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Just have my phone number ported (in less than one week - great job OOMA) but can't get dial tone when I tried to connect to the phone jack. I had disconnected all wires from the phone co. (ATT) terminal box outside the house. Do I need to use jumpers?

noop wrote:Just have my phone number ported (in less than one week - great job OOMA) but can't get dial tone when I tried to connect to the phone jack. I had disconnected all wires from the phone co. (ATT) terminal box outside the house. Do I need to use jumpers?

First the Old phone service phone line from the street to the house must be disconnected.

Next connect a phone cord from the Ooma Telo Phone port to a house wall jack. If you still want to use a phone near where the Ooma Telo is located, install a phone cord splitter in the phone cord from the Ooma Telo to the house wall jack.

I disconnected in the phone box outside but couldn't get anything to work then and I still am not able to hook up a phone in my other phone Jacks.

Rocky wrote:I disconnected in the phone box outside but couldn't get anything to work then and I still am not able to hook up a phone in my other phone Jacks.

It sounds like you disconnected all of the wires instead of just the ones from the old phone company.

murphy wrote:

Rocky wrote:I disconnected in the phone box outside but couldn't get anything to work then and I still am not able to hook up a phone in my other phone Jacks.

It sounds like you disconnected all of the wires instead of just the ones from the old phone company.

Yes, need to make sure house wires are disconnected from the Telephone company but can't just "disconnect" everything and expect house wiring to be whole. For most folks, disconnecting from phone company means unplugging a modular plug that connects your house wires to the phone company. If more than a set of house wires are in the house, the NIB also connects theses sets of wires together (most often with screw terminals within the NIB) so if you disconnected all the wires, then you might have broken the bond between some walljacks to other walljacks. For your reference, good info on distributing VoIP throughout home: /viewtopic.php?t=13354

Once house wires are properly disconnected from the telephone company, you'd need to connect Ooma's "phone" port to a walljack in the house for the rest of the walljacks to get Ooma dialtone.

Murphy and Ibmofo were correct. After I read the VOIP phone wiring article, I realized I have the 35 yr old lightning protector type terminal box and when I disconnected the incoming ATT wires I did not reconnect the individual house wires so I have 4 different house wires but not tied together. I would have to find some connectors (from Radio Shack?) to reconnect them.

Before I can find and purchase the wire connectors, I just twist the 4 green wires and 4 red wires together respectively and I am now getting dial tone on my house jacks. Thanks for all that helped.
Now 2 questions: Will a proper wire connector offers better connection vs just twisted together the wires? Second, any difference in call quality connecting the Telo to the house jack instead of connecting directly to the modem? Will the extra length and connections of the house wires degrade the call quality?

noop wrote:Before I can find and purchase the wire connectors, I just twist the 4 green wires and 4 red wires together respectively and I am now getting dial tone on my house jacks. Thanks for all that helped.

noop wrote: Now 2 questions:
Will a proper wire connector offers better connection vs just twisted together the wires?

Twisted together wires are fine as long as they are twisted tightly together and then insulated with electrical tape.

noop wrote: Second,
Any difference in call quality connecting the Telo to the house jack instead of connecting directly to the modem? Will the extra length and connections of the house wires degrade the call quality?

Connecting the Ooma Telo to any of your Home's LAN network cable Jacks, in any location of your home, should not have any deterioration of service.

noop wrote:Will a proper wire connector offers better connection vs just twisted together the wires?

For optimal connection, you'd want to connect the wires properly using butt splice connectors.

For less than $5, you can pick up a 25 pack of these 3 butt splice connectors from Home Depot. Connect 3 wires together (cut off any metal leads on the wires, insert 3 wires into the connector, crimp the connector) using 1 connector. Then since you got a 4th wire you need to connect together with the other 3 that you just connected, use another connector, insert the 4th wire and choose any one of the 3 wires you just connected, cut, and insert the 2 ends of the wire you just cut into the 2nd connector and you've got all 4 wires connected using 2 of these 3 butt splice connectors.

IDEAL 85-925 3 wire butt splice scotchlok connectors from Home Depot

noop wrote:Second, any difference in call quality connecting the Telo to the house jack instead of connecting directly to the modem? Will the extra length and connections of the house wires degrade the call quality?

I am guessing you meant to ask if there is degradation to call quality if you feed Ooma dialtone to the house wires vs connecting a phone directly to the Telo? If that's the question, it depends on how noisy your house wires are. Sometimes, they act as a big antenna picking up some RF noise if close to a powerful noise source. And also, sometimes, bad walljack wirings might introduce some noise as well.

The only way to find out is to try for yourself. Connect a phone directly to the Telo and check out voice quality (there should not be any noise, buzzing at all other than some faint comfort noise intentionally introduced to let people know phone call is still in progress vs complete silence when no one is talking). Then connect your phone to one of the wall jacks after feeding your Ooma dialtone to your house wires. See if quality is about the same (no buzzing noise, no background RF noise that sounds like you turned down the volume on AM radio all the way but forogot to completely turn it off).

Thanks for all that helped, I'll get the butt connectors to finish off the connections.
This is a great forum with knowledgeable people who are willing to help others out. So far with one week use of Ooma I am more than satisfied with the service and call quality. Should have cut my landline long ago!