Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Just installed this device and did a good bit of experimenting. I like it a lot! And already it's caught a few of those most annoying lawbreakers, the telemarketers who ignore my Do Not Call orders! I LIKE: - Whitelist and blacklist means it works really well! I have a blacklist service on my cell phone and it only gets 75% or so. This gets nearly 100%. - Easy to key in your friends and family numbers and then they don't even know it's there: totally transparent - It works with my existing phones and answering machine - The quiet that results from shutting down the annoyance calls I WISH: - The built-in outgoing message didn't sound so garbled - The user experience isn't as intuitive as I'd like; I know I'm going to need to refer back to the instructions to remember how to do things HOW IT WORKS, REALLY OK before selecting this thing I really was confused about how it works. Nobody really explains it very well. I'm going to try my hand at it now! If your home is your castle, this is the moat. There is a sentry standing at the bridge over the moat. When a visitor arrives (a phone call comes in), the sentry looks to see who they are (caller ID) and decides on one of three paths: 1. If they're on the "white" list, they can pass without interruption. The sentry nods and the visitor doesn't even slow down. Your phones ring and work normally, your existing answering machine works normally and takes a message if you're not home. 2. If they're on the "black" list, the sentry opens a trap door and the visitor falls into the alligator-filled moat and is never seen again. The castle yard remains quiet. Hurrah! 3. If they're not on either list, the sentry asks them for a password (dial "0"). Robocallers generally won't be able to do that, and most human telemarketers won't bother. If the caller doesn't dial 0, into the moat with them! However they don't get added to the black list, just this one call ends. If they do dial 0, the visitor is added to the white list. The sentry calls out (the Sentry device rings; not your phones). You could pick up any phone and answer the call. Or, if you don't answer for a long time (like 9 rings!), the Sentry itself takes a message. This is because once the Sentry intervenes, it has no way to ring your regular phones. When you first get the device, you can easily key in your most frequent legitimate callers to the white list; they'll never know or care that you bought this gadget. Over time, others will dial 0 and get added. If a bad egg dials 0 and shows up on the white list, it's easy to move them over to the black list ... the trap door awaits! CALLER ID AND PHONE RINGS First and foremost, you have to have Caller ID service on your phone or this basically won't work. Now the phone company sends the Caller ID information between the 1st and 2nd ring. You have a choice: the Sentry can let the first ring through, or quiet it until it figures out who it is and takes one of the three steps above. This is a setting that ... well I'd have to look it up in the instructions, it's easy but not intuitive, and you only need to deal with it once. If you let the first ring through, all your phones ring immediately and will show the Caller ID information. If the caller isn't on the white list, your phones will only ring once, then the sentry will either ask them to dial 0 or send them into the moat. If the caller is on the white list, your phones ring normally. But you're going to hear one ring even for the bad guys. If you don't let the first ring through (my choice), your phones stay silent unless the caller is on the white list. This means they may not pick up the caller ID information, even if the caller is on the white list, because they don't get to hear the 1st ring. For some reason, some phones are better at picking up the Caller ID in this case than others. My AT&T DECT wireless phones pick it up; my Plantronics headset and dedicated Caller ID display do not. ANSWERING MACHINES If a caller is on the white list, your phones ring normally and your regular answering machine will do its job. If a caller is on the black list, they answer to the alligators in the moat. If a caller is on neither list, they can only talk to the Sentry. They can leave a message there, but it's limited to two 20 second messages and is very garbly, like very old digital answering machines of yesteryear. You can customize the outgoing message (what the Sentry says to callers that are no neither white or black lists). That's pretty garbly too, but remember, legitimate callers will hear it only once. WIRING The recommend method of wiring is: (incoming line) --> Sentry --> (all your existing phones) This may be easier for some people than others. I'm pretty geeky and it was easy for me (I have structured wiring). If you had only one phone or wireless base station, easy peasy - just put the Sentry between your wall jack and the phone. For others it might be trickier, and the manufacturer doesn't offer much advice. Here's mine. If your internal wiring is for 2 lines and you only have 1 line service (this is typical in most residences), you could use the 2nd line's wiring to connect all your phones behind the Sentry. You need adapters for 2 line service such as tthis RJ11 Phone Line Splitter/Separator/Adaptor for 2 lines (1 Plug, 3 Sockets) White - not just simple splitters. First, wire: (any jack in your house) --> adapter L1 --> Sentry --> adapter L2 This feeds the connection behind the Sentry into line 2 in every jack in your home. Then, on every phone, (any jack in your house) --> adapter L2 --> existing phone No rewiring, just a few adapters. MY SETUP I chose to turn off the ringing on incoming calls unless they are on the white list, so I hear nothing when a caller is on the black list or does not dial 0 when speaking with the Sentry. I also chose to turn off the ringer in the Sentry, and to discourage using the crappy answering machine in the Sentry. My outgoing message does not invite the caller to leave a message; instead it asks them to dial 0 and call back. Here is my outgoing message: "Hi, this is Bob. If you are a telemarketer or calling about a survey or solicitation, please hang up and don't call again. Anyone else, please dial 0 to be added to my approved callers list, then call back and my phone will work normally. Thanks!" I think this will work well and will update this if it doesn't ... this is still my first day. Another thing: on one of my phones, the caller ID works even with the Sentry supressing the 1st ring; on the other phones the caller ID does not work. The sweet silence is worth it! But wait - I can just connect the phones where the CID does not work directly to the main phone line (before the Sentry) - and then turn off their ringers. This has an extra benefit that I can see them light up silently and log the CID of the junk caller. Sweet! I hope all this helped; I'm trying to explain it for everyone while including details of interest to geeks like me. Thanks!