Amount of rings

Press *78.  Result: You will hear a stutter, then a regular dial tone.

Enter the number of rings between 2 and 9. The default is 4 rings.

After entering the number of rings, you will hear two fast busy signals letting you know your changes are complete.
After listening for the confirmation tone, hang up.

UNLESS you live in one of these areas. If so, you need to call Cox to change the number of rings;

Baton Rouge, LA
Gainesville / Ocala, FL
Pensacola, FL
Macon, GA
Roanoke, VA

http://www.cox.com/residential/support/phone/article.cox?articleId=aea8da80-eb8a-11df-ef43-000000000000

Hi Sandi90, To disable the Voice Mail feature of your Cox home phone service, you can turn voice mail off completely by completing the following steps:
1) Sign in to Phone Tools at http://phonetools.cox.net.
2) On the blue menu, click Settings.
3) Click Voice Mail to expand the options.
4) Next to Voice Mail On/Off, click the Change button.
5) Select OFF, then click Submit.
Remember to login using the primary userid for the Cox account holder.