BJ> I use distinctive ring to allow my BBS to answer one phone number 
 BJ> and my voice calls to not be answered by the BBS and instead be
 BJ> answered by me, all on the same, single phone line.

 RJT> I guess the phone company around here likes to collect 
 RJT> the money for more than one line,  instead.  Maybe 
 RJT> it's a matter of population density,  or something, 
 RJT> they provide that capability when they don't have all 
 RJT> that many actual wire pairs left to offer people?

Based on your BBS origin line, I assume you are in the United States... 
[Let's see...  Isn't area code 717 in California?]  If in the United
States, then distinctive ring is avaliable.  The phone company may call it
something else...  I don't remember all the names I've heard for it. 
Basically, the phone company is selling the party line switch capability to
you with out having to wire a second location to the same line. 
  And in (most?) paarts of the country, party lines have been
getting phased out.  I used to have a friend who's house was still
(officially) on a party line for a very long time -- grandfathered into the
category....  I don't remember exactly when, but I believe the phone
company finally dropped the designation here...  So, unless you are in some
backwater where party lines are still the norm, I would expect distinctive
ring should be available.  It may be that the phone company doesn't want to
pay for a needed software update.... 


 BJ> I have a seperate box that uses caller ID that screens my voice
 BJ> calls.

 RJT> I have a couple of those on hand as well.  Don't use 
 RJT> 'em,  though.  And somewhere around here I have some 
 RJT> bits of info as to how bink can deal with that as well.

You have a couple of Bouncer-200 boxes laying around?  I haven't seen those
available for years.....  Probably don't work with call waiting caller ID,
but do a nice job for screening calls to the answering machine based on
caller ID info.....

Take care......

Bob Jones, 1:343/41


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