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HappyDude20

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jul 13, 2008
3,688
1,479
Los Angeles, Ca
Hi all,

so my wife and I just got a Pied-à-Terre (an apartment in the city) which either of us will be using at least 2 weeks outta the month. This apartment is in a gated community and the way letting in Guests/Visitors in past the gates is that there is a standard voice box with a keypad for cars to pull up right beside. The visitor dials either my apartment number or finds me via the directory by my last name and it rings a landline telephone that is connected in the apartment. I then simply press the number 9 and the gate at the front of the complex is suppose to open to let the visitor in their car.

The issue is my wife and I will only be in that apartment 14 days outta the month and wouldn’t want the telephone to ring incessantly when we are not there.

my first thought was ideally to find a landline telephone but turn off the ring feature (if even possible) but then I would need one that can vibrate, which I’m sure landlines don’t do.

heck, even perhaps having the call re-routed to my iPhone would be even better.
The goal is I just don’t want my phone to ring. Sometimes it’ll be my wife and I visiting the city together at the same time and other times she’ll have it for a week and other times it’ll be just me. I’m sure we’ll both be having visitors on an almost daily basis visiting us so we are expecting ppl to call from that voice box at the front of in order to get it frequently. But on the weeks we are 100 miles away we don’t want the landline within the apartment to just keep ringing randomly, which it may.
 
Unplug the phone when not in use?
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Most phones now allow you to mute sound/ringers for a specific number of hours up to 16, IIRC. However, you can effectively turn off the ring or set the volume to 0, but you'll need to adjust it for the two weeks you two will be inhabiting the flat.

This way there's no ringing the other 14-16 days and there will still be a functioning phone. You've already thought this situation through thoroughly. There's that American turn of phrase, you're up a creek without a paddle.
 
heck, even perhaps having the call re-routed to my iPhone would be even better.

I got rid of my land line (savings$$) and have the intercom system call my iPhone - now when I travel I receive the calls where ever I am - but even more useful is if amazon shows up "while I am out for a quick grocery run etc." - I can let them in and tell them to put big "M" as a signature - recieved - works for me ;)
 
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Unplugging the phone works but it is a hassle. You want a phone with a do not disturb or DND feature. You hit the key and then incoming calls will no longer ring. The phone will show a red light or a message to remind you.

Phones include some Panasonic and vTech cordless units and some commercial analog phones like the Mitel 6390. The latter has the red light feature.
 
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Landlines ringers I’ve had could be turned off. Some have built in flash for the hearing impaired and standalone flashing call indicators are available.
 
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Come on, there's gotta be a complex overblown solution that can be cobbled together with remote controls, HomeKit, a Raspberry Pi, and some 50-amp relays. And you can probably get @AngerDanger to lend you his hacksaw.

Raspberry Pis are for amateurs. Cisco 2851 running CallManager Express, Cisco 2960 with PoE with a full QoS voice VLAN.

 
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Unplug or turn on DND before leaving... Better write yourself a note and stick it on the door so you'll see it when you go out. ;)

What you need is a phone that can detect your presence in the apartment and only ring when you are there. You'll have to invent that model.

But maybe there's one that you can control the ring feature from your iPhone. I sense an internet search on the horizon...
 
Unplug or turn on DND before leaving... Better write yourself a note and stick it on the door so you'll see it when you go out. ;)

What you need is a phone that can detect your presence in the apartment and only ring when you are there. You'll have to invent that model.

But maybe there's one that you can control the ring feature from your iPhone. I sense an internet search on the horizon...

Set up a Belkin WeMo Outlet with a GPS fence in the Home app. Get a cordless phone and plug the base station into the outlet. No one home -> switch off -> no power to phone -> no ringer -> profit??
 
I wouldn’t even go so far as to unplug the phone. Just take it off the hook when you’re not there.

Also, why would you care if the phone is ringing incessantly when you’re not there?
 
But, my question is why would people be coming to the door and "ringing" you (or your wife) if no one is there?

Thank you. This is exactly what I was wondering. Why is OP worried about the phone ringing incessantly in the first place?
 
Quite possibly the OP is an on the run wetworks agent and rings and messages are code patterns.
 
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