Telephone abbreviations

Please provide comments if there are any that you believe should be included in this list.

current prepaid cell phone rates

UPDATED 6.9.13 (the per minute and per month fields on the right that you have to scroll to view may not be up to date for all plans all other information updated and verified with current published rates)

To view this spreadsheet with per minute rates, and per month rates (helpful to compare per-minute plans that expire longer than 30 days) click HERE 

Small office telephone closet wiring clean up.

Here is a small clean up job of a rat's nest of telephone wiring that I recently completed.
[You can click the images for a full size version.]

Here is the mess when I first got to the job. I had done a repair previously in this mess, that took longer than it should have because of this spaghetti. The customer wanted this cleaned up.

While I did not take much effort to do anything with the data networking equipment, I still took some photos documenting the network shelf as well.

Every thing complete. The round disk towards the bottom right side of the screen is a central vaccum system that is bolted to the wall, reducing the amount of space that I had to mount everything.
I installed 2x 66 blocks to connect the 6 dial tones to the 15 or so jacks.

As I said, I did not spend much time neatening up the data network equipment. The whole purpose of my visit was to neaten up all of the telephone wiring. Now any technician that comes behind me will have no problem troubleshooting the telephone network.

The person who has wired this apartment/office originally did run home runs to each jack. So each jack now is punched down on its own pair on a 66 block, and each jack can individually be disconnected by removing the bridging clips to that jack's pair, dramatically reducing the time it takes for any future inside wiring troubleshooting.

Total time start to finish for this job was 3.5 hours.

  

nyphonejacks now has a twitter account.

Not sure what I am going to do with it, but I just set up a twitter account @ http://twitter.com/#!/nyphonejacks
I installed the twitter app onto my Blackberry, so hopefully I will be able to add updates when information becomes available.

Hopefully it does not sit empty like the nyphonejacks youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/nyphonejacks I really do need to get some content to add to youtube. The old youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/nypj is no longer being added to, but does have a bunch of poor quality Verizon wiring.

Use your Google Voice number with an ATA

Finally, there is an ATA device available to allow you to use your Google Voice service. http://obihai.com/ has created an ATA device that works with many VoIP providers - INCLUDING Google Voice.

Now you can connect your Google Voice number directly to a phone with out having to do any tricky set ups. Best of all your outgoing calls will show your Google Voice number, so you do not need to dial into your Google Voice number, or use the click to call features to make your GV number appear on the outgoing caller ID.

Seems like the cheap/free unlimited calling market just got a whole lot more interesting. This device is cheaper than the Ooma and Nettalk, and only a few dollars more than the Magicjack - BUT you can use Google Voice, so as long as Google Voice keeps their price at free even just for another year this unit is the cheapest alternative to land phone service.

Free conference calling

I have already mentioned http://www.freemagicconference.com/ Magicjack's free conference calling service in a previous post HERE 

To use that service dial 305-848-8888
To create a new room press 2 then enter the room number.
To enter an existing conference press 1 then enter the room number.

Now I have come across another free conference service provided by Nettalk. http://www.freenettalkconference.com/conferencebridge
To use that service dial 305-740-1300
To create a new room press 2 then enter the room number
To enter an existing conference press 1 then enter the room number.

Lost your phone?

This website will call your phone number to help you find your phone http://www.icantfindmyphone.com/

Unblock private callers with google voice

[EDIT - apparently they have made changes back and fourth, so this MAY or MAY NOT work when you try this. I just (2/2/13) tried this to my yahoo, my domain, and my work email with no success. 

[EDIT - I just tried this just now, and it did not work this time, please leave comments to let myself and others know if it is working for you.]
EDIT - have tried several times since it did not work, and it has worked for me, so this *should* still be working

Has someone called your Google Voice number with a blocked number?

Do you want to find out what number they called you from?

Here is a simple trick that you can use to trap the ANI of the caller.

• Let your Google Voice mail pick the call up
• Log into www.google.com/voice
• Locate the blocked callers voice mail.
• Click the MORE button.
• Click the EMAIL button
• E-mail the message to any non g-mail email address (the non-gmail thing is from the post out on the interwebs that I found this information, not sure if it is required or not)
• 
  

Now when you check the email with the message the phone number of the caller will appear. 

Original message with blocked caller ID

Forwarded message with caller ID unblocked

5% discount for caller ID spoofing

Use coupon code: nyphonejacks
for a 5% discount at http://bluffmycall.com/

• Change your Caller ID
• Record your phone calls
• Change your voice
• Go straight to Voicemail 

Save $50 on Ooma - Only 3 referrals available - expires 5/31/11

$50 off Ooma!! Click HERE or use code VEF3711 Ends 7/31/12 - THIS CODE SHOULD WORK FOR FUTURE PROMOTIONS AS WELL, YOU CAN TRY IT AND IF THERE IS A CURRENT PROMOTION YOU SHOULD GET IT. 


[EDIT: since none of the 3 codes have actually been activated, and there is just about a week left for this deal I have placed the codes at the top of the page]


I have 3  2 single use codes for Ooma that will save you $50 that must be redeemed by May 31, 2011.

Email me if you want one. These are first come first serve.


CHECK THE COMMENTS OF THIS POST FOR REMAINING CODES: