MartinM

With only one BT phone line, no cable anywhere near us, two kids, me and a BT Internet Anytime account, we are almost constantly engaged for incoming calls.

I read on BT web site about a second line at £49.50 installation and £9.59/month (Internet calls should be free 'cos of BT Anytime) - but there is one phrase somewhere that says that Internet connection speeds cannot be guaranteed for a second line. Presumably the second line is somehow multiplexed onto the first? Any views?

BT Home Highway just looks far too expensive? Any views?

Anyway, I've also found BT Internet Call Waiting that sounds the job for £4.50/month plus the free ICA software. Anyone got it? Does it work OK? Any gotchas that BT don't explicitly tell you about (not that I think they would ever do that ) Any alternatives that you can use with a BT line?

Responses in this thread please - there's no point ringing 'cos it'll be engaged

sgould

This is true.

However Homehighway (ISDN) isn't that expensive if you make outgoing calls, and you get better connection speed. 64k seems a lot faster than 56k (44k max usually).

2 x standard lines will cost you about £20 a month, ISDN is £40 including £15 free calls a month. I usually have two PCs connected both running 64k.

My last bill for 3 months, I only paid £1.99 for my calls and I use the phone quite a bit.

MartinM

Thanks SG...

We don't use the phone much, so £120 for a qtr is a bit on the heavy side even if the Internet access speed is greater - we're nearer £60/qtr for rental and call charges (..and you have to add BT Internet Anytime on top of both)

So, the question still remains...anyone got experience of BT Internet Call Waiting???

John Catlin

Got it via Freeserve. Works perfectly and I now know when I have a call and come off the Internet.

Go to

bob gray

iTrader: (1)

work for bt fitting second lines,isdn and home highway every day.the last two are the best.if you get a second line you are okay as long as a DACS is not fitted either external or internal your speed will struggle above 12k.bt say this is a voice line not data so cant garantee speeds.

MartinM

Thanks John...seems the way to go then

Bob...how would I know if I had a DACS (internal or external)...and what does it do??? Can I ask for a second line without a DACS???

ChrisB

Best method to avoid a DACS unit is to stress when you place the order that the 2nd line is for Internet / modem use. Probably worth saying you don't want a DACS unit, though the call centre person might not have a clue what you are on about!

Haven't ordered a new analogue PSTN line for a while though.

ChrisB.

bob gray

iTrader: (1)

the engineer might tell you if he is fitting a dacs just depends we do in our area.dacs splits 1 line into 2 down same copper pair.dacs in exchange talks to remote unit(internal or external) to give 2 lines.say to 150 sales you dont want dacs they may know nothing but again depends who you get.its your call good luck.ps a dacs is only fitted when ther is a shortage of line plant but dont know until its ordered

John Catlin

Martin,

Just found out that Freeserve have jacked the service.

Found out by chance as my system did not appear to work.

Sorry about previous information.

All the best,

John Catlin

MartinM

Have just ordered Call Diversion, so hoping BT Call Diversion on a BT line with BT Internet Anytime will do the job

chelsie_uk

Hi

What about ADSL this gives you 24 hours internet and a second line so you get incoming calls at the same time.

Its 40.00 but if you know about this then you will know you dont get 56 speed, you get
576,000bps,
So downloading is megga fast etc

chel

MartinM

Unfortunately, BT (and the Government?) are so not interested in high speed Internet access to the public at large that our nearest place cabled up for ADSL is over 10 miles away

tonybooth

Martin

Call waiting can be switched off by dialling #43# and on again by dialling *43*.

I have just ordered a 2nd line from NTL for voice calls and will retain BT line for internet access.

TONY

dsmith

For those that like to bash BT for the lack of Broadband please consider what is required beyond the front door. ADSL is still an immature technology, if BT had instantly managed to install kit in every single exchange in the country (few people are more than a few miles from one) and the next "must-have" tecehnology appears, BT would be lambasted for jumping the gun. Again if every Internet household had ADSL, where is all the backbone capacity going to magically appear from ?

I too find it frustrating. I work at the Main BT Research Site/Development area but can't get ADSL 10 miles away. However I understand the shear scale of the problems of an instant National Rollout. If the government had had any committent behind its vacuous statments realting to the Internet, it could have subsidised a national backbone. However it has chosen to leave it entirely to commercial interests. It should therefore accept that Commercial Interests (especially those saddled with Governemnt induced debt) may not be able to produce instant results.

carl

Have you looked at BT NetChat? It's only 99p a month.

MartinM

After subscribing toCall Diversion and 45 mins on the phone to various bits of BT (and mostly IVR machines...grrr) I have established that despite all the web pages at

MartinM

Cheers Carl - this might be a partial solution

I've just talked to a guy on the NetChat helpline and he was actually Helpful (with a capital H...well done BT!!!)

Allegedly....you can do Voice over IP with other netchat users, either calling them or answering their incoming calls. If you're on a netchat call and another netchat call comes in you can answer the intruding call. If a normal voice call comes in, you get an on screen notification, but you can't answer it with VoIP, or disconnect from the Internet and then answer it - it will have disappeared. You can do a 1471 to get the phone number of who called tho'.

The questions I now have are (bear with me chaps - this is nearing a conclusion )
- I like to know how things work - so how does an incoming traditional voice call (that is presumably responding with an engaged tone to the caller and not actually getting as far as my telephone socket) result in a popup on my PC???
- does anyone else use NetChat, and what's it like

TIA...hopefully for the last time

Martin

carl

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by MartinM:
<B>If a normal voice call comes in, you get an on screen notification, but you can't answer it with VoIP, or disconnect from the Internet and then answer it - it will have disappeared. You can do a 1471 to get the phone number of who called tho'.
[/quote]

You can answer an incoming call with VoIP (it's called PSTN break-in). I have seen it demonstrated in the lab -- voice quality seemed pretty good but there's a fair bit of delay (~0.5 sec). However, caveat emptor as we did it with a captive PSTN and IP model, not on the live network. Amongst other things, this exacerbated the perception of delay as I could see the other person talking...

As to how it works, I could tell you but I'd have to kill you

Basically it uses an Ignite-branded client that is essentially Netmeeting, which registers with a call-server when you fire it up. When your phone is engaged it the incoming call diverts to the call server in the same way it would divert to a Call Minder box.



[This message has been edited by carl (edited 21 June 2001).]