Better Multi Line Phone Support

[WayneDsr]

Very impressive!
What a nice setup.
Wayne

[jtykal]

CloaknDagr -
Thanks for sharing this -- I have EXACTLY the same setup in my home office, but didn't realize how powerful it was until you articulated it so well!

...The cell phone is set to forward to my business line if unavailable or busy...

I have AT&T Wireless, and can't figure out a way to have my cell phone forward to my business line when the cell phone is turned off... Anyone know if call forwarding possible with AT&T Wireless, and I'm just not finding how to do it?

[CloaknDagr]

Sorry, I don't know about AT&T wireless so I can't help you with that.

Yes, it is a pretty powerful system. I studied the Ooma system long and hard before making the plunge. I was going to go VOIP and I did a LOT of research because of the business aspect of my telephone needs.

I had decided on the Ooma system and NewEgg.com had it on sale so I took a deep breath and went for it.

I haven't been disappointed at all. The tech support has been outstanding, btw.

With the cell phone and Ooma Premier it's like having your own VOIP PBX system, only smaller. It is absolutely the most ideal set up for a home office. Mind you, I don't do a LOT of calling, anywhere from 15 minutes to 3 hours a day on the phone, and more often on the 15 minute side.

I don't know about using this set up with a DSL line either, though it should work OK because the upload speeds are about the same even at extreme distance from the telephone Central Office. I'm on a cable connection that gives me T1 or better speeds down stream.

So thank you guys for the compliments, I hope more people come to see the advantage in this cute little phone system I have sitting on my desk. I've been in the IT business for almost 30 years and I've seen a lot of good ideas come and go but I really hope this one is permanent. It really is a great system.

[scottlindner]

Can't you achieve the second line with a Scout, rather than a Hub? I would think you could connect the Scout to the Hub directly (not using your home's phone wires) and then connect the Hub to Line 1 in your house and the Scout to Line 2 in your house. Wouldn't that be simpler, not require a change to Ooma at all, and not require you to purchase anything new?

Maybe there's something about the Scout I don't understand. I am not using my Scout yet so I wouldn't know.

Scott

[CloaknDagr]

Scott-

Reread my posts. Your question is already answered with a detailed description of how to make the connections and configurations.

[scottlindner]

Scott-

Reread my posts. Your question is already answered with a detailed description of how to make the connections and configurations.

I did, but I guess I didn't see how it was related.

Scott

[CloaknDagr]

This is what I said before:

I work out of my home and I do it like this...

I'm using one hub and one scout, both of which are on my desk. They stack neatly.

I have my private number as the main (shared) number on the hub and my business number assigned to the scout.

The phone at my desk is a two line speaker phone, the "phone" connector on the Ooma hub uses a splitter, goes to line 2 and the rest of my house phones. The "wall" connector goes to the "wall" connector on the scout. The scout "phone" jack is connected to line 1 on the two line phone at my desk. The scout is assigned to my business number. The corresponding buttons on my two line phone light up when the appropriate number is called so I can see which line is ringing. This phone must be able to tell which incoming line rang first or something like that, doesn't seem to work with other phones as well.

When I'm done for the day I hit the "do not disturb" function by holding down the envelope key for 4 seconds on the scout. Calls to my business number go straight to voicemail. After doing that, my business line doesn't ring and my private line does. You can do it the other way by putting the business line on the hub and holding down the envelope button on the hub.

This works good for me because I don't care which line rings during working hours, I'm going to pick up the phone after glancing at Caller ID. When I'm done with work, only my private line rings. If I want to work an evening or weekend I'll leave the business line on. If not and if I see the voicemail light blinking I can check voicemail to see if a client has an emergency BUT I don't get woken up by a client with a simple question or disturbed in the middle of my dinner, watching a movie, etc.

You don't see how that's relevant to your question? Maybe you didn't realize you're on Page 2 of this thread. This is on Page 1 and it's as plain as anyone can make it. Including the part about using the scout for line 2.

With this configuration Line 1 (the hub) is my main, private phone number. Line 2 (the scout) is my business number. You need a two line phone to make this work and not all two line phones work well with it. You have to do some experimentation. You have to have BOTH a hub and a scout in the same place, in my case it's my desk.

Hope that helps clarify things.

[scottlindner]

So "a scout".. is what you are saying?

[CloaknDagr]

I just edited that post a bit for clarity. If that doesn't help I'm afraid it's beyond my language skills to make it all more intelligible.

[Colanth]

Scott, if you really need more than C&D posted, let me know and I'll whip up some kind of diagram and post it on my site for you. It's really no more complicated than hooking up a 2 line phone to 2 separate wall jacks (1 "wall jack" is "Phone" on the Hub, the other is "Phone" on the Scout. The only new thing is a single line between "Wall" on the Hub and "Wall" on the Scout.) I'm using the same setup on a 2-line cordless system - any handset can go up on either "line".

Al