Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!casbah.acns.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: sneaky!gordon@utacfd.uta.edu (Gordon Burditt) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Caller-ID Technical Question Message-ID: Date: 12 Feb 91 00:43:58 GMT Sender: news@casbah.acns.nwu.edu Organization: Gordon Burditt Lines: 27 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 115, Message 3 of 6 >I think its purpose is merely to *identify* the origin of the call in >the event you wish to know that information. In other words, do not >choose to answer or not based on what the Caller*ID box displays -- >remember the many examples of someone you want to talk to calling from >a different phone than usual -- but instead, answer the phone as you >normally would and use the identification provided for recourse to the >caller if desired. PAT] Regardless of the intent, people are allowed to use it that way. I suspect a number of people would like to use it to route calls: known fax machines get the fax machine, known computers get the computer, known teenagers get the phone in the teenager's room, known adults get the parent's phone, known nuisances that won't fit into Call Screening get a recorded insult, and unknown callers get the answering machine (which someone might pick up). Granted, there are some ambiguities possible (the guy with the computer might want to make a voice call to the operator of the machine). The people who invented RingMaster (distinctive ringing based on CALLED number: user gets two or three numbers) probably intended it to identify a class of callers, not route calls, but based on the ring-identifying switch boxes available, a lot of people want to use it that way. It only gives a 3-way choice, though. Gordon L. Burditt sneaky.lonestar.org!gordon