Anonymous Call blocking
jacktra3321
5ess switch. I have local telephone service thru MediaOne and have anonymous
call reject turned on at my house but still keep getting calls from (via
caller ID) unknown name unknown number. I called MediaOne to ask why this is
happening, and they say that anonymous call reject will only block people
who are attached to a standard dial up line but will let most not all
telemarketers through. Is this true or is it a poorly provisioned switch?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
danny burstein
I should probably write this up as an faq... maybe this weekend...
there are three general types of info your local phone switch will get
regarding caller id (cnid)
a) everything works fine and the switch gets the number of the person who
calls you. In this case it will send it across your line to your cnid box.
b) the info reaching the switch includes a "private" flag. In this case
the switch _does_ get teh cnid, but does NOT pass it along to your
box. Instead, it sends a "private" flag to your box, and that's what is
shown on your box. Note that _this_ is what's often referred to as
"anonymous" (mistakenly in my opinion).
In this case ("private"/"anonymous") you can set (most) cnid boxes
(the one in your home) to anser the call with a 'fuck off and die' msg to
the caller. You can ALSO, in many areas, set up your phone LINE (courtesy
of the telco switch) to block these calls before tehy even get to your
home. There are tradeoffs for both choicess.
c) If there's _no_ (or wrong) cnid coming across, then the telco switch
sends it over to you with the "unknown" flag. This used to occur in teh
early days of CNID when receiving long distance calls. Bit by bit (and
with pressure from the FCC) the telcos cleaned up their act, so it's now
extremely rare for (at least a domestic) "regular" call to be in this
category.
HOWEVER, and this is where the telemarketers come in... most of them use
equipment that is NOT set up with a "regular" number, but, instead, is
trunked into the long distance network. Hence they do NOT send out any
CNID information, meaning that your local telco CO gets the "unavailable"
flag and sends the call, with that (non) info, to your home and CNID box.
While many telcos will, at your request, block out the "private" calls
from reaching you (using what they call "anonymous call rejection"), I'm
not aware of a single one which offers this option for "unknown" ones.
Hence you can NOT use telco based ACR to blcok telemarkters.
There are a _few_ CNID boxes that give you this option. Again, most will
block the "private" ones, but only a couple will block
"unknown/anonymous".
NOTE: it's NOT just telemarketers with teh "unknown" flag. Many legit
businesses (including, dumbly, gov't offices) may be set up this way.
In my not so humble opinion what _should_ be done is that these groups
should include a pseudo-cnid in their outgiong trunks. By this I mean,
say, if a technicain from County General Hospital called you, the CNID
should send out the main number of the hospital. Same for the local
gendarmes... kick over the precinct's main number.
--
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dan...@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]
Wally Roberts
danny burstein wrote:
>
> In my not so humble opinion what _should_ be done is that these groups
> should include a pseudo-cnid in their outgiong trunks. By this I mean,
> say, if a technicain from County General Hospital called you, the CNID
> should send out the main number of the hospital. Same for the local
> gendarmes... kick over the precinct's main number.
Blame the FCC. They have had this issue on hold for several years now. It is the big kink in
what the FCC wanted to be a ubiquitous CPNI system. I suspect they caved in to both big business
and big government.
wbro...@my-deja.com
dan...@panix.com (danny burstein) wrote:
> In <87chah$bkj$1...@spinner.corpeast.baynetworks.com> "jacktra3321"
<jackt...@aol.com> writes:
>
> >I was wondering if anyone knew how anonymous call blocking works
with a AT&T
> >5ess switch.
<<Snip>>
> >Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>
> I should probably write this up as an faq... maybe this weekend...
Excellent idea. You have some great information here.
>
> there are three general types of info your local phone switch will get
> regarding caller id (cnid)
>
> a) everything works fine and the switch gets the number of the person
who
> calls you.
<<Snip>>
> b) the info reaching the switch includes a "private" flag.
<<Snip>>
> shown on your box. Note that _this_ is what's often referred to as
> "anonymous" (mistakenly in my opinion).
>
<<Snip>>
>
> c) If there's _no_ (or wrong) cnid coming across, then the telco
switch
> sends it over to you with the "unknown" flag.
<<Snip>>
>
> HOWEVER, and this is where the telemarketers come in... most of them
use
> equipment that is NOT set up with a "regular" number, but, instead, is
> trunked into the long distance network. Hence they do NOT send out any
> CNID information, meaning that your local telco CO gets
the "unavailable"
> flag and sends the call, with that (non) info, to your home and CNID
box.
>
> While many telcos will, at your request, block out the "private" calls
> from reaching you (using what they call "anonymous call rejection"),
I'm
> not aware of a single one which offers this option for "unknown" ones.
> Hence you can NOT use telco based ACR to blcok telemarkters.
>
> There are a _few_ CNID boxes that give you this option. Again, most
will
> block the "private" ones, but only a couple will block
> "unknown/anonymous".
>
> NOTE: it's NOT just telemarketers with teh "unknown" flag. Many legit
> businesses (including, dumbly, gov't offices) may be set up this way.
>
> Many government offices, as well as many legitimate business, as you
noted are trunked directly with their long distance carriers. The
reason for this is simple dollar savings. They don't have to pay
access fees on their direct connects. As they directly access the LD
carrier with a trunk attached to the PBX, it depends on how the PBX is
programmed. Most PBXs can be set up to provide CLID or not. In the
case of some government agencies, it is to their advantage that the
system not provide any information, hence unknown. Can you imagine a
call from the police to a confidential informant being registered on
caller id? How about a call to an undercover agent?
There are times when being able to hide behind an "unknown" flag is
needed.
--
William "Bill" Brownlow
"While my employer has their opinion, I have mine.
Occasionally they converge."
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
jacktra3321
switch cant see the calling number the switch cant route the call to the
customer unless they remove the "anonymous" status from the line.