Dumb Newbie Question
Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2012 7:10 pm
Hi!
I just today got my Ooma Telo and I have a few dumb questions.
I was on Vonage for like 18 months and I was flooded with jerks looking for the previous owner of the number Vonage assigned to me (bill collectors). Gaaaah!!! I owe no one anything, anywhere. But it was me who was being griefed by the vampire$.
That was a huge reason why I decided to dump Vonage.
Anyway. The other thing that drove me insane was I was also flooded with calls from parasite vermin scammers calling from Jamaica and Africa telling me I had won a Mercedes or some such nonsense.
Is there a way to blacklist ALL calls from outside of the US? Or block all calls from Jamaica and Africa?
Or does the Ooma blacklist already have all those scums blocked?
Also, how do I make sure my number stays unlisted? I know with AT&T you had to PAY to have an unlisted number!
If I put my new Ooma number on the DNC list am I essentially waving a red flag to the scums that troll the DNC list and flaunt it?
Caller ID. When I call people around here it shows up on their caller ID as "Out of Area" rather than showing my name.
It does show my new number but it won't show my name. How can I fix that? I did enter my name during the setup procedure.
When I go to my.ooma.com it tells me "Inbox is currently unavailable, please try again later" I don't know how to fix this.
As for my voicemail, I just want to have a default recording that tells people to leave a message. I don't want to record a personalized message. Is that possible? If I just do not record a message to be played to callers will the system provide a default one?
QoS. I have TWC Road Runner and I think it's like 12m/20m down and 1m up. I think it gives me high speed for a few minutes then slows down which is just stupid. Anyway, I was talking to my friend earlier and it sounded like she was talking to me through a 100 feet of garden hose. It would get better then get bad then get better again. Like ocean swells.. I checked the Telo configuration for QoS and it was at 384 up and 0 down. I have since changed it to 400 up and 1000 down. But that kbps thing confuses me because there's like K and k and M and m and I dunno.. I have the Telo between my modem and my lan and I want it to give priority to phone calls. But I just don't know what I should set it to because of that kbps stuff.
Also, when I'm not using the phone, will the QoS release that bandwidth back to me for normal use? Does it only take bandwidth when it needs it or does it just set that aside and it's gone all the time?
And I guess last thing, I have an iPhone that I would love to use as an extension phone to the Telo. I see there is a blue tooth thingie you can get. Would that let me use the iPhone as if it were a handset to the Telo? I have a stupid AT&T cordless phone but I can't plug earbuds into it at all. It's too small to hold on my shoulder like old 70's type phones. With my iPhone I can plug the earbuds in and stick it in my pocket and walk around and hear really well. Most of the time like with my friend and my boyfriend I use Skype on my iPhone but a lot of people I talk to don't have Skype and never will.
I saw there is an Ooma app for the iPhone but that is not what I want. That's insane to pay X per minute just to use my iPhone here in my own house. But if I can use it either by WIFI or Blue Tooth as a Telo handset, that would be awesome.
Sorry for so many stupid questions but I figured I might as well drop the whole big bomb all at once and hopefully won't have to be a perpetual annoyance..
Thanks!!
I just today got my Ooma Telo and I have a few dumb questions.
I was on Vonage for like 18 months and I was flooded with jerks looking for the previous owner of the number Vonage assigned to me (bill collectors). Gaaaah!!! I owe no one anything, anywhere. But it was me who was being griefed by the vampire$.
That was a huge reason why I decided to dump Vonage.
Anyway. The other thing that drove me insane was I was also flooded with calls from parasite vermin scammers calling from Jamaica and Africa telling me I had won a Mercedes or some such nonsense.
Is there a way to blacklist ALL calls from outside of the US? Or block all calls from Jamaica and Africa?
Or does the Ooma blacklist already have all those scums blocked?
Also, how do I make sure my number stays unlisted? I know with AT&T you had to PAY to have an unlisted number!
If I put my new Ooma number on the DNC list am I essentially waving a red flag to the scums that troll the DNC list and flaunt it?
Caller ID. When I call people around here it shows up on their caller ID as "Out of Area" rather than showing my name.
It does show my new number but it won't show my name. How can I fix that? I did enter my name during the setup procedure.
When I go to my.ooma.com it tells me "Inbox is currently unavailable, please try again later" I don't know how to fix this.
As for my voicemail, I just want to have a default recording that tells people to leave a message. I don't want to record a personalized message. Is that possible? If I just do not record a message to be played to callers will the system provide a default one?
QoS. I have TWC Road Runner and I think it's like 12m/20m down and 1m up. I think it gives me high speed for a few minutes then slows down which is just stupid. Anyway, I was talking to my friend earlier and it sounded like she was talking to me through a 100 feet of garden hose. It would get better then get bad then get better again. Like ocean swells.. I checked the Telo configuration for QoS and it was at 384 up and 0 down. I have since changed it to 400 up and 1000 down. But that kbps thing confuses me because there's like K and k and M and m and I dunno.. I have the Telo between my modem and my lan and I want it to give priority to phone calls. But I just don't know what I should set it to because of that kbps stuff.
Also, when I'm not using the phone, will the QoS release that bandwidth back to me for normal use? Does it only take bandwidth when it needs it or does it just set that aside and it's gone all the time?
And I guess last thing, I have an iPhone that I would love to use as an extension phone to the Telo. I see there is a blue tooth thingie you can get. Would that let me use the iPhone as if it were a handset to the Telo? I have a stupid AT&T cordless phone but I can't plug earbuds into it at all. It's too small to hold on my shoulder like old 70's type phones. With my iPhone I can plug the earbuds in and stick it in my pocket and walk around and hear really well. Most of the time like with my friend and my boyfriend I use Skype on my iPhone but a lot of people I talk to don't have Skype and never will.
I saw there is an Ooma app for the iPhone but that is not what I want. That's insane to pay X per minute just to use my iPhone here in my own house. But if I can use it either by WIFI or Blue Tooth as a Telo handset, that would be awesome.
Sorry for so many stupid questions but I figured I might as well drop the whole big bomb all at once and hopefully won't have to be a perpetual annoyance..
Thanks!!