Orcon tollbar removed.

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › Orcon tollbar removed.

Aredwood

3885 posts

Uber Geek

#107353 9-Aug-2012 23:03

I recently switched to a new Plan - Orcon genius with a total 200MB data. My old plan was also a Genius plan but it was the original genius plan that they no longer offer now. I have had a tollbar on my phone line for almost the entire time that Orcon have provided both voice and data to me. (Way before they bought out the genius plans). In the upgrade process the tollbar got disabled somehow. I tried phoning them twice asking for it to be re enabled. Both times I was told that they have never offered a tollbar service. Despite me having a tollbar with them for many years. I have unplugged the phone line from the genius router since I can't take the risk of someone running up a large phone bill. I have flatmates and have been burnt before. The router itself is in a secure location so I don't have to worry about the phone being plugged back in.

Is there any way to convince Orcon to re enable the tollbar or will me and the flatmates just have to get used to naked DSL?

Is there another router that has a VOiP to analogue phone bridge that supports a tollbar locally maybe? I understand that some of the bandwidth is reserved for VOiP data. If I am stuck with forced naked DSL Is there a way to "un reserve" that bandwidth so I can get faster download / upload speeds?

Thanks in advance for any help / advice. And please don't say switch to Telecom. I hate Telecom and I am otherwise happy with Orcon. I have been with them for over 7 years now.

cyberbuddha

70 posts

Master Geek

#670333 10-Aug-2012 00:09

Hi there,

There is a work-around... provided your Genius router is NOT accessible to the tenants... I purchased a Panasonic KX-TG6612NZ set of two cordless phones... you can get them at Harvey Norman http://www.harveynorman.co.nz/pana-kx-tg6612nzm-metalic.html only $99 for the two.

They have amazing features (including blocking of individual incoming calls - useful for blocking telesales callers or ex partners LOL), eco mode, power fail mode, night time mode, caller ID display etc - and although you can't set an across the board barring of ALL toll numbers on this handset there is a workaround...

You CAN set up individual numbers on it's call restrict (go into the menu, select Initial Set Up, then Call Restrict, then enter the PIN number - the default is 0000 [but this can be changed] then select which handset you want to bar... 1 is the main unit, 2 is the extension unit, and then scroll down to one of the storage areas and start entering the codes you want to block... i.e. 0044 to bar calls to the UK, or 07 to bar calls within New Zealand to the 07 dialling area and then just repeat for all the codes you want to bar, then click OK.

It definitely works when you just enter the dialing code... I just tried with 07 to bar calls to the 07 area in NZ and I just tried also with 0044 to bar calls to the UK... and I tested it just now and it works.

Best bit is, you can restrict it to only one of the handsets, so if YOU want to be able to make toll calls you would be able to, but they wouldn't on the extension.

All you do is have your Genius router in a secure location and plug in the main (BASE UNIT) of the phone to your Genius router. Then somewhere else in the house they can have the extension unit which only needs to be plugged into the mains.

Hope that helps you.

cyberbuddha

70 posts

Master Geek

#670334 10-Aug-2012 00:14

Thinking about it, and I don't have time to try just now, but probably instead of using 0044 and 0061 etc to block all calls to UK and Australia, and then having to enter 04, 03, 07 etc to block on tolls around New Zealand, you MAY just be able to block 00 and 0 and that way it should, hopefully, block any calls prefixed with those numbers. If it works in the manner I said above, I can't see why this SHOULDN'T work, but as I said, I don't have time to test it out just now. Hopefully I can tomorrow morning (or later this morning I should say!) and then I will report back.

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#670350 10-Aug-2012 06:22

I understand that some of the bandwidth is reserved for VOiP data. If I am stuck with forced naked DSL Is there a way to "un reserve" that bandwidth so I can get faster download / upload speeds?

This isn't the way things work. There is no "reserved" bandwidth for VoIP.

coffeebaron

6231 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#670399 10-Aug-2012 09:12

WorldxChange offer a toll-bar service on VFX - though at a cost; but you can go with their open VFX service and configure the box yourself, including a dial-plan with PIN number access for tolls.

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