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Comcast Digital Voice - Rotary Phones - General Q's

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

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JimH

I have Comcast Digital Voice, and it has worked with my rotary phones for a year now.  I was trying to setup my wireless printer on the internet connection, and a website recommended pushing the "reset" button on the modem box.  The phones are also plugged into this.  I had to get a paperclip to push the reset button, as it was recessed in the back.  The lights flashed on the modem box, and ever since, my rotary phones will not break the dialtone.  I've called Comcast, they tried "resetting" the box from there, it did not work.  I tried other phones, unplugging modem box, etc, my rotary phone will still not break the dialtone.  Any suggestions?
Jim H.

G-Man

I suspect the only one that can help you is Comcast but the cable companies do not seem to be too willing to assist with rotary dialing.

According to the technical documentation I have read in the past, rotary (pulse) dialing and its parameters are provisioned within the modem.

However, I would doubt that they would provide you with passwords or necessary information to access the programming.

Some of the manuals are available on-line and if you find one then you may be able to find enough information to clue-in the person at the tech center as to what is involved with re-activating it and the pulsing tolerances that need to be configured. If so, you will most likely have to provide the brand and model number of your modem.

So unless someone else on this forum has a resolution, I would suggest you keep calling and hammering away at them until they finally come up with a solution.

For some time I have felt that it would be a good idea to start a list of modems that members on this forum use that either support or do not support rotary dialing. Then, armed with this information, research through the manufactures the needed information to get the cable companies to program them correctly. 

G-Man

QuoteFor some time I have felt that it would be a good idea to start a list of modems the members on this forum use that either support or do not support rotary dialing. Then, armed with this information, research through the manufactures the needed information to get the cable companies to program them correctly.

I'll go one further, if enough members of the clubs and this forum can band together, they could petition the FCC and Cable Industry groups to find a solution to the spotty provisioning of rotary dialing. Also, to set a technical standard for those who do provide it. Of course, rarely can everyone get on board without some sort of bickering taking place.

G-Man

Further checking reveals that Comcast will allow you to provide your own eMTA instead of leasing it from them. If so, you should be able to find one that is compatible with pulse-dialing that you can program yourself.


George Knighton

I have a Technicolor TC8305C from Comcast (Xfinity) and it is working fine with the rotary phones around the house.

If that helps any.

I used to power the house in the country with a cell signal and an Xlink router, but it turned out there was a price advantage to getting the VOIP service from them once we got the Blast! service out here. 

Crystal clear, too.  Much better than the Xlink and cell service was.

They do not supply the Technicolor modem with a backup battery, but they'll give you one if you want.
Annoying new poster.

George Knighton

The only thing that was annoying setting this all up was that the one 302 that I have with a Rotatone could not dial one of the "#" required by the Comcast/Xfinity Voice system and I could not finish setting up the voice mail service until I came home from work with one of the old 2500 from storage.
Annoying new poster.

JimH

Quote from: G-Man on November 17, 2013, 06:00:43 PM
Further checking reveals that Comcast will allow you to provide your own eMTA instead of leasing it from them. If so, you should be able to find one that is compatible with pulse-dialing that you can program yourself.


Thanks, guys for the info....I've got a tech person coming tomorrow.  If he installs a new modem, I'm never touching it again!  As for a petition, where do I sign!  I think there are enough people who still use rotary.  The guy at customer service didn't know what I was talking about when I said "rotary phone".  I explained that there is this little wheel that you stick your finger in and spin it around to dial a number.  He finally said...oh...I think I know what you mean now.
Jim H.

GusHerb

Is everyone with Comcast voice still doing well with it?

As much as I hate to say it, I just put in an order for it and will be axing the POTS line here at home. The promo's ran out and the bill was gonna be around 60 a month. We hardly ever use the line anymore. I personally wanted to cancel the number all together but my Dad wouldn't go for that (even though the only calls it ever gets are his bill collectors, and now bill collectors of other relatives...)

Despite my own desire to drop the landline all together, I'm still happy we're keeping something that works with pulse dialing, so I can continue to use my rotary phones, and won't have to purchase a pulse to tone converter!

Jonathan

GusHerb

I just moved our last remaining POTS line to Comcast Voice and discovered the Arris TG862 they gave us isn't setup to accept pulse dialing. Other then that it seems to work fine, I got an OEM backup battery on ebay for less then 7 bucks. Looks like I'll be ordering a Dialgizmo...
Jonathan

poplar1

#54
A happy Comcast Digital Voice customer:

The amazing thing: my rotary phone still works -- I call it ROIP -- Rotary over IP.

Some nice engineer at the modem company had to go to a lot of extra trouble to interpret the rotary pulses. I imagine it was either a very senior or very junior person!


http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/granitegeek/1033433-468/can-a-rotary-phone-work-over-a.html

By the same author:

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/1033317-469/dial-n-for-nostalgia--but-rotary.html
(If you go back and click on the link in the first article, rather than clicking on this link, you can read the entire article.)
"C'est pas une restauration, c'est une rénovation."--François Martin.

kdpezz

I've been working to get my old rotary phone up and running on my comcast system.  I had my phone refurbished with new network and internal pulse to tone converter.  We are able to dial out and receive a call once, after that its takes almost an hour for the system to "reset".  First you hear nothing (but you can tell its "on"), then fast busy, and eventually a regular dial tone again.  Also, if i test it by calling my cell phone, i get my voicemail...hang up the rotary and give it a minute...pick up again my cell phone voicemail is still going like it never disconnected.  Any ideas?  We have tried swapping the wires (red/green) doesnt make a difference.  My husband took it to work where they have verizon and it still does it but the delay is only a few minutes.  i have called comcast and had them open up something that had to do with pulse/tone...makes no difference.  This is a wall phone, i didnt want an external converter I had to mount outside the unit on the wall.  I dont know if it will even make a difference though someone told me the dialgizmo will work with comcast.  Imhave an Arris modem which i checked after reading some of the threads on here.  I am not very electronically inclined but with all the time and money invested i am determined to get this thing functioning.  Any help would be greatly appreciated....thank you!

19and41

Have you been in touch with the folks who did the conversion of your phone yet?  If not, they may have had to deal with the specific problems you are having and could also help to correct it.  I'm sure they would not want to have it not perform as it should.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
— Arthur C. Clarke

kdpezz

i did and he is great...but he is at a loss as it worked fine at his shop (he is in canada)...he is still willing to take it back and look at it but its expensive to ship (yet again) and i really think it has to do,with my comcast system....someone suggested dialgizmo and i might try that....

19and41

If you were to get a dialgizmo, remember it needs the input of your pulse dial to function, as opposed to the DTMF tones that would be generated by your phones' internal conversion.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
— Arthur C. Clarke

kdpezz

meaning it wont work bc the internal converter is now installed on the phone?