 NetFixerFrom my cold dead handsPremium
join:2004-06-24
The Boro
 ·Comcast Business..
 ·Vonage
 ·Cingular Wireless
·Comcast
1 edit | reply to cork1958
Re: Can I block a specific number with Vonage... said by cork1958:I guess I would have to ask if you've ever tried answering one of those anonymous calls, although I'm sure you have? If you have, is there actually someone on the other end, or is that where it might get blocked at?
No I have never bothered to answer any anonymous call. I would not have enabled the Anonymous Call Block feature if I wanted to receive such calls. There is no legitimate reason for anyone to block their name and/or telephone number from displaying in the called party's Caller ID display, and I have no desire to communicate with anyone who does so. Would you open your front door at 03:00 AM to someone wearing a loose fitting hoody and a mask and invite them to enter?
If that restrictive policy means that I have missed a chance to be notified that I have won the Nigerian lottery, I can live with that. 
The screen shot below is the official Vonage documentation on what "anonymous" calls are blocked (and those calls should never reach your telephone). There does appear to be a loophole whereby someone who does simply block both their name and telephone number would not be blocked by Vonage's Anonymous Call Block feature. However, I have received calls with "Anonymous", "PRIVATE", and "WITHHELD" (as well as calls with truly anonymous blank data in the Caller ID screen) even with the Anonymous Call Block feature enabled.
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| Slightly radical analogy as far as "open your front door at 03:00 AM to someone wearing a loose fitting hoody and a mask" when we're simply discussing answering some unidentified phone call, within the confines of your home and hopefully NOT at 3:00am!
I know where you're coming from though so no need to carry on discussion and get all off topic again!! 
Use to see those private and what not type displays all the time on Frontier!
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 N9MDToo busy to chatPremium
join:2005-10-08
Boca Raton, FL
kudos:5
·Callcentric
·VOIPo
·voip.ms
| reply to NetFixer
Oh! Really?!?! said by NetFixer:... There is no legitimate reason for anyone to block their name and/or telephone number from displaying in the called party's Caller ID display...
Think outside the box ... put yourself in someone else's position rather than thinking only about your personal usage and needs.
In my forty years of medical group practice, before call blocking, I would have a need to return nighttime or weekend urgent/emergency patient calls from my home phone ... on my "on call" days/nights (one of every four weekdays MON-THU and one of every four weekends FRI-SAT-SUN), given that we were a group of four doctors. Well-intentioned patients would tend to jot down my home number ... and weeks or months or even years later would call me in the middle of the night at home ... on a night when one of my partners was taking call.
In response, I would use #67 for one-time outgoing CallerID Blocking when returning patient calls. This became problematic because many folks had "anonymous" calls permanently blocked on their end, thus my call would not go through. So I developed a plan wherein, if my return call was blocked, I would call my answering service and have them call the patients to give them 5 minutes to unblock "anonymous" Call Blocking ... and then I would call the patients back (with my number still blocked).
With my eventual switch to all-VoIP/Cellular ... I no longer have landlines in my NJ and FL homes, just VoIP and Cellular ... I have solved the problem very nicely. I have a basic Pay-As-You-Go 99¢ per month phone number from Voip.ms which forwards incoming calls to "silly" terminations (see below) so I can call out but they can't call in. And when I'm away from home, I have the DISA on the same account set to recognize my cell phone number, providing a second dial tone through which I can dial the patient's number, enter my PIN, and show my Voip.ms number as the CallerID. At a penny per minute plus the 99¢ monthly charge (with no add'l taxes, surcharges, E911 fees), my costs are minimal on an annual basis ... ~$12 for service + ~$5.00 for ~500 minutes = ~$17.00 for the entire year!
So if a patient or other unwelcome callers call my Voip.ms number (especially now that I'm retired), they are forwarded to one of the following:
• 631-265-0000 Pay Phone message "The call you have made requires a coin deposit..."
• 218-488-1302 Psych Hot Line
• 631-360-0000 Hold for Physician
• 973-474-9051 Telemarketers Nightmare
• 212-757-9901 No LD Carrier Designated
• 360-515-4462 Screaming Monkeys
Note: These numbers may not be reachable from all carrier's phone numbers. |
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 blohner
join:2002-06-26
Cortlandt Manor, NY
·Optimum Online
 ·Verizon FiOS
·Google Voice
·ooma
| reply to N9MD
Re: Oh! Really?!?! In an office with 4 doctors + ?? assistants... why not use a proper VoIP based PBX (Avaya, Cisco etc... ) with softphones for off premise use. Then you could simply log into your softphone from home when you are on call and all calls show a proper and legal caller ID of your office...
I for one would never allow private calls - if a doctor's office would insist on the same I would switch doctors very quickly - it's simply not professional....
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NetFixerFrom my cold dead handsPremium
join:2004-06-24
The Boro Reviews:
·Comcast Business..
·Vonage
·Cingular Wireless
·Comcast
| said by blohner:In an office with 4 doctors + ?? assistants... why not use a proper VoIP based PBX (Avaya, Cisco etc... ) with softphones for off premise use. Then you could simply log into your softphone from home when you are on call and all calls show a proper and legal caller ID of your office...
I for one would never allow private calls - if a doctor's office would insist on the same I would switch doctors very quickly - it's simply not professional....
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History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower |
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