Ooma Forums

Re: the statement
"So there is something that loads the house phone wiring just enough to prevent the dialing signal to reach an outside phone system, but it still has enough signal to work within the Ooma System. "
This is where I am really confused. The only connection to an outside phone system is the Ooma via TCP/IP to their server somewhere. That server, I assume, has actual connections into the outside phone system, and I trust emits the proper touch tone signals to actually dial into the public network.
The house wiring clearly can impact what is going into the Ooma, but what is coming out the other end of Ooma, I would assume, is the same whether the number "dialed" was any public number, or an Ooma number.
I do appreciate the feedback, here. Clearly 3 heads are better than one. I was hoping to collect some ideas to try when I return on site. I left them with 2 phones working (wall phone in garage obviously not connected) so they are 'ok' for now.

And yes, I had all 3 phones disconnected, then tried one at a time via house wiring with same busy signal result. I didn't think the polarity was an issue with today's phones, but it was the only anomaly my tester could find.
Any other ideas are appreciated. I will probably be on site Friday.

If it always worked direct connected to the Ooma and always failed connected via house wiring, I would have to accept this is ONLY a house wiring issue. However, the fact that I can get a connection, every time I tried, to my home phone, suggests there may be a Murphy lurking in the Ooma box or network. This is a brand new Ooma, BTW, and the 3rd one I have installed. The other 2 have worked flawlessly for some time.

cbeyer wrote:This is a brand new Ooma, BTW, and the 3rd one I have installed. The other 2 have worked flawlessly for some time.

Curious, why did you have to swap out the other 2?

3 separate installs. First was for my daughter.
Second was for me, since it worked to well for her.
Third (the one we are discussing) is for a client. My daughter told them what a great deal it was.
I am a retired CIO who runs my own part-time consulting business.
www.techno-assist.com

I want to thank the folks who responded and call this closed. I also want to apologize for wasting your time due to my not looking as close as I should. It was still connected to AT&T. they had wired around the company to home when they installed uVerse, but the folks said leave phone alone, just install TV and Internet. Two little wires were inserted into the jacks, but I saw nothing inserted into the jacks and assumed they were disconnected.
You were right, I was wrong, but all is well now.
Ooma will continue to be my recommended way to dump ma bell.

Cbeyer and others,
I am having similar problems connecting Ooma to my existing home wiring which worked perfectly with AT&T landlines.

I had 2 AT&T lanlines coming into the house. All jacks worked perfectly fine on both line. I have disconnected the 2 AT&T lines at the outside junction box via the RJ11 connector. I then connected the first Ooma to line 1 and 2nd Ooma to line 2. I have gone through similar troubleshooting steps as Cbeyer (making each outlet in the house identicial polarity, disconnecting DSL connection from the mix, home ADT security by disonnecting RJ45 from the box which tied to line 1 of the house which connected with ADT).

Ooma conencted to line 2 in the house wiring works perfectly fine. No issues placing calls or receiving them.
Ooma connected to line 1 in the house gets no dial tone, cannot dial out etc. When I get lucky and eventually one in a while get a dialtone (not typical Ooma dial tone), I can call out but when I call in, it drops the call after half a ring and the line actually does not drop withing Ooma.

I have exahsted my energy and got to figure out what is so special about line 1 in the house. There is not a phone, fax, or anything connected to any of the jacks in the house other than this DECT 6.0 Uniden 2-line phone.

It is my own personal home that I am trying so hard to replace 2 AT&T ported numbers to 2 Ooma's. 2nd line works perfectly fine, where as I cannot figure out what is making line 1 not to work reliably. Please provide further suggetions if you can. Would love to not concede defeat after 3 long days of trouble shooting and not getting anywhere.

ghetia wrote:home ADT security by disconnecting RJ45 from the box which tied to line 1 of the house which connected with ADT).

You disconnected the RJ45 plug (Which although is the same physical connector is actually an RJ31x), but the house lines are still connected to an RJ31x jack which is used to "seize" the line and dial out when the alarm sounds. With the alarm connection disconnected, the relay inside the alarm system is not connecting the incoming phone line to the rest of the "Line 1" wiring.

Here's info about how it's wired.

ghetia wrote:When I get lucky and eventually one in a while get a dialtone (not typical Ooma dial tone), I can call out but when I call in, it drops the call after half a ring and the line actually does not drop withing Ooma.

Make absolutely sure you have disconnected your AT&T service from Line 1. This sounds like it might still be connected somehow.

Also, you do realize that you can replace two phone lines/numbers with a single Ooma Telo and a Linx adapter right? You don't need two Ooma Telos to replace two lines.