kengr

Different displays show different things. But other than caller Id info supplied by the originating exchange, there are only two other possible conditions (other than garbled data)

1. "no Caller ID info" Mine shows that as "Out of area" (and my modem shows it as "number=0" "name=0")

2. Caller ID received by your exchange, but flagged as "private". That's the "Private caller" you are getting.

I'm thinking about picking up one of the gizmos that intercepts calls with blocked or missing caller ID and asks the caller to punch in a number.

If they don't, it hangs up on them. Which eliminates the robots and most telemarketing slime. If they do, it either passes them thru or takes a message.