2 Line Phone Connection Diagram - Ring Every Phone
Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 8:10 am
Here is a diagram for my setup. Maybe this will help someone. The goal here is to have my main number AND my second number ring throughout the house on any 2-line phone in the house. The second goal is to have phone number 1 light up line 1 on any phone in the house and have phone number 2 light up line 2 on any phone in the house so that you can visually tell, just by looking at the phone lights which phone number is ringing. I need this because I have a home-based business and need to know quickly and easily whether it is a personal call or business call. I also need to be able to keep my kids off the business line and give them an easy way to know that they are only to use line 1 (which I have assigned to the hub as my home phone number). The third goal is to have separate voice mail boxes for each phone number. (I am not going to describe that here since there are other posts that describe voice mail set up in the Ooma forums and my wiring diagram doesn't affect your ability to have separate mail boxes).
I have 3 phones. One is a single line phone in the bedroom. One is a 2-line Uniden cordless with a single handset. The third is a Panasonic 4-line office phone with a corded base station handset with the ability to have 4 cordless handsets. I am only using 2 handsets with this phone. This particular phone allows you to assign 1 handset to each line so when Line 1 rings, handset 1 can also ring; Line 2 rings, only handset 2 rings, etc.... (I mention this because I have seen other posts where it is mentioned that when their multi-handset phone rings all handsets ring). This model is more like a real office phone where you can transfer calls from the base station to any of the handsets if you want to, or receive calls only on your handset when your line rings.
Currently both hub and scout are in the basement physically located right next to each other and right next to the service entrance to my house, since, because they way my house is wired my cable modem and Linksys router are there, so getting this to work required hub and scout to be in the basement. I am planning on either running 2 sets of network cables to my kitchen area which would allow me to put both hub and scout on the small desk in my kitchen and still accomplish my goals. One final note: I had to create the crossover box. I don't think one is available on the open market. Just go to Radio Shack or other electronics store and get a roll of 4-wire phone cable and 2 boxes intended to accept the unterminated phone cable that would normally come out of your house wall on the back side of the box, and has an RJ/Phone connector on the front side. Take a few inches or more of cable, strip the ends, and wire the 2 boxes back-to-back as shown in the "X-box" diagram.
Hope this helps somebody.
I have 3 phones. One is a single line phone in the bedroom. One is a 2-line Uniden cordless with a single handset. The third is a Panasonic 4-line office phone with a corded base station handset with the ability to have 4 cordless handsets. I am only using 2 handsets with this phone. This particular phone allows you to assign 1 handset to each line so when Line 1 rings, handset 1 can also ring; Line 2 rings, only handset 2 rings, etc.... (I mention this because I have seen other posts where it is mentioned that when their multi-handset phone rings all handsets ring). This model is more like a real office phone where you can transfer calls from the base station to any of the handsets if you want to, or receive calls only on your handset when your line rings.
Currently both hub and scout are in the basement physically located right next to each other and right next to the service entrance to my house, since, because they way my house is wired my cable modem and Linksys router are there, so getting this to work required hub and scout to be in the basement. I am planning on either running 2 sets of network cables to my kitchen area which would allow me to put both hub and scout on the small desk in my kitchen and still accomplish my goals. One final note: I had to create the crossover box. I don't think one is available on the open market. Just go to Radio Shack or other electronics store and get a roll of 4-wire phone cable and 2 boxes intended to accept the unterminated phone cable that would normally come out of your house wall on the back side of the box, and has an RJ/Phone connector on the front side. Take a few inches or more of cable, strip the ends, and wire the 2 boxes back-to-back as shown in the "X-box" diagram.
Hope this helps somebody.