"Thomas B. Clark III" <tclark@med.unc.edu> (04/17/91)
I have two lines in my home, arranged in a hunt group such that when line one is busy it rolls over to line two. Last night I received several wrong numbers from a woman who insisted that she had dialed a third number, a number in my exchange but unknown to me. Checking with my GTE service rep today, I finally found out that in fact there is a "third number" associated with my two "real numbers." The service rep explained that it is necessary to have such a number "for repair purposes" in any two-line hunt group, and that it is normally transparent to the customer. The only time it causes trouble is when it gets wrong numbers. The wrong numbers come in on line one. If the "third number" is busy, it will not roll the call over to line two. Anyone know the why's and wherefore's of this? Tom Clark [Moderator's Note: In some older central offices a higher number can be hunted from a lower number; that is, 1234 can hunt to 1235 when it is busy; 1235 can hunt to 1236 when it is busy, etc. In offices where 'jump hunt' is possible, the higher numbers being hunted need not be one digit apart, but can in fact be numerically quite some distance apart, as long as the number being hunted is higher than the one doing the hunting. Not all of the real old offices still out there can support 'jump hunt'. The hassle comes when a higher number is not available for use as a 'second line'. Then, a numerically lower number has to be used, but since hunting won't work backwards in the older offices, a third phantom number has to be tied on to the first line which is numerically lower than the 'second line'. I am not sure of the wiring, or the reason it works that way. By chance is the number on your 'second line' lower than the number for the main line? Perhaps someone will write with a more technical explanation. PAT]