# Modem «--» Digital Telephone **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 10, 2000, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modem-digital-telephone/8394 "2000-03-10T15:20:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2000, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modem-digital-telephone/8394/1 "2000-03-10T15:20:00Z")
First, the rant. (However, there is a question below, so don’t send it to MPSIMS) We’ve got one of those horrible digital telephone systems in our office. I mean, most such systems **are** horrible, in my experience, but this one… :mad: • The phone pad is an enormous box that takes up 9" x 11" worth of desktop real estate and sits nearly 4" high. • The keys on the phone pad are also enormous and spread out too far. I’m a touch-dialer and I misdial **every single time** I try to use the damn thing. From the 1 key to the 3 key is 2 inches, center to center, compared to my computer keypad’s 1.5". • No caller ID • No call forwarding • No voicemail • No display of which other extensions=busy • I have to dial a 9, then a 1, to dial out. • I have to dial #, 0, 0 just to answer incoming calls. and more to the point: I am a FileMaker Pro user, and for years I’ve used a little telephone&adddress book database I wrote that dials numbers with the click of a button after you look them up. I can’t do that here because it’s a #@^@@!! digital phone system, and FileMaker uses the modem to do the dialing, and my modem doesn’t speak digital. So, the question: do there exist digital modems for digital lines, and/or converters that would sit in-between a conventional analog modem and a digital phone line? Keep in mind that I need to have a handset connected, since the purpose is to dial up a number and then engage in a conversation. If there ain’t no such animal, I’m paying to have a plain old telephone line installed. * * * Disable Similes in this Post ---
**Author:** ![Centerline](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/94ad74/32.png) [@Centerline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Centerline)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2000, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modem-digital-telephone/8394/2 "2000-03-10T15:36:00Z")
See if your phone set have a RJ11 (regular POTS) auxiliary jack on the bottom. That will pretty much serve as a regular phone connection to a modem. If not, ask for a set that has one. ---
**Author:** ![Cooper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@Cooper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cooper)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2000, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modem-digital-telephone/8394/3 "2000-03-10T15:51:00Z")
Thats the worst phone system I’ve ever heard of. You have my condolonces. As far as I know, there is no way to convert an analogue signal to the proprietary system used by a given digital telephone system. Each vendor (Meridan, etc) basically has their own digital language the phone uses to talk to the switching equipment. ---
**Author:** ![SingleDad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9e8a1a/32.png) [@SingleDad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SingleDad)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2000, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modem-digital-telephone/8394/4 "2000-03-10T16:12:00Z")
Many digital phone vendors _do_ have an analog to digitial converter, but it’s usually fiendishly expensive. ## The **crying shame** is that for a dollar or two per phone, these guys could attach a serial or USB port, write a TAPI (Telephony API) driver, and you could _completely_ control your phone from your computer. He’s the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet copper armor, shouting ‘All Gods are Bastards!’ ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2000, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modem-digital-telephone/8394/5 "2000-03-10T16:50:00Z")
About 5 years ago I faced a similar problem, and we were able to buy a cheap do-dad from [www.blackbox.com](http://www.blackbox.com) that hooked to the phone handset cable, to let a standard modem use a digital line. Unfortunately I can’t remember the exact name and can’t find it on the blackbox site right now, but if you’ve got a computer catalog you should be able to find something similar. The explanation at the time, if I remember correctly, was that even a digital phone uses analog from the handset to the base, so you used the blackbox do-dad to add another connection to the handset line for the modem to use, which let the modem talk to the base directly, similar in concept to the old acoustic couplers of many years ago. ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2000, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modem-digital-telephone/8394/6 "2000-03-11T06:46:00Z")
I had a similar problem with our office’s new fangled Siemens digital phones. I bought a converter called GlobalSwitch on Ebay and it worked, although my connect speeds suffered drasticly. Also, it screwed with my PCMCIA modem on my laptop, and I needed to re-flash it before I was able to connect with it using a conventional phone line. I haven’t used it since.