Locked out

On Wed, 11 Feb 2015 20:29:29 -0500, Alek wrote:

Gene E. Bloch wrote on 2/10/2015 8:12 PM:

As usual, I love to give an opinion :-)

No invitation is needed - which reminds me that I have friends who will
tell you all their health issues without even being asked. I promise not
to plague you with mine, however.

You have the PLAGUE????? Can we bloch this guy from infecting all of us?
I don't think that antimalware and antivirus programs work against the
plague! Maybe a childhood vaccination may have helped????

Sorry - I Stumbled in the process of expressing myself.

I don't have plaque, according to my dentist. especially not bubonic
plaque.

Geez...I must have forgotten my meds today :-)

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

Gene E. Bloch wrote on 2/11/2015 8:34 PM:
On Wed, 11 Feb 2015 20:29:29 -0500, Alek wrote:

Gene E. Bloch wrote on 2/10/2015 8:12 PM:

As usual, I love to give an opinion :-)

No invitation is needed - which reminds me that I have friends who will
tell you all their health issues without even being asked. I promise not
to plague you with mine, however.

You have the PLAGUE????? Can we bloch this guy from infecting all of us?
I don't think that antimalware and antivirus programs work against the
plague! Maybe a childhood vaccination may have helped????

Sorry - I Stumbled in the process of expressing myself.

I don't have plaque, according to my dentist. especially not bubonic
plaque.

Didn't you get a plaque for 7th grade spelling, "honorable mention"???

On Thu, 12 Feb 2015 15:16:22 -0500, Alek wrote:

Gene E. Bloch wrote on 2/11/2015 8:34 PM:
On Wed, 11 Feb 2015 20:29:29 -0500, Alek wrote:

Gene E. Bloch wrote on 2/10/2015 8:12 PM:

As usual, I love to give an opinion :-)

No invitation is needed - which reminds me that I have friends who will
tell you all their health issues without even being asked. I promise not
to plague you with mine, however.

You have the PLAGUE????? Can we bloch this guy from infecting all of us?
I don't think that antimalware and antivirus programs work against the
plague! Maybe a childhood vaccination may have helped????

Sorry - I Stumbled in the process of expressing myself.

I don't have plaque, according to my dentist. especially not bubonic
plaque.

Didn't you get a plaque for 7th grade spelling, "honorable mention"???

LOL!

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

Gene E. Bloch wrote on 2/13/2015 2:23 PM:
On Thu, 12 Feb 2015 15:16:22 -0500, Alek wrote:

Gene E. Bloch wrote on 2/11/2015 8:34 PM:
On Wed, 11 Feb 2015 20:29:29 -0500, Alek wrote:

Gene E. Bloch wrote on 2/10/2015 8:12 PM:

As usual, I love to give an opinion :-)

No invitation is needed - which reminds me that I have friends who will
tell you all their health issues without even being asked. I promise not
to plague you with mine, however.

You have the PLAGUE????? Can we bloch this guy from infecting all of us?
I don't think that antimalware and antivirus programs work against the
plague! Maybe a childhood vaccination may have helped????

Sorry - I Stumbled in the process of expressing myself.

I don't have plaque, according to my dentist. especially not bubonic
plaque.

Didn't you get a plaque for 7th grade spelling, "honorable mention"???

Could have been "honorable menschen"!!

On Fri, 13 Feb 2015 17:07:27 -0500, Alek
wrote:

On Thu, 12 Feb 2015 15:16:22 -0500, Alek wrote:

Didn't you get a plaque for 7th grade spelling, "honorable mention"???

Could have been "honorable menschen"!!


g

Or even "honourable menschen."

On 2/11/2015 8:29 PM, Alek wrote:
Gene E. Bloch wrote on 2/10/2015 8:12 PM:

As usual, I love to give an opinion :-)

No invitation is needed - which reminds me that I have friends who will
tell you all their health issues without even being asked. I promise not
to plague you with mine, however.



You have the PLAGUE????? Can we bloch this guy from infecting all of us?
I don't think that antimalware and antivirus programs work against the
plague! Maybe a childhood vaccination may have helped????


Plague? I seem to remember a rather nasty inoculation shot for that!
(along with some others.) Had to get a surgeon to remove a fatty lump
from the inoculation site forty years later. Still have the two inch
long scar. Seems that the lump was pressing on a nerve or something.

Currently the biggest plague I have is a plethora of "Robo Calls".
To add insult, the calling number is almost always bogus.
I don't think that there is a software solution, although one can hope!
Maybe some sort of voice recognition program that parses the spoken
word(s) and disconnects?.

On Fri, 13 Feb 2015 18:47:53 -0500, Charlie wrote:

On 2/11/2015 8:29 PM, Alek wrote:
Gene E. Bloch wrote on 2/10/2015 8:12 PM:

As usual, I love to give an opinion :-)

No invitation is needed - which reminds me that I have friends who will
tell you all their health issues without even being asked. I promise not
to plague you with mine, however.



You have the PLAGUE????? Can we bloch this guy from infecting all of us?
I don't think that antimalware and antivirus programs work against the
plague! Maybe a childhood vaccination may have helped????


Plague? I seem to remember a rather nasty inoculation shot for that!
(along with some others.) Had to get a surgeon to remove a fatty lump
from the inoculation site forty years later. Still have the two inch
long scar. Seems that the lump was pressing on a nerve or something.

Currently the biggest plague I have is a plethora of "Robo Calls".
To add insult, the calling number is almost always bogus.
I don't think that there is a software solution, although one can hope!
Maybe some sort of voice recognition program that parses the spoken
word(s) and disconnects?.

My recent Panasonic cordless phone can block up to 250 calls. You have
to give it the number, though. Transferring it from the caller ID works.
One problem: I suspect that many callers use the phone number only once
They are fake numbers, even 555 numbers show up. In the US, where I
live, 555 numbers don't exist (unless that's been changed).

The phone picks up, parses the caller ID, and if it's on the list the
phone hangs up. Actually I think it parses first, and if it recognizes
the number, it goes off-hook & on-hook in a quick pas de deux of
rejection.

My Android KitKat phone doesn't seem to have a way to do it, but I don't
get many cellphone calls to kill. (Crosses fingers...)

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

Gene E. Bloch wrote on 2/13/2015 7:21 PM:

My Android KitKat phone doesn't seem to have a way to do it, but I don't
get many cellphone calls to kill. (Crosses fingers...)

??? Google "how to block a call on an android phone".

Give me your number and I'll help you test it.

On 13 Feb 2015, "Gene E. Bloch" wrote in
alt.comp.os.windows-8:

My recent Panasonic cordless phone can block up to 250 calls. You
have to give it the number, though. Transferring it from the
caller ID works. One problem: I suspect that many callers use the
phone number only once They are fake numbers, even 555 numbers
show up.

This is true. I've been keeping a list for the past couple of years of
junk phone calls. I find that rarely do the junk callers spoof the same
numbers. They will sometimes use similar numbers, like from the same
area code or exchange, but slightly different numbers. This makes it
difficult or impossible to completely block them, even though the same
scammers may be calling.

My phone has no call block feature, but my phone provider, Comcast,
does. It only allows 25 numbers to be blocked, but that seems to be
enough.

Junk calls go in cycles. The cycle seems to be way up right now. I'm
getting up to 4 or 5 junk/robocalls a day. In a downcycle, it's maybe a
couple a week.

My Android KitKat phone doesn't seem to have a way to do it, but I
don't get many cellphone calls to kill. (Crosses fingers...)

Yeah, that's true for me, too, and seems odd. I get tons of junk calls
on my landline phone, but almost none on my mobile. I wonder why?

On Fri, 13 Feb 2015 16:21:56 -0800, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

My recent Panasonic cordless phone can block up to 250 calls. You have
to give it the number, though. Transferring it from the caller ID works.
One problem: I suspect that many callers use the phone number only once
They are fake numbers, even 555 numbers show up. In the US, where I
live, 555 numbers don't exist (unless that's been changed).

I use a phone blocking device (Pro Call Blocker) on my landline that
blocks whole area codes. Solves most of those only use a number once
problems. Course I can't use it on area codes that I expect calls from
so on those I can only put the block on the individual numbers as they
come in.

My Android KitKat phone doesn't seem to have a way to do it, but I don't
get many cellphone calls to kill. (Crosses fingers...)

I use the free Android app Call Filter Plus. It allows for several
ways to black or white list numbers. It doesn't block the calls but
rather silences the ring from blocked numbers. I have mine set to
block calls not on my contact list. The call is still listed in missed
calls so if I miss one I want I can call them back later.

Verizon also allows me to block up to 5 numbers at their website. If I
want to do more I have to pay. A bigger PITA than it's worth so I
never use it.

On Fri, 13 Feb 2015 21:39:28 -0700, scarecrow wrote:

Verizon also allows me to block up to 5 numbers at their website. If I
want to do more I have to pay. A bigger PITA than it's worth so I
never use it.

I found that too. It seemed not worth the bother to me as well.

BTW, my landline is also Verizon (functionally a land line, physically a
cellular line), so I like the cordless phone's built-in blocker.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On Fri, 13 Feb 2015 21:46:19 -0500, Nil wrote:

My phone has no call block feature, but my phone provider, Comcast,
does. It only allows 25 numbers to be blocked, but that seems to be
enough.

Verizon only provides 5, and the interface is not convenient.

Junk calls go in cycles. The cycle seems to be way up right now. I'm
getting up to 4 or 5 junk/robocalls a day. In a downcycle, it's maybe a
couple a week.

My Android KitKat phone doesn't seem to have a way to do it, but I
don't get many cellphone calls to kill. (Crosses fingers...)

Yeah, that's true for me, too, and seems odd. I get tons of junk calls
on my landline phone, but almost none on my mobile. I wonder why?

Actually, it's my provider that doesn't make it convenient, as scarecrow
reminded me & as I hinted above. And as I replied to him, that affects
my landline blocking too.

As for why few junk calls on the landline, I wonder if it relates to the
accessibility of the corresponding phonebook (or whatever serves as one
these days).

I have a vague recollection that there's a law making cellphone spam
calls illegal, but if that's true, it's still a surprise if it has any
effect :-)

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On Sat, 14 Feb 2015 12:12:01 -0800, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

On Fri, 13 Feb 2015 21:39:28 -0700, scarecrow wrote:

Verizon also allows me to block up to 5 numbers at their website. If I
want to do more I have to pay. A bigger PITA than it's worth so I
never use it.

I found that too. It seemed not worth the bother to me as well.

BTW, my landline is also Verizon (functionally a land line, physically a
cellular line), so I like the cordless phone's built-in blocker.

My landline is Cox which is also my ISP (same modem for both phone and
internet). My cordless phones, like yours, also have blocking ability
but as you mentioned I found that I was wasting my time blocking the
numbers one by one. Once I got the area code blocking gadget my
problem went down by 90%. And my local area code businesses don't
usually use different numbers so single number blocking works well
with them.

BTW here are my top ten area code blocks: 518, 866, 877, 561, 425,
214, 800, 520, 773, and 925. YMMV.

On Sat, 14 Feb 2015 12:19:04 -0800, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

I have a vague recollection that there's a law making cellphone spam
calls illegal, but if that's true, it's still a surprise if it has any
effect :-)

On a similar problem my wife was getting a lot of spam SMS messages
and the Verizon website allowed me to turn off all SMS messages
originating on the Internet. Only messages from other phones now get
through. It killed her problem almost completely, so that was very
helpful. Course if you're getting wanted SMS notifications from a
website it would kill those too.

On Sat, 14 Feb 2015 14:02:46 -0700, scarecrow wrote:

On Sat, 14 Feb 2015 12:12:01 -0800, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

On Fri, 13 Feb 2015 21:39:28 -0700, scarecrow wrote:

Verizon also allows me to block up to 5 numbers at their website. If I
want to do more I have to pay. A bigger PITA than it's worth so I
never use it.

I found that too. It seemed not worth the bother to me as well.

BTW, my landline is also Verizon (functionally a land line, physically a
cellular line), so I like the cordless phone's built-in blocker.

My landline is Cox which is also my ISP (same modem for both phone and
internet). My cordless phones, like yours, also have blocking ability
but as you mentioned I found that I was wasting my time blocking the
numbers one by one. Once I got the area code blocking gadget my
problem went down by 90%. And my local area code businesses don't
usually use different numbers so single number blocking works well
with them.

BTW here are my top ten area code blocks: 518, 866, 877, 561, 425,
214, 800, 520, 773, and 925. YMMV.

My cordless phones also have blocking for area code, and even for
exchange, but I haven't tried to use those. It's pretty easy to block a
single number from the caller ID list, and the limit is 250 numbers :-)

Not doing that saves me from learning something new, but it also means I
don't (yet) have to work out a strategy of what to block.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)