Slashdot Mirror
A Whitelist for Phone Calls?
javacowboy asks: "I've been getting lots of strange phone calls lately. Most of the time, my phone would ring less than three times and then stop before I can answer. Then, a couple of nights ago, I got a call at 3am in the morning. It had stopped ringing by the time I woke up. *69 revealed a number with an area code of 632, which does not exist. I called the number, and the call would not complete past the area code. I want a product or service with which I can set up a -whitelist- of numbers that I allow to make my phone ring. Any number not on the list, or an unlisted phone number, tries to call me, and the phone doesn't ring at all. I would pay as much for this service as I would pay to have my number removed from the phone directory. Is something like this possible? If so, how would I do it?"
I'm getting fed up with: wrong numbers; callers hang up on me as soon as I speak into the phone; telemarketers; crank calls; late night calls; people I know that I no longer wish to speak to; etc. My telco charges $8 a month for call display, which is exorbitant. Still, a call display won't prevent my phone from ringing. A do not call list will not prevent my phone from ringing. Getting my phone number removed from the phone directory will not prevent wrong numbers. How can filter out the calls that I don't want to deal with?"
I remember seeing a while ago a device that you can program with a passcode. If you know the passcode, it lets the call through, if not, it emits a fast-busy signal. Damned if i can find a link to it, though.
Looks like your mysterious 632 area code is really Manila, probably an outsourced call center in the Philipines.
Your topic is a Dupe, but a simple google search turned up these guys.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
I have two solutions:
1. If you're a geek, try to wrap your head around Asterisk - I'd have to think either it would have that functionality built in, and if not - wouldn't be too hard to tell it to pass whitelisted #s, but dump everything else to voicemail....
2. I use Broadvoice at home, and when I don't want to be disturbed, I *77 the phone. *78 unblocks it (takes it out of Do Not Disturb) - of course, this doesn't help when it's late at night and I don't do the *77 ahead of time, but I can make sure I don't get awoken again.
Both of these implementations almost require an internet connection. While you can purchase FXO modules for Asterisk, I've just not had the interest in making a go at it with a PSTN connection....
Another alternative - only one phone in our whole house rings. I sleep rather well, so I probably wouldn't hear it if it rang at night...
Karnal
Whitelists will prevent
1. your stranded grandma from calling you
2. friends calling from their friends house
3. that cute girl you just met
4. various official phone calls that you really needed to receive
Luckily, whitelists will still allow your mom to call from upstairs when dinner is ready.
Get a wildcard x100P or clone for less than $15. Get an old PC of at least 300 or 400 MHz. Install Asterisk from one of the pre-packaged distros, such as TrixBox.
The functionality where by you send a call straight to a "special place" (usually voicemail) based on caller id is usually called "ex-girlfriend logic" for obvious reasons. If you check the online documentation for TrixBox and similar setups, you should be able to find something which has that configurable with a web interface, if not, you will have to write a script that checks a variable called $CALLERID and does the right thing.
You might consider having this ability kick in based on time of day.
One thing people do is have the system request the caller enter in THEIR OWN caller id and check for it to match. Most call center folks have no way of knowing what their own caller id is showing up as. You could have the system automatically whitelist that number after that.
Stop telling your one night stands your phone number.
How we know is more important than what we know.
The scripting for the extensions.conf file is more than powerful enough to have a CallerID based whitelist, heck, you can even have it database powered. You can have the Asterisk PBX do what ever you want. How about:
Step 1: Phone call comes in, Asterisk picks up
Step 2: If the CallerID is whitelisted, ring internal phone.
Step 3: If the CallerID is blank/unknown, prompt for CallerID or send to voicemail.
Step 4: If the CallerID is black listed - do whatever you want (perma-onhold, disconnect, fast busy, etc)
Its not hard, really. It would only take a few minutes to setup once you have asterisk running.
snowulf.com
I've been getting lots of strange phone calls lately. Most of the time, my phone would ring less than three times and then stop before I can answer. Then, a couple of nights ago, I got a call at 3am in the morning. It had stopped ringing by the time I woke up. *69 revealed a number with an area code of 632, which does not exist.
Er, maybe you should try adjusting your medication...
The NYT had a very interesting article about Grandcentral.com, which I believe would whitelist and much more, if you sign up for them, which at the time, I believe was free. Here's the article.
I need something like this as well, but there are plenty of situations where I might need to get a call from a number I've never encountered. E.g., sometimes my wife forgets her phone (or it runs out of batteries) and ends up calling me from a friend's phone.
... beep ... for a couple of minutes and hangup). They either have no caller id, an invalid phone number, or a phone number that the phone company doesn't think exists.
I get junk fax calls sometimes between 3-5am on my cell phone (beep
Don't have a phone. Well to be more realistic don't have a land line. I rarely get wrong number calls and never get telemarketing calls, but that's because I do not have a land line of any sort. Because of the rate structure in the US of cell calls it is illegal for you to receive unsolicited marketing calls on a cell phone.
The other solution, as a friend of mine has taken on, is to switch to texting for anything you can.
Their people printed our number on their fliers. Most of the folks were nice when we told them they had the wrong number, but a few got really pissed and insisted that they had the right number. I really wanted to say after they "insisted" rudely for a few times, "OK, you got me! This really is the Marriot and because I, Joe Schmoo, gave you a hard time, you can have the presidential suite and a bottle of Dom every night - free of charge. Here's your confirmation #." And then I would then let them go.
My wife vetoed that. Sign....
I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
I want a product or service with which I can set up a -whitelist- of numbers that I allow to make my phone ring. Any number not on the list, or an unlisted phone number, tries to call me, and the phone doesn't ring at all.
Many modern phones already have this feature, in the form of custom ring. Just set the numbers in your contact list that you would like to whitelist to have a ring, and set the default ring to silent.
I was having similar problems with my mobile phone. I configured my phone to only ring when a number in my phonebook calls me. Stop looking at the service and start looking at the device. Surely there's a home phone that allows you to do the same with caller ID.
I destroyed my normal phone with my bare hands after a tele-marketeer called me. I got several bleeding wounds from that. But then it did shut THE HELL UP!!!!
Then I started to care about the features of my bloat handy and it turned out I can specify different rung tones for different callers.
So, I can only be reached by handy from now and no-ring-tone is the default.
The quality of my life has been increased.
I think you're talking about the Telezapper A quick google search turned up a nice privacy page with useful, although fairly obvious recommendations: http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs3-hrs2.htm
Asterisk can do this rather trivially as part of the dial plans. Get yourself a TDM22B or some other similar card and you can set up anything you want to happen when a number calls in. From forwarding to another number to answering and then hanging up, to answering and asking for a passcode in order to make your phones ring, you can do it with an Asterisk set up.
Maybe try Trixbox for an easy to use, all in one setup of the same. Pop in the Trixbox CD and it auto-installs.
I have a configuration that allows incoming calls during certain times of day and then only from other numbers after those times. So it definitely sounds like what you want to do will be possible with *.
SteveMost Nextel cellphones (at least) have a whitelist built-in. You can have it allow only numbers in your phonebook in, everything else gets redirected to voicemail. Hopefully if someone needs to tell you something urgent, but they aren't in your phonebook, they'll have enough common sense to leave a message...
I'm not sure how this made it to the front page.
The easiest solution:
Go down to your local big box store & check out the various cordless phones. You'll find the ones with fancier base stations will allow you to deal with incoming calls however you like.
After the person has called. You just setup that # not to ring, to go directly to voicemail or if the phone supports it, it'll just hang up.
You don't even have to give up your corded phones & buy extra handsets.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Cute little pants poops YOU!
From the article you linked to, the very last item mentioned is 'Privacy Manager'. My brother had it (or something remarkably similar ... he said it was from the phone company, not a device) for a few years, before he just went and got his number un-listed.
... but he wasn't presented with the prompt to enter the code. (and of course, we were supposed to be picking him up from the airport, and he had changed flights, so it caused a bit of a problem).
The only time he ever had a problem was when he was waiting for a call from our step-father, who it seems had problems with his cell phone, and was trying to call from a pay phone, and kept getting blocked
And I know the incident happened more than 5 years ago, so it's been available for some time. (as I remember being slowed down at the security gate for carrying 3 knives, 2 cell phones and a PDA, but as I wasn't arrested, it must've been before Sept 2001)
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
"I got a call at 3am in the morning"
As opposed to 3am at night?
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
You could setup an Asterisks PBX (free open source, based on Linux), use VoIP to save money, have all the features you need and a lot more, and if you have a spare PC lying around for this (an old one is plenty of power), it'll cost you a lot less in the long run than paying a monthly fee. Plus, it'll be really cool: music on hold (music YOU like :), different mailboxes, nice voicemail system, ability to use cool phones if you want to (like those Cisco phones w/ the color displays), etc. If you can afford the upfront cost, then I think it's worth it. Use it to show off your geek prowess ;)
I can't even get one one night stand, you insensitive clod!
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
Check it out:
http://www.privacycorps.com/products/?id=20
Cheers.
Mark
My phone line doesn't allow calls from people I don't want calling. If you're not from my area code, and you don't have CLI in the whitelist, you can only make my phone ring if you know the correct PIN. Otherwise, sorry.
If you are a telemarketer or other phone spammer who has annoyed me in the past, you might get worse treatment. Depending on my mood, or based on your CLI, I might have the phone network tell you that my line isn't in service. Or I might consign you to "virtual ring" hell, where you will hear what you believe is my phone ringing, and ringing, forever until you give up on me. Or heck, I might just forward you to your own phone number so I can waste two phone spammer's time instead of just one.
All these things are standard features of the VOIP plan I use, which is Talk Broadband from Primus in Canada. It's a delightfully geek-friendly system. Unfortunately I don't know if there is an equivalent in the US which you could use...
Not a new solution, a new kind of problem.
I get very few marketing calls, thanks to do-not-call lists and such. I screen the rest with an answering machine.
Recently I was getting no-message calls at random times of day, a sure sign that some call-center was trying to reach me.
Then one day immediately after hanging up from a legitimate call, the phone rang. I thought my friend forgot to tell me something, so I picked up. It was a call center looking for a political donation.
The odd thing was that they managed to call immediately after a real call. That's a high coincidence considering that I get few calls during the day.
It made me wonder if they paid for some kind of special "camping" feature. Anybody else seen this?
Not sure if a cellular phone is acceptable for your situation or not, but one of my favorite features is "custom ringtones" based on caller-ID.
If you set the main ringer to silent, and custom audibles for your friends, should work no problem!
Which brings up another good question, in that i have a cellular phone the size of a pile of credit cards, with all these awesome features. but every cordless phone on the shelf looks like the same basic piece of shit they have been since the 80s. sure, maybe a color display now, but same basic crappiness.
If the world made sense, your cordless phone would have a similar enough featureset to get the job done
Get a low power PC and install Asterisk, OpenPBX, Yate or any other Open Source PBX. You can do *whatever* you want with the call.
I implemented a similar system for my home once. I accepted the calls, but if for some reason I didn't like them, I programmed *991 to blacklist the last number received, period. Future calls would check into a small Asterisk database and if the number is listed there, it would send it to a caller torture script that will keep the victim in endless voice prompts. Nobody says you can't have a little fun with it along the way...
Why not just leave the phone of the hook or unplug it from the wall overnight?
What you are looking for is available from, just POTS, and it's called "Privacy Manager". Whether cell phone companies offer it, I have no idea.
Basically, if someone is not calling from an "approved" number, the phone doesn't ring, and it goes to a voice mail system; if they want to get through, they have to say who they are, your phone will ring, and you will tell the phone whether to connect or not.
I am using a web-based service that, among other features, helps to control which calls will ring my phone(s): GrandCentral. It allows to define several groups of white-listed numbers with separate response behavior (ring, send to voicemail, etc.) and also includes a couple of different screening options. For dealing with known telemarketers they even offer to play a "number not in service" message, but most auto-dialers can't get past the call screening anyway. It's a free service while in beta, but they promise to keep basic features free indefinitely, including "unlimited inbound minutes, unlimited voicemail (up to 30 days old), and access to all of our core features". This NYT write-up describes a few of the options in more detail.
A local telco around here (Manitoba Telecom Services) had such a feature in the past - if you listened to a busy signal for a few seconds, they'd offer to keep calling that number for you until it rings, and then they'd phone you and connect the calls together (for a coin or two, of course).
:)
I can't say that anyone would want to pay for that when doing mass calls though; you were probably just hit with a mildly unfortunate coincidence.
I was surprised to learn that some towns in my area (verifiably, I'm sure they all do it) have, as part of their emergency response plan (think disaster response, not car-accident type stuff), to call every phone number in the exchange with a recorded message saying "GET THE HELL (IN YOUR CELLAR/OUT OF DODGE/OFF MY LAWN)", that kind of thing, and that they'd used it in the case of a disastrous flood.
So, if you block your phone with a device, that probably won't work. I have to think that any of the services offered by the phone companies would allow some kind of override for FEMA type stuff, since they're unlikely to ask if you'd like to buy a magazine subscription.
I like music
At the risk of being modded redundant...I have done this for years...and it is not that tough...but it can be mildly frustrating for friends.
My last two mobile phones have allowed me to transfer someone directly to voice mail if the number from which they are calling is not in the phone's address book. This works well for me because I do not have a home phone...and I have a fairly complete address book.
So after years of use how does it fair? Great for me...less so for others...but they deal. When they are not at home, my friends tend to call me from their cell phones rather than an office phone, since the latter often yields an unknown number from larger corporations...and sends them directly to voice mail. If for some reason they cannot call from a known number, they know that if they leave a message, I will call them right back...assuming that I am available.
One other downside - I need to remember to disable the filter function if I have a scheduled delivery or service person coming to my home...since they often call to confirm immediately before arriving.
Honestly though, dropping the home phone and using a mobile phone exclusively has helped significantly, even when I temporarily disable the filter, since I am not listed in any directories.
You can setup a voice menu which will stop the phone from ringing unless a menu option is selected. Check LinuxJournal site they have a few tutorials about setting up similar scenarios ( like http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9190 )
Whitelists will prevent
1. your stranded grandma from calling you
2. friends calling from their friends house
3. that cute girl you just met
4. various official phone calls that you really needed to receive
Luckily, whitelists will still allow your mom to call from upstairs when dinner is ready.
I use a programmable fax switch. A cold call goes to the answering machine. A fax tone goes to the fax. A dialed 22 at the answering machine rings the phone on port 3. My friends and family know to buzz me if the machine gets it.
The truth shall set you free!
1. Buy A Series 40 Nokia Phone
2. Set a silent ring tone (note, not turn off sounds completely) on a personalized profile - ie a recording of no noise.
3. Set a ring tone on all those people you wish to be alerted to.
4. Set a timed profile so the personalized one only comes on after a certain time in the evening.
(make sure vibrate is off in this profile too)
Now, your phone will only ring in the night if it is from certain important people.
The software that speakeasy uses for VOIP has a selective acceptance feature. You can enter phone numbers or digit patterns for the whitelist.
Kinda pricey for VOIP, though.
In the UK we have a service called Ringback, if you try to call someone and they're engaged, you can press 5 to request a ringback. As soon as they hangup, your phone rings (a different ring to indicate the ringback) and when you pickup you're conencted to them as if you had just dialled their number. The result is that often people's phones ring as soon as they hangup.
To the original submitter - I get these calls all the time. That particular code is not an area code, but a country code. 63 = Philippines , while 2 is the City code within the Philippines for Manila, it's also the city code for all of the cell phones in the country. Hope this helps!
Set the default ringer to a silent mp3/wav/ogg/3gp/whatever. Set everyone in you address book to a "Custom Ringtone" (on my razr it's called Ringer ID) that is your regular ringtone.
Check out GrandCentral.com. They allow you to blacklist, whitelist, set up different voicemail greetings for different people, and whatnot.
My favorite feature is that you can transfer calls between any of your phones. So, if I'm on my cell and the battery is about to die, I just hit * and all my other phones (home, work, etc) start ringing. I pick up whatever phone is closest and I'm back to talking.
YMBNH
Andy Rooney, CBS Newsman
Tips for Handling Telemarketers & JUNK MAIL
Three Little Words That Work !!
(1) The three little words are: "Hold On, Please..."
Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of
hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more
time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt.
Then when you eventually hear the phone company's "beep-beep-beep" tone,
you know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has
efficiently completed its task.
These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting.
(2) Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end?
This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and
records the time of day when a person answers the phone.
This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a "real"
sales person to call back and get someone at home.
What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is
to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times, as
quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that dialed the call and it
kicks your number out of their system. Gosh, what a shame not to have your
name in their system any longer!!!
(3) Junk Mail Help:
When you get "ads" enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these
"ads" with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away.
When you get those "pre-approved" letters in the mail for everything from
credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the
return envelope.
Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It costs
them more than the regular 37 cents postage "IF" and when they receive them back.
It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 50
cents before the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that
case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these
cool little, postage-paid return envelopes.
One of Andy Rooney's (60 minutes) ideas.
Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send a
pizza coupon to Citibank. If you didn't get anything else that day, then
just send them their blank application back!
If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on
anything you send them.
You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep
them guessing! It still costs them 37 cents.
The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a lot of their
own junk back in the mail, but folks, we need to OVERWHELM them. Let's let
them know what it's like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they're
paying for it...Twice!
Let's help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail
is cutting into their business profits, and that's why they need to
increase postage costs again. You get the idea !
If enough people follow these tips, it will work ---- I have been doing
this for years, and I get very little junk mail anymore.
Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
It's just coincidence, dude. What if the call had come in exactly two minutes and twelve seconds after you hung up, would that make you suspicious? Or two hours, fourteen minutes and six seconds?
Doesn't that tinfoil hat interfere with the cordless phone reception?
Slightly disreputable, albeit gregarious
If you are in the USA there's no reason to be getting telemarketing calls. donotcall.gov will take care of that.
http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
I have one of these. They work great. Granted it works on a blacklist instead of a whitelist, but the blacklist gets populated pretty quickly and I've found that I don't need to add entries very often at all. You can hook up an answering machine, and any "blocked" calls can get sent directly to the answering machine without ever ringing the phone. You can block with wildcards, so entire area codes, certain prefixes, ranges, etc.. It's really very nice. I paid like $100 for mine.
Change your default ringtone on your cellphone to silent. If it doesn't support it directly, get a silent mp3 file or whatever your phone supports. Then change the ringtone for your whitelist numbers to something audible.
...the Telephone Preference Service http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/tps/ are the people to get in touch with.
I registered with them a few years ago and haven't had any marketing calls since.
A lot of mobile phones (like my old Sony Ericsson P910i) have a whitelist option, and where I live, mobile phones are a viable alternative to landlines. For some, it's cheaper having only a mobile phone and no landline (at least here in Norway). Tough competition really seems to drive the prices down. For instance, recently many mobile phone subscriptions have become available where you get 120 minutes and 90 text messages for free every month. (No monthly fees or such either. They make money on calls to other countries, MMS, special service numbers etc.)
I did it with a simple bash script and a modem.
http://www.liddicott.com/~sam/?p=26
Sam
blog.sam.liddicott.com
We got one of these a few months ago and I think it will do everything to original poster wanted. You can set white and black lists of IDs, then set the device so that it'll allow everything, or only those on thr whitelist, or only block those on the blacklist; with an option for special handling of calls which don't show an ID, and for dealing with a block of numbers from the same area.
Adding IDs can be as simple as waiting for them to call you and pressing a button.
You can also set a quiet time where all calls are blocked.
The only downside we've found is that because of where the box goes in the chain of devices you can no longer see the caller ID on the telephone.
And they can't make phone calls, you insensitive clod!
Screw phones, I want a whitelist on my postal mail.
Every day, my mailbox is filled to maximum with mail for the 10 people who lived in my apartment before me. I'd rather only get mail from family and bills.
It sounds like you may be using a landline, but just in case... The last few Motorola phones I've used have an an option under security to restrict incoming calls. One of the options is "Contacts", which allows calls from anyone in the contacts list to come through, but sends all other calls straight to voicemail. I'm guessing most other phones have a similar or semi-equivalent option (on a Nokia I did it by setting a default ring of nothing, and then all contacts to the ring I wanted - it still "rang" and the caller had to wait to get to voicemail, but didn't bother me with the call). It's effective, easy to change even for temporary numbers, and in an emergency anyone can leave a voicemail (never had a telemarketer do so, only legit interactions).
While I'd like a phone that was pretty flexible about whitelists (eg times) I'd be happy with switchable profiles like the common "silent" etc choices one has. I fear that certain things are done too far upstream - it would be nice if the phone could decide to answer/voicemail/reject/forward a call, but I think the phone company stores a braindead profile for you, producing an architecture hardwired bustedness. Hmm, surely modern phones can run a voicemail system internally these days?
Of course, I don't want a beefy and expensive modern phone - I've been using a Nokia 6100 for quite a while because it's Just A Phone and small and light. No cameras, video etc. Being a geek what I really want is a tiny real computer (eg like a Soekris but lighter) with a phone and display/keyboard as separate Bluetooth peripherals of some kind.
Cameron Simpson, DoD#743 cs@cskk.id.au http://www.cskk.ezoshosting.com/cs/
Well, the non-conspiracy way to look at it is to program the robo-dialer that if it gets a busy signal, to keep redialing that number until it connects (logic being of course that a phone with a busy signal is being used, thus the mark on the other end is present and near the phone). Also, you will sometimes get this behavior with call waiting - if someone is trying to call you when you hang up the phone, it will immediately start ringing.