Hang up on telemarketers, change what is displayed and send CallerID info to your office PC.
Acid Rane is free caller id software that helps you manage who calls and lets lets you: Automatically hang up on unwanted callers, such as telemarketers. Automatically display an alternate name and number for those embarrasing calls from bill collectors. Get notified on remote computers, such as at your office, of who calls your house in realtime. Works through firewalls and proxy servers. View reports of who called and when. Publish Caller ID information to your web site (call history is stored in XML format). Hang up on all calls (Do Not Disturb mode).
No more nuisance calls. One chirp and they're gone.
WeekendJeeper
Pros
Works as advertised. Add a number to the Auto Hangup list and the call gets cut off after the first ring.
The control panel hides on right side of screen, opens up whenever a call comes in and shows the name and caller ID number.
Cons
Unable to add ACID RANE to the auto startup sequence. It would not initialize correctly; could not find its config files. Perhaps a conflict with the anti-virus. Anyhow, ACID RANE needs to be manually started after each power up.
There's no search or sort in the blacklist editor. Its organized chronologically, newest additions last. Over time it'll get crowded and hard to review.
Summary
It works. It's freeware. Other telephone answering machine programs have an annual fee. Some, like EzVoice, do include telemarketer blacklists which would save some initial learning and setup time.
The ACID RANE config settings for my setup [land line, WinXP, PCI modem] were:
- 57600 Port Speed
- 7 Data bits
- Odd Parity
- 1 Stop Bit
Caller ID for Trendnet's TFM-PCIV92A modem was enabled by AT#CID=1
The Auto Hangup list must be entered in a specific format: (Area code) <space> Exchange code <-> Subscriber Number. Partial numbers will block a range. Examples; "If contains (190) 555-1234" blocks just that number. "If contains (190) 555-12" will block a 100 number range, useful for blocking telemarketing companies.<br /><br /><span class='notifyMsg'> Updated </span>on Nov 10, 2015<p/>UPDATE Nov, 2015: This product is aging, has not been updated. Its Caller ID programming and call blocking is still 5-star. However, I had to reinstall this version and found some new incompatibilities. 1) ACID RANE uses Crystal Reports to view its call history log. CR was built on Visual Basic's 2008 platform. The site previously providing that executable has discontinued it due to age. Bottom line, you'll get a fail on call history viewing until ACID RANE is updated to a newer Visual Basic version. 2) Win10 installations appear to work but have a file access issue, blocking ACID RANE's write access to its own config files. The WIN10 compatibility troubleshooter will guide you to a workaround.
Can you help
AJGaz
Pros
Looks Good
Cons
Can get it configured
Summary
Can you help me with the tricks you found out trying to configure it. I cannot get it to work.
I ran this program at work and it actually works !
DaveJenseon
Pros
I installed this program at work and at home, sync'd it up and, low and behold, when i called my house, my work computer showed the caller id. IN REAL-TIME. Very cool, indeed!
Cons
Well, it's FREE - i really can't complain.
Summary
Takes a little bit to fully understand how to configure all of the features. All in all, its free and it looks good - got rid of my annoying calls, too. There are other programs that do the same thing (sorta) but not for free and not as nice looking.