In reply to a post by trolleybus:

..... I don't wish to throw a spanner in the works but there are devices that ONLY have an Ethernet connection but have the ability to instigate a PSTN call. It could be a gate or door entry system or more usually a VoIP phone. Just saying.

Concrete examples please. VOIP cannot be considered as PSTN.

Edited by Deadbeat (Thu 12-May-16 09:32:36)

In reply to a post by ian72:

Are you saying a device connected to an Ethernet socket can dial via the phone line the DSL is delivered over? If so, then I would say that isn't true. It may well do a VoIP connection via an external service but that would not rack up costs on the physical phone line the DSL is connected to.

The pair coming into the home provides POTS and a Broadband service. A hosted VoIP service uses the broadband leg so clearly the answer to your question is no.

My early posting was only to refute the statement that it was impossible to call a POTS number from a device that had only had a Ethernet connection. Nothing more.

However, calls made from such VoIP enabled devices using Zen's domestic VoIP offering gives a presentation number identical to the POTS number that the broadband service uses. Zen's rendered accounts are quite clear about call charges over POTS and VoIP but identify each in the public telephone service format so it would be quite easy, with a causal glance of the bill, to believe call charges were being racked up on the POTS service whereas they were really VoIP calls using the broadband provision.

Coming back to OPs original posting, he states that the only device connected to his router was the DVR device. If this is 100% true, then this posting has no reverence to his issue,

In reply to a post by Deadbeat:

In reply to a post by trolleybus:

..... I don't wish to throw a spanner in the works but there are devices that ONLY have an Ethernet connection but have the ability to instigate a PSTN call. It could be a gate or door entry system or more usually a VoIP phone. Just saying.

Concrete examples please. VOIP cannot be considered as PSTN.

What I was trying to say, but failed in your eyes, was that an Ethernet only connected device can call a POTS number. It was suggested in this thread that this was impossible.

I think you took the post you are replying to incorrectly.

They said you couldn't make a PSTN call from a Ethernet line - the meaning being you couldn't use Ethernet to initiate the PSTN connection - but you can call a remote PSTN connection from it. As you can see I am finding it difficult to word the difference - nobody said you couldn't use VoIP to call a PSTN number what the OP was saying was the Ethernet device was creating a PSTN to 3rd party connection which you agree is impossible as we have all been saying.