ANT - Ant is Not a Telephone
****************************
Copyright 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 Roland Stigge


WHAT IT IS
==========

ANT is a telephone application written for GNU/Linux, I4L (ISDN4Linux,
integrated in the kernel), GTK+ (GIMP Toolkit) and OSS (Open Sound System).


ABOUT ANT
=========

It directly interfaces OSS and ISDN devices, so there is no need to install
extra software or hardware like PBX (Private Branch Exchange) or telephony
cards, if you've got direct access to an audio capable ISDN Card and full
duplex (or multiple) soundcard.

For the soundcard interface you can use headphones (or speakers) and a
microphone, or a headset instead of all this.

Currently, there is no direct mixer integration planned for ANT for several
reasons. For GNU/Linux, there are quite a lot of good mixer programs available
such as aumix, kmix, smix or tkmixer. The other reason is to make the program
more general. Not all sound devices have mixer support integrated and many
don't provide an obvious interface.

NOTE: Currently, this is a work in progress (beta version) and may contain
      bugs.


WHAT YOU WILL NEED
==================
to run:

* a computer
* an ISDN card with audio support for Linux (ISDN4Linux driver)
  (teles or HiSax drivers are known to work)
* GNU/Linux (as far as nobody has tried it on another platform yet)
* OSS support
* a full duplex sound card or two sound devices
  (one for input, another for output)
* a microphone (or your sound source of choice)
* speakers, or better: headphones
* instead of the last two points, you could also use a headset
* GTK+ 2.x
* libsndfile

to compile:

* GNU make
* GCC
* GTK+ 2.x development files
* OSS development files (actually, it's mostly just one header file)
* libsndfile development files


WHAT YOU MIGHT NEED
===================
* possibly a mixer application of your choice (e.g. aumix or smix) to set up
  your audio devices (check your recording and playback levels to make sure
  to hear your calling/called party and to be heard by them


FEATURES
========
* Of course, dialing out and receiving calls
* Caller id monitor
* Vanity number dialing support
* Big / little endian support for processor architecture and sound card
* Different 8 and 16 bit audio formats supported
* Different sampling speeds supported (if sound device(s) don't support
  native ISDN sampling speed)
* Setting outgoing (identifying) MSN (Multiple Subscriber Number) and
  MSNs to listen on
* Line Level Checker
* Works with ALSA (OSS emulation)
* Saved config file
* Saved Caller ID history
* Option to run an external command on incoming call (useful for external
  pager programs), add %s in template for calling party number, %n for
  own number
* Command line option to make a running instance of ANT make a call to a
  specific number (useful for external address book applications)
* Live recording to files
* Popup on incoming call
* Configurable preset buttons
* Isdnlog data import
* Tracking of unanswered calls
* Internationalization, native language support (NLS) for Dutch, German, French


HOW TO COMPILE ANT INSTALL
==========================

see INSTALL


HOW TO START
============

run:

   ant-phone


FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)
================================

For actuality reasons, please look at the FAQ section at http://www.antcom.de/


RELEASE CONDITIONS
==================

ANT is released under the GPL (GNU General Public License). Please read
the file named COPYING.


CONTACT
=======

Any suggestions, comments and bug reports (which are highly appreciated) go to
the ant-phone mailing list ant-phone-devel@nongnu.org. For discussion and
announcements, you can subscribe to the list at
http://mail.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/ant-phone-devel. You can also browse
the Mailing List Archives at http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/ant-phone-devel/.
If this fails or for non-public discussion, contact the maintainer directly:
Roland Stigge <stigge@antcom.de>. Thanks in advance!

