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Better Multi Line Phone Support

Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 6:17 am
by Wilsonium
I would like to see better two line phone support. At the moment I have to have 2 phone lines running from my hub/scout to my 2 line phone just so I can keep them separate. Being able to run one phone line from the hub and/or scouts to my 2 line phone system would be awesome.

Additionally, I have already asked for enhanced called line indication on the hub and scouts by flashing the 1 or 2 button on the hub/scout to indicatate line 1 or line 2 calls so if someone calls my second line, only the 2 button flashes on my hub or scout. Related to that I have my second line go directly to one of my scouts and only that scout rings thru but all the buttons flash on the hub and both of my scouts regardless of which line is ringing. This is misleading if I am not in my office and I see my scout or hub button flashing... the temptation to pick up is strong but if a number is assigned to a scout then only that scout should flash.

Finally, primary numbers should not be restricted to "shared". This way we could hide our hubs in a closet and then just use scouts. I don't know about everyone else but my desktop space is limited and I've yet to see any wall mount device for them. Less clutter = bonus!!!

Re: Better Multi Line Phone Support

Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 12:06 pm
by Pandora
Good suggestions. Unfortunately adding 2 line capability to the hub would probably require a hardware upgrade.

Lets hope some of your ideas find their way into the new Ooma Telo.

Re: Better Multi Line Phone Support

Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 12:51 pm
by WayneDsr
Purchase a second hub and you can have 2 separate lines with 2 separate numbers.

Wayne

Re: Better Multi Line Phone Support

Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 5:24 am
by oomg
WayneDsr wrote:Purchase a second hub and you can have 2 separate lines with 2 separate numbers.

Wayne
Haven't thought it through yet, but I'll ask the question anyhow... If one were to purchase two hubs, would he need to order Premier on both lines in order to have the the enhanced features on each line?

Re: Better Multi Line Phone Support

Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 5:50 am
by WayneDsr
Yep.

Wayne

Re: Better Multi Line Phone Support

Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 11:25 pm
by Wilsonium
Wayne,

I do have a 2nd scout. Unfortunately I still see flashing on both my scouts and hub regardless of what line is called. The correct scout does ring for that number but having all the flashing on the other devices when the call doesn't ring thru is misleading and confusing if you have your ringer turned off. Just my $.02 but it's important for clarity.

And it just occurred to me that it would be nice for intercom functions in the device... pick up a phone and be able to speak thru the built-in speaker on the hub and attached scouts... something like dial *81 announces on hub, *82 on a scout... etc.

Cheers
Don

Re: Better Multi Line Phone Support

Posted: Tue May 26, 2009 7:47 am
by WayneDsr
Don, in my post I mentioned getting a second HUB, not a scout. A second hub would be another purchase, but you would have 2 separate numbers and the capability of 4 "lines", 2 of them would be instant second lines.
Or you could have 2 numbers per hub, and assign one to each hub and one to each scout, totalling 4 numbers.

Wayne

Re: Better Multi Line Phone Support

Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 9:04 pm
by CloaknDagr
What Wayne said... Then turn on the "Ring phones connected to my ooma system" in multi-ring and ignore the buttons flashing on the Ooma hub/scout.

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.

It sure is nice owning my own phone system.

Re: Better Multi Line Phone Support

Posted: Sat May 30, 2009 7:33 am
by southsound
CloaknDagr wrote:What Wayne said... Then turn on the "Ring phones connected to my ooma system" in multi-ring and ignore the buttons flashing on the Ooma hub/scout.

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

<<awesome description deleted for space>>

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.

It sure is nice owning my own phone system.
Great use of the system and its features! I also applaud your resolve to actually put the business line in do not disturb. Welcome to the forum and thank you for the great "real life usage" contribution.

Re: Better Multi Line Phone Support

Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 2:17 pm
by CloaknDagr
Thanks for the encouragement SouthSound. Here's a few other techniques I use in case anyone is interested.

I put my cell phone number in multi-ring's field, but I only turn the cell phone on when I'm away from home. The cell phone is set to forward to my business line if unavailable or busy, after 5 rings and Ooma voice mail picks up on 4. That way a direct call to my cell phone still goes to my business line or voice mail and I don't have any kind of looping if both are ringning. I don't miss any important messages but I don't have the celluar going off every time I get a call at my desk.

I have to say here, I really hate cell phones, both as a matter of principle and due to their limited reliability. I won't answer the cellular when I'm driving and on the occasional times I work 'onsite' for a client. I bill by the hour and I don't feel it's very professional to be locked in a cell phone conversation while elbow deep in a client's server/network. When I get off the road or clear of the client site I check my messages and go from there. My clients are aware of all of this and know that if they can't get me 'right now' I'll be calling them very soon. They all appreciate the fact that when I'm physically at their business I'm also mentally all there and earning what they pay me.

Ooma is great for this too, easy to pick up messages and manipulate them. Because the messages are in the lounge on my account on Ooma's servers, if the internet goes down or Ooma has a problem I can still retrieve my messages via cell phone.

On top of all of this, my Ooma is safely secured BEHIND my SonicWALL TZ-210 firewall on my own network. With the VPN tunnelling aspect of the Ooma core I have as secure a comm setup as can be reasonably expected. If there's a breach it's not likely to be on my end (I have access to client proprietary information, this is kind of important because of that). The TZ-210 does an excellent job of traffic shaping (QOS) and the voice quality is indistinguishable from POTS (Plain Old Telephone System, for those wondering).

That explains the mechanics of how I've got my comm system set up, but here's the fun part. The cost...

Even with the Premier package, paid annually Ooma only costs me $8.33 a month. AT&T was charging me $65.43 for my business line and $21.99 for an additional private line. That's a bill of $87.42 a month for landline and no where near as many handy features as Ooma gives me. So Ooma has cut my monthly bill to less than 10% of what it was before, with better service.

I have an el-cheapo cell phone plan that's 100 minutes for $20 a month. I split the cost and the minutes with my brother-in-law and we never use the full 100 minutes. So thanks to Ooma's part in this I have full mobile and stationary communications with 3 phone numbers and 3 lines all reasonably well integrated for $18.33 a month.

I can't even describe the satisfaction of calling AT&T from my Ooma and telling them that I would no longer be needing their exsanguination.

It sure is nice owning my own phone system. :)