Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!wuarchive!swbatl!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: spear@druco.att.com (Steve Spearman) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Answering Machine Interrupter Message-ID: Date: 26 Jul 89 14:20:05 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Organization: AT&T, Denver, CO Lines: 27 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 258, message 4 of 9 In article , stiatl!john@gatech.edu (John DeArmond) says: > In article glen@aecom.yu.edu (Glen M. Marianko) writes: >>Age old answering machine problem: forget to turn off answering machine >>Anyone hear of any >>such add-on gizmo to go in-line with the answering machine and the >>telco jack? Seems doable... > I saw just such a gizmo Friday in either The Sharper Image or Brookstone. > It looked like one of these little 1-to-2 outlet splitters you can get > at radio shack except it had a couple of LEDs in it. you hook your > extension phone and answering machine in thru this thing. When you > pick up, the answering machine is cut off. Works only for that > phone, though. I have one like that described that was ordered through a small company ad in the back of Popular Mechanics or Popular Science. I suspect (though do not know) that it is the same on Sharper Image has. However, it DOES work for any phone in the house. The reason for the splitter arrangement is so your local extension will work like any other phone in cutting off the answering machine. If you plugged it into the answering machine itself (as is often done), only the answering machine could cut itself off - the device has no way to tell about the offhook. Steve Spearman spear@druco.att.com