Telephone Service

[aemeijers]

It is getting real hard to find single-line corded phones without bells and whistles in the stores, other than entry-level plastic throw-aways that often don't even have any electronics in the base. Terrible sound quality and poor durability. Glad I have a crate of old real phones in the basement- I'm not even seeing real phones at garage sales very often any more. If you ever see any old Ma Bell desk phones at a sale for under five bucks, snap them up. Even an old 500 series rotary dial will probably outlive you. You can always hook it up in the basement or workshop to answer calls on. And if you have a real phone line rather than VOIP, rotary dial still usually works to dial out. (and it is fun to see kid's faces as they try to use it to make a call...)

-- aem sends...

[Jim]

I found a similar savings using Ooma. Like many I use my cellphone for nearly everything but still wanted a home phone. With Ooma you pay a one time fee then nothing.

A feature I really enjoy is the multi-ring service. Simply any call to the home also rings on my cellphone. Sure is handy when you are waiting on a delivery call and need to run errands. Plus the cellphone is set to forward calls to the home number if I don't answer in 6 rings. The two together means I can shut one off and still get the incoming calls. Neat.

[Retirednoguilt]

Walter, Look into BigRedWire

We've been using them for several years now for both domestic and international long distance service. They save money by doing 100% of their business on the web (your monthly statements are always available on-line), and not having either telephone or snail mail for customer service, but are quite responsive to e-mail. We've found their connection quality and service to be faultless and their rates to be excellent.

[willshak]

Magic Jack supports 911. You have to put in your address when first setting it up and the address is recorded with the 911 system. Your 911 address can be changed at any time and whenever you want, so if you go anywhere, like on vacation somewhere, you take the MJ with you and plug it into someone's computer, or your own laptop, and change your

911 address to where you are temporarily staying. Reset the 911 address when you return home.

[George]

They aren't gone anywhere. If you want or need that level of service you can pay your regular area telco.

[Stormin Mormon]

I wonder if eventually, the phone co will do away with rotary dialing ability? Most everyone uses touch tone. I remember when touch tone came out in 1974, some where there abouts. We all thought it was really neat stuff.

Yes, good idea to keep at least one old fashioned phone hooked up. In my part of the world, we have power cuts at least once a year.

Also, please have at least one cell phone charger you can use in the car. Car powered phone-chargers will also usually work off a battery booster pack with lighter socket.

[Stormin Mormon]

If kids can figure out the rotary dial, at all.

[HeyBub]

You might investigate Google Phone. Free. You get a number. Thereafter any calls to that number are routed to one or more other phone numbers, which you can change at will. Sort of number portability. It has other features, too.

[Mark Lloyd]

Last year, during hurricane Ike (when electricity was off)for several days) stores ran out of simple (non-cordless) phones.

[cjt]

I think you may have missed the point. The battery part of the UPS wasn't needed because the boost did the job. That could go on indefinitely.

A computer,

[mm]

If those people had had a corded phone, they could have called around and seen who still had them in stock. Of course, they woudn't have needed one then.

[Pete C.]

UPSes are cheap these days, and if you are in an area that is prone to long power outages, a small generator can quickly pay for itself by keeping the refrigerator going and preventing spoiled food.

[Pete C.]

I have a landline and nothing but cordless phones on it. I also have several UPSes and a couple generators.

[aemeijers]

Too rich for my blood- I just have a real phone in every room, and keep a stack of the 'blue ice' things in the freezer. As long as it isn't over 100 degrees out, and I severely limit my refrig open-door time, I'm good for about 48 hours. If I think outage will be longer than that, I put the stuff that will actually go bad quickly in a small cooler, and put some of the blue ice in that. I can live with the bread, mustard, fizzy water, and veggies getting warm. I do wish I had a gas stove, though, like my last place had. And city water.

-- aem sends, a cheap SOB as usual...

[HeyBub]

Mustard in the fridge?

How about ketchup?

[bob haller]

the big issue. living in freezing areas with power outage.

frozen pipes ruins everyones day

[Marina]

"HeyBub" wrote in news:rOednaUw3KN6DSPXnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

I keep mustard and ketchup in the fridge. Also bread, but it tends to dry out but at least it doesn't get moldy.

[George]

But as usual the cheap ones are real junk. Had an interesting experience just last month. Someone of the big box is their friend mentality bought some cheap UPSs for equipment at a site. I received a call that various equipment powered down. The cheepo big box UPSs don't have an auto buck boost but instead draw energy from the battery. The local power company lost a large circuit breaker upstream so they had a brownout in the region. The voltage was only dropped to 109 VAC but that was enough for the toy UPSs to drop their load after a while. The real UPSs I had specified a few years earlier kept there loads up with no problem until the next day when the power company completed their repairs.

[aemeijers]

Anything not in a sealed metal, glass, or thick-wall plastic container lives in the fridge. (The better to not encourage small four-legged guests.) Other than some (rather old at this point) Mickey D's packets in the fridge box of leftover takeout condiments, I don't keep ketchup, since I don't care for it. I barely use mustard anymore, for that matter. Anyway, I hate the brown grunge on the outlet, and the separation of the oil, when you store it warm.

-- aem sends...

[mm]

You are excused. Unless you bought the generators solely to power the cordless phones.