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Few questions-new to Ooma

Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 6:12 am
by zusly
Hello all-I am a recent convert from Vonage. I have just received my new Ooma equipment, and I had some questions.

Right now I have my Vonage router plugged into my phone jack in the wall, effectively creating a loop within my house, so all phones plugged into wall jacks use Vonage. Can I do the same setup with Ooma?

I completed the paperwork to port my existing number, and took the option of using my existing number with the Ooma hardware plugged into the wall while it is being ported to Ooma. Is this possible while-did I screw up?

In the preferences pane within the Ooma lounge, I created a second number associated with my hub. Did I screw up doing this? How do I delete it? I don't plan on signing up for Premier at the end of the 60 day trial.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give me.

Re: Few questions-new to Ooma

Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 7:05 am
by murphy
If you are not going with premier and don't have a real land line (copper or fiber from a traditional phone company) you should not have done any association with your current Vonage line. You should have gotten a temporary number (I assume that is what you mean by created a second number) to use until the port is complete. When the port completes, the Vonage line will be gone and there will be no association possible. The ported number will replace the temporary number. Leave the Vonage connection in place as you had it and plug another phone into the hub to use until the port completes. When the port is complete, uninstall the Vonage equipment and connect the hub phone jack to the house phone network the same as you did with the Vonage box. You will not use the Wall jack on the hub. You will also not use the Scout. If you did tell ooma that you were associating your hub with a land line and that "land line" is your Vonage line, you need to call ooma and have your hub re-configured to not be associated with a land line.

Did I help or are you more confused than ever?

If the latter, exactly describe what you want to end up with when the port is complete and I'll try again.

Re: Few questions-new to Ooma

Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 7:13 am
by zusly
Thanks-I understand. I got confused between the terms "landline" and what I had through Vonage. I'll have to give Ooma a call tonight to fix the situation. I need a little setup help from them anyway.

As for the "loop" I created in my house; is there no way to configure Ooma this way?

Basically, under Vonage, I disconnected the outside box that bridges the Verizon wires coming into my house and created a simple loop, so every phone connected to a wall jack uses Vonage. This way I wouldn't need to have an actual phone connected to my Ooma hub.

Re: Few questions-new to Ooma

Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 7:35 am
by murphy
Yes, connect the phone jack on the ooma hub to the wall exactly like you did with the Vonage phone jack. You can't do both at the same time however. It's one or the other. You could log into Vonage and forward all of your calls to the temporary ooma number and then uninstall the Vonage adapter. Then all of your calls would come in on the ooma hub. If you are on the Vonage 500 minute per month plan this might not be a good idea since Vonage will charge you for the forwarded calls.

Re: Few questions-new to Ooma

Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 8:08 am
by zusly
Great idea! Actually, I don't think that feature costs extra (at least it doesn't appear to, but you never know with Vonage), so that is what I'll do. Thanks a lot!

Re: Few questions-new to Ooma

Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 10:15 am
by murphy
It doesn't cost extra if you are on the unlimited plan ($24.99 per month). If you are on the limited 500 minute per month plan, all forwarded calls will burn minutes. Once the 500 minute limit is exceeded, there will be a charge for the extra minutes.

Re: Few questions-new to Ooma

Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 11:47 am
by zusly
I misunderstood what you meant by free. I got it now. I only use close to 300 out of my 500 allotted minutes per month anyway, so I think it'll be alright. I'm just hoping my number gets ported in the next two weeks, so I an cancel Vonage before I get billed at the beginning of the month. Although I've heard that Vonage can be a real pain in the butt about porting numbers and can stall the process significantly.

Thanks a lot for all of your help. I'm looking forward to not having a monthly phone bill.