/David Candy/ said:

It is actually illegal (for the modem not people) to repeatedly dial a number. (telephone companies network won't survive millions of modems doing it). The modem must have approval to connect to a phone line (mainly to stop someone electrocuting their ne
ighbours and workers at the exchange, and destroying the exchange). Whoever (FTC or AusTel) will refuse approval. Windows enforces it, the modem also will enforce it. The actual rules depends on what country you live in (or more accurately what country win
dows/modem think you're in).

If you try it you may find your modem will refuse to dial at all for a period of time.

This may work, depending on your modem

Most people call a some numbers quite frequently. These are usually quite few, a best friend from home or a partner from work. A Windows shortcut can dial a phone. This tip lists two ways of easily dialing frequent numbers.

Windows includes a phone dialer but it's a few mouse clicks to use (6 to start and click the number, 1 to talk, 1 to exit). This allows two mouse clicks if it's on the desktop, three if on the Start Menu.

Before going on you'll need to know what com port your modem is connected to. Open Control Panel and choose Modems. Select your modem and click Properties. Your Comm Port is listed under Port.

Method 1- Using Shortcuts
a.. Right click the desktop and choose New then Shortcut.
b.. Rename (F2 renames a selected item) the Shortcut Dial Mum (or whoever it is)
c.. Right click the shortcut and choose Properties
d.. On the Program tab enter Dialing Mum in the top textbox and C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM /c echo ATDT 99999999 com2 into the Cmd Line textbox, replacing 99999999 with the phone number you're dialing and com2 with the com port you're modem is conected t
o. Make sure the Close on Exit checkbox is checked.
e.. On the Screen tab make sure that Window is selected.
f.. Repeat the above steps and call the second shortcut Answer and use this Cmd Line - D:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM /c echo ATH com2.
g.. Either leave the two shortcuts where they are, or Shift + Drag onto the Start Menu.
h.. To ring, Double Click the Dial Mum shortcut (or select it on the Start Menu) and when the other party answers pick up the phone and Double Click the Answer shortcut.
Method 2 - Using a Batch File
a.. Right click the desktop and choose New then Text Document.
b.. Rename (F2 renames a selected item) the Text Document Dial Mum.bat (or whoever it is)
c.. Right click the MS-Dos Batch File and choose Edit
d.. Add the following lines changing the phone number, name and comm port to suit.
@echo off
echo Dialing Mum
echo ATDT 99999999 com2
Echo.
Echo Press any key when Mum answers or you want to hang up.
pause
echo ATH com2
a.. Save the file and exit Notepad. Move the file into C:\windows\command folder. Right click the file and choose Properties. Make sure Close on Exit and Window is checked (see Method 1). A new shortcut file will have been created with the same name. Mov
e this file onto the Desktop or Start Menu.
Click the batch file to dial and press any key when it answers.
Notes on Phone Numbers
a.. The modem command string listed above ATDT means dial using tone dialing. Use ATDP if you have a pulse phone.
b.. If you need a pause while dialing use a comma. E.g, 9,99999999.

Interestingly, when method 1 is attempted here, the response is "...in use
by another process." What process? The modem (and com3) are not in use.

--
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