[PLUG] VOIP, NOMOROBO, POTS, FAX

[Chuck Hast]

See below:

On Sep 6, 2017 16:52, "Keith Lofstrom" <keithl at kl-ic.com> wrote:

Today, 10 spam calls since 630 AM, and Frontier says (after
half an hour on hold) that they can't block fake phone
numbers or "Out of area".  It's like the submitting a list
to the police of the 10 name-badge-wearing people you don't
want to kill you.  Time for a change.


I was getting a load of these on my cell, ended up installing an app that
blocks anything that  does not id. That took care of all but the spoofed
numbers, most of those are dumb enough to leave a real number for callback
so I have been able to get rid of more of them. I have not had  a landlines
on such a long time that I do not know what to tell you beyond the Asterisk
thing and let it do the filtering. But you said you have had enough pain
with asterisk.


Complications:  We've got a fax, which we use 3-5 times
per month, for HIPAA-sensitive stuff.  No internet fax
services are truly HIPAA compliant.


I find that so funny since fax has been breakable ever since the druggers
used to send "orders" over hf using fax machines and very expensive SSB
radios, some using pilot carrier to lock both ends. HIPAA, banks and
insurance companies still use fax believing it is not hackable.


We've got Frontier FIOS;  QOS goes to hell on "Netflix
Nights", but there may be a way to fix that, too.

Nomorobo.com (which depends on a VOIP connection) looks
interesting.  That means a VOIP link to the network.
Also, they are "free", which means somebody may be
paying them to listen in.

My vague idea, feedback and consulting help welcome:

1) We move our 503-xxx-xxxx phone number of 30 years
to a VOIP service, and connect that to nomorobo.com .

2) We buy a magic box to connect the existing house phone
wiring (POTS) and the FAX to the IP network.  Suggestions?


I used to use Vonage for that, they provide the loop and ring down for pots
phones and provide a port for fax machines. Since the encryption HIPAA puts
so much importance in is from end to end the link being Voip should not
matter.


 2a) We have a dozen wireless phones scattered around the
 house, and eventually the greenhouse, connected that way.


That is the way I had most of my phones that talked to the Vonage device.


 2b) We have a Sangoma card than might work in a small
 format PC with Asterisk, but I would rather have a
 simple box with outside tech support.  Asterisk;
 been there, done that, got the scars.  Too much work!


There were a lot of solutions based on Asterisk that simplified the whole
process, where I see the device being useful is in filtering the phone
spam.


3) PLUG puts together a SIG to think about how to do this.
Perhaps a few of us put together a businss.


4) We work to change the laws to make the carriers
responsible for the anonymous/fraudulent crap they insist
on passing through.  Their computers can (in principle) be
programmed to stop this crap if the end user requests it;
they steadfastly refuse.  These are $300/incident torts;
If every Oregonian gets 2 such calls per week, and 25%
are angry enough to do something about it, that is
100 million torts or $30 billion per year.  Frontier's
market cap is $1.1 billion, so Oregon owns them in two
weeks, other carriers with similar policies ditto.  We
sell the assets to new and responsible owners, and fund
the schools with the proceeds.


Wish in one hand, but creating a box to do a lot of that filtering would be
a good thing.