How to make a phonecall correctly

This is a lighthouse, your call.

So this is all delivered into one big tank? If not, why would it be cheaper? It's still many small deliveries. Is it just saving them the trip? Sounds like a lot of hassle anyway.

Searching is not simple when you end up with loads of stuff to read. Easier to ask the author what they meant.

So much better with a mobile which filters calls.

As does NOMOROBO on my land line. I've got land line phones that can be set to mute the first ring of all incoming calls. Therefore, I don't have the nuisance of hearing the first ring before NOMOROBO intercepts the call.

My mobile doesn't have a slow system like yours, so I don't have to avoid the first ring. Plus it works anywhere in the world, not just my own house. Oh and it includes a satnav, spirit level, internet, texts, emails, contactless credit card payments (in both directions as buyer and a seller) with no £100 limit like a card, games, HDMI output to a TV, 50MP camera, and all for £50 and £6 a month for unlimited usage.

Different strokes for different folks. When I'm out, my mobile gives me the same options as you describe. At home, it stays off. However, I'm a tourist, lost, or in an emergency, I'm glad the mobile is there if I need it.

I enjoy the relaxing atmosphere of not having to be a slave to a machine. Perhaps I'm that way now because I spent all too many years (almost 50 years!) being a slave, initially to a beeper, and then to a mobile phone due to professional training and practice obligations. As my handle reads, I'm happily retired. I don't need to be on call every minute of every day, being bombarded with text messages, e-mails, alerts, DMs, voice phone calls, whatever. No one could pay me enough to resume that lifestyle. Been there, done that. It paid off, but now I'm done with all that!

I totally agree, My mobile is only turned on when needed, such as when I want to use it to make a call, or some website wants to send me an SMS with a code. Since my landline is quite capable of receiving an SMS, it annoys me when websites will ONLY accept a real mobile number as my SMS receiver, add refuse to send it to my landline.

What service and/or device do you have that gets SMS texts on a "land line"? And is it an old-school POTS landline, or a internet VoIP service, or what ?

Thanks for any info

I don't have a landline. My cellphone isn't bombarded with pings. My last incoming voice call was December 3 (from my mother); my last incoming text was a week ago (from my husband). I can access e-mails from my phone, but I shut off those alerts. Nobody DMs me. I think the last alert on my phone was that test of the national system in October.

I'm less enslaved to it than I was to my landline, which rang incessantly.

Maybe you've observed excellent privacy protocol and not disclosed your cellphone number to anyone or any store that requests it?

Sorry to hear that your landline rang incessantly. We've had the same landline phone number for 36 years. We never paid to have the number "unlisted" back when there were printed phone books. By now, our number has probably landed on every calling list for sale on the legitimate and illegitimate market. Our phone line usually gets bombarded with 6-15 spam phone calls/day (according to our call activity history on our xfinity voice web log). However, between xfinity's filtering, NOMOROBO's filtering, and our handsets that fully squelch the first ring of all incoming calls (so we never hear the first ring before NOMOROBO intercepts and blocks a junk call that got through Xfinity's filters), our phone usually rings maybe 3 times/week and it's rarely an unwanted, scammer/robocaller etc.

It is an old-style copper (or aluminium) wired landline, ex BT, now serviced by Zen. The DECT handsets I use are the common Panasonic XT variety. I think that when I first received a text message, I had to call some BT number to activate SMS. Whatever it was, it worked. As long as the sender is willing to send to it. But: sometimes I get a horrid spoken number, said so fast that it needs to be repeated so that I can catch it. And instead of separate digits, it comes as: "fivehundredandtwelvethousandtwohundredandsixtyfive", or similar, but six digits long. Ouch. I literally cannot hear that fast. It is the sender who initiates the spoken message, I am told, and none of them care a hoot about how bad it is for the recipient, I've tried. But at least the line still has power during a power outage, so my old DIAL 'phone works.

Thanks for the quick reply. However what you have won't work for this old geezer ;-). Home phone is an Xfinity/Comcast VoIP service with old Bell phones. My cellphone is a CELLphone, not a smartphone. It can get SMS, but it's not "welded to my hip". Most of my 2FA accounts will do email, and 2 will call home phone and read a number like 1, 2 , 3 etc. Only once, when setting up a Bank-to-Bank transfer, did I "have to" get a 2FA code via text.

I never send text except using Verizon's "email to text" service to my kids using snipped-for-privacy@vtext.com

Surprisingly many places. But only if I think they need it.

Oh, you should hear my husband when spammers call his cellphone. I imagine them sitting there in Bangalore with their hair blown back from the force of his vituperation. I usually just hang up. I'd say it happens less than once a month; there's really no defense against autodialers.

It sounds as though you are based in the USA, what with mention of Comcast, Bell 'phones, etc.

Yes, in state of Connecticut. Just noticed this thread is also posted to UK.D-I-Y Just FYI, my son lives in London and we communicate via Apple's FaceTime app, voice & video.

Yes. Most people on alt.home.repair are in the U.S.

I have never been on it, so had no idea. All I saw was that it was on uk.d-i-y. The US is the home of "Home Improvement". It was also my home for 30+ years, I lived not far from Tim Allen.

Did no one tell you that you can turn all of those notifications off, either all at once or piecemeal, if it's silence that you enjoy? I've never understood the "slave to a machine" argument. It's your phone, configure it however you like. Make it YOUR slave, not the other way around. Turning it off to silence it makes no sense to me, but we probably use our devices differently.

Is that supposed to mean something?