Re: Since the list is so quiet....

Judy,

My suggestion is junk the old rotary phone.

And yes, you can still buy hard wire phones. And for very little. A
nice portable phone with line connection and battery charge station
can be had for as little as $10-15.

Sandy

>Since the list is so quiet, I figured I might be able to appeal to
>the leashed brain power & expertise for advice on a problem that
>arrives suddenly after more than 10 years of dial up... So I'm
>hopelessly backward, but that's well known -- who else would take up
>gum printing in old age?
>
>My problem is -- I'm still doing e-mail by dial up --which actually
>has many advantages, including that I get to spend the oodles of
>money saved on more intellectual pursuits (although the real reason
>I do it is (a) stubborness... and (b) simplicity, I have enough
>systems, services, contrivances, and "service providers" in this
>house for an army). Besides which I can really excuse myself from
>web hopping, which makes me old before my time.... So what's the
>problem?
>
>A couple of weeks ago I started getting an intermittent "no dial
>tone" message from my attempts via terminal emulator (Z-term) to log
>on... though I could lift up the phone and get a dial tone. Trying
>an hour or two later, I did get a tone, so I figured there was just
>too much traffic... somewhere.
>
>But today I couldn't get a dial tone all day, so tonight (12:30-ish
>AM) I plugged into an extension of my husband's office phone which
>is nearby (I mean sometimes I HAVE to use touch tone, since my
>dearly beloved white antique wall phone is rotary... And, I'll have
>you know, I could get $45 for that on e-bay. I think folks use them
>as planters, or ash trays, or something.)
>
>So there is a dial tone out there & the problem is... something in
>the old phone? (Sob !)... That's intermittent? The demons got tired
>of Carmen and found me? Sliding down the telephone wire?
>
>But how could my rotary phone be working, give me a dial tone and
>calls in and out but say it has no dial tone for a connection? And
>some time later, with the same configuration, same connections,
>etc., decides to work, then maybe the next week won't? A loose
>connection? A flaky thumb plug?
>
>Verizon has lately been taking an overdose of dumb pills and was
>absolutely no use at all... they for instance left me one of those
>robot messages to say a non-working outlet was due to my faulty
>phone, when it belonged to somebody else in the house who had
>already had it fixed -- by verizon.
>
>So verizon said this problem was caused by my service provider, but
>it seems rather to be lodged in my old phone, a split personality of
>some sort. Anyway, I suppose that old phone which doesn't hear as
>well as I do any more is due to be replaced (ash tray anyone?). Can
>you still buy a landline phone? Anyway, thanks for listening, if
>anyone has a suggestion, that would be even better...
>
>Judy
Received on 08/09/06-10:57:46 PM Z