Hi!
I have modem on my laptop, I was wondering if it's possible to plug in my phone cable into the modem and call/receive calls using the laptop? if so, any software suggestions? Thanks!

It should be possible if your modem is compatible with Linux. If you use KDE, you can find some telephony apps at kde-apps.org.

Modem compatibility is patchy. Since modem makers moved a lot of the functionality out of hardware and into the driver, the situation has worsened (anyone know when this was exactly - I seem to recall it being the mid to late 90s, but I could be wrong).

These so-called soft-modems do an awful lot of work in the driver, and as is sometimes the case, the driver vendors have been very reluctant to open their drivers and/or hardware specs to the Linux community. Those soft-modems which only have windows drivers are often called "winmodems". That is not to say there aren't Linux-compatible modems out there, but it is something of a lottery.

In my opinion this is very serious impediment to more widespread adoption of Linux.

One last question for anyone who an answer it - what does one do if one has a winmodem? Are there USB modems with Linux drivers which may be procured cheaply? If so, what are they?

Get an external serial or usb modem. Serial modems are very cheap these days and most work out of the box with Linux. Many USB modems will also work with Linux.

Thanks reddazz. I'[ve never had cause to use the modem in my current machine. I did once look at it, and it was a winmodem. Good to know there is a solution.