I just stumbled onto something that worked. I like the call forwarding feature that my local phone company verizon offers but it required me to be home when I wanted to forward or un-forward the home phone to my cell phone or work phone. It was inconvenient because when you forward the phone, it has to be answered on the other end. With homeseer I was able to find a work around to this problem. Now I can forward my home phone to my cell or work anywhere in the world or even on the mini browser on my cellphone. Here's what I did:
1. Go to start, settings, control panel, then internet connections. Set up a pseudo "internet connection" named Call forward to CELL ON and one for call forward to CELL OFF. If your call forwarding feature to turn on is 74# and you want to forward to number 555-1212, Enter the Dial string as 74#,5551212. For the call forward OFF Verizon only requires that you only enter 73# but windows looks for all of the digits to dial it's internet connection, so I entered my off string as 73#,xxxxxxx. the x's being my home phone number.
2. Set up as many forward locations as you want, cell work, alternate, etc
3. Next go to homeseer and set up an event named "call forward to cell ON" and one for Call forward to cell OFF. Through the homeseer application, (not the web service), have the event "dial an internet connection" when triggered. Select the "dial internet connection" that corresponds to the event.
4. Create another event for call forward OFF.
5. Next create a virtual device named "call forward to cell phone" in the devices page.
6. Last create a new event called "Activate call forward to cell ON" add the condition to trigger the event (in step 3) when virtual "call forward to cell" has changed to on.
7. Do the same for the OFF.
Now when you want to forward your phone, just sign onto the browser and change the virtual device from either on or off. Within seconds, it will forward your phone! I have a security system that I built with homeseer. Now when I leave not only does it arms the house with outgoing email triggers of sensor activity around the house but it also forwards the home phone to my cell when I'm not there.
1. Go to start, settings, control panel, then internet connections. Set up a pseudo "internet connection" named Call forward to CELL ON and one for call forward to CELL OFF. If your call forwarding feature to turn on is 74# and you want to forward to number 555-1212, Enter the Dial string as 74#,5551212. For the call forward OFF Verizon only requires that you only enter 73# but windows looks for all of the digits to dial it's internet connection, so I entered my off string as 73#,xxxxxxx. the x's being my home phone number.
2. Set up as many forward locations as you want, cell work, alternate, etc
3. Next go to homeseer and set up an event named "call forward to cell ON" and one for Call forward to cell OFF. Through the homeseer application, (not the web service), have the event "dial an internet connection" when triggered. Select the "dial internet connection" that corresponds to the event.
4. Create another event for call forward OFF.
5. Next create a virtual device named "call forward to cell phone" in the devices page.
6. Last create a new event called "Activate call forward to cell ON" add the condition to trigger the event (in step 3) when virtual "call forward to cell" has changed to on.
7. Do the same for the OFF.
Now when you want to forward your phone, just sign onto the browser and change the virtual device from either on or off. Within seconds, it will forward your phone! I have a security system that I built with homeseer. Now when I leave not only does it arms the house with outgoing email triggers of sensor activity around the house but it also forwards the home phone to my cell when I'm not there.