hello all

[happygirl]

Hello all!

I am happy girl and I am a new owner of the ooma system.
My hubby bought it on Black Friday (and it is honestly not much of a sale, if there is even a sale for the ooma hub)...

He set it up in like 5 min and wow, the voice and function is amazing.

I have not read any post yet, but I do have some questions...

1. with the ooma hub + scout, WITHOUT premier service, do we get the following features:
a. 2 line calling (with hub and scout hook up, 2 people talk and call at the same time).
b. Community blocking (of telemarketing).
c. listen to voice mail online

2. we did the port for our home phone number... we were told that it will take 3-4 weeks to get this set up, does it usually take 3-4 weeks? can it be sooner?

3. what exactly does the scout do? we did the hub and it seems to work fine for calls and receving calls....

Thanks so much.

happygirl

[bw1]

See responses in blue below.

Hello all!

I am happy girl and I am a new owner of the ooma system.
My hubby bought it on Black Friday (and it is honestly not much of a sale, if there is even a sale for the ooma hub)...

He set it up in like 5 min and wow, the voice and function is amazing.

I have not read any post yet, but I do have some questions...

1. with the ooma hub + scout, WITHOUT premier service, do we get the following features:
a. 2 line calling (with hub and scout hook up, 2 people talk and call at the same time).
No you must have Premier to get that - known as "Instant Second Line".

b. Community blocking (of telemarketing).
That's part of the Blacklisting functionality, also part of Premier.

c. listen to voice mail online
Yes, you can listen to voicemail through my.ooma.com. You can also get notifications sent to your email or cell phone through a text message.

2. we did the port for our home phone number... we were told that it will take 3-4 weeks to get this set up, does it usually take 3-4 weeks? can it be sooner?
Yes, it's typically 3-4 weeks, although some have reported a port completing in as little as 10 days. Make sure that Ooma gets your LOA and followed up with an expected date to port.

3. what exactly does the scout do? we did the hub and it seems to work fine for calls and receving calls....
The scout is used to extend the capabilities of the hub to other phones in the house. You can use it to play voicemail, set DND and use the Instant Second Line on another phone.

Thanks so much.

happygirl

You may want to check here - https://www.ooma.com/premier/features for info on Premier. Through the end of the year, you can get Premier for $99.99 for a one year subscription and it will include the cost of the port ($39.99)

[happygirl]

thank you for your reply...

so if premier service is needed for the 2nd phone number... the scout that came with the hub+scout is basically useless right?

I mean, even if we set up the scout without the premier service, we will not get the instant 2nd line calling right?

[Aveamantium]

You are correct about the instant second line but it isn't useless... I find the scout to be a great little answering machine!

[happygirl]

humm I have another question...

which set up is better in terms of bandwidth sharing/balancing?


MODEM --> OOMAHUB ---> Router

or

MODEM --> Router ---> OOMAHUB

My hubby and I play world of warcraft daily and cannot be lagged even for a split of a second... so not only we need all the bandwidth we get, we also need it to be lag free (as possible)

Which is the recommanded setup? We are currently set up as: MODEM --> OOMAHUB ---> Router

thanks.

happygirl

[Aveamantium]

If you have a good Qos router and your speeds don't vary much then put the Hub behind the router. If not, put the hub in front of your router. If you have it in front of your router, make sure to log into setup.ooma.com and enter in about 80% of your tested upload and download speeds in the Qos section. You might also put the IP assigned by the Hub to the router into the DMZ of the Hub to ensure all data is passed through to the router. The nice thing about the Hub's Qos is it is conditional and will only reserve bandwidth for the call during a call.

[07pilot4me]

curious to see the answer, since i too have premier and do not intend to install the scout .

thank you for your reply...

so if premier service is needed for the 2nd phone number... the scout that came with the hub+scout is basically useless right?

I mean, even if we set up the scout without the premier service, we will not get the instant 2nd line calling right?

[murphy]

The only way to make use of the instant second line (Premier feature) is to connect a second phone to the scout.
The simplest way to achieve this is to set the hub and scout side by side and connect their wall jacks together with a short phone cord. Connect another phone to the phone jack of the scout. You can have two independent calls in progress at the same time using the phone connected to the hub and the phone connected to the scout.

[07pilot4me]

The only way to make use of the instant second line (Premier feature) is to connect a second phone to the scout.
The simplest way to achieve this is to set the hub and scout side by side and connect their wall jacks together with a short phone cord. Connect another phone to the phone jack of the scout. You can have two independent calls in progress at the same time using the phone connected to the hub and the phone connected to the scout.

only way i could turn the scout light blue was when i connected it to the "wall" port of the hub (and believe me i tried everything) will this setup work? what did you mean by "connecting their wall jacks together with a short phone cord"

yet another thing i thought of was to "upgrade" to a Telo, sign up for a year of premier and get a Telo handset (which i believe is equivalent to a scout)

the main attraction of the premier service for me is the second line feature so would like to make that part work if i was to continue paying for premier

[tommies]

The only way to make use of the instant second line (Premier feature) is to connect a second phone to the scout.
The simplest way to achieve this is to set the hub and scout side by side and connect their wall jacks together with a short phone cord. Connect another phone to the phone jack of the scout. You can have two independent calls in progress at the same time using the phone connected to the hub and the phone connected to the scout.

only way i could turn the scout light blue was when i connected it to the "wall" port of the hub (and believe me i tried everything) will this setup work? what did you mean by "connecting their wall jacks together with a short phone cord"
you plug one jack of the phone cord into the hub WALL port, and the other jack into the scout WALL port. connect a phone to the scout PHONE port/as on the hub

yet another thing i thought of was to "upgrade" to a Telo, sign up for a year of premier and get a Telo handset (which i believe is equivalent to a scout)
Yes, the telo hand set works as a cordless scout, however, beware that you cannot use your own phone with the second line feature. It is locked in with the hand set

the main attraction of the premier service for me is the second line feature so would like to make that part work if i was to continue paying for premier