OT: just a suggestion

[Steve Barker]

Direct

Direct Subscriber Line

[Spalted Walt]

In the spirit of "Peace on earth, good will to men" I offer the following 2 links as references only ;-)

[Spalted Walt]

Yes it does indeed work with Comcast and you do need a Voice AND Caller ID capable modem.

See "Neilyum" Comcast explanation here:

Here is Phonetray's current list of recommended USB modems:

From the above link: "Note: If you have Comcast XFINITY please purchase a Sewell USB modem (the first modem listed above)."

Having a POTS phone line, I can't comment on Comcast modem requirements but I'm using an older Zoom internal, PCI or PCIe (I've forgotten which) and it's worked flawlessly for 3 yrs.

As internal modems seem to be a dying breed, I'm considering buying one of these as a spare/backup before they're discontinued:

In closing, since you've apparently installed Phonetray Free, look in the install folder for several .wav files that you can use to 'Zap' unwanted callers:

Program files (x86)\Traysoft\PhoneTray\Zap Messages

You can add to that list with any .wav file you wish. Here are some of my favs from 'Pat Fleet', the legendary voice of thousands of AT&T recorded messages since 1981.

[krw]

I don't see a definition of "digital", in there. DSL is no more "digital" than the old "56K" modems. No one considered them to be "digital".

[Doug Miller]

krw wrote in news: [e-mail]:

4ax.com:

In *this* post, yes. In an earlier post you made the blanket (and untrue) statement that Uverse is fiber. And you have the gall to call *me* an ass...

[krw]

Yes, you *are* an ass, and will always *be* an ass. It's *YOU*.

[Martin Eastburn]

Leon is right - I have ADSL advanced it is digital and my Cisco GIG routers are hooked on and run just fine.

Mart> >> >>

[J. Clarke]

Many Cisco routers have DSL modems built in. That doesn't make the signalling on the DSL side digital.

[Jack]

My daughter just switched from dish to comcast. They never owned a phone other than cell. She gets the comcast triple play as I do, because it cost MORE not to have the LL. Her phone line ends with nothing attached, nothing to ring. People under 40 have no use for old style phones, and neither do people over 40, but old habits are hard to break I guess. I probably should just disconnect my LL so no more salesmen, politicians etc. but for some dumb reason, we haven't been able to do it. When I say "we" I mean my wife.

[Jack]

Thanks Walt, very helpful. Thinking more about it, I assume, since the voice modem plugs into the PC, the PC must be on for the phones to work at all? I don't turn my PC off often, but put it in sleep mode when not using it. Would this setup work with the PC in sleep mode? Also, I'm wondering now if there would be a noticeable delay when someone calls that I want to get the call? When I ran a BBS, the modem had to go through a significant procedure when answering a call, belching out beautiful digital talk to the calling modem. I guess that's what a "voice" modem doesn't do, now that I think about it, although that would be good for salesman and politicians...

[Puckdropper]

Jack wrote in news:n5m7lk$lnv$ [e-mail]:

I almost dropped the land-line. If it wasn't for AT&T's lack of signal where we live, I would have.

Actually, AT&T has this thing called something like "wireless home phone" or something like that. It's cellular in nature, but looks and feels like a home phone. They suggested that when I was making a few account changes.

Puckdropper

[Unquestionably Confused]

We dropped our landline a number of years ago. My wife and I each have a cellular phone with good signal strength at home.

We still liked the "convenience" or familiarity of the land line cordless phones so, after disconnecting from the grid, I installed a Siemens Gigaset Blue Tooth unit.

You connect the Gigaset to your house wiring and a wall wart for power. Once programmed, once you enter the residence with your cell phone the phone is automatically linked via Gigaset and you can make and receive your phone calls using either a traditional POTS hooked to the household phone wiring as in days of yore, or just use the cordless handsets.

The Gigaset we have is capable of simultaneous connection with three cellular phones and when you call out, you can select which cell phone you use for the call or let it default to the phone connected at position #1.

Siemens is not the only such device out there. Panasonic, in fact, makes a cordless phone set with this technology built in that you can use with either the regular wired landline and/or the cellular BT feature.

Really nice not having to carry the cell phone around with me in the house. If I'm out in the shop - separate building from the house - there's a cordless phone on the wall.

OTOH, what Puckdropper wrote about from AT&T (and Verizon Wireless offered a similar deal) requires you to pay a monthly fee to the carrier. Nuts! I paid about $60 for my Siemens unit. The carrier will sock you $20 a month or so for that convenience. LOL!

[krw]

Yeah, my wife got tired answering politicians' robocalls so didn't fight when I wanted to dump the phone. I kept one in the kitchen drawer for a while if she felt she needed to call someone on a land line she could plug it in. ;-)

I still get political robocalls once in a while but usually for pols I couldn't vote for if I wanted (different state and I'm not an illegal).

[-MIKE-]

I still have reason for it. I still like having 911 feature tied to my home address for one. But a couple more practical reasons for still having a "land line" is the lousy reception for cell phones around my house and the fact that cell phones are still too "walkie-talkie" for my taste in most cases. One person has to completely stop talking in order for the other to be heard. I don't know if this is a digital transmission thing or what, but with land lines and even the cable VOIP lines, you can still hear what's on the other line when speaking. That's very important for having a more natural discussion.

[Joseph Gwinn]

On Dec 25, 2015, krw wrote (in article):

news:n4ssk5$48t$1

While digital signals do in fact travel over analog paths (there is no other kind), this does not mean that there is no distinction between digital signals and analog signals.

A good analogy is a photograph (from the days of silver-based film):

Every time a photo of say a landscape is copied, it gets blurrier, and information (sharpness in this case) is forever lost.

However, it the photo is of for instance a page of text, there is no loss of information (the text) so long as the accumulated blurring is not so severe that one cannot make the letters out. If one retypes the text before the blurring has gone too far, there is no loss - the text is perfectly regenerated. This regeneration process can be repeated any number of times without loss.

This is the core difference between digital signals and analog signals.

Joe Gwinn

[Leon]

All you need to remember is that "Leon is right"! ;~)

[Leon]

If Comcast is anything like Uverse works, an area outage will leave you with out TV, telephone for those that opt for that, and internet. The major reason that most of our new neighborhood switched to Comcast for internet and phone, and DirecTV for TV. It is not necessarily a good thing to have all your eggs in one basket. Discounts are great until you are with out all services for 4~5 days at a time, thank you Uverse. Thank goodness cell phones were not some how connected.

[Leon]

We have the ATT wireless phone. It is cellular and shows up like another cell phone on the ATT cell phone bill.

You get a cellular receiver that looks like a wireless modem and it plugs in to our cordless phone transmitter/message machine.

The ring is distinctly simple and no FAX.

The sound is as good as regular land line.

BUT with taxes, fees and so on it comes out to between $25~$26 per month and we are about to drop it as almost the only calls we get on it are from robots.

It is a good deal that works well but we don't need 3 phone numbers for

2 people.

[Leon]

Time to get an iPhone. ;~) Every one can talk and hear at the same time and create all kinds of noise. LOL

[Leon]

And one other thing with Uverse. If you have a DVR with recordings, it does not work if the service is down.