nacturation's Journal: Phone Screeners

So I'm thinking of getting something like this, which was the first Google result I found:

http://www.privacycorps.com/products/?id=4

Anyone have experience with this or similar products? I had thought of setting up an Asterisk box and doing all that crap, but for 40 bucks an appliance type of device is hard to beat for cost effectiveness. Any others I should consider?
 

I think it'd be effective...

[Shadow Wrought]

We signed up for the do not call list and after that unsolicited calls dropped to the occasional weird recording. But we've since ditched our house phone completely for our cell phones, and we just don't get telemarketing calls on them (for whatever reason). But I'd think that that would be fairly successful.

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[nacturation]

Canada doesn't have a national do not call (yet, that I know of) but I signed up for the Direct Marketing Agency's do not call list. I noticed when filling it out that it would exempt your number for three years. But that there was a checkbox for "this person is deceased" which I checked and it's been great. :)

I also considered ditching the home line but there are benefits to having one around.
 

I miss our screener box

[grub]

We had a nice screener from BELtronics for many years. It could store up to 100 numbers to block and could block the PRIVATE NUMBER ones as well. A nice digitized voice would come on and say "The number you are calling does not accept calls from you." or something like that. A slightly modified message for the PRIVATE calls ("Please disable your number blocking feature and call again")

We'd hear the first ring then nothing and have a giggle as the box did its magic. The nice thing is that it was unobtrusiv

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[nacturation]

That site I linked to seemed to have one which was similar. Might have been the $99 one.
 

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[grub]

Yep, I already ordered it :) The only thing that is seems to be lacking is the digital message and hang-up. No biggee, that can be done with a cheap answering machine.

landline=outgoing only

[zogger]

I solved my telemarketer spam problem by never answering the landline phone. I use it for net access, and cheap long distance and some local outgoing calls only. Heck, I'd have to even look at the number now, I don't know it offhand. We use the cellphone account with a voice mail for screening. If someone calls LD and it will take a long time, I just hangup the cell, where minutes are more expensive, tell them I will call right back. Landline is pretty good for also staying up during bad storms, meaning I c

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[nacturation]

That's about it for me too. Landline offers better quality of a call, it's more comfortable to hold, and if you ever have to dial 911 it's nice that they will know exactly where you are instead of where you approximately triangulate. I have unlimited incoming and outgoing local minutes on my cell phone and dial a local number which then proxies my long distance on the cheap, so that's not really a concern. I also tend not to answer the landline unless I recognize the calling number but then I often have