I've got an interesting one for you. I've been going over my server monitoring and notification systems (Nagios based), and realized that if our internet connection goes down, there's no way for it to notify me. I already have a modem listening (Via CentOS 5) on a spare POTS line so that I can dial-in in case our internet goes down. I was wondering if I could come up with a script (Shell, Python, etc) that can dial out and play a recorded message (wave file I'm guessing) when it's picked up. I know Windows supports voice calls over a voice modem, I was wondering if a solution existed for Linux...

I know asterisk can probably do it, but isn't that overkill (A full blown VOIP system just for a notification mechanism that will hopefully never be used)? And wouldn't it interfere with the modem's primary function as a backup network interface (PPP spawned via mgetty)?

I've done some searching, and haven't really come up with much. I know how to dial out from the command line, but only as a modem (not as voice). Worst case, I could set it up to dial out as a modem, and then just realize that if I get a call with modem sounds from that number that it's the notification... Any insight would be appreciated...