So it turned out the solution was an ADSL filter, so thanks for that.

The strange thing is, I get different results with different hardware combinations. The VF supplied Hub Telephone Adaptor works with the BT decor phone, but not the Paragon 650. On the 2nd phone socket, I have a telephone adaptor from Amazon which is connected to the Dec phone, and this works with the Paragon 650, including voicemail. It was only when I added the ADSL filter to the Dec phone that the answer machine kicked in, although it does not work if the phone is engaged.

Not sure if this is what you mean , but a regular customer owned answer machine can’t answer an incoming call if the line is already in use with an outgoing call or has already answered a different incoming call , unlike the network answering service which would offer an incoming call the opportunity to leave a message even if the ‘line’ was already in use on a call , incoming or outgoing.

You never said if the actual answer machine phone did ring when presented with an incoming call and it was just the answer machine that never kicked in after several rings , or the phone part also never ‘rang’ .
TBH if an ADSL filter has fixed the issue, the chances are the phone never rang either and that’s why the answering machine never ‘kicked in’, because that’s what the ADSL filter fix replicates, effectively supplying the ‘ring wire’ an older phone needs to actually ‘ring’ , more modern equipment generally doesn’t need this ‘ring wire’

Edited by Iniltous (Mon 01-Sep-25 19:41:05)