NA — Home Phone

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JGoodish

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JGoodish
My wife and I pretty much use our cell phones exclusively for communication with any “important” individuals and entities, but we have kept a local home phone for years to provide to businesses and others who ask for a phone number but whom we may want to ignore.

A few years ago, I set up an Asterisk PBX on an old PC and had the home phone number ported to Flowroute. However, the old PC is slowly dying, and I need to find another solution, which will either be trying a Raspberry Pi build of Asterisk or moving to a provider like Ooma or MagicJack.

We’ve had the same home number for years, and we’d like to keep it, but since it’s more-or-less a “throwaway” line we’d like to minimize costs while still maintaining reliable service for times when we do use it.

What recommendations do you all have for this time of service/use?


Thanks!

P.S. I presently use a SIP handset, but obviously have old analog handsets available, so either solution is fine.
 
If it's truly a "write only memory" device, then Google Voice and Obihai.
 
Port it to a Google Voice number then you can forward to any other number or route direct to voicemail with email and/or text notifications of the messages. Google Voice is really customizable on what you want the calls to do.

I had my Google Voice number push to an unpublished land line then just ultimately pointed it direct to VM and got a notification any time a VM was left and dumped the land line
 
Went with Ooma about 9 years ago. One small box and it plugs in to the router. Plug a phone into the box and away you go. Anywhere you go that has an open router port and you can hook up and have the home phone. Voicemail, call logs are all login off any computer. Blocking numbers is easy. Doubt we would ever get a hardline again.
 
JGoodish said:
My wife and I pretty much use our cell phones exclusively for communication with any “important” individuals and entities, but we have kept a local home phone for years to provide to businesses and others who ask for a phone number but whom we may want to ignore.

A few years ago, I set up an Asterisk PBX on an old PC and had the home phone number ported to Flowroute. However, the old PC is slowly dying, and I need to find another solution, which will either be trying a Raspberry Pi build of Asterisk or moving to a provider like Ooma or MagicJack.

We’ve had the same home number for years, and we’d like to keep it, but since it’s more-or-less a “throwaway” line we’d like to minimize costs while still maintaining reliable service for times when we do use it.

What recommendations do you all have for this time of service/use?


Thanks!

P.S. I presently use a SIP handset, but obviously have old analog handsets available, so either solution is fine.
Click to expand...

I use MagicJack as a "home" number to give to people who demand my phone number, but from whom I never want to receive calls. Aside from being cheap and not owned by Google, the call quality is good enough that when I have to, I can use it to call those people from whom I never want to hear. That insures that the MagicJack number is the only one that they'll ever have on file for me. They also have a mobile app that can accomplish the same subterfuge.

Rich
 
Google Voice and Obihai is free with nice features such as voice to text which you may then either text to your cell or email to your email address. I also have 2 Ooma accounts. The Ooma costs about $6 per month with basic service or about $17 with upgraded service. Google voice will not port from a landline. The workaround is purported to be to port your number to a cell then port into Google voice. This didn't work for me as Google voice said my number was not able to be ported. Ooma on the other hand had no difficulty porting the number.
 
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Hmm.

I've been toying around with the idea of carrying around a burner phone so calls and texts to my 'cell' number can be forwarded to it via VOIP. Preferably encrypted so the MAN can't listen in to them or read them.

Above suggestions a good way to do that?

All of these reality crime shows I've been watching shows me just how invasive the MAN is in tracking one's whereabouts via cell tower pings. It's making me a little paranoid about carrying around a cell phone.
 
Gents,

Thanks for the tips.

Regarding Google Voice, I had looked at that in the past, but aside from the fact that I don’t care for Google’s privacy practices, the big obstacle was that it only permitted porting of mobile numbers. In my case, the number is an ILEC number; I know that I could probably port it to mobile and then port to GV, but I don’t know that it’s worth all of that hassle (I’d have to get another mobile line to port to, then port out to GV.)

Ooma/MagicJack may be the answer.

As for Ooma, it appears that there is a Basic and Premium plan for residential service. The basic plan is “free,” and the premium is $9.99/month (both are plus taxes/fees). I assume that the “free” plan should suffice.

I’ll have to take a look at MagicJack as well.
 
Sac Arrow said:
Hmm.

I've been toying around with the idea of carrying around a burner phone so calls and texts to my 'cell' number can be forwarded to it via VOIP. Preferably encrypted so the MAN can't listen in to them or read them.

Above suggestions a good way to do that?
Click to expand...
Yes, sort of. Google Voice can be used as a "phone in the cloud". Besides using it as a forwarding (inbound) or relayed (outbound) phone, you can also use a computer/smartphone/tablet with an Internet connection as a client to make/receive calls/voicemail/SMS/MMS. Do it from a public computer or hide your device behind a VPN and you've got some anonymity.
 
I second the Magic Jack recommendation. I have used one for many years - and it works as advertised. The cost is now up to $39 - but that is for a whole year.
Well worth it, IMHO.

Dave
 
cessna182b said:
I second the Magic Jack recommendation. I have used one for many years - and it works as advertised. The cost is now up to $39 - but that is for a whole year.
Well worth it, IMHO.

Dave
Click to expand...

It works remarkably well. The trick is to use the router's QoS to give it priority over other traffic. It doesn't need a lot of bandwidth, but like VoIP in general, it needs high priority for the best sound quality.

Rich
 
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