Pat,
I don't mean to be insulting with this question so if it is too obvious please forgive me. Is at least one telephone line into your home exchange powered copper twisted pair? Do you have a cell phone in case your line goes down?
-- Tom Horne
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have a small PBX-type thing. Two 'incoming'/'outgoing' lines. Dial three digits (100-through 105) to get the various rooms in my house. The 0 operator is aliased to extension 100.Dial 9 to get a 'regular' battery-powered CO line on 620-331 from Sage Telecom (which replaced the late, great Prairie Stream Communmications).
Dial 8 to get a Vonage VOIP line (620-402-0134).
Dial 70-0 to pick up an incoming call on either outside line, both of which have a 'common audible' bell which is mounted on the wall nearby the unit. All incoming calls default to ringing on extension
100 which aliases to extension 0 (or operator).Dial 108 or 109 to park either or both incoming lines in a 'holding queue', then pick the call back up from another extension such as my office or bedroom by redialing 108 or 109.
I have a Cingular cell phone with its own battery of course, and I can also charge it via a 'Cell Socket' device which ties into extension 102 on the PBX. That is to say, I can from any internal phone dial extension 102 and get access to the Cingular phone if it is in the cell socket device.
The 'PBX-type thing' is powered from AC. There is a central office bypass socket on the unit which brings either outside line direct to a phone instrument plugged into it. From that bypass (of the PBX) I have a caller-ID plugged in and whatever else.
In the event power is out, the first line (Sage, telco landline) feeds into the bypass switch. The second line, (the VOIP could be plugged in there, but no matter since the computer is _mostly_ dead.) If the second line was an actual telco line as well, then I would have it there also, since the voltage from the ringing phone toggles the bypass to one side or the other where it would remain until a call on the other line toggled it back.
The VOIP line is mainly powered by the computer's electricity, but I do have a small 'battery backup' on my system, mainly to allow for an orderly shut down of the system as needed. In the process of 'shutting down' due to power failure, I _could_ make a call through that battery backup over the computer/VOIP line, and I assume I could unplug everything but the router and that one computer and stretch out the battery life a few more minutes.
What I really need to get is a slightly bigger battery backup to allow me to continue using my one lamp a bit longer, and a crank radio to allow me to play my radio even when power was out for awhile. Have you seen those? Crank the radio a half dozen times or so and it allows the radio to play for about an hour on that cranking. I also have a (seldom used) CB radio which would work from the battery backup or the crank (if I had one) for a short time. Of course, it would not help with the refrigerator or the furnace fan, but I do have logs for my fireplace as needed. PAT]