Need to direct calls to phone while online

Factual Questions
1

I need a device that, while I am online, will automatically switch incoming calls to the phone. Can someone recommend such a device that they have had success with? Reliability is very important, as I am looking for a new job and can’t afford to miss that important phone call…

2

A device to do it automatically? That might be tough.

You can get call forwarding from your phone company, but turning it on involves calling *72 + the forwarding number, then waiting for an answer, hanging up, and placing your call. Then you dial *73 after you get offline to turn off forwarding.

You may be able to get a service called “overflow forwarding”, which is like call forwarding but it only operates when the first line is busy. Businesses use it when they want to advertise a single number but actually have several phone lines to receive calls; 555-0001 is overflow forwarded to 555-0002, which is overflow forwarded to 555-0003, etc.

3

Poke Actiontec Call Waiting Modem into your browser. I have had one more than a year now and it always works flawlessly.

4

In fact I bought another one for a backup and have never used it. If you are interested I’d sell it to you or swap for something. My e-mail address is in my profile.

5

Callwave is great! But not free. You download it and register - they contact your phone company for you, and the phone co. adds a charge of ~$3 a month. Once the phone company’s approved it (they do this so that some noodleneck with an outstanding balance won’t slip through the cracks), then your Callwave is activated.

Here’s how it works. Person calls your regular number. On your monitor, the Callwave screen (which is pretty tiny, not all that obtrusive, and it can be moved easily) will ring and read “Ringing”. It will then play a brief message for the caller, which you won’t hear (it’s just something like “The person you’re trying to reach is online. Please leave a message.”); then a message on the Callwave window reads “Downloading message”. It then automatically plays back the msg for you, but it also saves it until you delete it, just like a regular answering machine. The caller can record a message of up to 30 seconds in length.

Is this along the lines of what you are looking for?