Beeping...

[TykeMerc]

Hmm, I have the PC connected to my phoneline for broadband, will that allow it to accept normal phone calls through the microfilter thingie?

If there's a way to do that then I'm not aware of one, the usual way is to use a modem and some fax software.

My call provider says they cannot tell who is calling me, they only monitor outgoing calls from my number. Sounds a bit useless to me, maybe that's a price you pay for not using BT for your line rental.

That's total flannel, they've fobbed you off. The provider can get the info from BT and BT can easily trace the origin of calls that route through their network, there are quite a few legal reasons that they have to be able to do this.

[expat]

DP is talking bollocks, shock!! horror!! There are a lot of links in the chain to get a caller's ID to you, including all the carriers on the way, and you depend on them all carrying it.

You may be called by someone from a company or organisation that is not able to send the exact caller's ID, and choose not to send any ID, rather than send the "reception" number. Often the person calling will not be aware that their TN is not being sent. This applies to my doctor, and to agencies that have got me 6-figures-worth of contracts.

When you go international it gets even more likely that caller ID will not be carried all the way along the chain.

Yes I have thought of rejecting all no-caller-ID calls, but it would be a shame to ignore the doc, the sources of income, the tax office, my partner .... none of these is withholding their number because they are sleazy.

[NotAllThere]

... but it would be a shame to ignore the doc, the sources of income, the tax office, my partner .... none of these is withholding their number because they are sleazy.

I bet you wish she was...

[Grinder]

These are mostly automated diallers phoning sequences of numbers to establish whether there is a genuine phone at each number. These are logged for cold-calling later. Joining the TPS seemed to solve it.

Then we had regular calls from from a number that did return a caller ID. I Googled the number and it turned out to be that the previous user of our new phone number had an Amstrad internet phone - which apparently received daily calls from Amstrad for adverts and such like. I phoned the call centre and had our number removed from the daily calls.