Despite all my attempts to avoid it, last time I was at the Comcast office, I let them talk me into their voice service. It made our bill go down by about $15 a month (for a year – I put a reminder on the calendar 11 months out to cancel it). I wasn’t really planning to use it at all, since I’m happy with our existing phone setup, but then I was thinking it might actually be nice for long distance, since it’s unlimited nationwide and sometimes our cell phones (which we normally use for long distance) can be flaky.
The problem is, I’m not willing to use it as our primary phone (it would only be for outbound long distance call), and the location of the cable modem isn’t very convenient for hooking up a second phone. It’s in the living room, behind the TV and next to our primary phone. So we have a few constraints:
[ul]
[li]The cable modem needs to stay where it is[/li][li]The primary phone needs to stay where it is[/li][li]We can’t have an additional phone at the same location (we really don’t have room for one)[/li][/ul]
I’ve been trying to think of ways to still make use of the Comcast phone line. The most promising idea I’ve come up with is power line or cordless extenders along these lines (though I usually try to avoid Radio Shack). But I’m not very confident in them. Have any of you used something like that with success? Any suggestions for specific types or brands?
I’m wide open to other ideas too. I’ve thought of a few other things, but they all have drawbacks:
[ul]
[li]Manually switch the cords between the main line and the Comcast line on the main phone (or get a switching device that does the same thing). I don’t like that not only because it’s inconvenient, but also I’m sure we’d eventually forget to switch back and would start missing calls on the main line.[/li][li]Disconnect the second POTS line at the NID outside, then wire the Comcast line to feed into the second pair at the jack by the TV, and attach another phone to it elsewhere in the house. I don’t really want to do that because non-standard wiring like that seems to always come back and bite you (if nothing else, the next person who comes along won’t expect it to be wired that way).[/li][li]Buy a two line phone to replace the main phone. Last time I looked at two-line cordless phones, the pickings were slim and they were pretty expensive (read: not worth the trouble).[/li][li]Run a separate line under the house/through the walls from behind the TV to somewhere else for an additional phone. I’ve done enough cable pulling in my life, so this doesn’t really excite me. Also, it has a similar problem to the second line idea above – a pair of phone jacks that are completely separate from the rest of the house’s wiring would be non-standard and confusing. It might not be as bad if I made it look like a network jack instead, but it’s still kind of weird. And I really don’t want to pull cable.[/li][li]Run a wire along the baseboards to a phone somewhere else. Ugly, and I don’t really have a clear route to somewhere appropriate for another phone without having to cross a walkway or something.[/li][/ul]
Anyway, that’s where I am. If anyone has bright ideas, I’d love to hear them.