Just Kick Me to the CURB.....
 

:mad::mad::eek::eek:This old woman has JUST discovered if my power goes off, I have NO phone service!!!! All these stupid phones I have plugged into the wall are USELESS!!! WHAT has happened to just plain old telephones that plug into the hole in the wall and work even without electricity??????

This is just all toooooooo much for an old woman stuck back in the good old days, OBVIOUSLY!!!!! Here I am in hrricain country, with a hole in every room to plug a LANDLINE into, and there is NO phone electricity even coming to the holes in the wall....everything goes thru this %^##@*&%$ COMPUTER SYSTEM!!!!!! If we loose electricity, I have NO PHONE SERVICE!!!!!! OMG!! What do we do????????!!!!!!!! Somebody that understands how all this *&%$##@ works, please tell me what I need to do in order to get "phone power" to come to the phone jack in my wall!!!!:mad::mad::thumbdown:thumbdown

Do you happen to have an old rotary phone, if so just plug into phone jack. Hope it works.

THAT is all I have in phones....rotary phones....all plugged into a phone jack in every room of this house...and when the power goes off, NOTHING!!!! Called ATT....everything goes thru a "modem" on the computer....when the power goes off, you will have phone service for a little while....until the battery runs down in the modem thing....but no telephone service in that hole in the wall....it all goes thru a computer or modem.....I made sure I had rotary phones plugged into every jack in every room so in case of emergency and loss of electricity, we would have phone service.....HAH!!!! SKREW YOU, OLD WOMAN!!!! AINT HAPPENING!!!! Hope YOU are not thinking you have a live phone service coming to that hole in your wall if YOUR power goes out!!! SURPRISE!!!!!

Phones
 

Wow, I did not know that!! I really thought that phones plugged into a wall phone socket had their own power.
I did not get a phone through the broadband cable company as I feared being cut off when power went.
Sometimes this modern electronic age gets me down! Yesterday my computer screen went huge and I had no idea why. I spent all morning with settings etc and finally found a button to reduce the screen to its former glory. Can't recall how I did it!
I also got an old version of AOL and can see no way of getting back to my familiar version.
And it's going to get worse!!! As for my modern car, I still don't know what all the button functions are. At least I have a simple Jitterbug wireless phone for oldies, and I can operate that!

My land line is not packaged with my cable, and never will be for this reason. I have one rotary phone due to this, when my power goes out my cordless phones are useless but the rotary works. Besides that I use my cell phone for all calls, every one calls me on my cell. My suggestion is get a cell phone for emergency use, they sell prepaid cell phones, very inexpensive I am told. When you know bad weather is coming make sure you have time on your cell or buy time for it, modern technology can work with us as well as against us. Today you have to be a computer programmer to just use your TV or CD player lol.

Everything goes thru these %$#@* computers....I HATE this!!! I found a place that sells plain phones that do NOT apparently go thru your computer system....I spoke with the man, he claimed to understand exactly what I was saying, and made it crystal clear that I could buy one of these phones from him and if I had a wall jack that was working, if I plugged this phone into the wall jack, it would work without going thru the computer....we will see.........he said years ago, when Florida had a big storm go thru, all those people thought they would have phone service and they were stunned to find out when their computer systems went down, and the power was off, they had NO PHONES!!! Just those hand held phones that everyone runs around poking and pushing buttons on, running into people because they are not paying attention to where they are going......and when they lost power to THOSE, they were dead in the water!!! So he assured me I could get one of these and plug it into the hole in my wall, and it would work because it does NOT go through the ATT Uverse/computer/TV/telephones.....so we will see! This is all too much tech stuff for an old lady that has NO interest in computers and high tech crap!!!

Make sure he tells you that you can get a full refund if it does not work. If you have ATT or Comcast or any cable telephone your service is coming through the modem and if the modem has no power you have no phone. You can check it by plugging in this new phone and unplugging your modem.

I was THINKING this was the set up that I had...but NO!!!! You had better be sure you have a phone when the power goes!!! I have all these phones plugged into these wall jacks, thinking they would work but NO!!! No electricity, no computer, no phones!!!

So..........I am sure this is what is going to happen to me.....So, if I didnt have a computer, how would I have a telephone that plugged into the wall hole that worked? Can a person have holes in the wall for a phone that work or is it mandatory that it all goes thru the computer?

2 years ago after hurricane Sandy we were without power for 5 days, at that time yes my landline worked, right after that hurricane I purchased a stand by generator, if power is out for 20 seconds the generator kicks on automatically. We had our first outage 2 weeks ago. I never check my land line because I have a cell phone. The only time my cell phone did not work was Aug, 14, 2003 (the day before my birthday I had a wonderful extended BD lol) when NYC had the biggest blackout in history. I had caught the bus out of port authority, when we crossed the Jersey state line into Pa. the bus driver announced the blackout and our bus was the last bus out, lucky me. When I got off the bus I called my job, I worked for a sea food company, we had freezers that held all types of sea food, I wanted to see how they were doing. The call dropped, NYC was dead in the water, no cell phones worked. The same thing the next day, no one living in NY 5 boros could be contacted nor could anyone in NY 5 boros call out on their cell phones, my cell worked phone for anyone else I called I just could not get through to NYC. Good luck with this new phone it will be a blessing to you.

Pardon me if I am not understanding this correctly YorkieMom. You are saying if I understand you right that you have bundled your phone and internet service with the same provider,yes? The reason I am asking is that I have separate telephone service other than my internet provider and I can use my landline phone if we lose electricity just like in the old days. Not our wireless phones though as they run through electricity. If that is what you are saying then I would say the answer to your question about how do you use your landline when electricity goes out is to have a separate phone provider for just your phone service. Does that sound right to you?

your rotary phone should work plugged into jack I have bundled phone internet and tv and when power goes out I just plug in rotary phone and it works. :D

Before came cable hook up for computers we used our land line. When I moved here to Pa. I used my landline (Verizon) for my computer, 2 years later my cable TV offered computer hook up, so I switched my computer from using the landline to using cable, I get billed for cable TV and computer, my landline provider is Verizon, 2 diff. companies. I never heard of landline usage being mandatory via a computer, what happens if a person doesn't have a computer in your area, that means they can't have a landline phone?

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
You are all over this!!! That is exactly what I am finding myself mucked up to my neck in!!!! Now, as it is right now, I have ATT U-Verse and my TV/computer/phones are all on the same deal.....so what you are saying I need to do, just to get these old brain cells wrapped around this correctly, I have to separate my phone service OUT from that package deal? Did I understand you right???

Thanks for the help...this is crazy.....

Can ATT separate out the phone from that bundle so I can use the landlines, or do I have to go through a completely different company?

The reason ATT bundled TV svce, computer & phone is you get a discount for bundling. ATT may have to put in sep. lines just for your phone, they will take the phone off the bundle meaning you will not get a discount for having all 3 as a bundle. I have to assume when they installed your phone lines they connected it to the cable lines if you can only get svce through the computer. If you don't mind changing your phone # go with a diff company for landline svce, I have to assume they would hook up phone lines to your house as it seems your landline is in someway connected to your cable line.