How can I best forward my apartment buzzer?

October 7, 2016 9:04 PM

How can I best forward my apartment buzzer?

I live in an apartment. Sometimes, it would be nice to be able to buzz people into my building without being home. I want to know a simple way to do this.

1. I still want it to ring on my landline first or simultaneously. THis is a must for complicated reasons.
2. I have a regular landline and then I have an iPhone. My kids also live here, but I want them to use the landline only for buzzing people in.


Scenarios:
My child has forgotten his keys. I am at work. He phones me and I can buzz him in.

House cleaner buzzes me. I can buzz her into the building and don't have to spend $50 on a key.

I am dealing with my medical illness and can buzz in an ambulance rather than having to make my way to the landline.

posted by Chaussette and the Pussy Cats to Technology (8 answers total)

If you use VOIP for your landline, you can forward after X seconds, or have "simulring" where both phones ring at once and you answer with whichever you prefer. I have Vonage and use "simulring" (not for phone buzzer, just for calls). Of course, this would forward all your landline calls to your cell, not just the buzzer ones, but I find this convenient: I don't give anyone my cell number, just my landline. If I'm home I answer landline, if I'm not I answer on my cell.

I've seen Vonage get mixed reviews around here. I've had it for over 10 years with no problem. It's way cheaper than other landline options and comes with way better features (e.g. all my voice mails get emailed to me. I think there's also an option ot have them transcribed and texted to you.)
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 9:10 PM on October 7, 2016

I am not sure if this suits your needs, but my Verizon Fios home phone can do both the simultaneous ring and the ring another line after x number of rings thing. What I have no idea is if the ring is forwarded to another phone, will hitting the keys that buzz someone in still work. My guess is no, but that is a guess.

Depending on how the buzzer system works, maybe you could get a Google Voice number and program the buzzer to ring that number. Then, put both you home phone and your cell phone as the phone rung when someone calls that particular Google voice number.
posted by AugustWest at 10:41 PM on October 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

I use Ringo for a similar problem.
posted by delezzo at 11:55 PM on October 7, 2016

Google Voice absolutely solves this problem. You can forward calls to multiple numbers, thus asking it to ring both your landline and your cell, or alternating between them as needed.
posted by decathecting at 11:31 AM on October 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

Is your buzzer a modern one that is already phone-connected, or are you looking for something to replace an old-style wall button?
posted by rhizome at 2:51 PM on October 8, 2016

Response by poster: I have a landline telephone line that receives the buzzer call.

I'm in Canada, so Google Voice won't work for me, sadly.

I don't have VOIP.

I need it to ring here before going to a cell.

(I'm looking to see if Ringo will let it ring here first.)
posted by Chaussette and the Pussy Cats at 8:09 PM on October 8, 2016

If your phone service provider allows call forwarding, you can set up call forwarding when you leave the house. Since that's sometimes hard to remember, if your service providers allows *remote call forwarding*, then you can call a number, and go through a couple of steps to forward your home phone to your cell phone. That way, if the person waiting downstairs has a cell phone, they could call you, you could forward your phone line remotely, then they could use the buzzer to call you and let you buzz them in.

We do this at my job, I am many miles from my office, and I buzz people in to the building.
posted by freezer cake at 4:47 PM on October 10, 2016

Note: we pay extra for remote call forwarding.
posted by freezer cake at 4:47 PM on October 10, 2016 [1 favorite]