On Fri, Aug 29, 2025 at 8:39 AM CAREY SCHUG via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
Thank you, that is possibly a good idea.
Up to now I have resisted giving up my copper line:
1. to have multiple accesses that should not all be down at the same time 2. Because Comcast was much less reliable than the phone company 3. "prove you are not a computer" kind of offends me philosophically
by having the maximum rings before picking up, and a very long outgoing message, I haven't had to answer a robocall in months or years. My phone does announce who is calling, so for my friends, if I am actually home, I pick up immediately. Just recently, if it is any kind of anonymous and there is a possibility I want the call (e.g., I have a doctor's appointment the next day, so it may be a reminder), I may pick up and then hang up if it is a robocall.
Maybe it is time to give up the copper line. Recently cable has been down less than the phone company, and I do have my mobile phone as backup. And it is expensive.
Perhaps I should try adding a VOIP service, and unless get too irritated by it, then switch my historical phone number to it (34 years).
Carey
On 08/29/2025 6:46 AM CDT Alvin Starr via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
On 2025-08-29 05:38, CAREY SCHUG via Talk wrote:
When I do a web search, I find devices "preloaded with xxx thousand numbers" or room for me to add xxx thousand numbers, but IME, spam/robo calls never come from the same number twice, so that is a waste of me pressing the "block call" feature.
I want an answering machine including multiple cordless phones, and maybe that will connect to bluetooth to handle mobile calls too, that will:
About 4 years ago I moved and at the same time moved my land line to a VOIP provider(voip.ms).
On that line I have installed an IVR that asks the caller to press 1 to be connected.
This has cut down the number of robocalls to 0.
It also provides the usual features like messages but can also forward the messages as email.
The one thing I have now that I did not before is SMS on my home number which is also forwarded via email.
This will not solve your handset problem but you could get a cheap multi-handset answering-machine phone system and just disable the answering part.
FYI, voip.ms has a very nice mobile app that does SMS, of course you can always set up Linphone or similar applications (I have Linphone on my Linux desktop setup with voip.ms)
Additionally, if you are a Cogeco customer, they are running a promo for their new mobile service, $10/mo for 25G, rollover data, and unlimited phone/sms in Canada. I haven't had a "land line" in 10 years, it was just a spam destination in the last couple of years of use, and the only thing I really needed it for was the alarm service, and that was solved using a GSM modem. On an unrelated note, anyone using LoRa? I am thinking of getting a device, but wanted to check if there any users close by before start testing. -nick