John, although there are modems that support using a single line for voice and net, the trouble is that your ISP has to support it. I've never seen a general purpose ISP that does.
Surprisingly, WebTV does support this, but of course it's a closed system and doesn't have to support third party hardware or software (and before anybody defends Microsoft for this, it was all developed before Microsoft bought WebTV, and WebTV runs on WebOS, not Pocket PC, despite what you might have heard, and their servers run on Solaris). WebTV's solution is very nice. If an incoming call is detected while you're online, WebTV puts itself on hold and allows your phone to ring. A message is displayed onscreen so you'll know you're offline. When you hang up your phone, WebTV resumes its online connection. Similarly, if you're on the phone while WebTV wants connect to its server, it senses that the line is busy and waits, displaying a message onscreen so you'll know. It's quite elegant (and of course hasn't been improved at all since Microsoft bought and squashed the company under the weight of its own indifference).
Dave |
