I am looking for technology solutions. Now that 4G is available where I live (boonies), I am ready to ditch my land line and possibly my satellite internet. AT&T offers a great wireless gateway that will allow me to port my home number to my wireless AND connect my cordless phones to it. BUT... How do I handle my telephone connection to my Dishnet receiver? Do I really need that - do they use it to call my receiver or is it just to purchase movies? How can I handle my remote gate entry call box? The landline runs through my gate box so that when people press the call box, it rings on my cordless phone and I can buzz them in. How do I handle the alarm system: I am looking at an interface box that would allow me to use the Internet to send alarms instead of land lines. I have satellite internet but can now get high speed internet on my iPhone over a 4G network. The problem with the cell phone approach is that if I am away from the house with my phone, there would ne no alam system connection to the internet. Could I just buy a hot spot device and leave it in the house all the time? Thanks for the help

I just got a Smartphone last year. I was against them for a long time. And if I didn't have a houseful of active kids, I could live without one. However, it has really been useful (though not necessary) to have. I have four kids who have multiple activities and sports all over the place. I keep my calendar on it which dh can access from his phone or the internet so that makes scheduling things very easy - we can both check the calendar before scheduling things (although I must admit, I prefer my paper calendar and still use one in addition to my online calendar). Because I'm constantly out and about driving from one activity to the next and am often away from home and my computer for hours at a time, being able to read my email has saved me at times (canceled at the last minute practices, directions to a field, etc). I can set reminders on it so if I'm out and want to remind myself of something to do when I get home, my phone will actually tell me as I'm turning down my street that I have to do x, y or z and will continue to remind me until I check the box. I'm not one who desires or wants to be "connected" at all times. I don't answer my phone in public, I don't text or look at my phone when I"m in the company of others and I don't want people to be able to reach me whenever they want (I don't give my cell phone out to anyone unless they need it for logistical reasons). I only use my phone when I'm sitting idle somewhere (like waiting to pick my kids up from school or at a sports practice). I was torn last year about getting a smartphone b/c I didn't want to be one of "those" people, but in the end, realized it would be very helpful to me b/c of my schedule and my kids' schedules. That said, it isn't a necessity and I wouldn't recommend getting one if you don't really have a reason for one as it is costly!

Nicole, the Ooma box doesn't care what kind of an internet connection it has, so long as it can get to the internet through its connection (usually ethernet cable) to a router. It has a wifi dongle you can get to move the Telo away from the router and pass the telephony over Wifi. Tech support has told me that's not the best way to go, wired is best. Our Ooma service is great - very clear and consistent connections and at such a low price. Without Ooma, we'd chuck our landline number, it's not worth having.

dedtired what some do is do a search for a telephone number. If that number is active it will show the names of people at that address along with random family members even if those family members never lived there. For some reason they show my FIL and one of my SIL's living at our house. Never had lived here but somehow it is shown on the record. Your mother may have been given your grandsons name. Another method if there are not many people with the same last name is to do a name search. I used to do a bit of skip tracing and it would amaze people how much information you can find simply typing in a name and hitting enter.