DSL Ooma and home jack distribution

[daculaman]

Hello,

My port completed yesterday. My land line has been cancelled, and my original landline and DSL cable has been disconnected. I am actually using a new DSL line that has never had a landline associated with it. I had to swap the incoming line to a new terminal post in the box (per the AT&T tech that added the dry loop DSL line)

Anyway, the Ooma device is working well, and the DSL internet is fine. I would like to use the Ooma device to distribute a dialtone through my original wall jacks. However, my original telephone handsets have a dialtone. If I try to dial out on them, I get a message that says "were sorry, your call cannot be completed as dialed" so I believe that the landline is in fact dead.

I went to the box outside, and unplugged the jacks. If I unplug the original DSL jack, nothing happens, which makes sense, that line is dead, and the wire relocated to the new jack. If I unplug the other jack, the DSL line goes dead. Also makes sense, that is how the signal is sent into the house.

So my question is, what to I need to do to kill the dialtone to the original jacks so I can distribute the signal through the Ooma?

In the location where my Ooma device is, there are two wall jacks side by side. Should I disconnect the original phone line at the the other box located outside (the box that has network, NIC, etc. in it) and then just plug the Ooma into the other jack in the house?

Thank you in advance for your input.

[daculaman]

OK,

I answered my own question. Went out to the ADSL box, disconnected the orange wires tied to the phone terminals, and dialtone died. Went to the Ooma device, plugged the cable from the output jack to the wall outlet and it now works perfectly. Signal distributed throughout the house.

[jreed]

Went to the Ooma device, plugged the cable from the output jack to the wall outlet and it now works perfectly. Signal distributed throughout the house.

Do you have the Ooma hub? When you say you the 'output jack' on the Ooma do you mean the connection labled 'Phone'?

If you now have a connection going from the wall outlet to the 'Phone' outlet on the Ooma, what do you have connected to the connection labled 'Wall' on the Omma hub?

Thanks,
Neal

[southsound]

Went to the Ooma device, plugged the cable from the output jack to the wall outlet and it now works perfectly. Signal distributed throughout the house.

Do you have the Ooma hub? When you say you the 'output jack' on the Ooma do you mean the connection labled 'Phone'?

If you now have a connection going from the wall outlet to the 'Phone' outlet on the Ooma, what do you have connected to the connection labled 'Wall' on the Omma hub?

Thanks,
Neal

I believe I can answer for the OP - the PHONE jack on both the hub and the Telo is the dialtone "output" jack or what we call an FXS port. He should have nothing connected to the WALL port unless it is a hub and he is using it with a scout.

Neal, possibly a better question is the one you didn't ask... How can we help you with setting up your system? Do you have a hub (white) ooma or the Telo (black)? What are you trying to accomplish? We're here to help!

[jreed]

I believe I can answer for the OP - the PHONE jack on both the hub and the Telo is the dialtone "output" jack or what we call an FXS port. He should have nothing connected to the WALL port unless it is a hub and he is using it with a scout.

Neal, possibly a better question is the one you didn't ask... How can we help you with setting up your system? Do you have a hub (white) ooma or the Telo (black)? What are you trying to accomplish? We're here to help!

Thanks southhoud! Your insight is very good, I do have a reason for asking.

I currently have a Ooma Hub and a Scout. I want to distribute signal throughout the house to all the phone outlets. My connection set up before reading your reply was out of the wall outlet and into the Ooma Hub port WALL and out of the phone into the Hub port PHONE. Then in the kitchen I had another wireless phone, not an extension that was hooked up to a Scout. Those two phones worked great, but none of my other outlets would work unless I used the scout with the phone like my set up in the kitchen.

So after getting home and reading your excellent explanation of the PHONE port on the Hub I took the connection from the wall outlet and switched it to the PHONE port on the Hub and then tested all my other outlets with a direct phone connection and now all outlets have signal!!!!!

However as you also mentioned now my Scout doesn't work connect to an outlet. What would be the next step to regain use of the Scout by itself, not coupled with a phone as it was before?

Thanks again for all the help, it's much appreciated!

Neal

[lbmofo]

I hope you already disconnected your home wiring from the telephone company.

With both Telo and Hub, you can distribute Ooma dialtone, from the "Phone" port, throughout your home. If you have a Hub, you can combine the "Wall" port's HPNA signal with the Ooma dialtone, using a duplex splitter, and distribute so that Scouts will also work at all your phone jacks.

[southsound]

Just got back... lbmofo is correct, you can distribute both dialtone and your scout's HPNA signal by combining them with a simple one-line splitter. One probably came in your box with the hub and scout. And his caution about disconnecting your wiring from the telco is also very wise. You don't want to send your dialtone around the neighborhood - and if the phone technician doesn't disconnect your drop from their equipment, signals from their line cards could cause havoc with your ooma. You can do this at the NIB (Network Interfacr Box, also called a demarc) by just unplugging the little cable for the line you are disconnecting. I also stick a note in the box warning not to reconnect or it might cause damage to customer equipment.

[jreed]

Thanks lbmofo, it's a new construction home that I never had a phone company come out to do any hookup, went straight with the Ooma Hub and scout from the start.

That makes sense now about the duplex splitter, I'll get one tomorrow and complete my hook up.

Thanks again you guys are incredible!

Neal

[jreed]

Just got back... lbmofo is correct, you can distribute both dialtone and your scout's HPNA signal by combining them with a simple one-line splitter. One probably came in your box with the hub and scout. And his caution about disconnecting your wiring from the telco is also very wise. You don't want to send your dialtone around the neighborhood - and if the phone technician doesn't disconnect your drop from their equipment, signals from their line cards could cause havoc with your ooma. You can do this at the NIB (Network Interfacr Box, also called a demarc) by just unplugging the little cable for the line you are disconnecting. I also stick a note in the box warning not to reconnect or it might cause damage to customer equipment.

Thanks southhound for reminding me of the splitter that came in the box, I just dug it out and connected it to the Hub Phone and Wall ports and now my Scout works anywhere!

And good point I'm going to put a note inside my box with my feeds to my phone lines outside just to be safe. I never plan on getting a land line connection but it never hurts to cover all bases. Currently I have two CAT5e runs for my phone line and another run for a dedicated phone line for alarm monitoring in my exterior box. Here's a picture:


The black CAT5 cable is for the alarm but it's not used since I have a TL-150 doing my alarm monitoring over the internet.

Thank you guys again for all the help.
Neal

[southsound]

Looks like you are all set! At this point, welcome to ooma and to the forum. And don't be a stranger - your experiences can help others.