Phone lines - EEEE!!!!!

[gillumhouse]

That was the sound of a Primal Scream. My phone line has been acting up for the last couple days. Kicking me off the Internet and then a sound as if someone forgot to hang up. Then in about 15 minutes it cleared up. I thought maybe it was the server. They are saying not me. So I called my computer fixer and cried HELP! He had me try something and agress with hosting company it is good old Verizon. Meanwhile, I am now at the Library ready to cry!! I NEED my computer.
Fixit guy tells me to go with the cable company and get DSL. He says I can talk and computer on the same line no problem and can eliminate the other phone line. How will that affect the fax that currently shares a modem with the computer on the dedicated line.
Thanks for letting me scream. I have no idea how long I am going to be in limbo. Fixit guy has DSL with Verizon and says he has been trying to get it working with them for 3 months. He said I am better off going with the cable company for the DSL. Will keep everyone posted. EEEEEEE!!!!!!!

 

[scrambled_eggs]

Sorry to hear that. Do you have high speed cable internet where you are at? That is what I have and it works really well. We dont' have DSL here though and that would go through the phone line. Maybe there is something wrong with your modem?

 

[Morticia]

I have DSL with Verizon (now FairPoint in my area). Hubs has the same experience you do using the WiFi connection. I have no problems because I am directly connected to the box. However, we do not have any issues with the phone line itself. ie- calls come in and out and no one gets hung up on, etc. (Altho the actual quality of the phone reception is horrible. We get a rebate every month for that. Cheaper than fixing it.)
We have 2 lines. One does the DSL, phone and fax and the other is just a phone. In my case, the fax machine is plugged into a completely different phone jack than the DSL box. However, I have a splitter on that jack for the phone in my office.
Good luck!

 

[Copperhead]

We have had cable highspeed for about 5 years now, moved from dial up. Can not think of going any other route at this point and the price is just about the same as AT&T DSL but cable is faster.
One of the things you must ask yourself in the decsion is if you do go with cable, would you still need a second phone line for the fax? Just how often is it used? Do you have your fax # posted all over the net? The other option on the fax issue is going with an online fax company that will send your incoming faxes to an email account - no more paper unless you need to print - efax (send and receive) is well known but their monthly charge seemed a little high to me (for my business needs anyway) then I found packetel.com for under $4 (just receive). For sending you could just have a switch on your 1 phone line.
I've been contemplating doing this as well and switching to either cable phone or VoIP. BTW just noticed that vonage has fax capabilities too, but haven't read up on it...

 

[YellowSocks]

Go cable. You'll love it.
Ditch the second phone line. The once a year I need to fax something I pull it out of a cupboard, hook it up to the main line and send it off.
I justify the expense because we're a B&B, but now that I'm on cable it would be hard to have to go back to dial up, even though that's all I used for a very, very long time.
=)
Kk.

 

[egoodell]

What about getting software so you can fax from your computer? Do you have a scanner so you can scan and fax if need be?
Riki

 

[swirt]

If you don't get many incoming faxes then just set the fax to not autoanswer and put it on your main phone line. If you do get a lot of incoming faxes, you can get a phone/fax switch that will make the switch if needed. If the fax is relatively new it may have a fax switch built into it already to distringuish between and incoming call and an incoming fax.

 

[Samster]

If you finally go with cable, you can also go with VOIP and get rid of your land lines. I worked from home in a corporate job & did all faxing through an e-Fax application over my cable connection. I also could receive faxes & save them in e-files. Of course, I could print them if I needed to have a hard copy. It was great to avoid a lot of paper though.
The only reason we have the second line is for credit card processing but a lot of folks are going to wireless on that too.

 

[Morticia]

If you finally go with cable, you can also go with VOIP and get rid of your land lines. I worked from home in a corporate job & did all faxing through an e-Fax application over my cable connection. I also could receive faxes & save them in e-files. Of course, I could print them if I needed to have a hard copy. It was great to avoid a lot of paper though.
The only reason we have the second line is for credit card processing but a lot of folks are going to wireless on that too..

I realize a lot of place do have wireless cc processing, but I'm still not sure that's the way to go. Seems way too insecure. Like the guests we get here who are gov't employees, they won't use the WiFi to work. They want a hardwired connection.

 

[Samster]

If you finally go with cable, you can also go with VOIP and get rid of your land lines. I worked from home in a corporate job & did all faxing through an e-Fax application over my cable connection. I also could receive faxes & save them in e-files. Of course, I could print them if I needed to have a hard copy. It was great to avoid a lot of paper though.
The only reason we have the second line is for credit card processing but a lot of folks are going to wireless on that too..

I realize a lot of place do have wireless cc processing, but I'm still not sure that's the way to go. Seems way too insecure. Like the guests we get here who are gov't employees, they won't use the WiFi to work. They want a hardwired connection.
.

Firewalls. Encryption.

 

[gillumhouse]

Am at Library in Clarksburg - got a phone tech at home who told truth - trouble on trunk line. He will look at it Sunday when he works again - I hope. Cable company has high spped and that is what I am going to do. I had not thought about the cc machine - yikers! That might mean I have to keep the second phone line no matter what. Crap!! I do niot receive many faxes and do not send as many now that I am no longer Marketing for MABB - but...... I have a scanner/fax/copier/printer. Time almost over at the Libery computer - they give you half an hour. Have to see if I can get another half.

 

[Morticia]

Am at Library in Clarksburg - got a phone tech at home who told truth - trouble on trunk line. He will look at it Sunday when he works again - I hope. Cable company has high spped and that is what I am going to do. I had not thought about the cc machine - yikers! That might mean I have to keep the second phone line no matter what. Crap!! I do niot receive many faxes and do not send as many now that I am no longer Marketing for MABB - but...... I have a scanner/fax/copier/printer. Time almost over at the Libery computer - they give you half an hour. Have to see if I can get another half..

We have 2 phone lines. One has the DSL, fax (which has a manual switch for sending/receiving) and our phone. The other is the biz line with the cc machine and phone. It's not often that we have problems, but sometimes one of us is taking a rez when the other wants to run a card. Or the phone rings while running a card and shuts off the transaction (which incurs an additional fee when it redials).
If you use your cell phone for all your personal calls, then just the one line would probably work for phone/cc machine/internet.

 

[gillumhouse]

Am at Library in Clarksburg - got a phone tech at home who told truth - trouble on trunk line. He will look at it Sunday when he works again - I hope. Cable company has high spped and that is what I am going to do. I had not thought about the cc machine - yikers! That might mean I have to keep the second phone line no matter what. Crap!! I do niot receive many faxes and do not send as many now that I am no longer Marketing for MABB - but...... I have a scanner/fax/copier/printer. Time almost over at the Libery computer - they give you half an hour. Have to see if I can get another half..

We have 2 phone lines. One has the DSL, fax (which has a manual switch for sending/receiving) and our phone. The other is the biz line with the cc machine and phone. It's not often that we have problems, but sometimes one of us is taking a rez when the other wants to run a card. Or the phone rings while running a card and shuts off the transaction (which incurs an additional fee when it redials).
If you use your cell phone for all your personal calls, then just the one line would probably work for phone/cc machine/internet.
.

Only use cell for long distance calls. Looks like I may have more of a problem than I thought. DH is not going to be happy to discover we have additional cost instead of a wash. Oh well, what else is new, he is rarely happy - especially with me.
He DID actually like my new haircut!!

 

[scrambled_eggs]

You can probably just put your credit card machine and hook it to your main line. Just as long as someone isn't on the phone or an incomming call is coming in then it should be fine.

 

[YellowSocks]

We have our cc machine on the main line. I'm almost never on the phone while I'm trying to run a cc card...
I plug the fax in if I need it (which is very, very rarely).
We have phone with the cable company, too, as the package deal is more cost effective. The only problem is that if the router's down, my phones are down, too. And if I haven't forwarded them to my cell, they cannot be forwarded at that point.
=)
Kk.

 

[gillumhouse]

You can probably just put your credit card machine and hook it to your main line. Just as long as someone isn't on the phone or an incomming call is coming in then it should be fine..

That is what I am thinking. I usually only run the cards in the morning for check-out and as soon as the guest is pulling out I am doing the settle so that should not end up being a problem. Now, once I have high speen, I figure I may as well wifi for the guests. If I have my computer guy set me wup with a double router, that should protect my data - correct? I do not want my PC to be wifi, just have it for the guests.
It is now going on 2am, I figure the phone will not ring now so I plugged my voice line in to check e-mail now that I am back from Chapel. I hope this gets resolved VERY soon. This has caused major crapify to my Library so much so that I am now in the process of decrapifying! One huge bag of crapify on the deck awating the garbage Monday and a second one started. Probably 2 or 3 more to go. I HATE decrapification!!

 

[Morticia]

You can probably just put your credit card machine and hook it to your main line. Just as long as someone isn't on the phone or an incomming call is coming in then it should be fine..

That is what I am thinking. I usually only run the cards in the morning for check-out and as soon as the guest is pulling out I am doing the settle so that should not end up being a problem. Now, once I have high speen, I figure I may as well wifi for the guests. If I have my computer guy set me wup with a double router, that should protect my data - correct? I do not want my PC to be wifi, just have it for the guests.
It is now going on 2am, I figure the phone will not ring now so I plugged my voice line in to check e-mail now that I am back from Chapel. I hope this gets resolved VERY soon. This has caused major crapify to my Library so much so that I am now in the process of decrapifying! One huge bag of crapify on the deck awating the garbage Monday and a second one started. Probably 2 or 3 more to go. I HATE decrapification!!
.

Do a search on here for the WiFi router diagram that Swirt drew up explaining how to separate the 2 routers. At least I think it was on here.

 

[Morticia]

Very good! You may want to edit that...the story is in there 3 times...

 

[gillumhouse]

Thanks, Bree, I will look it up.
Update - about Noon today, that wonderful Verizon Tech (I bypassed repair sort of thanks to my computer guy giving me a forbidden phone number) had my problem fixed. I was right, it was like 2 lines functioning at the same time. He said that my line was coming into contact with another phone line. That said, this was on my e-mails this morning and is soooo appropriate:
Copper Wire

After having dug to a depth of 10 feet last year, New Yor[COLOR= navy]k [/COLOR]scientists found traces of a copper-wire system dating back 100 years, and they came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephonenetwork more than 100 years ago.
Not to be outdone by New Yorkers, in the weeks that followed, Californiascientists dug to a depth of 20 feet, and shortly after headlines in the LA Times newspaper read: ' California archaeologists havefound traces of 200 year old copper-wire system and have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-techcommunications network a hundred years earlier than the New Yorkers.’
One week later, 'The Redneck Rebel Gazette' in West Virginia reported thefollowing:[COLOR= navy]…[/COLOR] After digging as deep as 30 feet in a corn field, Bubba Ray Johnson, a self-taught archaeologist, reported th[COLOR= navy]at [/COLOR]he found absolutely nothing. Bubba has therefore concludedthat 300 years ago, West Virginia had already gone wireless.

 

[YellowSocks]

You can also set your computer that when you're online and a phone call comes in it will disconnect and answer the phone. There's even some way you can see what number is calling and decide whether to answer it....
=)
Kk.