How to block phone numbers from caling my home phone

There are a number of ways to accomplish this if you need to.

Normally your landline phone company will have a paid monthly service called CALL PRIVACY, or CALL BLOCKING, or CALL SCREENING, or some other name like that. Each local phone service provider will have their own name for their particular version of this product so you will have to contact yours in order to find out the exact details, operating instructions and cost.

This service will effectively allow you to block certain numbers from calling your home phone. You can either enter the numbers into the system manually, or if their Caller ID is hidden, then just press a certain key sequence right after they call in order to automatically add them to the block list.

After that, your phone will no longer ring at all when that number calls you and the calling party will hear some kind of automatic rejection message and then be disconnected.

Generally this service will cost a few extra dollars a month on your phone bill and will normally allow you to block up to about a dozen separate numbers.

If you need to block more numbers than that, then you may need to set up your own customized call blocking system using a home computer hooked up to your home phone landline. There are a few excellent software programs you can get which will monitor the incoming calls to your home phone line and automatically block any that you designate as undesireable.

As I said, these customized call blocking systems normally require you to have a basic home computer system connected to your phone line and running full time. If this is not objectionable and you have an older spare desktop computer system lying around, then it would not take much effort to set it up. The main advantages to this method are that there is no limit to the number of callers/numbers that you can block, and the only paid monthly subscription you require from your local phone service provider is their Caller ID feature.

Here is a link to one excellent software program that you can download and use completely for free:


http://download.cnet.com/PhoneTray/3000-2074_4-10540928.html?tag=mncol;8

Just use your mouse to click on the link, which is the underlined and highlighted text just above. This will open a new web browser page automatically for you and allow you to view the information at the website indicated where you can read about the software, check out other user's reviews, and download it completely for free if you decide you want to try it. This particular program offers many additional options as well beyond just simple call blocking if you want to get really creative, but a basic system is pretty easy to setup if that is all you need.

I hope this was helpful.


Good luck and take care.


Joe.