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Re: ooma Hub working fine ... cannot get scout connected

Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2009 7:05 pm
by WayneDsr
Great information, Joey, thanks!

Wayne

Re: How I fixed mine

Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2009 7:23 pm
by niknak
Anyway, life is dandy now with my scout working. Lessons learned:

1) Start at the DMARK!
2) Check the connection at the internal junction and tone the jacks you want to use
3) Pull the faceplate off the jacks you want to use to ensure they are wired correctly.

Joey
Well done, these lessons will help many others with scout wiring problems

Re: ooma Hub working fine ... cannot get scout connected

Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 5:37 pm
by blackpippi
I hooked up my ooma and scout over the weekend and read through this post several times. Have to say it didn't help at all. I want to share how I fixed my scout.

First the set up:
DSL with landline. Hooked up exactly as per the instructions in the manual. Specifically, splitter in wall jack. DSL in one side connected directly to modem. In other side, DSL filter plugged in and a telephone cable attached to filter on one end and in the "wall" port on the ooma hub on the other end. Ooma hub gets blue light. System working. Again, this is exactly per the instructions in the manual.

Next, in another room, per instructions, I plugged a telephone cable into the wall jack and attached the other end into the scout's "wall" port.
Got four solid red lights on the bottom.

The problem:
The hub is attempting to talk to the Scout over the house phone lines, but it hits the filter and the two can't talk. You can test this by removing the filter. Both hub and scout will turn blue for about three minutes, but since the filter is an essential piece they eventually both start to blink red. (By the way, your phone line carries both voice and internet signals and the filter is used to filter out the internet portion so that you don't get all sorts of interference when speaking to someone.)

The solution (in two parts):
Part one: You need another splitter just like the one you plugged into the wall jack, but this spiltter goes into the ooma hub's "wall" port. Plug the scout into the other side. Both Hub and Scout turn blue because they talk before the filter gets in the way. You can leave the set up like this. Scout next to the Ooma and two phones side by side. For my small home, I bought a 25 ft phone cable and drilled some small holes in the wall and the scout is in my bedroom, connected by the long phone cable to the ooma in another room.

Part two: I did this on a weekend so did not have access to ooma support. Unfortunately! Because, though I figured out the above on my own, it is exactly what they told me to do. BUT, there was another piece. The scout was blue, but the second line would not ring. Frankly, I don't know what they did, but in layman's terms I guess they rebooted the scout. I did absolutely nothing, so it wasn't something I could have done on my own. They typed some stuff on their end, had me hang up, then called me on the scout on the instant second line. They were very helpful. Total time with tech support-less than ten minutes.
Moral: call tech support first.

Re: ooma Hub working fine ... cannot get scout connected

Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 6:49 pm
by WayneDsr
I'm going to assume that you are using ooma WITH a landline, right?
If not, there is a better way to do it.

Wayne

Re: ooma Hub working fine ... cannot get scout connected

Posted: Sun May 17, 2009 5:09 pm
by georgejefferson
I have the EXACT same problem as blackpippi does and solved it the same way he did except his part two of the solution I didn't need, as my second line rang without having to call or reboot anything. But here's my issue....I can't be rewiring my house from the hub to another room to where I'm intending the scout to be. If the Ooma is supposed to be using the existing phone lines to communicate hub to scout, what's the real problem here and how do I solve without rewiring?

Re: ooma Hub working fine ... cannot get scout connected

Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 4:54 am
by papa ooma
brwilliams wrote: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.
Thank you brwilliams! I had the same exact problem, followed your fix and the Scout started working immediately! Thanks again for your post, as I did not understand this from the manuals (it's in there though.)