Old answering machine on Digital Voice

[Studio263]

Our home telephone line has recently been changed to 'Digital Voice', so the telephones have to be plugged into the back of the router instead of directly into the wall socket.

This was easy enough to deal with, I just connected this to all the wiring in the house and all the telephones worked again. The only thing that didn't work was the answering machine as Digital Voice has its own.

This is fine for some, but if you have a nice machine (Panasonic, B&O etc) then you may not want to use their inconvenient dial-up service where you can't see if there are any messages unless you call the number.

The Digital Voice leaflets are quite explicit on the subject:

Q:Can I still use my answer machine?
A: No, you won't be able to use a standalone (sic) answer machine

I don't know why they say this as it is quite easy to do. All you have to do is to call 1571, choose the answer delay option and set it to 'long' (option 3 I think). Then set the delay of your own answering machine to slightly less so it always picks up first. I wonder why the leaflet doesn't just tell you to do that...

The Beotalk 1200 lives to fight another day!

Fortunately I am still on a real telephone - but this sort of information is very helpful and could save a lot of bother!

[paulsherwin]

I can certainly think of no reason why an old school POTS answering machine wouldn't work with any VoIP terminal device including a BT one. Maybe the original thinking was that it couldn't simply be plugged into an Ethernet port (which is true) and somebody got confused while writing the leaflet. The quality of public guidance info around POTS switchoff has been abysmal - lots of it is simply incorrect.

[Dave Moll]

Presumably, as you have ascertained, you simply have to ensure that the answering machine grabs the line before the remote answering service kicks in.

[dagskarlsen]

Originally Posted by Dave Moll

Presumably, as you have ascertained, you simply have to ensure that the answering machine grabs the line before the remote answering service kicks in.

Maybe yo have to ask them to let the phone ringe a little bit longer, because of "your old mother" does not get it before it stops ringing when she are visiting you and you are outdoors.

[Graham G3ZVT]

The 1571 service can be disabled completely, but you've got to contact the BT helpdesk.

When I call a domestic line, particularly from my mobile when I pay 10p or more for each answered call, I sometimes feel I am playing Russian roulette with their voicemail. No wonder some Telcos make VM difficult to turn off, they make lots of money reciprocally.

[AndiiT]

Hi, you can ask your provider to extend the ringing time of their voicemail service to maximum (usually ten rings), and in some cases there may be a Voice mail on/off option, which should be accessible by dialling 1571 from your line, and listening to see if there are any user configurable options.

Andrew

[G6Tanuki]

I never had any issues when setting up an old analog tape based answering machine on a VoIP router 7 or 8 years back.

But I wasn't using it for receiving messages, just to play an announcement that the number was not accepting calls any more.
So I set it up to answer after two rings, play it's message and then drop the call.

[Oldcodger]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

I can certainly think of no reason why an old school POTS answering machine wouldn't work with any VoIP terminal device including a BT one. Maybe the original thinking was that it couldn't simply be plugged into an Ethernet port (which is true) and somebody got confused while writing the leaflet. The quality of public guidance info around POTS switchoff has been abysmal - lots of it is simply incorrect.

A lot of info from tele companies ( and employees leaves a lot to be desired).
Ive recently changed from coper to fibre and one comment from the "help" desk at my supplier is that you can only use cordless phones.
20 + years ago ( when I moved in) I wired my house to provide for phone provision in every room ( bar bathroom). Over the years I've trimed it to 2 in lounge ( both BT cALL gUARDIAN ) and an old Panasonic in my den.
Copper entered downstairs.
Fibre comes in into my den and router to extend to rest of house.
My simple tweak was to use a cable with phone plugs on both end from Router to a double paralled slave socket in my den , and remove wiring from old NTE , leaving a master downstairs to provide ring path. Works a treat.
One thing I have to test is line voltage as my PSU for both router and optical box is 12v (something to be usefull if I get power cut as I'm not convinced that mobiles will not suffer in event of local power cut.
On the subject of non BT answer machines, in my Panasonic install days I often found problems with ( usually FAX, but occasionally answer MC) was that the ring circuit was frequency sensitive.
Again ,I have not tested the ring frequency from my router, but I'd suggest from the ring on my cordfless that its possibly not 17/25

[paulsherwin]

As you say, the information from telco support staff about this stuff is absolutely hopeless. Either they don't know what they're talking about or they're deliberately giving incorrect info to minimise support costs. The suggestion that you can only use a DECT phone with a VoIP service is preposterous.

[Oldcodger]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

As you say, the information from telco support staff about this stuff is absolutely hopeless. Either they don't know what they're talking about or they're deliberately giving incorrect info to minimise support costs. The suggestion that you can only use a DECT phone with a VoIP service is preposterous.

Totally agree. As is their ideas on routers and available channels, particularly provision of channels on 5Ghz band. My router comes with a full compliment of 2.4 channels and a couple of 5Ghz ones.
Next door has a high powered router, with a problem 5Ghz ( at -5db) from my router . fortunately I can route the 2.4 signal to my TV away to get 20dB seperation. Fortunately their router has auto moved to a higher channel at 5GHZ.
Id suggest that for years the "call" ( aka monkey centres) are staffed by spotty yoofs reading from scripts, with no idea of what they are doing and little idea of logical fault finding.

[IOWPhoneGuy]

It might work locally, but any remote control facility which uses tones probably won't. The digital coding and tranmission scheme is apparently heavily optimised for voice, though MF4 tones, i.e. for dialling, work okay. Reportedly, most analogue modems won't work either.

[emeritus]

When the phone we had been leasing from BT failed, we were given a BT Decor 1200 as a replacement. BT stopped charging us for it some years ago. It has a 1571 button for voicemail, but we never paid the extra charge for using the service. When we went digital, we found that the 1571 service was included at no extra charge. Missed calls are indicated by a red flashing light that also lights up when a call has been picked up on a different extension, and the 1571 button blinks green if there is a voicemail waiting.