Digitone Call Blocker 10 Advice Wanted

cloudsong said:   does anyone know if they have the new models in yet? the ones that work with Bell Canada systems?

The new models arrived last week and mine was shipped on Aug 2nd. You should call or email them with your question.

blastoff577 said:   what will be diffrent then the 10 one?

It's still a MODEL 10 but the new version may have additional features or just updated firmware. I received my third unit last week and so far I have experienced no problems with OPX or missed calls. My extensions still ring once during first ring suppression though (they are wireless extensions of my Panasonic base unit). Go figure.

ina696, I recall reading about if a phone is plugged in to the TEL port it will ring one time, but don't recall where that was. I don't own one of these, I'm just here reading about them and thought I could help answer your question. Have you read the PDF online manual? I saw this bit that may help you:
Installation for Whole House at Demarc (terminal block – line interface)
The Call Blocker can be installed anywhere in the home or office at any available wall plate. If installed this way, all phones will ring once because the caller ID which the Call Blocker uses to block calls with, follows the first ring. To avoid this first ring you can install the Call Blocker that has First Ring Suppression™ built-in, at the demarc where the phone service comes in. The demarc can be many things; 1) the line interface on the side of a home where regular 2-wire service is connected, 2) in a phone closet of an office with a telco punch down block, 3) a connection interface in a basement of a home or office, 4) a phone port of an ATA, analog telephone adapter of a Cable modem, Vonage adapter, Cell Phone Gateway, or Magic Jack™. You can also avoid the first ring using a cordless phone system connected to the Call Blocker’s TEL phone port. If you have other phones connected directly to the line, you can turn off their ringers and distribute the ringing using the cordless phones.

I like the reviews here. I'm replacing an old (probably close to 20 years) Intlescreener that is going bad. It was the best $80 I've ever spent on phone products, so I was mad that it is no longer made. For being as old as it is, I'm surprised how many features it had. The current boxes seem to not have the capacity or ease of use.

My setup is a cell phone connected via an xLink Bluetooth box to a cordless whole-house phone w/ answering machine (with a couple of wired phones as well). I need to have caller ID on the handsets, so the other call blocker I saw was no good. I read about the TrueCall device in the UK, and it looked good until I realized you can't use an answering machine with it:
Q. Does trueCall work with answering machines?
trueCall includes Message Manager, its own powerful answering machine. If you have a separate answering machine, unplug it or switch off any answering facilities provided by your telephone.

Mrs. Surf is not real hi-tech, so I need to keep it as user-friendly as possible. Looks like I will try either the Digitone or the new pro series. I've sent an email to the company to see what the differences are.

No will not work with an answering machine sorry, but like i said before it's own answering machine

Tom i useto use call blocker 10 but it was ALWAYS diffrent numbers and didn't work out for me, so i looked again online and found out Truecall and that worked the best for me.

Yes it does work with an answering machine, if the call rings through. If you aren't on my block list - you will get my answering machine if I don't pick up. I have blocked entire area codes - 800, 866, 877, etc,. Its just nice not to be disturbed by nuisance calls. I keep it in the bedroom and ever so often I will check it and see who has called and gotten hung up on. As far as telemarketers or the such using different numbers you can block ALL numbers from calling you and say who EXACTLY do you want to hear from, if the situation warrants. I love the thing and wish I had gotten it two years ago. My suppose telephone company doesn't block anything, but of course, why would they block something that makes them money?

Before these new products hit the market I had a friend in the aerospace industry that got fed up with unwanted phone calls. This was a good 10 years ago. He found a product ( actually a kit or schematic ) somewhere and ended up with a box that required ANY 'approved' caller to input an additional number after his phone number to even get through to his phone. I never could get the source for that product/kit or even the schematic. If I recall correctly I think there may have been an issue with obtaining one of the components (diode or ?). We The Digitone sounds like it would work perfectly for us with one exception. We occasionally get a call from my wife's stepmother who lives overseas in Cz. When she calls us all we see on our caller I.D. is " Out Of Area ". I will never answer any of these types of calls. The only clue I get is the time of day we happen to get the call and I have to take a chance and pick up. We have the Panasonic cordless phone set but it only lets you block 10 different phone numbers and it appears Digitone also has a limie, albeit it is much larger. I don't understand with the availability of GB's of memory around why there should be such a 'low' limit, unless it's purely a marketing plow to get you to update later.

ANYONE EVER HEARD OF WHAT MY FRIEND WAS ABLE TO OBTAIN 10 YEARS AGO ? ? ?

Hey baggywrinkle, I purchased a trueCall unit as well, and since you own it too, I have a question for you. Were you ever provided a telephone number you could use to connect to their Weblink service? There purportedly is a location out of NYC to do this. This enables many more options available to tweak your unit just the way you like it. I have contacted trueCall support and it is difficult since e-mail is how I go about doing it.

Also, mhadley1, I do remember the unit of which you describe, but I saw it advertised preassembled and it was around $300 at the time.

blastoff577 said:   For darkhorse31 I have TRUECALL infact im the first person on this board to have it you can call them at 0800 0 336 339 i called that number from the USA here i know works, but this was over a year ago. Truecall does work like a charm. Im really glad i have it really has stopped all the annoying callsCan someone help me decode this?

not sure what you mean DECOed it

Yes, you can call them, but the question is, how do you call Weblink by going through the TrueCall unit itself? Otherwise it only uses the pre-programmed telephone number that is only good to call if you live in the UK and always fails if you try it here in the USA. They told me approximately a year ago they were supposed to have a telephone number up-and-running within the USA that you can call, but it has yet to materialize.

That is not true; calls that are for information only, for example a company calls to tell you about solar panels are giving you information can call you. Then they try to sell you the solar panels.
People who want you do donate can call you. If you Google the do not call list and you can read that all they do is keep a list of people who have filed complaints.

I have been on the do not call list for two years and I get at least two or three calls that are telemarketing, trying to sell me a new loan on the house. (house has no loan), etc.

We do need a device that will block more than 30 phone numbers. Because some of these companies have many phone numbers that they use to call people. And with CID you try to call back and number does not accept in coming calls. So you cannot ask them to stop calling you.

That is why

Just as a side note, I forward all calls from 'offending numbers' to my local PD, I'm sure they get lots of fun when trying to call them.

OK, after reading all the testimonials my question is does it or does it not reliably pass caller ID thru on unblocked calls?
It sounds as if setup between incoming line and the house wireing it answers all calls and screens them for info, If the info (ID)
is legit it then rings the telephones. Since it answered and the Caller Id comes between the first ring and second ring it would have to
answer /
sceen ID / if legit
store ID /
ring phone /
pass on ID /
continue ringing...
thanks for your reply

I'm ok with the record, when I called police and they said that they can't do anything about the 'ring ring ditch' people. So now they can deal with the stupid questions from that particular set of numbers.
I used to pretend that the cops were on the line, now they really are. It's not an automated dialer, it's a bunch of local kids having fun.

Hello, I just bought TrueCall Unit.. I live in the U.S. and have Vonage VoIP Service. Right now i'm having treble with the unit .. its not seeing any incoming calls at all and not letting the phone ring.. Its like no incoming call is coming but I can see online on my Vonage account the calls are there just the Truecall unit not able to see them.. also to the person calling the phone on their end rings two times and then a 2 second music and hangs up on them.
Truecall support people said it might not work with VoIP only regular landline... they are not sure.
My question is.. Can anybody confirm if the Truecall unit work with Vonage service here in the US?

Thank you.

To MrQ55 I have Vonage, and Truecall works fine for me on my Vonage line. Not sure why your having problems, sorry to hear you are, maybe they can send you a replacement model. Infact im the first person on this board who got and started the conversation about Truecall on here

I wanted to understand more about TrueCall and why it doesn't work with an answer machine.. I understand that it have its own built in but lets say I have an Invited number ring my phone and after the fourth ring I didn't answer so my phone's built in answer machine kicks in.. Wouldn't that work? Just like I'm answering except its the messaging system of the phone not TrueCall's

I really think it should work that way.

Sooo, is it just me or is it a HUGE coincidence that most of the reviews on this product are 'New Members' with only one post to this one thread...hmmmm...

What is clear to me is the obvious setup in which the incoming line is hooked to LINE and your phone or phones are hooked to the TEL jack on the Digitone. Obviously, with this setup calls will either ring through or be dropped depending on your Digitone programming. What I don't understand is the possible suggestion, and maybe I'm just not comprehending the user manual, that by (I think) just having the Digitone LINE jack plugged into your telephone line, without any phones plugged into the TEL jack, the Digitone can allow calls to go through to either other phones in the home or in particular an answering machine that is hooked up to another phone line wall jack. In other words the Digitone ends up having two possible functions: 1) screening calls that might be put through its TEL jack and/or 2) accepting and then hanging up on unwanted calls on the phone line in general, regardless of whether or not a device is hooked to the Digitone's TEL jack. Can anyone enlighten me? Thanks. Wayne