help me to stop anonymous calls

Posts: 292 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Oct 08, 2004 Posts: 292

Trowski wrote:

First off, I would check Packet8's financial stability first...

Let me help you

Posts: 1389 · Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2005 2:06 pm Post subject:

Thanks Luis..we finally agree on something! Wink

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 12, 2005 Posts: 3

colvard9 wrote:

Hey JHC Jr

Great news: The Caller ID Manager: http://www.privacycorps.com/products/?id=20 is fully compatible with Vonage Voip and provides Anonymous Call Rejection (ACR), as well as the option to block calls from specific numbers or entire area codes from local, long distance, international, cell phone and Voip callers.

just wondering Colvard9 Pray

I just ordered one of the Caller ID Manager devices. It sounds like Vonage isn't going to implement this functionality anytime soon. I think it's worth a one-time payment of $100 to screen out anonymous, unwanted calls, especially since Vonage is saving me about $17 per month since I switched. I've been getting some annoying calls with the caller ID info stripped out, even though that is supposed to be illegal now. The last time they called, it was 9:30 PM local time.

Posts: 233 · Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2005 9:35 am Post subject:

Post a report on how well it works. I have seen a lot of people talk about it, but I would be interested in hearing from the people on this forum. (I don't trust testimonials and such on a seller's website and the folks on this forum haven't led me astray yet and I don't think they will.)

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 12, 2005 Posts: 3

galion wrote:

Post a report on how well it works. I have seen a lot of people talk about it, but I would be interested in hearing from the people on this forum. (I don't trust testimonials and such on a seller's website and the folks on this forum haven't led me astray yet and I don't think they will.)

I've tried it and it doesn't block Vonage calls listed as "unknown" with no number. Mad

So I'm sending it back for a refund if they can't fix it. I got it from privacycorps.com. How hard can it be to filter out calls with no number? Confused

Apparently it looks for certain strings like "OUT OF AREA", but Vonage doesn't always use those labels. Why not just look at the BLANK number? Duh. Razz

It does block *67 PRIVATE calls, but not the "unknown" ones. Rolling Eyes

I called tech support, and they couldn't explain why it wouldn't block those calls. It appears to be a fairly new product. I think it still has some bugs in the firmware. It probably works better on POTS.

EDIT:

The only way I've found to get this device to block ALL telemarketers is to use it in what they call DATA mode. That's basically a white list of the numbers I save to its database that are allowed to ring through. All others go the the answering machine. Since the anonymous call screening is defective, this is the only practical option. The advantage of this mode is that even telemarketers with names and numbers don't ring through.

There are two ways to put entries in the white list. You can wait until a number comes in and save that, or you can manually dial a number, hang up, and store that outgoing number in the white list. It also allows saving wild-cards for area codes and exchanges, so groups of numbers can be allowed. Oddly, if you save an incoming caller id to the list, it filters by the listed NAME, not the number. So a generic name like WIRELESS CALLER will let ALL WIRELESS CALLERs through. It's safer to enter specific numbers.

So I may end up keeping this device and use it in DATA mode. The other product that was mentioned in this forum, the Intelescreener, appears to be not in production since last August.

Posts: 1389 · Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2005 6:10 am Post subject:

I used to get alot of anon calls on one Vonage line that is forwarded from a SBC 800 number. Eventually, after using the Do Not Call List, informing the people they had called already etc, I went from about 10 calls a week to 1 every other week...