[OT] How to get calling number when CallerID reports "unknown"

[Ken D'Ambrosio]

Larry Cook wrote:

    Hey, Larry -- you, having been Mr. SS7, I would expect to not even 
be asking this question.  ;-)  But, seriously, -all- calls from my 
office show up as "Unknown" because the T1 (non-PRI) that we have simply 
doesn't support caller-ID, either in-bound or out-bound.  Our provider, 
Choice One Communications, would be glad to give us this ability... if 
we re-provisioned for PRI, paid extra money per month, AND got new 
hardware for the PBX. 

    In other words, we'll continue not knowing who calls, and having 
people we call not knowing who we are when we call.  In addition to 
that, it's been shown that, with a sufficiently liberal VoIP provider 
and an Asterisk box, you can give most anything you want in the caller 
ID info.  However, in this case, I'll go with "cheap" vs. "nefarious" as 
likely motivations.  [For those who are wondering: you do not need a PRI 
on your T1 for caller-ID... unless your provider has sufficiently funky 
equipment that they can't support it.  If I recall correctly, caller-ID 
simply has in-band (DTMF?) signalling that the caller-ID device gets at 
call setup.]

$.02,

-Ken