Jim Kennedy wrote:
> Is there a home/home office telecom device, eg. answering machine,
> caller id unit, etc, that allows you to program in particular numbers
> to be blocked or to receive a custom message? I would like all other
> calls to go through as is.
> Thanks.
> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The telcos (Traditional Bell at least)
> offers a blocking service. You have to get *60 turned on by telco,
> then you can do what you are asking -- theoretically -- and get rid
> of the nuisances. I say _theoretically_ since SBC at least claims as
> often as not 'that call cannot be blocked', i.e. outside of LATA, or
> people who send bogus numbers for caller ID. Once you ask telco to
> turn on *60 you can enter numbers you do not wish to hear from any
> further, and that person gets a recorded intercept saying 'the party
> you are calling is not accepting calls at this time.' You can also
> 'block last call recieved, whether or not you know the number,' by
> dialing (I think) '01' at the internal prompt, even if the caller
> deliberatly withheld their number via *67. You can hear a recitation
> of the numbers on your blocked list as part of the *60 process also,
> and to protect the privacy of those persons who used *67 when calling
> you, the recitation refers to them as 'private entries' .
> You can also get 'block the blockers' service from telco using *77
> and when someone does do *67 when calling you, _they_ get a recorded
> message that they have to unblock delivery of their ID and dial the
> call again. So, if you sign up for both these features, (*60 and *77)
> you get rid of most or all the pests. But, one caveat with certain
> telcos, like SBC Southwestern Bell, they don't go out of their way to
> make this work correctly. With some of these telcos, calls which are
> out of LATA cannot be blocked, and calls where the caller gives you
> a bogus string for ID cannot be blocked. And of course, if the caller
> moves from one payphone to another, he _will_ get through to you. Now
> in years past, when Illinois Bell existed and had this service, you
> _could_ block out of LATA calls, and maybe you could not, if the place
> originating the phone call had an old fashioned switch. But you could
> at least 'ping' it first and see if it would work or not (from out of
> LATA). Locally, it would come back immediatly and say okay; but if
> out of LATA it would go away for a few seconds and then come back
> and say okay but sometimes your request would time out and you would
> back an answer saying "cannot be added right now, try again in a few
> minutes" or else it would just say "cannot be added" (period.) But
> SBC won't deal with any out of LATA that I know of. So maybe this
> service from your telco will help you eliminate many of the pests.
> PAT]
As I recall, the service is called "Selective Call Rejection" by SBC
in California. It will only hold a list of up to 10 numbers at a
time, which is virtually useless.
Tim@Backhome.org