Hi everybody,

I am setting up a nice little scheme at home to thwart all those marketing calls and perhaps make a little revenue from them.

My problem:  I get a lot of marketing calls on my current geographical phone number, despite TPS.  This has become so bad that I often don't bother answering the phone.  I have obtained an 0870 number, and I have been giving that out out to companies for a while, e.g. when applying for credit cards etc., but I guess my geo number is already too widely in circulation among the marketing callers.  Equally, I don't want to change my number, because I do get the odd call from people who have not called me for a while, and in any event I do not want to tell all my friends and family about a new number. Also, changing the number would probably involve disconnecting my ADSL line, at least for a while.    I also don't want to pay for a second BT line to use as a private line.

So, here is my scheme.  It has two stages.  A baisc stage, that gives me a new free geo number to avoid all those sales calls, and a geeky one, which includes a call marketing call screener and a scheme to get money out of incoming sales calls through an 0870 number.

For the scheme, you need to have an always on ADSL connection.

Basic scheme:

- Sign up for an account at www.sipgate.co.uk.  This comes with a free UK geo number.  Yes, that's right.  There are no charges for this. They only charge to load your account with call credit, which you do not need to have to receive calls.

- Get an IP phone, for example a Grandstream GS100.  This is the only (one-off) expense in this scheme (apart from the cost of electricity running the phone)

- Connect the Grandstream to the sipcall service, and hey presto, you have a new secret, ex directory UK geo number, which you can give  out to trusted friends and family.

-  Put an answer machine on the old geo number (the one "spoilt" by telemarketers) with a message saying that the number has changed, telling telemarketers to stuff it and telling personal callers to leave a message. 
Turn off the ring on the phone on that number and turn down or off the volume on the answering machine. 

All you still need to do is listen to any messages on the answering machine, to check if there are any personal messages, but there is no other way if, like me, you want to continue monitorung the old number just in case an old friend calls.

Geeky Scheme:

- Get another account from sipgate with another UK geo number.

- Get an 0870 number, preferably one that pays out at low call volumes.  This has been covered elsewhere on this board.  Point that 0870 number to the second sipgate geo number.

- Alternatively, if making a revenue kickback is not important, one could also sign up with, for example, www.voiptalk.co.uk, who will give a free 0870 number along with a free voip account.

- Change the message on the answering machine on the old, "spoilt" number, saying the number has changed to 0870 xxxxx.  At the end, say if this is a personal call, please leave a message.  Hopefully, this means that telemarketers will duly take a note of the "new" 0870 number, whilst friends will leave a message.  Then screen the messages for any old personal friend calling, as in the basic scheme.

- Install Asterisk PBX on a Linux machine (www.asterisk.org.  Ok, you will need a linux machine that is running 24/7. Some people have their own linux machine running all the time at home.  Others may have a virtual server on the net.  Others may have access to a Linux server somewhere.  There is another alternative:  The Linsys WRT54GS router can take a small Linux installation www.openwrt.org and Asterisk can be run on it.  That's the setup I have.  I run Asterisk on Linksys WRT54GS router.

- Now program Asterisk to accept calls from the first sipgate number (the private one for family and friends) and make it ring the Grandstream phone straight away. (or, for that matter, program Asterisk any way you like, e.g. screening out calls from mother in law, ex-girlfirend, boss etc.)

- Programm an auto-attendand in Asterisk for incoming calls associated with the 0870 number.  On the basis that this number has only been given to companies and been left on the asnwering machine for the old "spoilt" number, it can now be assumed that all calls coming in on this number are unwanted calls.  You can now set up the auto-attendand in Asterisk any way you like, from a simple "pi** off message" to an elaborate scheme to string the callers along as long as possible, wasting their time and (if applicable) earning you a kickback on the 0870.  Alternatively, if there is a chance that friends might still end up calling the 0870 number, or that a legitimate call could come through to it (e.g. from your bank manager), you could set up the Asterisk auto attendant to ask the caller to state the purpose of the call, give them a brief time to record it, then ring the Grandstream phone, play back the recorded statement and let you decide whether to accept the call.  If you reject it, the IVR could be programmed to string the caller along ("please hold, Mr. x will be with you shortly").



Any suggestions to improve this?

I'm tempted to agree with that remark.

I think if you want to do all of that Sipgate stuff for other reasons and interests, that's fine, but to describe it as motivated most by the reasons you describe does look a little odd.

If you don't like unsolicited calls, ask them to remove you from their database. If it's still bad think about TPS.

But to spend all that money on hardware to make a little money ... there are faster ways to make a fortune than being paid £3 an hour to listen to phone calls you dislike.


The only good reason I can think of to have an 0871 or 0844 number is to forward calls to my foreign mobile number. .... umm, in fact it has 6 available ways to call it, including divert from UK mob inclusive minutes plus 7p/min so maybe I'm equally geeky on a different subject.