Landline PINs or locks?

Dyr

Right, my dumbs**t brother has managed to run up a massive bill on the old mans landline and he'll continue to do so untill something physically stops him from using the phone. Im all in favour for that something to be a hammer applied to his fingers but the old man porbably wouldnt want that...

Is there any hardware or service solutions that allow you to lock a landline or handset down with a PIN or soemthing similar. Or even that can bar certain numbers? bear in mind the old man is getting on and not too good with technology so it has to be simple.

ta

amtc

any operator can block such numbers

Dyr

tbh he'll probably just find another local callcard number to make international calls through if we start blocking individual numbers through but its worth a go

rmacm

Bambi wrote: »

Im all in favour for that something to be a hammer applied to his fingers but the old man porbably wouldnt want that...

I doubt your brother would be the most pleased with that either.

Bambi wrote: »

Is there any hardware or service solutions that allow you to lock a landline or handset down with a PIN or soemthing similar. Or even that can bar certain numbers? bear in mind the old man is getting on and not too good with technology so it has to be simple.

ta

Is there a particular type of call he's making e.g. calls to 15xx numbers? You can ask your provider to bar these numbers for example. I'd suggest giving your provider a call and see if they can help you with this.

Dyr

I think he's using those local numbers that you

well tisnt my phone and I dont live there but im going to point them at eircom to get it sorted. Ta

HPMan

there used to be an electronic phone point you could buy from people like Misco or Tandy or Maplin, cannot remember whom; if I remember correctly, it would stop the jack point - phone socket from working if in the locked position.

Solair

If it's mostly just local calls, get a package that includes local or national landline calls. It's often the cheapest solution to such a problem.

Check out www.callcosts.ie for details.

If it's mobile or 1550 etc numbers you can request that eircom blocks them. They charge some silly fee for this and a monthly rental on the blockage! Typical eircom behaviour...

I'm sure they could implement a PIN lock on the phone line, but they don't seem to market any such product at the moment.

One other solution:

Buy a decent cordless phone e.g. one of the eircom branded Siemens DECT phones. Lock the base station in a bedroom and remove all other telephone sockets in the house.

You can then just take the handset away with you when you're not at home.

Some models also allow you to pin lock the phone so it will only accept calls to 999 or 112 etc

There are also models with seperate charge-only base stations that do not have a telephone line connected to them. These can be left downstairs perhaps, while the actual telephone line-connected base station could be left in a locked bedroom or closet.

Failing that, you could invest in a small PBX (Office phone system). You can get them for as little as €100 these days for a single line + 4 or 5 extensions. You can usually programme these to block outgoing calls / restrict calls to specific numbers, but you wouldn't loose the convenience of having normal telephone service in your rooms.

You might need to do a little web research on this.


You could also try a US device like :

http://www.familysafemedia.com/phone_linelok_telephone_line_l.html

Note that UK BT specified phone sockets are not the same as Irish ones. US ones are!

rogue-entity

You could also get a coin-operated pay-phone. Most of these have a PIN override that allows you to bypass the coin system. As long as your brother doesnt know the pin, or have a key to the coin-box he would have to chuck out for every minute of the call out of his own pocket.

Solair

The problem is if you leave a phone socket still available, he could pick up a phone in tesco for €10 and plug it in and make all the calls he likes.

rogue-entity

You could always remove the phone socket, and just hard-wire the phone, like those old rotary phones you had to hard-wire before sockets became a standard.