Our answering machine is set (as Tom/Curmudgeon said earlier) at 6 rings. Sometimes, if I'm outside or down in the cellar or on the far side of the chaserai in the guest room, I don't make it to the phone in time. Less than 6 is probably a telemarketer. (I wish ALL of them hung up before; the ones "saving" me from credit card debt -- we don't HAVE any credit cards -- are driving me crazy.)

And we've got 3 phones in a fairly small house -- cordless at base downstairs, attached to the fax machine in my office (at the other side of the downstairs), and the corded one upstairs.

Linn