KLENSIN@INFOODS.MIT.EDU (John C Klensin) (03/30/89)
> > Martin Olivera asked about phones that automatically redial a busy >number. One of the most famous of these is the Demon Dialer from Zoom >Telephonics in Boston. It does much more than redial; it is a complete >phone enhancement system. It is installed in series with the incoming >... > One factor you should consider is whether the telephone has busy TONE >detection. .... It would also be nice if the phone would supply a local >ring signal to alert you when the call does go through. The Zoom Demon >Dialer may have these features, but I am not sure. Have had one for years. It has all of these features, and works well. When it is in a 'continuous retry busy' or 'continuous retry no answer' mode, it essentially owns the line, since the telephone from which you have activated it must be off-hook. So, it announces with a loud beep tone through the receiver (if you tell it that the instrument is a speakerphone) or nothing (if you tell it that you are holding on to the receiver) when either it manages to make a connection or a new incoming call comes in. Also does nice things with long distance numbers, dialing codes, etc. No affiliation, just a happy user who considers this one of those nice devices that provides a lot of capabilities and is completely unintrusive (it lives in the closet, does not dictate what it have on my desk, and the fact that it provides the same features, and the same abbreviated number list, to all phones simultaneously is much nicer than going around and reprogramming a number of devices). The one I've got is tone-line and tone-phone-activated only. They also have or had a pulse version, which I gather is a bit less capable.
Lewallen@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL (03/31/89)
Reference Demon dialer discussion - my father acquired a demon dialer, which is an impressive device, as Jay said (guess ll still does not talk to dockmaster, eh). HOWEVER, it had a very short lifespan. It was sent back to factory twice for repairs, and then my dad gave up on it. I don't know if voltage surges or line noise or what got to it, but it did not seem to stay up very long. Hope their new device is more reliable.