Phone system for home PBX?

[rodm1]

We have a old land line phone system that we won't to keep. We are getting lots of scam and sales calls and my goal is to have a system that would automatically get ride of unwonted calls with no monthly cost and using standard home phones.

What I would like is a system that will send all calls to an answering machine unlease you enter a extension number. It seems like a PBX phone system might work for this am I correct? Do these need to be programed are these standalone systems?

This is the system I'm looking at. Looking at youtube videos I think the SOHO-PBX 30 is what I need.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B015MUYHFG/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[nehog]

I don't think that one will do exactly what you want, but perhaps it will.

2. Answering calls at auto-attendant mode No extension will ring when an incoming cal l is received, the message recorded will be heard before dialing extension number.

It is unclear if the caller selects the extension to dial, or the auto-attendant does. If the former then good, if the latter then it is not terribly useful.

The 'English' in that ad is horrible. I hope their product is better!

 

[tmmiller72]

Here is a system that I use for my land line setup and it is cheaper than a monthly bill.
http://www.obitalk.com/info/asp/anveo

The obitalk connects to your current house phone lines. I have the obi200 model.
Then in the anveo service you can setup several different options if you want to customize it.

 

[Will S.]

An small system with autoattendant can be programmed to answer all calls (no phones ring when this happens), and direct the calling party to dial some number (anything you choose), to be connected. I have been using this system for more than 5 years. If the calling party doesn't dial the specific number required, I offer them one more chance to "to complete your call, press x now". If they do not, the system disconects and I never hear a phone rinng. Robot dialers do not, cannot, dial any subsequent digits, so they are automatically disconnected.

Human callers can follow the verbal instruction, and complete the call. I have found out that the only "nuisance calls" I still get, are bonafied charities that use people to make the calls (very few, ever), and political campaign callers around election time (they are candidates' office personnel asking or support).

I could require a single digit, or anything up to more than a 4 digit code to connect. I could also simply say "Enter your password to complete this call", and just let family and friends know what it is, but not announce it by the auto-attendant. Effective, but not an inexpensive solution. I am in the business, and already had an esi server/switch installed at home, so it was a very simply program change to implement.

I seem to remember seeing some sort of anti-telemarketer modules being sold on internet, but I think they work a little different. Good luck in whatever you decide. The telemarketing calls really use to bug me. Not anymore.

 

[wssix99]

Have you put your number on this: https://www.donotcall.gov/

It's worked pretty well for me. By law, marketers can't call you if you are on it. The only thing I get are the political calls around election time. Funny - the politicians exempted themselves from the do-not-call law...

I recall there are answering machines that you can purchase that do what you want. ... But I think you can only find those in museums now, along with books, pencils, and cars without computer control.

 

[ExxWhy]

I use a program called phone tray on my desktop which is on all the time. Works through the modem. None of this helps if you don't have outdated equipment like I do.

Do not call list doesn't seem to work too well for me.

 

[nehog]

Here is a system that I use for my land line setup and it is cheaper than a monthly bill.
http://www.obitalk.com/info/asp/anveo

The obitalk connects to your current house phone lines. I have the obi200 model.
Then in the anveo service you can setup several different options if you want to customize it.

OBI is a great place to start. Good products, and with Google Voice you can get free phone numbers/lines. We use the daylights out of ours, and my wife can call family in Thailand for about 2 cents a minute.

 

[jmcjr369]

I'm pretty sure if you get a pbx phone, it will have most of the features you need. I was looking into one, so I could switch my cell phone to my land line, and the land line will forward calls to my cell phone. Also looking to avoid unwanted calls! I know some hosted pbx services may have a small monthly fee, but they include a website that you can customize the features you want.

 

[Stuart in MN]

The do not call registry helps a lot, but it mostly blocks legitimate businesses; the scammers are still going to call. The simplest thing is to have caller ID, and then only pick up the phone if it's a number or name you recognize.

 

[Falcon67]

Have you put your number on this: https://www.donotcall.gov/

It's worked pretty well for me. By law, marketers can't call you if you are on it. The only thing I get are the political calls around election time. Funny - the politicians exempted themselves from the do-not-call law...

Right - at least 2-3 calls per day from spam numbers all over the country on my cell. DNC is pretty worthless IMHO. I can answer a local spam call coming from some local area code number and clearly hear the switch to some other system, usually "Jim" from New Deli.

We haven't ditch land lines completely as the incoming DSL line has a splitter. For a while we used a machine that answered with the three tones and the recording that you reached a number no longer in service. That worked for a while, but the robo callers started to ignor that. The amount of junk the answering machine picked up finally got us to just pull the plug. You look us up and call the published number, you get zip, nada, no answer. And if you do find my cell and you are not in my contacts, you'll not get an answer either.

 

[tmmiller72]

Right - at least 2-3 calls per day from spam numbers all over the country on my cell. DNC is pretty worthless IMHO. I can answer a local spam call coming from some local area code number and clearly hear the switch to some other system, usually "Jim" from New Deli.

On the spam calls if you transfer your phone number to a google voice setup (and it may work in other setups) then in google voice they have a spam settings just like in the email messages. If it is recognized as spam it will put those calls and texts in a spam folder.
Also you can setup up groups of known numbers that you can have it ring the phone and if they are not on that list they will get sent to the voice mail directly.
Also you can block repeat calls so that it will give them a disconnected phone number message.

Many options just in the google voice settings that have eliminated **** calls.

In my situation I have a separate number for my google voice, house phone, and cell phone. But I use that google voice number for my public forums etc so that if a spammer does get it I can block them etc. Also that is the first number people get when I first meet them.... handy when you are single and get that annoying...

 

[Zeke]

I use nomorobo.com. It works and it's free. What you get is tens of 1000's of nomorobo users entering telemarketing numbers to a central system. When one of the TM's changes their number they get some calls in before someone reports them. Then all users are free of that particular nuisance.

The phone will ring once. If the number is in the nomorobo database, the call is disconnected immediately at that first ring.

The PBX system can do much more but it's not simple and unless you can pick up an older used system, it's gonna cost you. What's this worth to you? For me, free is cheap.

Google Voice is another option but you can't port an existing land line over to GV.

 

[Falcon67]

I've looked a Google Voice and it's not bad. However, my phone is company and everyone I need to talk with is in it. If you're not and you're important, leave a message. If you don't, good enough. I can walk away from a ringing phone easy, bothers me not one bit. I also have rings for real people and if you're not one of those rings, you're going to voice mail anyway.

 

[rodm1]

Thanks guys, I don't have a problem with the upfront cost of a PBX system but don't won't a monthly bill with it. I will spend some time looking into your suggestions but I think the SOHO-PBX SP-308CS is what I need.