For legal reasons, I need to add a working phone number to a site I run, and unfortunately, it can’t be someone else’s, it has to be mine. I’d use my home phone, but although I’m sure my site’s regulars are sane, there’s just no way to ensure that everyone who visit’s your page isn’t a whacko.
So, what’s the cheapest way I can go about getting a number ot put up on the page? I don’t expect much use AT ALL for the number, as it’s pretty much a legal thingie. But I still gotta have it.
Answering service, cell phone, land line, I’ll consider any of them, so long as they are cheap.
Our local phone company (SBC) offers a “measured line” for less than $10 per month, maybe even less than $5. You get 8 outbound calls per month, and a charge for any more than that. I’m not sure if you get touchtone now, or if you still pay extra for that. You might call your local company and see if they have something similar.
Call the phone company and have a second phone added to your service. Measured rate service costs a minimum per month, plus outgoing calls (whch you won’t be making). Answering services are quite expensive, and there’s not a cell contract out there as cheap as the cheapest line service.
Most phone companies charge extra for Touch Tone™service, but rarely ask if you want it or not–they just assume you do. Be sure to specifically tell them you don’t need it.
Have a Ring Master put on your phone. You are given a second phone number (at a single line price) and the phone rings differently for the first line and the second line so you can tell them apart.
A few years ago I found myself needing exactly what you do, namely an “incoming-only” voice line. I also wanted to be able to receive faxes, and did not want to pay for a dedicated phone line and fax machine, or leave my computer on overnight set to pick up incoming calls.
Then I discovered eFax.com. When you sign up for a free fax account, they will assign you a phone number. For the free option, this will be non-local to you (in my case, I’m in California and my eFax number has an area code of 801, which would put it in Utah as far as the phone company is concerned). However, the non-locality of the number didn’t matter to me and probably won’t matter to you. The only people who ever fax me are businesses, often from overseas, and they certainly don’t care whether the area code matches my own location.
Now, one nice feature of the service, although eFax doesn’t draw attention to it, is that it’s also a voice line. If a customer calls the number, they can either send a fax or leave a message. eFax then automatically emails you saying that you have received a voicemail or fax. The eFax Messenger software – which you have previously downloaded from eFax – opens the attached file, either displaying a fax image (that can be printed or exported to other image formats such as TIFF) or popping up an applet to play the voice file through your sound card (it can also be exported to a WAV file).
If you need a phone number that is local to you (which seems unlikely for a website), or need for some reason to send faxes from your eFax number, you can sign up for either service for, I believe, $5 per month. They have other “Corporate” plans available, which is presumably how they make their money, because it sure isn’t from me.
The eFax service can also be useful when traveling abroad: friends and colleagues back home can leave a message on your eFax voicemail (or send you a fax with a map, diagrams, etc) and you can pick it up wherever there is a 'Net connection. This can sometimes be easier for them than sending you an e-mail.
Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with eFax.com except as a satisfied user of their free service
Efax ( now jfax.com) is a good option, for a local number it will cost about $12/month or about $80 anually (but you have to ask for anual pricing.) and as stated free if you will accept an out of area number. you get voice messages as wav email attachments IIRC.
ringmate will add a distinctive ring pattern w/ it’s own number to your home service - but it is hard to find a answering machine to differenciate between the 2. About $5/month.
you can get a beeper that has voicemail for about $60/year.
eFax.com and jfax.com, now called “j2 Global Communications”, are separate companies. As I mentioned in my earlier post, eFax uses “.gsm” voice files, which can be exported to “.wav” if desired (.wav is a bulkier format, less suited to e-mail attachment applications).
There’s also onebox.com, which seems to operate in a similar manner, but IIRC will give you a free local phone number shared with other users, with an extension that is specific for you. I haven’t used this service, however.
Thanks for all the advice. Measured service, efax.com and two numbers on one line all sound like they’re in the ballpark for me. I especially like Efax’s prices.
That said, I would go for the tin cans and string in an instant if I thought the legal guys would buy it.
