Running Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional

If you've seen the anemic Phone Dialer program that's included with earlier versions of Microsoft Windows, you'll be tempted to bypass this chapter. Don't! The old Phone Dialer was essentially a technology demonstration—proof that you could connect a phone to your computer and let the computer do the dialing. Phone Dialer in Windows 2000 is new from the ground up, and it's now a full-fledged program that allows you to:

• Make voice calls via standard telephone lines
• Make and receive voice calls via your local area network (LAN) or the Internet
• Make and receive voice conference calls via your LAN or the Internet
• Make and receive videoconference calls via your LAN or the Internet

Phone Dialer vs. NetMeeting

Phone Dialer and NetMeeting (described in Chapter 21) provide some of the same capabilities: they both allow you to make and receive voice and video calls over the Internet. In fact, you can use Phone Dialer to communicate with NetMeeting users and vice versa. Phone Dialer is essentially a picturephone; it's limited to voice and video communications. In general, NetMeeting is a better tool for business meetings because of its ancillary tools: the whiteboard, chat, file transfer, and shared applications. Phone Dialer has one advantage for meetings: it allows you to view more than one other person at a time. In addition, you might find its call history feature to be useful for tracking your phone usage.

The built-in directories and call-management tools make it easier to use your traditional telephone. And by using the Internet, you can bypass the long-distance telephone companies to make voice and video calls all over the world—without paying for anything beyond your normal Internet charges.

To start Phone Dialer, open the Start menu, and then choose Programs, Accessories, Communications, Phone Dialer. Phone Dialer appears, as shown in Figure 22-1. The left side of the Phone Dialer shows the available directories, and the right side shows the people in the selected directory.

Figure 22-1. Phone Dialer now uses Internet telephony in addition to standard phone lines.

TIP

Although you can use Phone Dialer to dial phone numbers by typing them into the Dial dialog box, it's usually more efficient to just dial your telephone without using Phone Dialer. However, if you must precede each phone number with a lengthy calling card code or long distance access code, you might find Phone Dialer convenient. Using Phone Dialer for manually dialed calls has other possible advantages as well: you can save as many numbers as you want in your Speed Dial directory, and your calls are included in Phone Dialer's history log.