Ultimate Caller ID Screeners?

omasse asks: "I'm sick of telemarketing. Really sick. And since I'm in Canada, the new U.S. telemarketing law won't change a thing for me. The only easy solution is a technological one, and it ought to be fully transparent: No phone in my house should ring at all if it's an undesired call, and friends and family should not have to enter a 5-digit code to make them ring. To my knowledge, the only gadget that could do this is a sharp filter based on caller ID that I plug in my main phone drop. But Digitone's Caller ID Screener has been announced some time ago, there are no guarantees they'll meet their fall 2003 deadline, and I would prefer having a few products to chose from. There's been a discussion here once on a DIY home PBX system but that's way, way overkill for me. Could anyone tell me what are the ultimate Caller ID Screeners?"

Comments

Or...

[FFFish]

...you could call up Information and harass them f or the 1-800 number for the Direct Marketing Association, or whatever they call themselves up here, and then get your name put on a do-not-call list.

I did this going on eight years ago, and I've received fewer than a dozen telemarketing calls since. My postal junkmail also was reduced.

There is a registry, it can just be a bitch to find out how to get on it. Shouldn't stop you from succeeding, though!

Number of Rings

[jonadab]

All you really want is to program your phone to ring silently the
first N rings, and _then_ start ringing on the N+1th ring. The
right value of N will effectively prevent telemarketers from ever
reaching you, period, but anyone who knows you can be told, "Just
let it ring about eight times", which is what anyone with a real
and urgent need to reach you will do anyway.