Before learning how to record telephone calls, the question to answer is the why. Why do you want to record telephone calls?

There are many legitimate reasons why to record calls, other than spying on someone. These include, verification of a sales transaction, financial transactions, health or medical information given to patient, legal issues, insurance claims, interviews or improve call handling and customers service skills. Basically any type of conversation that you feel is necessary or required by law so there are no misunderstandings at a later date.

In the most simplistic form, when recording calls from a single line telephone, you will need an adapter or device that connects to a telephone jack/line from your telephone. You can record from portable telephones as long as the recorder is connected to the base unit. In order to log these calls and have records, you will install software on your computer. There will be a cable that connects from the recorder device to the USB port on the computer.

You can listen to the calls from your computer, save them to DVD, email them in a.wav or mp3 file format. Depending on the product you have purchased, the recorder can be configured to record all calls by voice activation, or you manually select the calls you want to record. If you are using this in your home, and have only one telephone line, you may want to manually select the recording of calls. This is accomplished through the interface on your computer.

Telephone recorders are available in all sizes, from recording a single line up to recording hundreds of lines simultaneously. Telephone lines are sometimes referred to as ports or channels.

Now what about recording cell phone calls?

At the time of this writing, the only way to accomplish this is through a service. You dial the telephone number provided by the service prior to making the call and then dial the number to be recorded. If you require cell calls to be recorded on the fly, there is another type of service available that will give you a telephone number to use to record all incoming and outgoing calls. Both of these services charge by the minute for recordings.

Recording telephone calls is not that difficult. You can find good single line telephone recorders for under $150. Before purchasing evaluate the specifications and features. For larger office type recording applications, you will want to ensure the telephone recorder is compatible with your telephone system.