machine, something I do not want to do.

I did something like this for a while to enter calling card numbers and
codes, but used minicom and entered the commands manually.  I thought I had
also done it using echo ... > /dev/ttySn, but can't find any hint of how
to get that working.  (It might be necessary to use setserial or something
to control the DTR line on the modem to allow it to remain off-hook?)

You might try it manually using minicom just to see how/if it works.
Normally, minicom (or other serial comms program) would dial a number
to establish a modem-to-modem connection.  The trick to just dialing a
number and not doing the modem thing is to end the dial string with a
semicolon, which places the modem back in command mode.  (This assumes
your modem uses the Hayes/AT command set, and supports pulse dialing.)

    ATDP5551212;

Some options might be useful, e.g., M0 to keep the modem speaker off,
X0 to ignore wierd dial tones, etc.:

    ATM0X0DP5551212;

In other cases I've used cu (bundled with uucp) with expect or Perl's
Expect module to automate phone and modem applications.  cu is smaller
and simpler than minicom, easier to use as a tool.  One such app was
a dialer using perl/tk, with various buttons to control it, numeric
keypad, etc.  These use the same semicolon trick to keep the modem from
proceeding to its modem handshake mode.

Ken

--
Ken Irving, fnkci@uaf.edu