If I buy an answering machine for my UK house phones, can it stop the phones ringing when a call comes in??

Question

How can I stop my phones ringing when I don't want to take calls? I am told that if I buy an answering machine, I can programme it so that my three house phones will not ring when a call come in. Is that right?

I have three phones connected to my landline. They are a corded phone and two cordless phones. I want to be able to stop these phones ringing at all at night, because I keep getting nuisance calls after midnight.

I know I could just take the corded phone off the hook, to stop the phone ringing. But I don't want to do that, because the corded phone is downstairs, and if I take it off the hook I would not be able to use the cordless phone in our bedroom in an emergency.

I really need to know the best way of tackling this problem. Thanks to anyone who can help!

Answer 1

Simply connecting a normal answering machine to the line will NOT prevent the phones from ringing completely.    Even if the answering machine can be set to answer on the first ring, it has to detect that first incoming ring before it can pick up the call, so the other phones will ring at least briefly.  Quite a number of machines can only be set to answer after a minimum of two rings.

Many modern phones (both cordless and regular) have a switch or menu option which lets you turn off the ringer, or at least set it to a very low level, so you might consider that as an alternative or to use with an answering machine.  You would have to remember to turn one or more ringers on again in the morning, of course, otherwise you'd miss incoming calls!

There ARE ways to achieve what you desire by other methods, but I'm afraid they involve wiring or equipment which is a little beyond the average High Street consumer goods and is beyond the scope of DIY installation for the non technical.