http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article685041.ece

I just found this looking for a fiendish box to block calls to 118 *** 
numbers....  someone, but no-one will confess as yet, has run me up a good 
£70 calling directory enquiries alone and a hefty sum in mobile calls.

I may be gone from this newsgroup for around 30 years.  I send my apologies 
in advance....

Does anyone here know the sort of thing I'm talking about?  Something to 
securely attach to the master socket that listens out for 118 or 07 being 
dialled or ideally programmable....  I think OneTel did something like them 
once so that all the national and international calls you made could have a 
OneTel prefix added to your calls (in case you forgot) so that they could be 
routed through their network.  They had to have been listening for the 
dialling prefix, so it has to be possible to block calls instead of 
re-routing them.

PIN blocking is no good.  It's too severe and you have to keep turning the 
block completely on and off.  All I'd have to do is forget to turn it back 
on after a call and I'd be having to sell my other kidney.

TWP

This sort of thing...
http://safield.co.uk/internet-phone-guardblock-outgoing-landline-calls-p-614.html

"TWP"  wrote ...

> Does anyone here know the sort of thing I'm talking about?  Something to
> securely attach to the master socket that listens out for 118 or 07 being
> dialled or ideally programmable....

I don't know of anything commercial but it would be possible to DIY such a
device although it wouldn't be BABT approved and you'd need the skills for
that.

Not sure how you could stop calls from extensions though without
intercepting the exchange lines. The 'thing' on the master socket could
perhaps st in parallel and short the lines and thus block / terminate the
dialling from an extension or flood the line with adverse DTMF tones. Most
commercial units need to be fitted to every socket and intercept between
phone and phone wiring. Get acess to the raw exchange lines and you're home
free.

You could run the exchange lines from the master socket only to this 'box of
tricks' and then onto the household extensions and that would be able to
disconnect a call.

"The Happy Hippy"  wrote in message 
news:Za1lk.36564$E41.12566@text.news.virginmedia.com...
>
> "TWP"  wrote ...
>
>> Does anyone here know the sort of thing I'm talking about?  Something to
>> securely attach to the master socket that listens out for 118 or 07 being
>> dialled or ideally programmable....
>
> I don't know of anything commercial but it would be possible to DIY such a
> device although it wouldn't be BABT approved and you'd need the skills for
> that.
>
> Not sure how you could stop calls from extensions though without
> intercepting the exchange lines. The 'thing' on the master socket could
> perhaps st in parallel and short the lines and thus block / terminate the
> dialling from an extension or flood the line with adverse DTMF tones. Most
> commercial units need to be fitted to every socket and intercept between
> phone and phone wiring. Get acess to the raw exchange lines and you're 
> home
> free.
>
> You could run the exchange lines from the master socket only to this 'box 
> of
> tricks' and then onto the household extensions and that would be able to
> disconnect a call.
>
>

My hardware phone handler from AVM [ www.avm.de] allows me to do just what 
you appear to want to do. I can tell it all sorts of things like, no 
international calls, no special numbers, block particular numbers, and so 
on... I don't use it, I am the only person who uses the phone so there is no 
point in blocking myself so to say. It might be that it is not compatible 
with the UK phone system but that is another hurdle...

"Bill Again"  wrote in message 
news:g72ajc$gan$03$1@news.t-online.com...
>


> My hardware phone handler from AVM [ www.avm.de] allows me to do just what 
> you appear to want to do. I can tell it all sorts of things like, no 
> international calls, no special numbers, block particular numbers, and so 
> on... I don't use it, I am the only person who uses the phone so there is 
> no point in blocking myself so to say. It might be that it is not 
> compatible with the UK phone system but that is another hurdle...
>

The Phone Guard thing looks worth a try.  It goes over the master socket 
then it screws on and a lockable door covers the heads of the new screws. 
After that you can whitelist 20 prefixes or complete numbers.  Not many 
numbers... even a 1K eeprom should be able to store dozens.

ADSL will probably require some kind of bypass hard-wired into the master 
socket behind the lock, but I think I can handle that.

What a situation... you can't trust anyone!  At least I don't have their 
blood on my hands yet.


TWP

"The Happy Hippy"  wrote in message 
news:Za1lk.36564$E41.12566@text.news.virginmedia.com...
>
> "TWP"  wrote ...
>
>> Does anyone here know the sort of thing I'm talking about?  Something to
>> securely attach to the master socket that listens out for 118 or 07 being
>> dialled or ideally programmable....
>
> I don't know of anything commercial but it would be possible to DIY such a
> device although it wouldn't be BABT approved and you'd need the skills for
> that.
>
> Not sure how you could stop calls from extensions though without
> intercepting the exchange lines. The 'thing' on the master socket could
> perhaps st in parallel and short the lines and thus block / terminate the
> dialling from an extension or flood the line with adverse DTMF tones. Most
> commercial units need to be fitted to every socket and intercept between
> phone and phone wiring. Get acess to the raw exchange lines and you're 
> home
> free.
>
> You could run the exchange lines from the master socket only to this 'box 
> of
> tricks' and then onto the household extensions and that would be able to
> disconnect a call.
>
>

I've found something that can do it, but it's supposedly not friendly to 
ADSL.  The main problem is the phone that I'm not next to and so can't 
monitor the use of, but if necessary I'll lock all the lines.  I could have 
done this in the first place, but God help me, I tried just asking people 
not to use the phone without asking first instead.

I'm full of good ideas this incarnation...

TWP