Call Blocking Devices

Tell me Badge, did it have to 'phone home' to install?

Actually, I have been searching a long time for a device or service that will only let through phone calls from a contact list (whitelist).  I would like to keep my mother as independent as possible, but the phone solicitors get her very upset.  I am also afraid of her giving away too much personal information. The Do Not Call Registry has had little effect on her call traffic.  Creating a Blacklist is not only time consuming, but for some seniors it is simply not possible.  I would need to create such a list for my mother and I not always with her.  Such a device/service is especially important for seniors with dementia and cognitive issues.

The Digitone Call Blocker 10, which I own and like, is sold out. The listing has been removed from amazon.com. The new Digitone Call Blocker Pro is coming out in January 2014. The main difference is a capacity for 140 blocks instead of 80. I wish it were even more. The price will be slightly higher, $106.95 including shipping. I have no interest in this company except as a satisfied customer.

Amazon has a nice selection of call blockers just under 60.00..  and some under, some in between. One can buy what they can afford to.

If your mother’s phone service includes Caller ID, you can create a blacklist easily and slowly over time.  Using a call blocker that records call history and has a blacklist button makes this simple.  Just review call history every week or so and press the blacklist button when an unwanted caller is displayed.  That caller is now on your blacklist and will be hung up on in the future.  

Creating your own blacklist list manually could take time depending on how many numbers you want to enter.  Ditto for a whitelist, but the risk for a whitelist is that you may never be able to create a comprehensive list and important numbers (that you didn’t anticipate calling) will not be able to get through.

Did you happen to read about the alternatives to Digitone discussed on page 12 of this thread?  See: https://800notes.com/forum/ta-5d4e343675a5629-12/call-blocking-devices

Thanks, Jim, I did read all the previous posts in this thread. Before I bought the Digitone a few months ago I did a lot of research, mainly using the detailed reviews of call blockers on amazon.com. Many of the reviewers there are tech-savvy people who go into great detail in their reviews.

I finally crossed my fingers for luck and went for the Digitone, which I've been very happy with. It was on the expensive side, and I found the manual a bit hard to comprehend, but the complexity is understandable considering how many settings are possible. I still consider it the best hundred bucks I ever spent.

I had to laugh at one reviewer on amazon.com who said it was the best hundred bucks he ever spent, other than one unforgettable night in Phoenix back when he was 19 years old. :)

a call blocker would really be great, but is it working on VOIP calls?

Most of the hardware call blockers discussed in this forum (Digitone, Pro Call Blocker, etc) will work with almost all VOIP services.  Many work with mobile services too, but I would not want to carry around a separate piece of hardware.  With VOIP you have additional software call blockers (Phone Tray, etc) you can use too.   Another option would be to consider a service like Nomorobo if your VOIP service provider supports that.

First, sorry about my English. I'm looking for a call blocker, too, as the disease of tele-spam finally came to the East Europe.

So, I need this:
- whitelist (block the rest)
- preserve caller ID for phones
- phones should not ring even once (blocker must suppress first ring)

As far as I understand the discussion, only Digitone meets my requirements? Thanks.

>>> I'm looking for a call blocker, too, as the disease of tele-spam finally came to the East Europe. <<<

You are going to have to find a call blocker that works with the telephone transmission standards in your own country.  Not only are your numbers in a different format than those used in North America, but the manner in which caller ID is sent down the phone line is entirely different in most parts of the world than in North America.  Simply put, an external device made for US standards is very unlikely to work in your part of the world, and could even be damaged by plugging it into your phone system.  And your phones may not ring (or worse things might happen) if you actually do try to use that device. The ringing signals are of a different voltage, for example.

By the way, the caller ID information in the US is transmitted between the first and the second ring using a signal encoded digitally in a way that is not used in many parts of the world.  That is why you often hear the first ring with many external call blockers.  If you suppress the first ring, then, for calls you actually want, you have that much less time to answer the phone, and the caller has to wait longer before he can talk to you.  For calls from mobile phones, it may already take, say, 10 or 12 seconds after the call is sent to the mobile carrier before the interconnection is made to the landline network and another couple of seconds before a ringing signal is sent to your phone.  If you suppress that first ring, the time allowed by the mobile carrier before your call is automatically terminated for failure to answer may be half exhausted before the landline phone rings, leaving the caller frustrated.

ANonieMouse, thank you.

I'm aware of the risk, this device might be incompatible with the telephony system used in Poland. But I _think_ it should work, because we generally use DTMF/FSK, as the rest of the European Union.

For the other thing you said, about ID signal transmission - I observed it being exactly the same here. I've got a voice modem connected to my PC, and a simple ATAPI program (made by myself) to bounce spam calls. I'm getting caller ID's between 1st and 2nd ring, and my phone rings once.

One the other hand, my phone (Panasonic) doesn't ring at all for numbers in its internal, 30-slot blacklist. So I hope, Digitone might work well in conjunction with that phone.

Watch out for the Community Call Blocker from Group Utilities!  Brilliant!

I read about TrueCall Call Blocker, and it had excellent reviews.  However, it is sold only in the UK.  Here's a video that shows you how it works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga9Zm_tU15o

They told me they are testing some units in the US, but I bet marketing companies will somehow block it and it will never arrive on our shores.  I guess the UK and Europe have as many irritating callers as here...but probably less regulation about having them.

Here's their Amazon UK presence:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/TrueCall-The-Nuisance-Call-Blocker/dp/B002GP7HQM

A quick review of the device: The unit does not have a visual display panel.  All user communication appears to have to go through the unit's speaker.  You must listen to messages before pressing a button to add them to its blacklist (Zap list).  If the caller does not leave a message, there is no way to block that caller without a message playback.  

It cannot be installed on a line that is shared with a Fax.  There appears to be a conflict if using "call waiting".  A quote from TrueCall's website and in their user manual: "We don't recommend trueCall for VoIP systems that make calls over the Internet."  

The manual says Caller-ID service is required, but does not say what formats are supported (FSK, DTMF, ETSI, and regional versions of these).  I suppose the UK version of Bellcore FSK is used.

The unit seems to be more of an advanced answering machine than a call blocker.   I think TrueCall's features (or lack of) would limit its usefulness in North America.  

Manuals can be found here: https://www.truecall.co.uk/call-blocker/callblockermanuals.aspx