I've resolved this problem at the moment but I'd like to understand it.
I got my Telo about a week ago on the 60 day trial. My ISP is Verizon on FIOS and speed tests give me 50Mbps both directions. I was able to install and configure the Telo to work with house phones on their original house wiring without incident. I forwarded my Verizon number to my Ooma number. I set my home answering machine to answer after 4 rings and Ooma to answer after six, so my home picks up if I have it turned on, and Oooma picks up otherwise. That worked. It took a bit of hunting the Ooma settings to see where I could set the Ooma line type to "Alarm", and, after I did that, I got it successfully working with my ADT alarm system. I tried a few high resolution FAX sends. That worked.
I thought everything was going well and I was about decided to make the switch off the land line when I encountered my first functional failure. I tried calling my home number from my cell and it went to the Ooma voicemail even though my home answering machine was on. I checked the Ooma web site. Telo status showed it "on line". When I got home I picked up a house phone and there was dial tone. I tried dialing a number. The dial tone went away and there were three odd tones: a short (1/4 second) medium-pitch tone, a short (1/4 second) high-pitched tone, and then a long (1 sec) high pitched tone, and then nothing. No dial tone. The Telo flower was still a nice blue. The status at the web site still showed it "on line".
I power cycled the Telo and its now working fine again. However, if its going to need regular power cycling to function, that's a no-go and I'll have to return it.
I did call customer support, was escalated to level 2. After going through usual suspects of "is my power off?". No, everything is on UPS. "is your internet connection down?" No. I'm on the web looking at my "on line" status. Then we hit "are you using house wiring". Yes, I am. Well, that was their ticket out. "Your Telo is not guaranteed to work on house wiring. You'll have to use it with our handsets and not use house wiring". Really?!
Well, clearly the Telo *does* work with house wiring, and has done so without incident for a week. Clearly my house wiring/existing devices are not generating the tones I heard after The Telo, when initially supplying dialtone, removed it and sounded the tones when I try to dial out. So, much for technical support. They weren't going to explain the tones. It was my house wiring, and that was that.
My question is, does anyone know if those tones are those "diagnostic" tones generated by the Telo, and if so, what do they mean? Anyone have any idea?
Unless I can get a better handle on what this failure mode was, I'm definitely riding out the full 60 day trial before committing to Ooma.
Thanks for any guidance you have.
Dialtone, but can't dial in or out. Telo diagnostic tones?
Re: Dialtone, but can't dial in or out. Telo diagnostic tones?
Did you disconnect the landline phone company from your house wiring? That is an absolute necessity.
You mentioned an alarm system. Is the Telo feeding into the input jack for the alarm system where the landline used to connect? Is the output of the alarm system feeding the rest of your house phone jacks?
Did you enable 10 digit dialing? If you didn't you have two choices; 7 digits within your area code or 11 digits for everything else.
You mentioned an alarm system. Is the Telo feeding into the input jack for the alarm system where the landline used to connect? Is the output of the alarm system feeding the rest of your house phone jacks?
Did you enable 10 digit dialing? If you didn't you have two choices; 7 digits within your area code or 11 digits for everything else.
Customer since January 2009
Telo with 2 Handsets, a Linx, and a Safety Phone
Telo2 with 2 Handsets and a Linx
Telo with 2 Handsets, a Linx, and a Safety Phone
Telo2 with 2 Handsets and a Linx
Re: Dialtone, but can't dial in or out. Telo diagnostic tones?
Thanks for responding.
Yes, the land line is disconnected from the house wiring.
Yes, the alarm is the first thing on the line after the Telo and correctly captures/dials the alarm company, cutting off the rest of the house phones in the process.
No, I did not enable 10 digit dialing.
After experimenting a little bit more I noticed one of my digital phones thought it was "in use" when no phone was in use. Typically that only happens when someone is using a phone. Researching a bit I learned that phones think the line is in use when the line voltage drops from around 48V DC ("on hook") to <10V DC ("off hook"). I haven't had a chance to dig out a multimeter to get readings yet, but will.
Unrelated, because the Telo also failed to ring an old style rotary phone (bell just gave a series of clicks, either because the Telo ring voltage/current is too low to drive my house setup, or because of the ring waveform) I purchased a "Victor RG-10 Ring Booster" and put that on the line after the alarm. That seems to have fixed both the low voltage I mentioned above (no longer shows "in use" when it is not), and rings the rotary phone. A solution I'm going to test to convert rotary pulses to tone dialing is on order to see if I can get the rotary phone to dial out too. If not, it still works to answer calls.
The tones I mentioned in the initial post had to have been generated by the Telo. I've been listening to digital negotiation and transmission tones for modems, alarms, and faxes since the days of the first 300 baud acoustically coupled modems - where you dialed a number and then stuck the handset in the modem. These tones were not those.
I'm just curious how often that failure mode happens, and what the indicated cause might be so I can remediate it. Perhaps it is related to low line voltage and won't happen again now that that seems to have been addressed. There's got to be a manual somewhere documenting what, if any, diagnostic Tones the Telo generates. They were definitely purposeful. Just trying to find out what they meant.
Yes, the land line is disconnected from the house wiring.
Yes, the alarm is the first thing on the line after the Telo and correctly captures/dials the alarm company, cutting off the rest of the house phones in the process.
No, I did not enable 10 digit dialing.
After experimenting a little bit more I noticed one of my digital phones thought it was "in use" when no phone was in use. Typically that only happens when someone is using a phone. Researching a bit I learned that phones think the line is in use when the line voltage drops from around 48V DC ("on hook") to <10V DC ("off hook"). I haven't had a chance to dig out a multimeter to get readings yet, but will.
Unrelated, because the Telo also failed to ring an old style rotary phone (bell just gave a series of clicks, either because the Telo ring voltage/current is too low to drive my house setup, or because of the ring waveform) I purchased a "Victor RG-10 Ring Booster" and put that on the line after the alarm. That seems to have fixed both the low voltage I mentioned above (no longer shows "in use" when it is not), and rings the rotary phone. A solution I'm going to test to convert rotary pulses to tone dialing is on order to see if I can get the rotary phone to dial out too. If not, it still works to answer calls.
The tones I mentioned in the initial post had to have been generated by the Telo. I've been listening to digital negotiation and transmission tones for modems, alarms, and faxes since the days of the first 300 baud acoustically coupled modems - where you dialed a number and then stuck the handset in the modem. These tones were not those.
I'm just curious how often that failure mode happens, and what the indicated cause might be so I can remediate it. Perhaps it is related to low line voltage and won't happen again now that that seems to have been addressed. There's got to be a manual somewhere documenting what, if any, diagnostic Tones the Telo generates. They were definitely purposeful. Just trying to find out what they meant.
Re: Dialtone, but can't dial in or out. Telo diagnostic tones?
To reiterate what I think is an important point, there was dial tone on the line (this does not happen when the alarm has seized the line for use). The dial tone comes from the Telo. Pressing the first digit to dial eliminated the dial tone as it normally does. It was after I had dialed a complete number and put the phone to my ear that I heard the three tones, and the call did not complete. During this same period, incoming calls were not ringing through to the house. Instead, after 6 rings, they went to Ooma voice mail. So calls weren't getting in or out. Rebooting the Telo returned things to normal.
Re: Dialtone, but can't dial in or out. Telo diagnostic tones?
One additional data point. This condition lasted for about 45 minutes from when I first identified a problem (possibly longer) and was notified that Ooma was taking voicemail rather than my home system, to the time when I was able to get home and reboot the Telo.
Re: Dialtone, but can't dial in or out. Telo diagnostic tones?
The Telo supports a maximum of 5 REN. One ancient real bell phone could easily exceed that value.
The Telo does not support pulse dialing.
Ooma regenerates touch tones. When they decode a touchtone they block the outgoing audio and store what you dial. They then send "perfectly formed" tones to dial the number. Why they do this I don't know. My preference is that they not regenerate touchtones. I made that known 10 years ago so at this point it isn't going to change.
The Telo does not support pulse dialing.
Ooma regenerates touch tones. When they decode a touchtone they block the outgoing audio and store what you dial. They then send "perfectly formed" tones to dial the number. Why they do this I don't know. My preference is that they not regenerate touchtones. I made that known 10 years ago so at this point it isn't going to change.
Customer since January 2009
Telo with 2 Handsets, a Linx, and a Safety Phone
Telo2 with 2 Handsets and a Linx
Telo with 2 Handsets, a Linx, and a Safety Phone
Telo2 with 2 Handsets and a Linx
Re: Dialtone, but can't dial in or out. Telo diagnostic tones?
Some additional data. The problem occurred again so I spent some time troubleshooting before rebooting the Telo.
1) It turns out the dial tone and odd beeps I noted above were coming from my wireless POTS handset. With Telo disconnected, I still got dialtone (and the beeps after dialing), so the beeps are not Telo related.
Misleading:
2) The Telo 'status flower' showed blue, "no problems".
3) The Telo WAN interface replied to pings
4) The Internet was working fine for other things on the network
Diagnostic
5) My alarm system had called (radio backup) to say there were problems with the phone line
6) The Ooma account web page showed the Telo as "off-line"
7) The Telo did not produce a dialtone (touch tone phone directly connected to Telo, no house wiring involved)
8) The Telo LAN mgt inteface was down (wasn't handing out DHCP addresses)
A power cycle again fixed the problem.
It seems the Telo is partially failing (calls can't get in or out, no dialtone, LAN mgt down), but not fully (can ping WAN port, flower shows ok). I'm guessing a software bug that has yet to be squashed. Other thing I've noticed is that most calls come in fine, but this failure seems to have happened within 1 minute of receiving an incoming call. I know this because my alarm company is sending me an automated Ooma voicemail regarding line problems about a minute after a prior incoming (successful) call.
At this point I've ordered a z-wave power outlet so I can remotely powercycle the Telo when my alarm notifies me of a line problem. I'm hoping twice a week failures are not going to be the norm, and that this is eventually fixed.
@murphy; thanks for comments. On those fronts my solutions for the old rotary (just installed and apparently working fine) have been:
A Victor RG-10A Ring Booster (best price was on Amazon) downstream from the Telo boosting the REN to 10 (and also giving a ring waveform old phones like). The old 1 REN rotary is back clanging away. At the moment it's just boosting the REN capacity for the house. I've left the talk battery and current boost capabilities for the RG-10A off.
A Dialgizmo (https://www.dialgizmo.com/) has the rotary phone speaking touch tone and making calls again. I'm guessing this will disable hook flashing from the rotary, but haven't tested yet. I don't need call waiting/2nd line from the rotary anyway, so not critical to me if that's the case.
1) It turns out the dial tone and odd beeps I noted above were coming from my wireless POTS handset. With Telo disconnected, I still got dialtone (and the beeps after dialing), so the beeps are not Telo related.
Misleading:
2) The Telo 'status flower' showed blue, "no problems".
3) The Telo WAN interface replied to pings
4) The Internet was working fine for other things on the network
Diagnostic
5) My alarm system had called (radio backup) to say there were problems with the phone line
6) The Ooma account web page showed the Telo as "off-line"
7) The Telo did not produce a dialtone (touch tone phone directly connected to Telo, no house wiring involved)
8) The Telo LAN mgt inteface was down (wasn't handing out DHCP addresses)
A power cycle again fixed the problem.
It seems the Telo is partially failing (calls can't get in or out, no dialtone, LAN mgt down), but not fully (can ping WAN port, flower shows ok). I'm guessing a software bug that has yet to be squashed. Other thing I've noticed is that most calls come in fine, but this failure seems to have happened within 1 minute of receiving an incoming call. I know this because my alarm company is sending me an automated Ooma voicemail regarding line problems about a minute after a prior incoming (successful) call.
At this point I've ordered a z-wave power outlet so I can remotely powercycle the Telo when my alarm notifies me of a line problem. I'm hoping twice a week failures are not going to be the norm, and that this is eventually fixed.
@murphy; thanks for comments. On those fronts my solutions for the old rotary (just installed and apparently working fine) have been:
A Victor RG-10A Ring Booster (best price was on Amazon) downstream from the Telo boosting the REN to 10 (and also giving a ring waveform old phones like). The old 1 REN rotary is back clanging away. At the moment it's just boosting the REN capacity for the house. I've left the talk battery and current boost capabilities for the RG-10A off.
A Dialgizmo (https://www.dialgizmo.com/) has the rotary phone speaking touch tone and making calls again. I'm guessing this will disable hook flashing from the rotary, but haven't tested yet. I don't need call waiting/2nd line from the rotary anyway, so not critical to me if that's the case.