First off, welcome to ooma and to the forum. I think that you are way ahead of most because you took the time to read some of the posts in the forum some before posting your question. Thank you!
Personally, I think you were given bad advice regarding porting and option 2. Most of the frequent posters on the forum really don't like what is called an "integrated landline" because it just adds problems to what you are trying to accomplish. I would call support and tell them you want to use a temporary number until your number ports - then the number you are porting will become your ooma number. After you have ooma technical support do this, you will disconnect your ooma WALL port from the wall. Since you already have Charter phone with free call forwarding, you can call forward your Charter number to your new ooma temporary number - that way, all calls to your regular number will ring on your Telo. Of course, you will need to have a phone plugged into the Telo PHONE port for testing this, which I recommend before proceeding. Here are the steps:
(1) Get the new number from ooma, telling them you do not want to use an integrated landline.
(2) Unplug the Telo WALL jack from your home wiring.
(3) Pick up a phone connected to your Charter line and set up call forwarding to your ooma temporary number. If you are unsure of the codes to use, check with your Charter paperwork or call the Charter Customer Service line. You don't need to tell them you are using ooma, just that you want to forward calls to this number. You will be forwarding ALL calls to your new ooma number.
(4) Plug a phone (any phone) into the PHONE jack on your Telo.
(5) Now, from a cell phone, call your home (Charter) phone number. It should ring on your the phone connected to the Telo.
(6) If all goes well with this, continue to the next steps to make all the wiring in your house work with your new system.
I am going to guess that your ooma is near the box Charter uses for your phone connection - if so, the next part is easy. There will be a phone jack on your Charter box. Right now, it connects your Charter system to the jacks in your home. Since you want to connect these same jacks to your new ooma system, just unplug that cable from the Charter box and connect it to the PHONE jack on the back of your ooma. That's all there is to it. If the Charter installers did their job correctly, they have already disconnected your phone wiring from the telephone company - if you want to check that out for yourself, just go to the (probably gray) Network Interface Box on the outside of your home and make sure the little cables inside are unplugged. If the Charter folks didn't do leave a note cautioning against re-connecting, you may do so to prevent future problems.
Any questions, feel free to reply.
