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Distributed Line With Ooma Hub Not Working

Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 2:47 pm
by Mark_Texas
I have a Hub, and I want to distribute the dial tone through my house wiring. I have looked through the forums, but still can't figure it out. Except for this problem, by ooma is working well.

My landline service is disconnected, and I unplugged the jack in the junction box on the outside of my house. I connected the phone cable from the "Wall" connector on the back of the Hub to the phone jack on my wall. I don't get anything on the phones plugged directly into other wall jacks. I tried different phones as well.

As a test, I even tried plugging a phone directly into the "Wall" connector on the Hub, but nothing happened.

The first owners of the house had DSL, but I have cable for internet access. I removed a couple of filters that were left on the wall jacks when we moved in. I'm not sure if there is anything else about DSL that might cause my problems.

Thanks for any help.

Re: Distributed Line With Ooma Hub Not Working

Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 3:01 pm
by highq
Ooma's choice of "wall" as a name for that port turns is a tad misleading.

Connect a telephone set to the Phone port instead.

Re: Distributed Line With Ooma Hub Not Working

Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 3:17 pm
by Mark_Texas
Thanks for the quick reply. Your suggestion worked!

I originally had a cordless base station connected to the "Phone" port on the Hub (which worked fine), and I was trying to use the "Wall" port to distribute the dial tone throughout the house. I now connected the cable from the Hub "Phone" jack to my wall jack. I moved the base station to another room (with wall jack) and brought in one of the remote handsets to be by the Hub. Everything seems to be working well.

Just out of curiosity - what does the "Wall" port do? I thought I was using it as instructed.

Re: Distributed Line With Ooma Hub Not Working

Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 3:32 pm
by highq
The wall port is used in two cases: for a Telo it's where you do in fact run a line from your wall jack IF you still have a TELCO line and have told Ooma to *integrate" it. Wall ports of scouts are meant to be patched to a Hub's wall port.

Re: Distributed Line With Ooma Hub Not Working

Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 3:43 pm
by Mark_Texas
I thought my set up was also an option, but apparently not.

I very much appreciate your help.

Mark

Re: Distributed Line With Ooma Hub Not Working

Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2010 6:00 pm
by Bywater
I tried connecting the "phone" port on the Ooma hub to my wall jack and I get nothing out of any wall jack. But when I connect an actual phone to the "phone" port I get a dial tone. Like the other poster, I want to distribute the dial tone throughout the house using wall jacks. Is disconnecting the landline coming into the house a necessity?

Re: Distributed Line With Ooma Hub Not Working

Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2010 6:08 pm
by southsound
Bywater wrote:I tried connecting the "phone" port on the Ooma hub to my wall jack and I get nothing out of any wall jack. But when I connect an actual phone to the "phone" port I get a dial tone. Like the other poster, I want to distribute the dial tone throughout the house using wall jacks. Is disconnecting the landline coming into the house a necessity?
Yes. Take a two minute walk outside your home. Find where the little telco box (we call it a NIB for network interface box but it is also called a Demarc) is located and open up the side that uses only a regular screwdriver. The other side is the utility side and uses a special security screwdriver (available in a kit at Harbor Freight for about $3). Inside you will find a little cord with a modular plug. Unplug it from the jack and you will be all set. If there is no cord, it is probably a newer one that has a hinged plug. Swing it away and you will be disconnected. I always include a note that says, "Do not reconnect to avoid damage to customer equipment!" Mission accomplished. Let us know how it works out. As previously noted - use the ooma's PHONE port to connect to your home wall jack.

Note: this assumes you have cable internet - if you have DSL we need to give you slightly different advice.

Re: Distributed Line With Ooma Hub Not Working

Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2010 6:38 pm
by bw1

Re: Distributed Line With Ooma Hub Not Working

Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 7:12 am
by lnagler
After reading postings about distributing OOMA service to other phone jacks in house want to be sure I do this right.

I get get and receive calls with phone hooked to OOMA TELO. Still get Bellsouth dialtone on other phones in house and can call out from those phones but they do not ring.

I use DSL with a separate line from phone service and Tech support had me get a splitter - one line from OOMA phone port (Out port disconnected) and other line from splitter to nearby walljack. With OOMA support on phone when I did that connection got Bellsouth message - please hang up and try call again on and on. So disconnected that line. Tech had me call Bellsouth about problem but they said after repeated calls including to their porting people that problem was with OOMA, since my phone number had been ported and my phone service was disconnected.

Since OOMA says best solution is to go outside and unplug phone line connection - same as in one of the postings.

Have not tried again to connect line from Telo to wall jack with no one on phone then unplug power to Telo and DSL to get to reset. Do not want to invalidate warranty if a problem.

Should I try that first before unplugging outside? Any other suggestions.