How Do I Filter Phone Calls on a Land Line?

An anonymous reader asks: "I have a telephone on a plain old land-line, with the option of subscribing to caller-id. I would like to filter incoming phone calls, diverting them to either the handset or answering machine, based on whether the caller-id matches a list of trusted phone numbers. Considering that many of today's land-line telephone handsets can display caller-id and store a list of favourite phone numbers, I don't think this is technologically difficult. AI am not interested in: subscribing to a service provided by my telephone company. I would prefer the filtering occurred on my side of the phone line, or implementing a software solution on my PC. Frankly, that is overkill, and I don't want my PC turned on permanently. I would prefer something like a small, solid-state hardware device. Is there any such thing available?"

Comments

There is

[Anonymous Coward]

I beleive it's called a "wife". However, it's very very hard to pick these things up at a hardware store, and you can't get them off the internet (or at least the internet versions don't handle english language filtering all that well). I'd suggest that looking for more information on wives from slashdot is probably a waste of time.

Re:There is

[MarkGriz]

Even if you were to obtain a "wife", they are notoriously difficult to program, and periodically
exhibit erratic behavior that is difficult to diagnose.

I believe the "Asterisk" solution suggested earlier would be less troublesome, and far less costly to operate.

Re:There is

[Kadin2048]

I beleive it's called a "wife".

I've seen some reports that would indicate that the TCO of many "wife" implementations is rather high. Vendors are often willing to subsidize the rollout, but pretty much leave you on your own after that in terms of maintainence. Not to mention that once you contract, it can be notoriously difficult to bring in outside consultants down the road.

Re:There is

[darthnoodles]

periodically

Well played pun.

It was meant to be a pun right? Right?

The same way everyone else does

[0racle]

An answering machine. Don't answer till you know who it is, and if they don't leave a message you probably didn't want to talk to them anyway.

Re:The same way everyone else does

[Alien Being]

Not quite right. I think the real question is which answering machine has the ability to ring or not-ring based on caller-id info. I wish my own answerer could do that. It should have these options to control whether the phone rings:

Ring/don't ring for blacklisted callers
Ring/don't ring for whitelisted callers
Ring/don't ring for new but identified callers
Ring/don't ring for unidentified callers

It should have similar modes controlling whether or not the machine will accept a voice message. That should all be simple to implement in a device that connects like a regular phone (in parallel). When reviewing the incoming calls, it should be a one-touch operation to specify how the machine should handle future calls of the same type.

The super-duper version should have the ability to sit between the phone line and other devices (series) and use a speech synthesizer and recognizer (or dtmf decoder) to allow control from regular phones throughout the house. e.g. A call comes in, the phones give a single short ring as the machine announces itself to the caller. If a person picks up a phone, the machine tells him whatever it knows about the call and asks whether to hangup, connect, or take a message.

Re:The same way everyone else does

[LordNightwalker]

"Hi, it's Mike. I'm not in, so leave your message after the beep" costs you less 5 seconds of your life. If the answering machine is set to pick up immediately, it will even *save* you time, because the machine will have picked up before I have the time to walk over to the phone and pick it up manually.

On the other hand, you might be that pesky asshole I don't really want to talk to. You know, the one that won't shut up, the one I can't possibly end a phonecall with in less than 20 minutes without being rude.

So let's do the math again:

• You call me, leave a message after the beep. You lose: 30 seconds total, 45 tops.
• You call, I pick up, you're the talkative asshole. I lose: at least 5 minutes, possibly half an hour or more.

My time doesn't have to be more important than yours to justify my screening of the calls; I stand to lose more time than you by picking up the phone. You can whine about it all you want, that won't change the facts.

Besides, my time might very well be more important than yours, and probably is. Remember that you're the one picking the time of the call, not me. You time the call to coincide with a moment you're not doing anything important anyway, unless it's an emergency call. Chances are I'm actually in the middle of something. Are you trying to tell me that whatever it is you want to tell me is more important than anything I might be doing at that time?

If whatever you want to tell me is important enough to interrupt my shedule for, it's important enough to leave a message for. If you can't be bothered to interface with a machine for 20 seconds to help me manage my time, I can't be bothered to interrupt my shedule to talk to you.

You want one of these.

[Trialpha]

http://www.privacycorps.com/products/?id=20

Telephone Hacking for Fun and Proffit

[MBCook]

OK, you have a couple of options as I see it.

First would be to set up some kind of PBX. It's a little complex, but it would work. You could use Asterisk (I think that is what it's called) and some hardware (since I think it was designed for VOIP) and do it that way.

The more fun (in my eyes) and complicated way is to build it yourself. You could do this with a PIC micro-controller (or similar). You could put the little box you would make at the phone entry point of your house. When the phone rings you let the first ring through (so you know someone called). Caller ID is transfered between the 1st and 2nd rings so that is when the MCU picks that up. Based on that, it can power a double pole double throw relay. In the normally closed position the phone signals are routed to your house wiring. When a "bad" caller ID is encountered it simply powers the relay switching the phone line from being connected to the phones to the answering machine. Of course the answering machine could be anywhere if you can isolate it's phone jack from the rest (shouldn't be too hard).

Now there are a few little things to take into account here. First is that you may want to generate a ring for the answering machine so that it picks up on the 4th ring (or whatever) instead of the 5th because of the "lost ring". Second is that if you automatically send people to the answering machine unless the right caller ID comes across (i.e. the answering machine is in the normally closed position) then you'll need to make sure you have a way to force the relay to switch. You would want this even if you decide to pick up a call from the machine. When the main wiring is disconnected you could monitor the wiring to see if anyone picks up (you'd have to power it probably) and switch the relay if that happens. That way any time you pick up the phone you will always get the dial tone/caller. Having the relay connect you to the phone line in the normally-closed position is an important idea because you want it to be safe and let you use the line during a power outage.

It'd be a very cool project. You can find bits about how to do it on the web. For example, I once saw something about a guy who built his own TTL PBX. That project (which was rather well documented, as I remember) would be a gold mine for you.

If you do it, make sure to write it up and post it. I'd love to read it and I'm sure others would too.

Re:Telephone Hacking for Fun and Proffit

[MBCook]

I like the idea of keeping the phone line connected all the time by default, and it makes some other things easier. That said, I bet you could easily make the circuit to eat that first ring so it doesn't go through to the house wiring. You could eat ALL rings and just re-generate them yourself on the outputs (house and answering machine).

Heck, you could use a voltage comparison to trigger a disconnect so when the phone rang the line is temporarily disconnect for the duration of the ring signal. The the right sized capacitor to absorb the spike that did get through and a transistor to let you turn that feature on and off (so you can let rings through if you want) would probably do it.

As for how to get the data on and off, there are a few ways. You can go the program the MCU way, but that's annoying as you mentioned. You can make the MCU take direction form a serial port so you can program some flash memory that holds the list. But the easiest way is that it's not too hard to interface to a SD card or similar. You can buy very simple devices that let you access them with just a serial line or two. Put the list in a text file with a simple format (first line is the number of entries, after that each line is a valid number, sorted to allow for binary search) and you can update it trivially without having to reprogram and such.

That said, as the parent poster said you could use a Rabbit or some other MCU with easy external access. There are ethernet (often an add on you can buy for another MCU), you could use serial or USB or BlueTooth. Plus there is always the LCD/buttons approach.

Heck, program it with your phone. Pick up the phone and dial a magic sequence (###) or press a button then pick up the phone and you can do simple button combinations to program it. When in "magic mode" press 1 and then a 10 digit number to add it to the list. Press 2 and then a 10 digit number to remove it from the list. Both are confirmed with a simple tone. Press 3 then a 10 digit number to find out if it is in the list or not (one beep yes, two no). You could add other features later this way too. A simple way to turn on/off the filter for when you are expecting a call but you don't know who it will come from, or you want to go into "silent mode" to watch a movie where EVERYTHING goes to the machine.

You could do other fun stuff. If someone calls from a blocked number and gets the machine, you can monitor that with the PIC. If you detect they press the magic button sequence (44666, spells "HI MOM") then the PIC generates a ring on your phone. This could be used for emergencies. Then you just pick up and the auto-detect I mentioned earlier connects you and you take over from the machine.

The only complication I can see is the issue of how to handle call waiting, but you can avoid that just by turning it off.

I gotta say, the more I write about this the more fun it sounds. Too bad I have no use for it or time to work on it right now.

Build your own!

[ResQuad]

Well the obvious answer (at least to me) is Asterisk. If you don't want a "computer running all the time" build a small box, well.... tuff. Think Mini-ITX. You can put a small HD in in, and put it in a small case. If its only "diverting" calls it doesn't need much power or storage space at all and wouldn't draw much power (also, if you do it right - it could be all passive cooled).

Also - I'm sure no one wants to spend _that much time_ setting up Asterisk, so use TrixBox (Formely Asterisk@Home) instead.

Microsoft MP-900 phone...yes, really

[TheCodeFoundry]

Microsoft released a 900MHz cordless phone back in late 1998 that had all the features you want, plus more. You could create a whitelist in the software and any phone call that wasn't in the whitelist wouldn't even ring the handset, but get diverted straight to voice mail. The phone supported voice dialing, multiple voice mailboxes, personalized rings and greetings based on the Caller-ID number. The software would automatically divert or block Caller-ID blocked incoming phone calls. The software even imported your phonebook from Outlook Express/Outlook.

Ok, granted, the phone was 900MHz, was quite bulky and the batteries were less than optimal. The one feature that this phone had that none (except PBXs) have had since, was total control of the hardware ringer. Because you had total control of the ringer, features became available (and controllable via software) that would allow you to force select incoming calls straight to voicemail or DND without ever being distracted by the ring. Of course, this product was soon killed and all support for updates to the software quickly killed, too.

Handset.

[jfisherwa]

The cheap Uniden dual-handset receiver that came free with my SunRocket service has a built-in phonebook, complete with user groups and different ring-tones. Set the default ring-tone to nothing/one quiet beep and put everyone you know into groups with a real ring.

No PBX, no software and service independent.

Oh comeon, you know the answer....

[ShyGuy91284]

Hook it up to a Linux box, and..... Yeah, that's all I've got.... It's probably possible though with the right kind of modem hardware and drivers.

If it's important, they'll call back

[Migraineman]

If it's truely important, the caller will re-dial after hanging up on your answering machine's greeting. Works fine.

Honestly, the "what about emergencies" arguement is as badly abused as "think of the children." My telephone is a resource for *my* convenience, paid for by *me.* If someone calls while I'm eating dinner with my family, the call is allowed to roll-over to the answering machine. If there's an immediate call-back, I'll probably interrupt what I'm doing. Somebody screaming into the answering machine in the next room would be a good clue too. Everything else gets done on *my* schedule.

It used to be that receiving a telephone call was a big deal - think back to the early 1900's. Nobody had phones. If somebody called you, there was probably large expense (money, time, effort) to place the call from the other end. That expectation persists to today, in spite of the ubiquity and low-value of most phone calls. The phone companies go to great lengths to maintain this perception of "high priority interrupt." They're in your face, and they want to stay there (but that's a completely different rant.)

Think of the children. They're busy eating their dinner and experiencing some family time. Call back later. (To address the original poster: get an answering machine; learn to use it; don't let the phone rule your life.)

you will need

[Bitsy Boffin]

1 sound muffled box containing
    phone with answering machine
    digital camera
    laptop with OCR and RDBMS software
    microphone
    robotic hand

have the laptop listen to the microphone for noise (phone ring), the robotic hand should then hit the button on the camera which takes a picture of the LCD display on the phone showing the number, the image is transferred to the OCR software which returns the number, lookup the number in the RDBMS, if it's ok the robotic hand pushes open the lid on the sound muffled box "letting the ring out", if it's somebody you really don't want anything to do with the robotic hand lifts the phone and hangs up, in all other cases the phone is left to ring in the sound muffled box until the answering machine picks up.

Problem solved.

Re:It goes both ways.

[jon doh!]

um..is it that hard to say "it's me [$yourname], its [not] important, call me back."?

I have a phone that does that

[boldtbanan]

My AT&T E5965C does exactly that. It's about $120 if you can catch it on sale.

Here it is at Amazon

Classic

[coyotecult]

Hell, I'm a woman and I want a wife, too!

Talking Caller-ID

[Jetson]

which answering machine has the ability to ring or not-ring based on caller-id info

The Caller-ID information is sent between the first and second ring, so the only way to avoid ringing is to drop the first ring 100% of the time. On the occasions where you do want to talk to someone, the time left to get to the phone is that much shorter.

I have an AASTRA talking Caller-ID box in my house. It does a great job of managing the phone. If the caller has intentionally blocked their Caller-ID information then it automatically answers after one ring and tells them I don't accept blocked calls (which are inevitably from telemarketers) and they should call back with Caller-ID enabled. For the rest, it speaks the phone number so I know who it is before I get to the phone. If it's someone I don't want to talk to then I just let it ring until the answering machine cuts in. It supports blacklisting so that people who annoy me don't even get to leave a message. One interesting feature is that I can record a short audio clip and have it matched to a specific name or number so that it will play that audio clip instead of speaking the number. That's a great help with things like payphones which I will always want to answer no matter what the number is (my telco sends "payphone" as the Caller-ID name).

Intercept box...

[SmoothTom]

Years ago (when I still had landlines) I had a box that intercepted all incoming calls without allowing the phones to ring. It delivered a simple message "Please enter your desired extension, or, if you do not know the extension, please dial "O" or wait on the line. Bleep!"

People were given one of several numbers to enter: 472 for family, 333 for work, 505 for businesses, for example.

472 always rang through with a particular ring, 333 rang through with another, 505 it would allow through or not depending on how I set the switch, with yet a third ring style.

Anyone who didn't have a good three digit number went to the answering machine, with no audible ring on any phone.

It was simple and effective, and anyone with the proper code could get through from any touch-tone phone.

People never had any problem with my giving them an extension number, as in "Call me when my car is ready, 206 555 0293, extension 505.)

I don't know if anyone still makes that simple box, but it would be worth checking for...

--
Tomas

No Problem

[Greyfox]

Pick up a Digium FXO/FXS card. Technically you only need the FXO module (The bit that plugs into the landline) but unless you have a SIP phone handy you'll need something to plug a phone handset into. You could try using a software-only phone but those things seem to be a bit of a pain in the ass. If you have more than one landline you can pick up a variety of combinations, such as FXO/FXO/FXO/FXS or FXO/FXO/FXS/FXS. The card I have supports up to 4 modules and you can mix and match modules to your heart's content. Note that you'll need to plug a plug from the power supply into the card if you plan to use the FXS module. This provides ring voltage to the FXS modules.

Slap said card into a Linux or Windows box. I chose Linux but it seems asterisk has been ported to Windows, too.

Now grab asterisk. If you went with Linux you'll have to download and install the Zaptel drivers for the Digium card, too. I haven't had much luck with the Debian packaged Asterisk and prefer to compile it from the CVS tree. Once you've got asterisk installed you can modify your extensions.conf file. Make some local extensions (You can use your FXS phone and a SIP soft phone like Linphone to test these.) Now you can do ALL SORTS of fun stuff. My home setup has a little voice menu system that asks you if you're a telemarketer and then asks you to dial 1 or 2 for myself or my room mate. If we don't pick up, the call goes into a voice mail system very simlar to what I have at work.

Eventually I plan to sign on with a VOIP service and keep the landline only for inbound calls and 911 service. You can also route local calls over a landline and long distance calls through a VOIP provider (or one of those 10-10 serivices if you prefer using one of those.) You can also set up speed dial keys for any combination (#1 on my phone gets you Abo's Pizza in Lafayette.)

I suggest that you keep an actual non-wireless phone plugged into one of the other landline ports in the house -- even if you're on a UPS, a protracted power outage could end up leaving you with no way to call 911. Having an old non-wireless phone around is the safest thing to do -- they draw voltage off the phone line to work, and that usually stays up. Just make sure you don't have to plug the phone into anything other than the phone line and you'll be good to go.

Asterisk takes a fair amount of configuring and it can be intimidating at first, but the flexibility it offers to the home user is unparalleled by anything else in its price range. For a home user, anything coming even close to it would be well out of the price range of most people.

Re:It goes both ways.

[lawpoop]

"If you choose to give out your phone number, then I nearly expect that you will be at my beck and call any time I please. You made the choice to give out your phone number. Live with it. It's rude to fake people out. " You really think that when someone gives you their phone number, they are really expecting to become your personal genie ( "You rang, master?" ) just because they gave you seven digits? I think you have an unrealistic perception of what relationship you are establishing when you get a phone number.

I think you are probably the only one getting "faked out" when people hand you their number. I haven't met anyone who thinks like you.

So you don't like call screening. You don't like talking to machines and leaving messages. Can you imagine that you might actually need to leave a message for someone? That an answering machine might actually convey information?

You do realize that you aren't actually talking to a machine, right? That box isn't acutally listening to you, you know -- it's just a recording device to give a message to the intended recipient. You might think of it as a delayed conversation, or a verbal letter -- a 'voice mail', so to speak.

When you were young, you lived in a different world. When the phone rang, you had to rush to wipe your ass so you could pick it up -- if you missed the call, you would have no idea who called, why, or how important it was. Nowadays, we have caller id, answering machines, and voice mail. We don't *have* to rush, so why should we? Why should I develop hemmoroids hurrying my bowel movements because Right Now works for you?

You took the damn time to call, you must have had something to say, even if it's just "hey, calling to chat" so leave a fricking mesage!! I've got better things to do than wait around for people to call.