Pick up a phone line using a PC

Hey, everyone. I am needing to record the end of a phone call to obtain a specific (that is, obscure) recording so that I can play it back from my pc as an answering machine.

I can already play back sound files, and answer calls no problem (and also record the end of the phone call, but I have to dial with my pc which is inconvenient to me). The issue is that I cannot find any way to pick up a phone line like you can with a physical phone!

The recording only happens about 1 out of 4 times, and I want to be able to pick up the phone line (as if it were another extension) either programatically or using whatever software that's out there.

I have searched for a couple hours now and have found many dialing softwares, none of which that can simply pick up the line ("hook") and play the output & send input (from mic) as if it's a phone.

I really don't care whether I implement it myself or not; I am proficient in several programming languages. I just don't want to waste time making it myself if there's a library or existing software to do it for me.

Oh, an I am using windows. (Though, a solution for linux might not be bad. I'd have to figure out how to loop back audio on linux, though haha)

Thanks! And by the way, I am NOT wanting VoIP - I want to use my computer's modem!

UPDATE: Evidently, sending "ATH1" to my modem port (COM4) should unhook the line. However, my driver is not working properly so i am installing the proper driver. update coming soon...

UPDATE 2: Finally got A m开发者_StackOverflowodem working, it turns out my built-in one does not work (possibly fried?) so I am now using a modem that plugs into the PC card slot. Supposedly, it's using COM6 as it's ort and dialing out works fine using the windows phone dialer, but none of the "AT*" commands seem to do anything. If I pick up a (real) extension elsewhere in the house and try again, it makes a very distant click sound. Every time I echo an AT* command to the modem it seems to write it then returns to the dos prompt immediately. I'm not sure what's happening; perhaps I'm echoing the at* commands wrong, or am forgetting a prerequisite at* command before hooking/dialing? Thanks!

From memory you have to tell the modem to answer automatically when the phone rings.

Sending

AT S0=1  

will cause the modem to answer on the first ring.

If you want to do it manually after some program logic or something, try issuing

AT A

when the phone is ringing.