Scout as whole house line

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kdaniel33
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Joined:Tue Aug 25, 2009 3:26 pm
Scout as whole house line

Post by kdaniel33 » Tue Aug 25, 2009 4:08 pm

I'm struggling to conceptualize how I will hook up the following system.

My internet connection is Time Warner cable.
I have cat5e run to all areas of my house for use as phone or network - ran it myself so I know it's not just a single pair connected. All wires are home run to my basement to a large punched down patch panel. I use patch cables to hook the ports either into the computer network via a switch or into the phone block which is capable of supporting 4 phone lines.
I am porting my home phone, we'll call it 555-HOME.
I've purchased premiere service so I can also have a separate office number I'll call 555-WORK.

BAsic System looks like this modem>ooma>router>switch. So far no problems. (FYI I have this working with my temporary number as I am waiting for the port to take place. I just have my office phone plugged into the PHONE port and nothing in the WALL since I'm not using Scout yet)

555-HOME needs to be hooked into the whole house phone system as line 1 and will drive 7 or 8 phones (will meet the REN requirements). Because the Scout is smaller and fits better in our kitchen (for voicemail access) and doesn't require so many wires hooked to it and is less of a catastrophe to the computer network if someone unplugs it I would like the SCOUT to handle this task.

The Ooma hub would then sit in my office and respond to 555-WORK and would just be hooked to one or 2 phones as line 2.

Is this a problem with the SCOUT handling the bulk of the calling needs and integrated into the whole house system. Is there some reason the hub must be used for this task?

How do I hook up the phone side of all this - I don't fully understand HPNA?

What am I giving up by doing it this way?

Suggestions?

Thank you,

Keith

murphy
Posts:7554
Joined:Tue Jan 27, 2009 12:49 pm
Location:Pennsylvania

Re: Scout as whole house line

Post by murphy » Tue Aug 25, 2009 4:24 pm

You have to connect the wall jack of the hub to the wall jack of the scout. The best way to do that in your case would be to use line 3 in your walls to make the connection. Connect the scout phone jack to line 1 in the walls and the hub phone jack to line 2 in the walls.
Customer since January 2009
Telo with 2 Handsets, a Linx, and a Safety Phone
Telo2 with 2 Handsets and a Linx

daniellehall
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Joined:Fri Aug 07, 2009 11:54 am

Re: Scout as whole house line

Post by daniellehall » Wed Aug 26, 2009 12:03 am

I am trying to figure out the exact same thing. Interested in what the solution is.

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bw1
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Location:MI

Re: Scout as whole house line

Post by bw1 » Wed Aug 26, 2009 8:24 am

There's an issue that some have experienced static on calls connected through the scout.

Are you planning to assign the two numbers to separate assigned devices - hub and scout?

kdaniel33
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Joined:Tue Aug 25, 2009 3:26 pm

Re: Scout as whole house line

Post by kdaniel33 » Wed Aug 26, 2009 8:43 am

Yes, I was planning to assign separate numbers.

WayneDsr
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Location:Northern Indiana

Re: Scout as whole house line

Post by WayneDsr » Wed Aug 26, 2009 8:50 am

The best solution is exactly what murphy said.
One phone (hub) will be on house line 2 and one phone number (Scout) will be on house line 1.

Wayne

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bw1
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Location:MI

Re: Scout as whole house line

Post by bw1 » Wed Aug 26, 2009 9:00 am

Yea, I don't see why this wouldn't work, other than any issue with scout call quality.

You should be able to test it out now while you're waiting for your port to complete.

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Aveamantium
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Location:Loveland, Colorado

Re: Scout as whole house line

Post by Aveamantium » Wed Aug 26, 2009 9:03 am

bw1 wrote:Yea, I don't see why this wouldn't work, other than any issue with scout call quality.

You should be able to test it out now while you're waiting for your port to complete.
Make sure to do some test calls to people on land lines to hear the voice quality on the non-Ooma side of the call. This is where the static is reported for the scout. I (and others) have the issue in question but people like Wayne have reported no problems so YMMV.
Go AVS!

kdaniel33
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Joined:Tue Aug 25, 2009 3:26 pm

Re: Scout as whole house line

Post by kdaniel33 » Wed Aug 26, 2009 9:05 am

Murphy, conceptually I see what you are saying, but I'm not sure how to implement it. My telecom module in my basement that distributes phone throughout the house accepts a single input - I currently have a cat5e cable coming from the phone company but that will be going away.

So I would have a L1, L2, L3 splitter plugged into the RJ45 next to the hub and I would run an RJ11 from hub PHONE to L2 and from hub WALL to L3.

In my kitchen I would lave a L1, L2, L3 splitter plugged into the RJ45 next to the scout and I would run an RJ11 from scout PHONE to L1 and from scout wall to L3.

Then down in the basement I would have at my whole house patch panel an office RJ45 and a kitchen RJ45 port. I would have to plug a splitter into each of these and then I would run a phone cable RJ11 between the two L3's. I would then have to take the L1 out of the kitchen and the L2 from my office and somehow turn them into a single RJ45 in order to plug into the telco module. This sounds extremely complex and I haven't found a 3 way splitter - I have found a 4 way but they were 15 bucks a piece.

Am I over complicating things.

WayneDsr
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Location:Northern Indiana

Re: Scout as whole house line

Post by WayneDsr » Wed Aug 26, 2009 9:11 am

Yes, just for clarification, I have 2 Scouts that have no quality issues.

Aveamantium or bw1, have you tried using a different power supply?
(Rad Shack or other)
I had a theory that some scouts may come with underpowered or bad supplies and don't have a bad one to experiment with.

Wayne

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