Local line integration not working - help!

[witenoize]

I am writing this after waiting on hold for 40 minutes for tech support, on my cellphone, and then being disconnected. Thanks, ooma.

I set up and activated my new hub last night, initially choosing NOT to integrate with the land line. I was able to get everything working (once I realized that the "dimmer" for the blue light was turned all the way down), and placed a few test calls to my cellphone.

I then decided that I would rather have the landline integration, so I called tech support first thing this morning to re-provision the unit to work that way. I followed their directions and ran a phone cable between the hub and a wall jack, and then power cycled the hub. My actual cordless phone base unit is connected to a scout unit in a different room, which is itself connected to the wall jack.

So here's what's happening now: all lights are blue, I get the Ooma dialtone, and the web config page shows everything up and running and properly configured for land line usage. Unfortunately, the system is only letting me make local calls, and those are being routed on-line, as opposed to using the landline. When I try to call outside of my calling area, the calls consistently fail with a fast busy signal. Sometimes after dialing, I will hear a click and then I will get the ooma dial tone again.

It seems like the ooma is still partially passing the dialtone to the landline, since I sometimes get the "your call did not go through" Verizon message. When I log in to myooma portal, I don't even see a record of most of the outgoing calls. And there are many calls which only show 7 or 8 digits as having been dialed.

Any thoughts?

[witenoize]

I plugged my ancient wired at&t handset phone directly into the hub and it seems to work normally for both local and long distance. I am guessing this may be an issue with scout <-> hub communications.

[Groundhound]

I plugged my ancient wired at&t handset phone directly into the hub and it seems to work normally for both local and long distance. I am guessing this may be an issue with scout <-> hub communications.

The scout & hub should have an unused wire pair to connect their wall ports together. Most homes have two or more pairs and you can connect the hub and scout by installing duplex jacks in both rooms or using "Ln1, Ln2, Ln1+Ln2" splitters.

[witenoize]

I have plugged my cordless base into the hub directly. This works, but is a little static-y since the hub is in my basement wiring closet next to my cable modem.

When I called ooma tech support for my initial setup, the tech insisted that it was perfectly fine to have the scout on the same line as the active local line since the digital protocol used was designed to work over the analog line signal. Is this not the case?

I have to say, this whole setup experience has been so needlessly complicated. Pretty much every aspect of the setup is confusing and contradictory:

- how hard would it be to include a 2-page tech reference online or in the manual which explicitly states all of the options for how the system integrates into your LAN and your phone wiring?
- What is the default Ip address? Is it a DHCP server? Does it NAT? Which ports do you need to have open if its behind the router? Wouldn't this information be useful to your customers?
- it took me about 3 hours of googling, after a phone call to a clueless tech support, to confirm that the P2P termination is no longer being used (put this on the home page, for crying out loud).
- the whole hub-scout link and whether you can or cannot have fax machines, alarm systems etc directly plugged into an "integrated" landline is contradictory based on what the manual, tech support, and forum experts are saying.
- nowhere does it say what you need to tell the local phone company to properly configure your landline after provisioning: settings for call forward busy, caller-id, etc - these are critical bits of information that only the forum seems to have.
- why is 10 digit dialing configured on myooma but other features are on the device itself? Why aren't all settings either online or on-device or both?

Ooma is failing hard in terms of the out of the box experience. Not to mention the endless waits for offshore tech support who only work office hours on Pacific time...

[Groundhound]

When I called ooma tech support for my initial setup, the tech insisted that it was perfectly fine to have the scout on the same line as the active local line since the digital protocol used was designed to work over the analog line signal. Is this not the case?

Technically true if DSL is not part of the mix, but many have found that the HPNA communication between the Hub & Scout works best if you have an isolated line between them, and some have issues with it even then with scratchy outbound voice quality - YMMV.

One thing the new Telo does is eliminate HPNA since the Telo to Telo Handset communication is wireless DECT 6, but this also eliminates wired access to the Instant Second Line feature.

[witenoize]

Okay, last questions (I hope):

-How does caller-id, call-waiting, voicemail etc work with the landline?

-Do I need to have my number ported to Ooma to then be able to get these features to work properly if I drop those features on my landline?

I just spoke with yet another clueless tech, who insisted that I could drop ALL my landline features and the ooma would, through the magic of the Premiere subscription, be able to determine that a local call was coming in and be able to pass caller id, call waiting, etc. I can't see how this could be possible if I don't port my number, since verizon isn't going to be sending that info across the line without someone paying for it.

So once again, just be 100% clear:
- assuming I drop to lowest tier of landline verizon service, which features do I need to retain on my landline? Since I am using a scout-less cordless phone I am guessing I am not going to be able to use the instant 2nd line.
- does this work if I don't port my number?
- If I do port my number but keep my landline, does verizon just assign some random number to my landline? I assume this would mean all incoming local calls are actually routed over the ooma network?

Thanks!

[Groundhound]

- assuming I drop to lowest tier of landline verizon service, which features do I need to retain on my landline?

According to page 2 of your User Guide, you need "Call Forward on Busy".

[witenoize]

What number does the CFB need to forward to?
If I dont subscribe to premier, do I not need caller-ID on the line?

[Groundhound]

What number does the CFB need to forward to?
If I dont subscribe to premier, do I not need caller-ID on the line?

I don't have my Ooma Hub set up this way, but as I understand it, Ooma sets it up for you with your landline provider. For your existing Hub core, callerID is included.

I guess the way to look at it is that if someone with landline service that has only call forwarding but no callerID, forwards his inbound calls to someone with callerID service, the forwarded callerID is displayed at the destination. Likewise, when an inbound call comes into your online Ooma Hub with the landline provisioned, the Hub has that line off-hook and the landline "Call Forward on Busy" forwards the call to an internal local Ooma number that Ooma sets up with your landline provider. The call then comes back to you via the Ooma network with the features you have from Ooma.

[WayneDsr]

I am provisioned with a landline at the moment. I do not have call forward on busy or caller id on my landline.
When a call comes in from my landline number to my Telo, no caller id is displayed - "unknown" is displayed.

While on a call, if someone else tries to call me, my line will be busy, because I do not have call forward on busy on my landline.

Wayne