I want to KILL the person on the other end of the phone...

So you're saying your father won't let you add *70 as a dialing prefix in your dial up connection program because then his work calls won't be able to get through? Am I correct in this?

If so, you could sign up for the national do-not-call list, which will stop almost all telemarketers from calling your house. I forget where on the Web the signup is, but it's a U.S. government Web site.

FYI if you tell a telemarketer not to call you again, they will obey -- but then your number will likely show up again soon on a new list they get from another company they're working on. The only way to force the telemarketer to cross-check all their lists and never call you is to tell them to put you on their do-not-call list. But they often don't actually maintain such lists (even though the law says they have to), and the national do-not-call list is much more effective.

Finally, the new V.92 56k modems have the capability to resume connections after a call-waiting call is received and dealt with. There is also software that allows one to see who is calling in (if you have caller ID).

But this resume-connection will only work for a file download if the site or server you're downloading from (and the app you're using to download) supports resumable downloads.

So the only real fix is to reduce the number of interruptions, which means use the national do-not-call list.

Matt

Pay $20 a month and get a second phone line.

3 words. High speed internet.

Beleve it or not Dr. Bob, not everyone can get high speed internet. ::) Unforchanatly, the areas that *cannot* get it right now usualy are the ones that can *never* get it...

1 word: Wardriving.

... that the OP's father won't let him disable call waiting. Given this, it may be that his father also won't spring for high-speed internet access, either because he thinks it's unnecessary, or because it doesn't fit within the household's budget.

To paraphrase Elvis Costello (and Cher), let's have a little love and understanding here folks!

Matt

Luckily when I did use dialup I RARELY got telemarketing a-holes ringing me, now I have DSL and tons of telemarketing calls per day...
The system works

Anyway, does anyone have a way of dealing with this? I dont want to go ex-directory. If I tell them to NEVER phone again, do they have to obey by law?

The U.S. national do-not-call list does work. We used to get one or two dozen telescum calls per week - now its down to 2 or 3 per week tops. Even companies that we have "an established business relationship" with (e.g., bank, credit card cos, telephone cos) seem to be respecting the list. Now we only get the occassional charity call (legal under do-not-call) and sometimes a clueless local company.

You can find the registry at:

https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx

Note that telescum have 90 days to take your registered number out of their databases, so it might take a bit of time. But it really really is worth it.

You may want to look into fixed wireless. I live out in the middle of no where and I did not know anyone offered it until I went looking for it. Our provider uses Motorola's Canopy system. I don't know if it is avaible in the UK but a quick email to Mot might get you pointed in the right direction.

Thanks for the replies and sorry about the delays...I managed to cut my finger with a scalpel..and had to get it sorted out. The odd thing was, I did not feel it cutting me! I only realised when I looked down at my finger and realised the blade was lodged in it...go figure

I cut my finger open last saturday on a big Intel server. I didn't feel it either. Just noticed my hand getting warm...

So it wasn't an IBM Blade server? That would be funny.

I like the look of that list…I wonder if there is one for the uk. I’ll have to do a search

You need to register your phone number with the Telephone Preference Service. We've been on it for years and have never received any telemarketing calls. There's also one if you find yourself getting junk faxes too.

So it wasn't an IBM Blade server? That would be funny.

IBM is the competition, we don't carry their products

Those telemarketers can be a bugger to deal with.

If you get repeat phone calls from the same company, a good method of getting them to stop is to:

1) Ask them politely (but firmly) to stop calling you. Be sure to get their name and the date.
2) The next time they call, ask to speak to a supervisor and inform him/her that you have asked not to be called anymore. Get their name and record the date.
3) If they should call again, ask to speak to the same supervisor, and voice your displeasure more firmly, but maintaining your polite nature. Inform the supervisor that the next time you receive a call from their organization, you are going to file a formal complaint with the BBB (or equivalent) and/or government agency responsible for this.

If you are willing to go to these lengths, most companies back off entirely, and word spreads *very* quickly throughout these industries, so the volume of calls decreases dramatically.

Cheers,

The Czar

Check out V.92 modems. If you have one and your ISP supports them, you're suposed to be able to put the modem on hold to take an incoming call then take the modem off hold to take up where you left off.

Wayne

It helped my grandparents connection a lot. They were losing it a lot with .90 and its a bit faster.