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Thank you.

The telephone wires are generally 24 to 26 AWG right? As thick as 22?

lbmofo wrote:Thank you.

The telephone wires are generally 24 to 26 AWG right? As thick as 22?

I believe the old "quad" was 22 AWG, as is some direct buriel cable - but what you have is 24 AWG. (I cheated and zoomed in on the cable in your NIB picture. You can read the red writing on one of the cables where it says 24 AWG.)

You are right SouthSound. The wires do say 24 AWG.

I went to the Home Depot and got a 25 pack for $3.97.

The ones they carry are IDEAL 85-950 Telephone Splice Connectors (26-22 AWG).

southsound wrote:This is where the problem comes in - DSL does not play well with HPNA so in your case you must keep the HPNA signal from the WALL port separate from the DSL signal.

SouthSound, I pretty much am up to speed with everything on this thread but 1 thing I am not too clear on; maybe you can help clarify. I am cable internet and no longer DSL so this would be just for my information only.

The Hub manual never mentions Scout, ie HPNA, not working if the Hub's "wall" port is connected to a jack that has DSL + voice landline service.

When I first installed my Hub, I opted to go with landline integration (until number port is complete) and the Scout that I plugged into a phone jack in some other room worked fine even though I still (I think I did) had DSL service (I am not 100% sure my DSL service was still active though; by the time I installed my Hub, I was already cable internet and I am just going off of what the phone company said as far as when they were gonna turn my DSL off).

Just curious if indeed Scout would not work if landline integration is done on a line that also as DSL service.

The scout requires HPNA (a network over phone line protocol) to communicate with the hub. This communication takes place between the WALL jack on the hub and the WALL jack on the scout. When you integrate your landline with the hub you have to connect your landline to the hub WALL jack. Many have found that this disrupts either the HPNA or the DSL. I suppose that with the proper microfilters or in my case, Wilcom ADSL splitter, you could reduce some of the potential interference - but we have seen many cases where it does not work well. I have never been a fan of landline integration although I still have my landline for financial reasons. With cable as your source of Internet, you eliminate the interference potential totally.

Okay, got it. Basically, if you go with landline integration, it is a crapshoot having the Scout working if your "wall" has DSL.

I figured I'd report my findings; might be useful for others in the same boat.

My port just completed yesterday; got the dial tone (phone port) + HPNA (wall port) distributed throughout the house via NIB so alarm seizure works.

Anyhow, round one was to make sure my Dishnetwork receivers are able to call home to mothership.

I was using Diagnostics section's Analysis function sending "current status of receiver" to mothership; these calls last almost 50 seconds and I am not sure if the nightly calls made by receiver itself is equivalent in length/content.

Anyway, without configuring *99 as prefix, the call out fails 100% of the time.

With *99 prefix configured, the call outs fail 50% of the time.

Then, I remembered I got HPNA mixed in my line so I disconnected the HPNA from the Hub and the call outs were 100% successful.

Also, I remembered Scouts not working if connected behind DSL filter so I reconnected the HPNA, put a DSL filter in front of the Dish Receiver and now 100% of call outs are successful. I am not sure why.

Next round, alarm.

lbmofo wrote:I figured I'd report my findings; might be useful for others in the same boat.

My port just completed yesterday; got the dial tone (phone port) + HPNA (wall port) distributed throughout the house via NIB so alarm seizure works.

Anyhow, round one was to make sure my Dishnetwork receivers are able to call home to mothership.

I was using Diagnostics section's Analysis function sending "current status of receiver" to mothership; these calls last almost 50 seconds and I am not sure if the nightly calls made by receiver itself is equivalent in length/content.

Anyway, without configuring *99 as prefix, the call out fails 100% of the time.

With *99 prefix configured, the call outs fail 50% of the time.

Then, I remembered I got HPNA mixed in my line so I disconnected the HPNA from the Hub and the call outs were 100% successful.

Also, I remembered Scouts not working if connected behind DSL filter so I reconnected the HPNA, put a DSL filter in front of the Dish Receiver and now 100% of call outs are successful. I am not sure why.

Next round, alarm.

Great report! Thank you for sharing your results and especially about the dish to mothership callouts. The DSL filter is a great discovery - possibly the dish modem does something wierd with the line to try to condition it - and that causes a problem when HPNA is on the line. I would guess that the microfilter works for the data sent by HPNA as well as DSL. I'm glad things are working for you and look forward to your report about the alarm.

Hi, I'm new to Ooma and have been reading many posts to solve my problem but I'm not getting it.

I have the Hub successfully set up between a router and cable modem. I have the incoming landline to the house cut. If I hook the Hub's phone jack to the wall jack for the old phone, I DO get a dial tone throughout the house. However, I want to use the Scout as an answering machine in another part of the house and all I get is all four bottom lights lit red. I tried disconnecting the Hub's phone jack and using the wall jack to the house wiring but then I get no dial tone at the Scout and still get the four bottom red lights on the Scout.

I can live without a dialtone at all wall jacks if I can just get the Scout working as an answering machine in a different part of the house from the router/Hub/modem.

Please clarify what I need to do. Thank YOU!

bayareakirk wrote:Hi, I'm new to Ooma and have been reading many posts to solve my problem but I'm not getting it.

I have the Hub successfully set up between a router and cable modem. I have the incoming landline to the house cut. If I hook the Hub's phone jack to the wall jack for the old phone, I DO get a dial tone throughout the house. However, I want to use the Scout as an answering machine in another part of the house and all I get is all four bottom lights lit red. I tried disconnecting the Hub's phone jack and using the wall jack to the house wiring but then I get no dial tone at the Scout and still get the four bottom red lights on the Scout.

I can live without a dialtone at all wall jacks if I can just get the Scout working as an answering machine in a different part of the house from the router/Hub/modem.

Please clarify what I need to do. Thank YOU!

OK, take a deep breath. Great. Now tell us what kind of Internet you have - if DSL, then we'll need to modify my advice. If cable, please feel free to proceed:

1. You mentioned that you "have the incoming landline to the house cut" which I assume means you are no longer tethered to the local telephone company. Go to the Network Interface Box on the outside of your house and unplug the little cables that are plugged into the jacks. If you have hinged connectors, just swing them out of the way. I recommend putting a note in the NIB that says, "Do not reconnect cables. Doing so may damage customer provided equipment."

2. Use a single line splitter (like the one that came with your hub/scout) to join the hub's WALL and PHONE jacks. Then connect the combined signal to a wall jack near your hub.

3. At this point, any phone jack in the house will have a dual signal - dialtone if just a regular phone is plugged in or if you like, you can plug in a scout for the instant second line or other features (if you have Premier) or just a darned nice voicemail terminal if not. You don't even need to plug a phone into the scout to use the voicemail features.

Again, if you have DSL the above will have to be modified - but if cable it will work as promised. Let us know.

OOPS - I just noticed that this is your first post! Welcome to ooma and to the forum - you're going to like it here!