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Hey everyone - what a fantastic community - thank you in advance for any help you can give me. I've been searching through the posts, but can't find a topic that matches. I'm pretty much a newbie, so forgive me if any of this post doesn't make sense.

I live in an old house with very few phone jacks and I'm trying to set up my Ooma Scout as an answering machine on the ground level of our home. Right now, I have a cable modem hooked into the Ooma hub and the Ooma hub connected to a DECT 6.0 phone system. The cordless phones throughout the house all work fine.

Upstairs, I've plugged the Easy Jack base unit into a wall socket (I know you can't use a surge protector) and hooked a phone line between the Easy Jack line connector and the Ooma hub "wall" jack. Downstairs, I plugged the Easy Jack extension unit into a wall socket and connected a phone wire between the extension unit and the Ooma Scout. Unfortunately, I'm getting all red lights at the bottom of the Ooma Scout. When I plug a non-cordless phone into Easy Jack to check, all I get is static. Still, the Easy Jack units are both lighting up green, so I know they're connecting with each other. And, I know the Ooma Scout works fine because I've plugged it into the Ooma Hub to test it out.

Does anyone have any thoughts? Thanks again in advance.

If you plug in a non cordless phone and you get static, but you also get green lights then you're probably experiencing interference from an appliance or fan (or any number of other things). Is this in your kitchen? Check for static when the fridge isn't running. You also have to take into account your house wiring. An old house probably has old wiring which can affect it also. Try plugging the easy jack base and extension into wall sockets in the same room to see if it improves.

Hey there - thanks for response - unfortunately, still no luck. Now, the base unit hooked to the Ooma Hub is red and the extension unit in the same room is green, but just giving static over a non-cordless phone.

Like I said, I'm a newbie, should the house wiring matter? I thought the point of the Easy Jack was that you just plugged it into a wall socket and it takes the dial tone from the Ooma hub?

If you want a Dialtone, you would plug it into the "Phone" jack on the back of the hub and then plug a phone into the Easy Plug


The scout will not work over the Easy Jack because of the nature. The Easy Jack only send over the narrow band of VOICE that phones use. The scout uses HPNA, which has a MUUUCH greater broadband than voice does, and the Easy Jack simply ignores. You can use a phone, but not the scout with the Easy Jack.

Ahhh gotcha - rookie mistake - I guess I'll be sending those Easy Jacks back, then, since the one thing I don't need is any more phones. Those DECT ones work just fine. Thank you everyone for your quick responses.

I use a device called dual jack. Instead of going through your home wiring it works like a cordless phone base and transmits phone signal to aanother unit with phone plug. I use this for my dish network receiver.

some people have apparently used the "powerline" HomePlug (which is ethernet based instead of phone) to relocate their ethernet. search some of the previous postings about it. the powerline will allow you to move the hub next to the phone (then the phone could then plug directly into the hub) by relocating the ethernet jack instead of the phone jack, that would move the answering machine upstairs though.

i think the powerline products are somewhat expensive though(they have different models with different levels of quality); i had AT&T wire me a new jack for $85 (they had a flat fee in my area -- and they had to work hard to get mine in )

This may be the old telco installer coming out in me, but would it be too difficult to run a new wire between the hub location and where you want to use the scout? Sometimes this can be accomplished by running the cable under the baseboard in a carpeted room until you get to a place like a closet where the cable can travel between floors. All it requires is a single twisted pair but I would at least cat 3 so you had additional pairs in case you want to run a second line from the scout's phone jack to power line 2 at a later date. You can get long drills at Harbor Freight for less than $5 that will make the span between floors. If this is a task you would rather not do yourself you might find a person who does phone installs at a good price to do the simple wiring for you. The cable does not have to run to your demarc box - only between the hub and scout.

I use a device called dual jack. Instead of going through your home wiring it works like a cordless phone base and transmits phone signal to aanother unit with phone plug. I use this for my dish network receiver.

Dual Jack may work fine as long as you are not using a wireless network. I see the Dual Jack uses 2.4 GHz frequency that can interfere with wireless networks. Several people on the Ooma boards experienced problems with cordless phones in the 2.4 and 5.8 GHz causing dropped calls on Ooma.

Gary

Hey everyone - what a fantastic community - thank you in advance for any help you can give me. I've been searching through the posts, but can't find a topic that matches. I'm pretty much a newbie, so forgive me if any of this post doesn't make sense.

I live in an old house with very few phone jacks and I'm trying to set up my Ooma Scout as an answering machine on the ground level of our home. Right now, I have a cable modem hooked into the Ooma hub and the Ooma hub connected to a DECT 6.0 phone system. The cordless phones throughout the house all work fine.

Upstairs, I've plugged the Easy Jack base unit into a wall socket (I know you can't use a surge protector) and hooked a phone line between the Easy Jack line connector and the Ooma hub "wall" jack. Downstairs, I plugged the Easy Jack extension unit into a wall socket and connected a phone wire between the extension unit and the Ooma Scout. Unfortunately, I'm getting all red lights at the bottom of the Ooma Scout. When I plug a non-cordless phone into Easy Jack to check, all I get is static. Still, the Easy Jack units are both lighting up green, so I know they're connecting with each other. And, I know the Ooma Scout works fine because I've plugged it into the Ooma Hub to test it out.

Does anyone have any thoughts? Thanks again in advance.

I have a Panasonic DECT 6.0 phone system which includes 3 phones and Base with answering machine : base with answering machine and 1 phone hooked to the Hub and the other 2 phones anywhere in the house : only need to plug the cradle for recharging to an electric outlet!
I don't see why bother with all the costly extras.
Everything works fine!
I bought my Panasonic system at Staples for $79 - $20 rebate!
Panasonic KX-TG9333T DECT 6.0 Expandable Cordless Phone with Answering System.
.