leonc-
Forwarding works fine. Yours seems to be a rare issue, judging by the non-reports.
Someone else in a different forum had a similar issue. He did 2 things: He opened an escalation ticket with SR about the issue. He also tried a combination of shutting down forwarding (go to No Forwarding,) then resetting the gizmo (unplugging the gizmo from the wall, plugging it back in after about a 2 minute wait.) Activating forwarding again then worked like a charm. He is not sure if it was the ticket he opened with SR and them fixing it at their end or if it was as simple as just taking forwarding off, then rebooting the gizmo. The latter method is probably worth a try before you open a ticket about this.
NYCFella-
I don't think leonc is out of service. He has an issue with forwarding, not generally receiving or making calls, the way it reads.
To your own question:
You can use a regular answering machine. The only thing to keep in mind is that that machine would kick in for calls for either number. That means that you would lose a bit of functionality, because the second incoming number has its own voicemail box as well, a separation that would get lost with just one machine. Of course, if you did not use your second number for a different setup (business <-> personal or Mom <-> Dad,) one machine could be fine.
The VM way is my preferred way. Why? Because it makes retrieval a bit easier and a lot more featured, all things considered. Sure, a machine offers one press of a button to get to your messages. With SR's voicemail you pick up the phone and dial 00, which I don't find that much of an extra hassle. You don't HAVE to enter the pin, you can set SR up to not ask for the pin, so it is really 00 plus 0. The Uniden phones most of us got with their accounts flash a red light on top of each phone when a voicemail is waiting to be retrieved, so in that sense there is no difference between the machine blinking and SRs VM system.
What I like about SR's VM is the ability to retrieve from multiple locations, be notified, screen messages, and forward to email. I can check my voicemail from any phone by calling my phone number, then hitting * to get into my voicemail system. Alternatively I can set it up so that all voicemail's are sent to my email address as .wav files, allowing me to listen to my VMs on the computer. Probably good at work where many have Outlook open to get emails as they come in. You can also go into the SR web portal to listen to all voicemails. In addition you may have SR voicemail notify you. Your choice, to cell, other phone, email, IM, SMS, ICQ. Sunrocket notifies you as soon as a voicemail comes in (you could be in a different state.) You may choose one or a combination with up to all of those notification options. If the notification is via phone you will receive a call from your home with a recorded message informing you that VM has been left for you, complete with the number of the person who just left the message and how many seconds long the message is. An additional very nifty feature is that while you are being notified (I use my cell for notification) or shortly after the notification ended you may hit the # key and the system transfers you directly into your voicemail area so you can listen instantly to the message, only moments after it has been left. No need to call back.
You can also use two nifty programs, one called the VOICE MESSAGE SCREENER, the other program is called USCREEN, which allow you to listen to messages as they are being left, not unlike the ability to do the same thing with a standard answering machine. However, what is more advanced is that you can install this program on any computer, so you could listen to voicemails as they are being left on any computer either one of the programs is installed on. That could be in different rooms of a large house or even remote locations (at work, on vacation, at friend's house.) You can use both programs simultaneously, so you can monitor BOTH of your SR phone numbers at the same time from any computer. In addition to just monitoring the calls you have other options here: You may select to "take the call" because the message you are hearing is important (i.e. emergency, business opportunity, etc.) by routing the call to any phone of your designation. That could be your cell phone, a friend's phone or your own home phone yet again, this time with you actually picking up. You can also select to leave a personalized message to the caller into his message progress (with USCREEN.) That could be one of 3 canned responses: "I'm not here right now, please leave a message."
"I'm on the other line, leave a message and I'll call you right back."
"I can't come to the phone, leave a message and I'll get back to you."
Or, you can enter your own message or select from one you have previously entered and it will be read to the caller via Text-to-Speech. Enter the text or select a message from the pull-down box in the Text-to-Speech Response section, and click Respond with TTS. The message is played to the caller and he or she can then choose to leave a message. If it is an "undesireable person" you could actually type "Leave me the heck alone" or worse.
VOICE MESSAGE SCREENER is provided by Sunrocket. You have to activate it by calling into customer service. Activate it for BOTH phone numbers. Once you do the VOICE MESSAGE SCREENER program shows up in the Download section in SRs web portal. USCREEN can be downloaded (and read up on) here:
USCREEN VOICE MESSAGE SCREENER - use with Sunrocket
Between the advanced notification features, multiple retrieval features, voice message screeners and simply having a message split between the 2 numbers (my wife has her own phone number with her own voicemail box) this beats the machine approach, IMO.