Ooma Forums

My ooma hub setup is working just as it should; no issues with or without telco connection.

I have connected it to the telco and confirmed in setup it's correct. I've connect a scout to 3 different jacks (all without DSL filters, connected correctly) and all I get is the four bottom lights staying red.

I've verified lines (hub and scout) all have regular dial tone, and all ring a standard phone at my number.

I picked up a second unit thinking I might have a bad scout, but it does the very same thing.

I do need a working scout unit - any thoughts?

Thanks in advance,
Bruce

BruceG wrote:I've verified lines (hub and scout) all have regular dial tone, and all ring a standard phone at my number.

If your getting dialtone where your plugging the scout in, that's a problem. Sounds like you have patched the PHONE port on the hub to your wall jack. You want the WALL port connected to your wall jack to get the scout working. Ooma has problems with long runs of standard telco wiring I've read. Test your scout by plugging it in directly to the WALL port on your hub. Someone else posted that they inadvertently had both PHONE and WALL ports going to thier house wiring giving them both dial tone and scout option at every wall jack. I have not tried this yet.

Thanks for your input - I don't think I stated what I did clearly. I have verified that I have the right lines (phone and wall) going to the right ports. In fact I swapped them to the incorrect position just to be sure.

When I said I got dial tone what I meant was if I took took the phone cord coming from the wall and into the correct port on the scout or ooma, unplugged the device and plugged that same cord into a phone I could hear the normal telco dial tone - this should mean the line is functional and working and they are both plugged into the same number (as I only have one).

Hope that helps clarify things - I would appreciate feedback. I'm using short runs of good quality telco cord.

Regards,
Bruce

Hi BruceG,

First, try verifying that your Scout is working OK by taking a phone cord and connecting the Scout's WALL port directly into the Hub's WALL port. The Scout's "ooma" tab should turn blue (verify the brightness knob is turned up).

If the above test is successful, there might be something wrong with your phone wiring. The Hub talks to the Scout using your existing phone wiring via a technology called HPNA. This communication protocol runs at a higher frequency than the standard telco dialtone signal running through your phone wiring. This makes it much less resilient to things like interference and long phone cables.

Sometimes it's possible to get the Scout working by moving the Hub to different phone jacks in your house via Homeplugs.

This thread has some additional ideas/details:
Thread Link

Thanks - I will try that test.

The link at the end of your post was truncated - would you re post it please?

Thanks,
Bruce

Sorry, the link should appear now in the previous post.

Mojo wrote:Sorry, the link should appear now in the previous post.

Yep - thanks

Results:

scout directly connect to hub: works - get a blue tab.

scout into wall jack (using supplied ooma telco cable) & ooma into wall jack (using supplied ooma telco cable): fails - 4 red squares.

I have a "normal" home and reliable dial tone - nothing old or outdated.

What are my options?

Thanks,
Bruce

I too had this problem, but it turns out I was the problem.

My ooma Hub worked fine, but the scout in my upstairs bedroom did not. It is very important that the room containing the Hub, and its wall jack, is connected via a "splitter," provided with your ooma equipment. The Hub works just fine when it is just connected to your modem, but I soon learned that in order for the Scout to work in another room, the HUB must also have a connection from its backside port labeled, "Wall," to the wall jack via the splitter.

So, two wires are going to be connected to the wall jack. One going to your modem, and the other going to the Hub's "wall" port.

Hope this helps.