# Phantom Caller ID "Unavailable"



## commtech (Jul 26, 2012)

Just had whole home D* installed last week consisting of 1 HR24-100 and 3 H25-700 receivers and the new black BB Deca. Very strange problem with caller id. When using telephone I get a "incoming call- Unavailable-Unavailable" message on my screen even though there is NO call coming in. This keeps popping up every 10 seconds until I hang up the phone. This is happening on 2 Tv's only and I've narrowed it to two rooms that share a splitter where my Deca is installed. The other two tv's are fine. I have tried switching cables around on splitter to no avail. Finally I disconnected the Deca from the splitter and all CID problems went away and CID works normal on these two tv's again. So it's a problem obviously with the Deca hooked to the splitter for these 2 rooms. Anyone have ANY idea what is causing this? It's driving me nuts! If you need any add'l info I will be glad to provide. I am hooking the Deca back up so I can access VOD and unplugging phone lines on those two tv's for now till I get answers. Thanks in advance for any help out there!


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## vaguy (Aug 7, 2007)

I just upgraded to a Genie and H25.
I have the exact same problem on the H25 giving me a CID unavialble message every 10 seconds when I'm on the phone (I originated the call).
I have one 8-port SWM - DECA, power inserter, and the 2 STBs are all that's conected.
I vaguely remember installer saying something about enabling caller ID on the H25 screwing up whole home (but I have not found that to be the case.
My solution has been to shut off CID on the H25. Not what I want.


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## peds48 (Jan 11, 2008)

Do you have FiOS as your telephone provider?


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

I would install phone filter at the DVR (what used with IDSN or ADSL installs )


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

vaguy said:


> I just upgraded to a Genie and H25.
> I have the exact same problem on the H25 giving me a CID unavialble message every 10 seconds when I'm on the phone (I originated the call) [...] My solution has been to shut off CID on the H25. *Not what I want.*


Ditto. I have the same issue with my HR44-700 (and attached clients), but not my HR24-200 or H21-200. All are connected to the same Vonage VOIP modem.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

did you try to install phone filter at the DVR ?


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

P Smith said:


> did you try to install phone filter at the DVR ?


Its only an issue with this DVR, not my others, so I believe it is software. Some phone line noise threshold that needs to be tweaked. Just my .02.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

so the filter will cut the noise


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## ghontz1 (Mar 25, 2010)

I am having the same whith my H25-700. I don't have whole home dvr just Hr21 running through my wifi network with a wireless adaptor for on demand.


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## Jacob Braun (Oct 6, 2011)

This is a known issue on the H25-700. The fix is to...unplug the phone cord.

It should hopefully be fixed soonish?


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## sabretooth02 (Sep 24, 2016)

Old thread but here is what solved my issue.

I believe I have found the issue with my HR44/200 and Directv Caller ID that has plagued me for years. I have Ooma phone service but this may fix any phone service. 

First caller ID would be intermittent, popping up or not popping up. A reboot of the HR44 would fix the issue for a few days, maybe. Also had the UNAVAILABLE caller ID pop up when on the phone. Caller ID always showed up on my cordless phones all the time as was correct. Ooma logs were filled with failed attempts to phone home to Directv. Like every 1.5 hours. I have hundreds of pages of these logged in the Ooma logs. 

Here is what I found. Like most folks you have your Directv box close to your entertainment center. And like most folks you want to protect all this equipment with a good surge protector and/or UPS system. Well if you look you may find a phone jack in the surge or UPS equipment and like any good person want to protect your phone, so you plug your phone into that jack and then into the wall.

I need to get my FAX machine running so I took the phone line out of the Monster ($100) surge protector and plugged it into my printer/fax.

I now only had a short cable for the phone line so I just plugged the Directv box into the wall directly not using the surge protector. 

Guess what? Yup, no more Ooma logs showing the Directv phone home number at all! Logs are clean!

So far no more UNAVAILABLE caller ID also! 

I can only think that the voltage drop using the Monster phone jack surge protector was causing these issues. 

That phone line has been connected for years like this but since Ooma is not connected to the outside world of POTS, it is not needed. 

So there you have my fix. Make sure your Directv phone line is NOT connected to a surge or UPS phone protection jack. Plug it directly onto the wall jack.


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