News:

"The phone is a remarkably complex, simple device,
and very rarely ever needs repairs, once you fix them." - Dan/Panther

Main Menu

Comcast Digital Voice - Rotary Phones - General Q's

Started by winkydink, January 01, 2012, 09:10:00 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Doug Rose

I hang Comcast digital Voice off my Panasonic 616. Works like a champ. A Panasonic 616 is  a great investment. A great investment     ;) ....Doug
Kidphone

George Knighton

Quote from: Owain on December 14, 2012, 12:08:11 PM
Very probably.

If you need serial terminal access for network management, then assuming your underlying IP is reliable or you have a separate network for management purposes, you use serial-to-IP converters which pass your serial data over IP.

http://intrl.startech.com/Networking-IO/Serial-over-IP

You can also get power control over IP if you need to power-cycle a device remotely.

Quote from: Doug Rose on December 14, 2012, 06:43:16 PM
I hang Comcast digital Voice off my Panasonic 616. Works like a champ. A Panasonic 616 is  a great investment. A great investment     ;) ....Doug

Will research this.  Thanks very much for your help.

Annoying new poster.

TheGBC

...I should also mention that Comcast is a nightmare in every other way. For example, the modem itself has a backup battery that'll keep it alive for 8 hours (and an optional one that can go for 24) if the power goes out.
However, none of the upstream equipment has backup (It's supposed to, but they either don't maintain it, or, if you believe one story, someone went around and stole the batteries to sell for scrap, and Comcast never replaced them) so when the power goes out, so does the phone. I won't say any more, you guys probably know about all the worst-company-of-the-year awards they've got. (If they didn't have a monopoly here, I'd be using someone else.)
But the modem is great, you can get them off of ebay for a song, and they'll work with other ISPs.

TheGBC

Quote from: George Knighton on December 14, 2012, 11:46:09 AM
Has anybody had occasion, recently, to try to use an old fashioned analogue modem via Comcast Digital Voice?
I just tried it with a California-based free dialup service. Couldn't connect at faster than 33.6 (on a 56k modem) but if all you're doing is remote terminal that should be enough. Go with anyone but Comcast if you have the option. Charter and Time Warner, in particular, are better than they used to be.

Doug Rose

I have had Comcast for the past five years. No issues whatsoever with cable, voice or high speed internet. I had RCN before Comcast and they were a nightmare.  One of the big three was always down.  I am very pleased with Comcast....Doug
Kidphone

George Knighton

I asked about some of this yesterday when I was messaging with somebody up north.

Got shut down pretty hard.  He wouldn't go into details as to why, but I'm pretty much ordered to maintain a copper land line for doing this.

I am an administrator who just happens to be assigned certain functions in this particular little job.  I'm not any kind of technician who would be able to argue with people about workability or the merits of this or that security.



Annoying new poster.

Doug Rose

George...I have been in the Telephone Industry for 35 years. Copper used to be a staple. Even when T1s first came, we always kept copper as a backup. As the years go by the insulation on the copper wears away. Static, radio stations, other peoples conversation are common. Hard to get a clean copper line. Hanging in the waether 24/7 is a recipe for disaster.  In this digital age, there will be no new copper run.  I work for the largest Private Bank in the world. We are global and are just a click away from any voice or video system around the world. ISDN is dying and IP is the way of the future. Digital World.

Only benefit of copper is it will stay alive if you lose you power. Copper is expensive. With most cable companies you can get a a package with free LD.

Your job description is a little vague, but your argument should be copper is a dinosaur that is destined to die. I see zero benefit in investing in copper.

Just my humble opinion...Doug
Kidphone

George Knighton

I'll enlist allies from inside and ask the question again at some point in the future.

I live near what used to be Mt Pony and is now the Library of Congress, and the quasi-official Swift installation.  There ought to be enough people around to help educate me enough to make a presentable, viable argument.

I appreciate your help.

Annoying new poster.

poplar1

Is it possible that your employer would pay the cost of a copper line since it is required for your job? If not, then you should at least be able to deduct the cost on your income tax. (Only second lines, not primary line, in a residence are tax deductible.)

I for one am happy that by the early 1900s common battery sets were used in my neighborhood. (When we steamed off the calcimine paint at my grandmother's house, which was built in 1904, we found the outline of an 85A common battery fiddleback phone.) The batteries are at the central office and if the power fails, they have a diesel generator about the size of a school bus.

I have two 5ESS lines and recently purchased a MagicJack plus. Even with 6.0 DSL, the sound on the MagicJack connection is not as good as the landline. I don't own a cell phone, though I admit they can be useful when you are not at home. But there is no sidetone, which makes  some people shout into their phones.

So, I guess my question is: do people (including a lot of collectors) really prefer VOIP over a POTS line, or is it just the cost?

And if AT&T does pull the plug on their CO phone switches 4 years from now, will any of us who like old phones regret that we can no longer order dial tone? I'm holding out as long as I can. (They tried to get me to switch to Uverse but I turned them down. Uverse does not support rotary phones according to the AT&T website.)
"C'est pas une restauration, c'est une rénovation."--François Martin.

Owain

Quote from: George Knighton on December 15, 2012, 08:40:27 AM
I asked about some of this yesterday when I was messaging with somebody up north.

Got shut down pretty hard.  He wouldn't go into details as to why, but I'm pretty much ordered to maintain a copper land line for doing this.

Fairy nuff. In that case perhaps the employer should be paying for you to have a copper land line at home if you need end-to-end modem.

Otherwise you could telnet into a terminal server at the employer's location and modem out from the TS on the employer's copper if it's just the remote points that must be copper.

George Knighton

Quote from: poplar1 on December 15, 2012, 09:13:39 AM
Is it possible that your employer would pay the cost of a copper line since it is required for your job?
I'm adequately compensated.  :-)  I just want to be adequately compensated and have my country house full of old timey phones.

Quote(When we steamed off the calcimine paint at my grandmother's house, which was built in 1904, we found the outline of an 85A common battery fiddleback phone.)
Don't you just love things like that?

QuoteSo, I guess my question is: do people (including a lot of collectors) really prefer VOIP over a POTS line, or is it just the cost?
I don't prefer it.  It's just easier...easier to have one bill, and easier to no longer have to worry about wiring (unless like us it's about keeping wired phones working).

What's really awful is people trying to use an extremely cheap VOIP service that's camping onto a franchised broadband that's not optimised for streaming voice. 

QuoteAnd if AT&T does pull the plug on their CO phone switches 4 years from now, will any of us who like old phones regret that we can no longer order dial tone?
I suspect we'll find a way to work it out.  Why'd you say 4 years?  Is this something on the horizon?

Quote(They tried to get me to switch to Uverse but I turned them down. Uverse does not support rotary phones according to the AT&T website.)
Comcast Digital Voice also says that it will not support rotary.  But it sounds like lots of people have found a way to get it to work, although sometimes at the moderate expense of an old fashioned PBX kind of thing.
Annoying new poster.

twocvbloke

The way I see it, Analogue copper lines are reliable, when we had one heck of a storm (by UK standards of course) earlier this year, our phoneline had issues with crackling and the ADSL dropping out, but it kept on working... :)

Had it been a digital setup where the phone service was over a VOIP system, it wouldn't have worked for a few weeks while the lines dried out, as it works on the digital principle of being either On or Off, whereas analogue can work within On and Off, even under fault conditions... :)

I can understand that there are advantages to digital systems for anything, such as multiplexing say 10 lines into one copper line (dunno if you can or not, it's just an example!!), which means there is more space for more people to use and is cheaper to run for the provider, but when it comes to backups and emergencies, it's not always a reliable option, as one flaw knocks out anything digital... :-\

Greg G.

I went to POTS land line because I got tired of losing phone service every time I lost power or the internet went down.
The idea that a four-year degree is the only path to worthwhile knowledge is insane.
- Mike Row
e

George Knighton

Quote from: old_stuff_hound on January 04, 2012, 07:19:41 PM
Quote from: twocvbloke on January 03, 2012, 11:22:45 PM
I don't know if these devices were popular in the US or not, but here in the UK, these DTMF tone generators were used either to control answering machines, or to use those annoying "press 1 for a long wait, 2 for annoying music, 3 to be cut off, etc." services with older rotary or pulse-dial push-button phones, I have one myself, somewhere, must dig it out cos I need it...  :D

They just sat over the mouthpiece and you pressed the buttons, you can even dial whole numbers with it...  ;D

I've got a couple of DTMF apps for my iPod touch. Haven't had much success with them though. I think the volume is too low to trip the phone co's eqpt...

There's an iPhone application called Tone Dial, by River Rock Logic.  It is free.

It works well for me.

The biggest problem I had was changing my Contacts from the format "+1 (703) 555-1212, 0" to the format "17035551212,,0" in order for Verizon land line service to comprehend.  You can't have a "+" with domestic land line dialing, evidently.

You also want ",," instead of "," if you need a pause.  Most numbers won't need a pause.

:-)

You also have to put the iPhone's speaker right on the transmitter cover for it to work 100% of the time.

I don't do it all of the time, but if I'm having to dial a bunch of numbers that I don't know by heart, I will use it.

I'm on a kick these days, using the rotary phones as much as possible.

I guess...it really is a sickness.
Annoying new poster.

George Knighton

Quote from: George Knighton on December 15, 2012, 10:38:14 AM
Why'd you say 4 years?  Is this something on the horizon?

Having been here a little while longer now, I realize that there's a possibility that in 2018 the mandatory land line service might disappear.

But I think we're still arguing about it and whether it would be a safe and good thing to do.
Annoying new poster.