Mrs. Mecomber's Scrapbook

I wrote about discovering Phone Tray (which I will soon be reviewing), and in so doing, I was reminded of another, similar program called CallWave. I used this program extensively for several years when I had dialup Internet service. It was free (but I think either it eventually became a paid-for service, or perhaps I upgraded, I can’t remember now), and extremely convenient.

As you dialup users know, unless you have a separate phone line with a separate number, you cannot receive normal telephone calls when you are online. Your callers get a busy signal or are directed to voice mail (if your phone service offers it). For us, this was a great inconvenience. CallWave is a program that is installed on your computer, and is like an answering machine through your computer. It also came with Caller ID (a very nice feature) and voicemail that you can control right off your computer desktop.

I checked out the CallWave website, and the software has changed a bit since I stopped using it three years ago (we got DSL at that time). Apparently, there’s a 30-day free trial, but after that the charge is $7.95. I think that’s a little steep. I mean, if you were going to pay $8 more a month, you may as well spend that $8 and upgrade to DSL service, and free up your phone line plus get the high speed of DSL. But CallWave may be a God send for you folks out in rural areas, where the only thing available to you is dialup.

Anyway, it’s a neat little program. And there just may be a free version in there somewhere. Be sure to do a little digging before you make that choice to pay for it.