Any student wishing to use such a service would need to use a third-party calling card of some type which allows access to such numbers. Call waiting is a service which notifies you of an incoming phone call if you are already using the phone. The notification comes as a series of 2 beeps and will continue until you either switch to the incoming call, or the person calling hangs up. When you are finished with that call, or wish to switch back to the first phone call you were on, simple press the flash button or switch hook again. By using the flash button or switch hook you will be able to switch between the two phone calls.
Voice mail acts something like an answering machine.
If your are on the phone or out of the room when a phone call is received, the automated voice mail system will take the call and ask whoever is calling to leave a voice message which you will then be able to retrieve at a later time. You will be able to tell if you have voice mail by picking up the phone and listening to the dial tone. If the dial tone is intermittent then you have voice mail waiting for you. If you use a modem, your modem may have trouble detecting a dial tone when there is waiting voice mail. To fix this, simply check your voice mail first, and then your modem should be able to detect the dial-tone and operate properly.