[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Moving landline to VOIP

Mon Oct 16 07:59:16 PDT 2023

Doctors have to send my prescriptions to CVS by FAX

From: LCTG <lctg-bounces+jjrudy1=comcast.net at lists.toku.us> On Behalf Of OLGA P GUTTAG via LCTG
Sent: Monday, October 16, 2023 10:56 AM
To: Carl Lazarus <carllazarus at comcast.net>
Cc: Stan Rose <stan_rose at alum.mit.edu>; Lex Computer Group <lctg at lists.toku.us>
Subject: Re: [Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Moving landline to VOIP

You would be surprised how many govt. institutions still insist in a fax instead of an electronic document submission.  It is very aggravating for those who don’t have fax machines (yes, we have a software work around but …). I always ask myself how the less well educated and people with fewer resources survive in this environment. 

Olga

On Oct 16, 2023, at 10:36 AM, Carl Lazarus via LCTG <lctg at lists.toku.us <mailto:lctg at lists.toku.us> > wrote:

Does anyone still need fax?  You can scan a document and email it as an attachment.

On Mon, Oct 16, 2023 at 10:30 AM Stan Rose via LCTG <lctg at lists.toku.us <mailto:lctg at lists.toku.us> > wrote:

Regarding fax, I am able to use my OOMA service for fax. With the OOMA premium service, I have two numbers: one for regular voice and one for fax.

Stan Rose

stan_rose at alum.mit.edu <mailto:stan_rose at alum.mit.edu> 

On Mon, Oct 16, 2023 at 10:19 AM Mitchell I. Wolfe via LCTG <lctg at lists.toku.us <mailto:lctg at lists.toku.us> > wrote:

We rather screen spam calls at home rather being interrupted in the car and elsewhere.

Right out of college in the 1970's I elected the cheaper party line option. My answering machine used to pick up calls destined for the other party.

Our home phone has been on VOIP for over 10 years using voipo.com <https://voipo.com/> . The cost is less than $7 per month if you prepay for two years. The vendor sends you a free converter box. There's a ton of features. We receive substantially more spam calls than with wireless providers even with the free nomorobo integration.

Most VOIP boxes do not work for sending or receiving faxes.

Due to industry pressure, the FCC issued Forbearance Order 19-72A1 <https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-19-72A1.pdf>  which has officially granted telecommunications carriers permission to abandon outdated, degrading copper POTs lines. Consequently POT service has gotten substantially more expensive and harder to get since the August 2, 2022 implementation date.

-- Mitch

On 2023-10-16 09:57, OLGA P GUTTAG via LCTG wrote:

And how many of you had to wait for 12 yrs to get a party line in the first place? 

As to spam:

Being incredibly lazy about making changes to our phone technology, I have kept my business line for about $10/mo. Whenever I am asked for phone by people/places I don't trust to keep my real number secure, I give out this line. Thus the daily 20+ spam calls or unwanted follow-ups by sales people from whom I bought a car/plumbing/etc. go to this line. I only monitor it if I am in the process of buying a car, etc.

For now this has kept the number of junk calls to our other land line and cell phone to minimum. I expect that  I could port this business line to something less expensive, but for now my time is worth more than the cost of status quo. However, if you have not yet got the numbers you care about into the universe, I recommend that you establish a second line to give out to those who will increase your spam volume.

Stay well,

Olga

On Oct 15, 2023, at 8:43 PM, John Rudy via LCTG <lctg at lists.toku.us <mailto:lctg at lists.toku.us> > wrote:

And how many of you ever had a party line?

From: LCTG <lctg-bounces+jjrudy1=comcast.net at lists.toku.us <mailto:comcast.net at lists.toku.us> > On Behalf Of bhff02--- via LCTG
Sent: Sunday, October 15, 2023 8:07 PM
To: Alan Millner <armillner48 at gmail.com <mailto:armillner48 at gmail.com> >; Lex Computer Group <lctg at lists.toku.us <mailto:lctg at lists.toku.us> >; Harry Forsdick <harry at forsdick.com <mailto:harry at forsdick.com> >
Subject: Re: [Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Moving landline to VOIP

Do you remember the days prior to cell phones when grandma called "the house", never knowing which grandchild might answer? Then, each family member had their turn speaking with her.  Now, in the absence of landlines, grandma must select one of four or five cell numbers to call, often reaching mom or dad in the car, at the restaurant, shopping, or at work. As for the rest of the family, who knows?

Barry 

On Sunday, October 15, 2023 at 09:32:59 AM EDT, Harry Forsdick via LCTG <lctg at lists.toku.us <mailto:lctg at lists.toku.us> > wrote: 

Alan,

Thanks for this information.

Does this ring the Panasonic "landline" phone if a call comes in to your cell phone? Or only the reverse -- ring your cell phone if a call comes in on the Panasonic "landline" phone?

In our case we don't want to have a "landline".  Rather we would like to buy some portable phones installed in various places around our house so that even if we didn't have our cellphones in our pockets we could answer the cellphone if we were near one of the fixed locations where a Panasonic (or any other) phone was located.

I suspect this isn't the way these bluetooth Panasonic phones were intended to work, but I hope I am wrong.

Thanks,

-- Harry

 <http://www.forsdick.com/resume/> Harry Forsdick
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On Sun, Oct 15, 2023 at 8:44 AM Alan Millner <armillner48 at gmail.com <mailto:armillner48 at gmail.com> > wrote:

Our Panasonic cordless phone system ( our landline) has bluetooth connection to our cellphones, so we can answer a cell call at any of its 6 handsets, if the cell is sitting near the base unit on its charger.

Alan Millner

amillner at alum.mit.edu <mailto:amillner at alum.mit.edu> 

home 781-862-7893. cell 781-999-4346

48 North St., Lexington MA 02420 <https://www.google.com/maps/search/48+North+St.,+Lexington+MA+02420?entry=gmail&source=g> 

On Oct 15, 2023, at 8:36 AM, Harry Forsdick via LCTG <lctg at lists.toku.us <mailto:lctg at lists.toku.us> > wrote:

Our solution to this has been to get rid of our "landline" when we got rid of cable and just use our cell phones.  

It wasn't difficult — it had already started to happen because we discovered that the predominant users of our landline were telemarketers.

Now calls come to the person being called.  It does require that each of us to carry our phones on our person.  

I have yet to find a way to combine my cellphone to a fixed wired phone so that each of our phones could be picked up at fixed locations in the house.  If anybody has leads on this I would love to hear about this.

Thanks,

— Harry

On Sat, Oct 14, 2023 at 6:56 PM BARRY HASS via LCTG <lctg at lists.toku.us <mailto:lctg at lists.toku.us> > wrote:

I have the premium plan which gives me a second inbound line. It also calls two numbers of my choice for notification purposes when I dial 911. All voicemails appear on the phone but are also emailed to my wife and myself. We have the OOMA app on our phones which allow us to call US phones from anywhere in the world at no cost as long as I have an internet connection. OOMA premium has call forwarding, and call forwarding on network or power failure. There are other features which I don't recall at this moment.

Barry

> On Oct 14, 2023, at 5:41 PM, Shelly Lowenthal via LCTG <lctg at lists.toku.us <mailto:lctg at lists.toku.us> > wrote:
> 
> I've been using OOMA for 12 years. I've recommended it and people have been happy with it. Let me know if you have questions on porting - very simple. Base plan is $7/month - all of it taxes. They have a premium plan with more features.
> 
> Shelly Lowenthal
> 
>> On Oct 14, 2023, at 5:16 PM, Peter Shaw via LCTG <lctg at lists.toku.us <mailto:lctg at lists.toku.us> > wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> Thoughts on the best options to move my landline over to my Internet service?
>> 
>> Google Voice, Ooma, probably others.
>> 
>> I confess, I'm too late to be even a normal late adopter, but that's where I am.
>> 
>> Thanks.
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