You can use Phone Amego with landline phones connected through a compatible USB Modem. You can connect upto two phone lines at the same time for CallerID, and select which one will be used for dialing.
My own testing has focussed on these modems:
This is a controllerless or software modem based on the Motorola SM56 design. The advantages of a software modem are low cost, low power consumption, and compact design. The disadvantage is that modem processing is offloaded to a specialized driver that runs on the host computer. In this case, Apple has customized Motorola's driver to produce a generally solid product.
At the time of this writing, Apple has discontinued the Apple USB Modem (MA034Z/A) but they are still widely available for around US$50.
Testing Notes: Software modems require a driver that can pump real-time audio like data to the modem's transceiver regardless of any other system software that may be running. In my own testing, I've found it's important to connect the modem to a reliable USB Hub as close to the host computer as possible. Apple's USB Modem driver generally worked well but could fail under certain conditions like launching Disk Utility with external FireWire drives attached. I tend to prefer controller based modems for their greater stability, but the Apple USB Modem is certainly an elegant and compact unit.
If Phone Amego has trouble opening a connection to your modem, quit Phone Amego, unplug and then replug the modem to reset the driver, and then relaunch Phone Amego.
I've had one problem report where the Apple USB Modem failed to decode the caller ID signal as expected. Searching on-line indicates the problem is rare and may be related to the quality of the phone line.
Some Apple Internal Modems support CallerID but this is not universal. Since new Macs no longer come with built-in modems, I was unable to test this feature.
This is a traditional controller based modem from a manufacturer with a solid product history. The modem includes its own control processor which understands AT commands directly, so only a basic USB serial driver is needed. In my testing, this modem worked well.
The USR5637 is widely available for around US$50.
Testing Notes: The manual included with the modem is unclear about the installation procedure. You'll need to install the software from the included CD first, and then plug-in the modem for it to be recognized by Mac OS X. In the Network Preferences panel, select USB Modem, click Advanced, set the Vendor to "Other", and Model to "USRobotics 56K USB Modem". I also tested faxing with this modem and it worked without incident.
This modem is about the size of a cell phone (significantly larger than the Apple USB Modem). There is no speaker, so to hear the modem dial and connect you must pickup a handset. An online User Guide is available.
I had no trouble running both the Apple USB Modem and USRobotics Modem at the same time. Having run both modems continuously over an extended period, I prefer the USRobotics modem for its stability. It's more modem for about the same price.
I added support for this modem with help from a customer who confirmed the necessary data exchange. This modem was recommended in a Macintouch user report. This controller based modem is smaller than the US Robotics unit and may be available for under $25 (used).
Testing Notes: In my testing this modem worked well. No software installation was necessary. When I plugged the modem in, I was alerted that a new device had appeared. In the Network Preferences panel, I selected USB Modem -> Advanced -> Modem -> Vendor: Zoom, Model: Universal (115K).
In my own testing, Mac OS X could sometimes fail to open a connection to the modem device, and it was necessary to unplug and then re-plug the USB hub the modem was attached to in order to reset the connection (hot plugging just the modem itself was not sufficient). After replacing three smaller hubs with a single 7-port hub, the problem has not reoccured. If your USB modem is chained off your Monitor or Keyboard and you experience some instability, try attaching it directly to your computer, or through a single hub connected directly to your computer.
The Cables-to-Go hub (or clone) linked above has worked well for me. Its best feature is that each port works at the maximum possible speed and supplies full power regardless of what else is connected (when the included power adaptor is used).
If you have trouble getting Phone Amego to startup, press and hold the Command key while launching to turn monitoring off. You can then enable each device one at a time to see if one is not responding.
Phone Amego determines which commands to use with each modem by asking the modem for identifying information, and then selecting a corresponding command dictionary. These dictionaries are stored in a "Devices" folder within the application bundle, but can also be read from
~/Library/Application Support/PhoneAmego/Devices/
To customize the AT commands Phone Amego uses with your modem, you can copy one of the included command dictionaries to the folder above, and then modify it using Apple's Property List editor.