Scout installation

[sienz]

I have cable modem with no land line. So I want to turn on all of the jacks in my house (4 room/jacks/phones). I disconnect the cable from the telco box outside my house as recommended. I would like to use all of the jacks for my other phones as well as the scout.
1. I turned on the HUB and it is working with a phone plugs to the PHONE port. (1 room)
2. From the HUB, I connected the WALL port to my wall jack (which connect to all of other jacks inside my house).
3. In the second room, I turned on the SCOUT and connected the WALL port (on the scout) to on my home wall jack.
4. The scout is now working but the rest of the home wall jacks are not working. (room 3 and 4)
5. From this setup I can only have 2 working jack/ports (one from the Hub and one from the scout).

How can I make the rest of the wall jacks inside my house to work?

Do I need Scout to connect additional phones (the rest of the jacks) inside my house?

Thanks

[scottlindner]

I have cable modem with no land line. So I want to turn on all of the jacks in my house (4 room/jacks/phones). I disconnect the cable from the telco box outside my house as recommended. I would like to use all of the jacks for my other phones as well as the scout.
1. I turned on the HUB and it is working with a phone plugs to the PHONE port. (1 room)
2. From the HUB, I connected the WALL port to my wall jack (which connect to all of other jacks inside my house).
3. In the second room, I turned on the SCOUT and connected the WALL port (on the scout) to on my home wall jack.
4. The scout is now working but the rest of the home wall jacks are not working. (room 3 and 4)
5. From this setup I can only have 2 working jack/ports (one from the Hub and one from the scout).

How can I make the rest of the wall jacks inside my house to work?

Do I need Scout to connect additional phones (the rest of the jacks) inside my house?

Thanks

There are two ways to do this. The root of it is based on how the Hub and Scout communicate. Although there are lots of variations, the basic options are:
1. get one Scout per phone
2. put the Phone port on the Hub or Scout on Line 1 of your home's wiring, and put the Wall port of the Hub or Scout on Line 2 of your home's wiring. Then connect all phones in the rest of the house one Line 1 only.

There are many variations, but that's the simple way to describe it.

I did something similar to 2..
Line 1 = Ooma Hub Phone port + all phones throughout the house
Line 2 = Ooma Scout Phone port + office phone (soon to be a 2 line phone)
Line 3 = Ooma Hub Wall port and Ooma Scout Wall port


The reason for this is the Hub and Scout communicate with each other over the Wall port using something similar to DSL (called HPNA).

I am overly simplify it, but this should give you some ideas to mull over.

Scott

[sienz]

Thank you Scott,

I was thinking using the Line/pair # 2 for the hub and scout as you described. I just want to make sure that We have no way to do it without modifying the wiring.

[southsound]

I just want to make sure that We have no way to do it without modifying the wiring.

You may not have to modify the wiring at all. If all of your phone jacks are wired for the second line then all you need is a two-line splitter at the jack where the hub is plugged in and another in the room where you will be using the scout. The type of splitter I am describing has two RJ11's on it - one marked line 1, one marked line 2. Plug the hub into the jack as follows: Line 1 goes to the phone connection on the hub. Line 2 goes to the wall connection on the hub. In the room where you are using the scout, plug it into the line 2 connector.

[scottlindner]

I just want to make sure that We have no way to do it without modifying the wiring.

You may not have to modify the wiring at all. If all of your phone jacks are wired for the second line then all you need is a two-line splitter at the jack where the hub is plugged in and another in the room where you will be using the scout. The type of splitter I am describing has two RJ11's on it - one marked line 1, one marked line 2. Plug the hub into the jack as follows: Line 1 goes to the phone connection on the hub. Line 2 goes to the wall connection on the hub. In the room where you are using the scout, plug it into the line 2 connector.

I opted to not use the two line splitters. Rather, I bought some RJ11 connectors and a crimp tool and modified short lengths of phone cables to have a pig tail on the end one that is L1 and the other that is L2. It works well for me, but I know it isn't for everyone. Just thought I'd throw that out there as another thought to ponder.

Scott

[southsound]

Another clean way to do it is to just buy a couple of wall plates that have two jacks on them. Wire the white/blue pairs to the red/green wires on the first jack, the white/orange pairs to the red/green of the second jack. Very clean looking and no pesky adapters to break in the future.

[scottlindner]

That is a good suggestion to. I hadn't thought of it that way. I have a bunch of keystone wallplates so I might just swap it out for a 4 hole plate and rig it up.

Scott