On 04/12/2012 23:00, Roger Mills wrote:
I've just renewed my BT Line Rental Saver contract for the line in my
holiday flat (including free evening and weekend calls) and BT now seem
to be imposing monthly - rather than quarterly - billing for customers
using this deal.

I'm pretty sure that, in order to continue to qualify for free Caller
Display, etc., I still need to make a specified number of potentially
chargeable calls each billing period. That wasn't a problem with
quarterly billing because I was always at the flat often enough to make
enough calls each quarter - most of which would be free evening calls to
my answering machine at my main home!

However, there may be some times when I don't visit the flat for more
than a month - so, with monthly billing, I may sometimes be unable to
make the requisite number of calls.

So - eventually getting to the point after a long preamble - can anyone
suggest the best way of making calls from the flat without actually
being there? There isn't a computer there when I'm not there -
otherwise, if I left one running, I could probably set up a scheduled
task to use a modem to dial out at regular intervals. However, there
*is* a permanent internet connection, with a router which I can access
remotely to check that the connection's still up. Could I attach
anything to that which would do the dialling and which could be
controlled remotely? Or, is there a stand-alone bit of kit with a
built-in timer which could do it?

Old voice capable modem, and a cheap low power computer like a Pi?




--
Cheers,

John.

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