Dial Tone and Data on whole house?

[av8rdude]

I struggled to grasp the concept of how the hub works with scouts, dial tone, etc. Then the light bulb came on. "Wall" is data and "Phone" is dial tone.

But by accident I have my whole house hooked up to the "wall" (data) connection and through my security system it is also hooked up to "phone" (dial tone).

I accidently did this by sending the "phone" connection directly to my security system so it could dial. And then hooked the whole house up to "wall" so I could use my scouts.

Then I realized that my security system by default sends the dial tone out to the whole house unless it is tripped.

It works great and everything seems to work. Plus each outlet in my house will work with a scout or with dial tone.

Why is this not a recommended configuration? After using it for a full day the calls sound perfect and everything works....

Thoughts???

[AngelaKendig]

Most people hook a phone/base station directly to the hubs PHONE port. The only way the scout will work is plugged into the hubs WALL port. Patching the hubs WALL port to a wall jack will activate all the jacks throughout a home to work with the scout. I don't use the scout and where my hub is located isn't a great spot for a phone so I have the hubs PHONE port patched to a nearby wall jack. This puts dialtone throughout my houses wall jacks. Keep in mind, the scout wouldn't work in my configuration unless plugged directly into the hubs WALL port.

[av8rdude]

I understand that most people either connect the whole house to "wall" for data (scouts) or "phone" for dial tone.

I have unintentionally hooked both "wall" and "phone" up to the whole house wiring. And it works flawlessly. My scout works great at another location and all my outlets have tone from the hub, also.

I noticed this when the caller ID worked on my TV. I thought I only had "wall" (data) on the whole house....but to my surprise my security system was passing through the dial tone to the whole house, also.

My question is why is this not a recommended setup by ooma? And what problems am I likely to encounter because of this? Again, the quality is great right now.

Regards

[AngelaKendig]

My bad, I didn't fully understand what you were saying. That's sweet that you came across this by mistake. I will try it also using a splitter on my wall jack fed by both PHONE and WALL ports from the hub.

[Soundjudgment]

"" I have unintentionally hooked both "wall" and "phone" up to the whole house wiring. My question is why is this not a recommended setup by ooma? And what problems am I likely to encounter because of this? ""

Most likely because what you have done is "very unconventional" and is in no way sanctioned by any traditional land-based service provider or carrier. It would be negligent of ooma to even recommend this setup to their own users, even with your reported success. There would be electrical-current issues (such as possible equipment damage from the Ring-voltage alone), and possible data-loss issues that I would understand ooma not wanting to be 'on the hook' for... so to speak.

[av8rdude]

I agree but if the dial tone is analog and the data is digital it might not present any possible equipment problems...
I was hoping to get a comment from a knowledgeable company rep...
Also if you use your system with a traditional land line ooma has both the analog tone and data on your whole house ...

[Bobby B]

The way that you have it hooked up should work, but I'm unsure if you'd encounter any future issues. I emphasized the "should" because we actually don't put the configuration you mentioned through any rigorous QA testing.

If you're looking to enable dialtone throughout your home AND use the Scouts, we've recommended in the past to use two separate pairs of phone wires (most homes come equipped with two lines). In this setup, you'd connect your PHONE port to one pair and the WALL port to another pair. Obviously the Scout would need to be on the WALL port pair as the Hub.

Here's perhaps a few things to be concerned with if you have the PHONE port and the WALL port connected on the same pair of wires (e.g. a single line) -- these are mostly conjectures:
- There's the possibility that you might encounter some sort of feedback loop that might affect your voice quality (since the Hub-provided dialtone loops back into the WALL port).
- Your Hub may become less resilient to noise, affecting your voice quality.
- Your Hub may become less resilient to power surges due to lightning strikes or other sources.

[av8rdude]

Bobby B,
Thanks for the reply. I was just curious if this has been tested and what problems it could cause. I like the suggestion of using the other pair of wires to accomplish this. In fact I plan to do that as soon as I get home from a business trip.
But the amazing thing is that it has worked perfectly. And the sound quality is as good as a land line.
Great product and I'm selling it to everyone I meet
Regards,
Scott

[Soundjudgment]

"" We've recommended in the past to use two separate pairs of phone wires (most homes come equipped with two lines). In this setup, you'd connect your PHONE port to one pair and the WALL port to another pair. Obviously the Scout would need to be on the WALL port pair as the Hub. ""

Much safer bet if someone were to attempt this route.

[wnl]

According to the documentation, ooma uses HPNA (also known as "HomePNA") to communicate through the house wiring between base unit and the scout units. HPNA is compatible with voice and DSL, and can easily coexist with them on the same wire.

http://www.homepna.org/en/index.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homepna

Although you can certainly separate the two in houses that have both pairs full wired, there really is no need.