Making your phone ring

[RBM]

Just post the number, we'll call you

>

[Chuck]

use your cell phone to call your home phone. Or have a neighbor call you. Or ask the operator to call you.

[Oren]

BR-549!

(Honest as the Day is Long Junior Samples)

[Bob F]

Just post a "free car" ad on craigslist with your # in it.

[DanG]

Terry, that number was unique to local exchanges. The same number did not work universally and differed from place to place. You might stop at a local phone truck, but I'm not sure they will share the number with you.

[k]

He's not. There are millions of us.

[Terry]

I can remember when I was a kid that you could dial a 4 digit phone number and hang up and your phone would ring.

I am having trouble with an AT&T cordless phone. My standard phone works fine, but the cordless won't ring.

I would like to be able to make my phone ring to test it by plugging it into another phone outlet.

[Jeff Wisnia]

Are you the last person on earth without a cell phone you could call your home phone from?

Jeff

[Mark Lloyd]

We used to have that here (it was probably intended for calling on a party line). It went away when the new ESS exchange was added.

Got a wireless (cellular) phone? That's how I do it.

[Floyd L. Davidson]

That feature is usually called "reverting ring".

It has other purposes too, but yes it works for party lines (of which there are virtually none left today?).

Most digital switching systems implement it in a very simple way: dial your own number!

That works too.

[Don Wiss]

It depends on where you live. See:

Don (e-mail link at home page bottom).

[S. Barker]

call it with your cell phone. Don't have one? Borrow one.

s

[Bob F]

Well, with me make that 3, anyway.

[mm]

Also, does anyone know the number for finding out what the number is of the phone one is using? Few phones have the phone number on them anymore.

I'm glad you stared this thread.

Thanks, D>I can remember when I was a kid that you could dial a 4 digit phone

1197 But that was one city 45 years ago. Maybe 1191 somewhere else, but still 45 years ago.

When I dial my own number, I get a busy signal. Except when I had an internet answering machine, Buzme, so I had forward on busy, and then it would ring Buzme and I could get my messages.

Barely related: The clerk at the supermarket gave me a four digit number which I could use in place of a 10-digit number for those damn price reductions that require cards. I've forgotten it, but she also said that any 10-digit number will work, so I just make one up.

In the electronics ng, I tried to find out how to make one of my fax machines call the other, without using the phone system. I didnt' want to tie up my phone line. It turns out to be really hard, even if you buy a tone generator etc..

[aemeijers]

That was yours? It sure came in handy on that long trip I just came back from! Thanks!

-- aem sends...

[Don Wiss]

Here's a web page that will do this for you:

It's main purpose is to schedule a call so you can escape boring meetings or end sucky dates early. But it also has the option to call now.

The newsgroup that is best to ask these telephone questions is comp.home.automation. Those guys are really into this stuff.

Don (e-mail link at home page bottom).

[giroup01]

1-800-444-4444

[Jim Redelfs]

I'm sure there are a few party lines still in service somewhere, probably in very small, rural exchanges.

Multi-party service was developed to accommodate demand for "lines" when it out-paced the deployment of facilities.

Four, six and eight-party lines in rural areas were common until the '70s. The exchange I serviced (local call to Omaha) had a couple or three-dozen, two-party lines when I started the job in 1982. By then, however, they had all been converted to the Central Office: They were "bridged" in the C.O. (as opposed to out in the country) because, by then, there were sufficient cable pairs to provide PRIVATE service to all customers all the way from the C.O.

It is interesting to note that multi-party service actually requires more equipment, work and trouble-shooting skill than private service.

It was rather amusing to be a PARTY to the company process to ENCOURAGE the last two-party subscribers to regrade to either private service or, to still get the lower monthly rate, measured private service:

After a few years, many two-party subscribers were "bridged alone". That is, they did not have a party mate. Their party mate had either disconnected their service or regraded to 1FR (private) service.

When the telco contacted them, encouraging them to regrade to private service which was, of course, a few bucks more per month, some converted to private service. However, many saw no advantage to converting as they hadn't had to share their line in a few years.

It was at this point the fun began: Those remaining, two-party subscribers that were bridged alone were subsequently MATED to another subscriber.

After years of virtually private service, they found themselves again having to SHARE the line with a partymate. Most of the former hold outs promptly called the Business Office and regraded to 1FR.

That does not, and never has, worked for ringing-back your own line.

With my ESS service, including No Solicitation and Voice Messaging Service, dialing-back my own number invokes the No Solicitation intercept and then proceeds to VMS.

My "plain" line, when dialed-back, simply rings busy as has been the case for almost a century.

ANI (Automatic Number Identification) was implemented in numerous ways over the years. The old, three-digit "958" probably doesn't work anywhere anymore. Following The Divestiture (1984) and competition, it was changed to a 7-digit number, the last four of which were changed quarterly to prevent usage by non-telco personnel, particularly competitors.

Today, even the 7-digit ANI is all but gone. Instead, a technician calls a toll-free number that connects to a voice-responding testing system that reads-back the line number at the very least.

With the proliferation of Caller ID and wireless service, the need to provide telco-based ANI and ringback is all but gone.

[DerbyDad03]

My parents used to hassle me if I wanted to go out but didn't have a good reason or destination. Sometimes I was just going to find out where my friends were hanging out. Way before cell phones...

I used to ring my phone back, answer it, and act like I was talking to a friend. When I hung up, I'd say something like "Going bowling with Russ" or "Greg needs help on his car" and off I'd go...more or less with their blessing.

[Red Green]

Jeff Wisnia wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I'm #4

I hate em. 5x the cost of a landline and 1/10 the quality and reliability.

I still have one from when I tried it in 2000. I keep it in the car even though I have no service. It still works. I can dial 911 if needed.