Switching off a line...

[DAVEHALL]

Originally Posted by AndiiT

Hi,
I had forgotten that you are unable to have caller ID from your Virgin Media line.

Andrew

Beggin yer pardon - I have caller ID on my Virgin line -costs me £2 a month -( only falls down when the exchange kit in the cabinet gets damp problems -like every two years) .


And as for incoming problems- simply make the wire from pin 3 of the master socket switch able - and remove phone from master . Or fit a PC modem/answering MC to your line, set to answer immediately .
Or the naughty answer -no need for line terminating resistors- try a few 2uF caps across the line - invoking the old "TOO MANY PHONES IN PARALLEL =RING TRIP) .

[russell_w_b]

Why not just shunt terminals 3 & 5 with a switch, shorting out the bells when not needed? The reactance of the master LJU 1u8 capacitor alone will present a high impedance of -j3536 to the 25Hz ringing current on the line.

[russell_w_b]

Originally Posted by russell_w_b

Why not just shunt terminals 3 & 5 with a switch...

I've just tried this, and although it stops the bells from ringing, it's not the most elegant solution... The speech-path works, but is shunted directly by the 1u8 capacitor - now directly across the line - which attenuates the level a bit. Still audible, though!

Dave Hall's suggestion is fine (open-cct wire 3) as long as there are no dial telephones on circuit, as the master LJU capacitor is needed as part of the dial spark-quench / pulse-shaping arrangement.

[DAVEHALL]

Originally Posted by russell_w_b

Why not just shunt terminals 3 & 5 with a switch, shorting out the bells when not needed? The reactance of the master LJU 1u8 capacitor alone will present a high impedance of -j3536 to the 25Hz ringing current on the line.

Or just disconnect terminal 3 of the master socket to the house wiring via a switch ,as I suggested .

[twocvbloke]

Originally Posted by DAVEHALL

Beggin yer pardon - I have caller ID on my Virgin line -costs me £2 a month -( only falls down when the exchange kit in the cabinet gets damp problems -like every two years) .

Can't get it round here though...

As I've said before in other threads, before the great VirginMedia rebrand, there were quite a few separated cable areas, each varying the services available, all have phone, but with differing levels of connectivity, most have TV, some still today being Analogue-only, and some have broadband, with plenty of areas "still in the dark ages" without it. There are three main areas under VM control, Cable Wireless, "Pure" NTL:, and Telewest...

Round here, it was what used to be Cable and Wireless (and before that, Nynex) before NTL moved in, the TV and broadband is excellent, but, the phone services available is awful, I've hounded them for the Caller ID service since 2003 (when I got my own cable account), and even as we approach 2011, they STILL haven't upgraded this area's exchange to allow Caller ID, just like they haven't upgraded areas for high-speed broadband or even digital TV. Trying to talk to them over the phone to get them to put these services in, well, it's like what this smiley is doing...

I could go into the differenced between the broadband and TV supplies, but I won't it's not relevant...

So with that, caller ID options are out of the window unfortunately...

[dagskarlsen]

Or the solution I have tested, forward the no to a non existing no, and let them listen to the message.... I tested it some years ago, and yes it works.
dsk

[twocvbloke]

Originally Posted by dagskarlsen

Or the solution I have tested, forward the no to a non existing no, and let them listen to the message.... I tested it some years ago, and yes it works.
dsk

I don't think it's possible on most domestic UK landlines, nice idea though...

[Dave Moll]

Actually (at least with BT) I believe that call forwarding is available as a (chargeable) add-on service - but this may not be the friendliest way of dealing with callers.

[AndiiT]

Call diversion is available from most landlines as a chargeable service, the trouble is the forwarded part of the call is charged from the subscribers number that it is diverted from, so this increases your billing costs if you have a lot of calls forwarded.

Some legacy Virgin Media switches used to use call diversion/forwarding as part of their voice mail service, the call was simply diverted to the voice mail server; this ceased once VM began to provide a free voice mail service and use 1571 which is the standard code for voice mail in this country.

Before this, if you subscribed to the voice mail service, which was cheaper than the call diversion service, you could re-direct your calls by changing the divert from 1711 (which was the number designated for voice mail in the Teesside area) to any other designated number. This trick was little known about though!

Andrew