Install of Scout & Hub with whole house distribution

[vector1701]

OK, before I go forward with this I want to make sure it is the right thing to do....

Here is my setup (which seems like a pretty typical household):
Internet is provided from cable company
House never had DSL
Previous phone service is provided from Verizon.

I setup my hub, according to the user manual, and the service works great on the one phone connected to the scout. (And here is where it starts to get hairy). I disconnected the Verizon service at the box in the basement, so all the phones went dead. Through research on this forum, I then wired the hub's PHONE port to the WALL JACK and boom, all the phones in the house are on OOMA = awesome, I am happy. So the hub is located upstairs in the office, where my router and cable modem are. Now I want to install a Scout, downstairs in the kitchen. So I hook up the Scout and and it does not work. Doing some research on this forum, it seems as if the WALL PORT on the Hub has to be wired to my WALL JACK for that to happen, but then I lose my whole house phone distribution.

What can I do to have the best of both worlds? I want to have whole house distribution AND a Scout downstairs in the kitchen to see and check voice mails. Can I take the wiring out of the back of the Hub, WALL and PHONE, and connect them to a splitter then connect it to the WALL JACK? Would that give me whole house distribution AND the ability to put a SCOUT on the network?

Thank you very much to those who can assist with this install.
-Patrick

[lbmofo]

Yes, that's how I did it.

[caseybea]

Yes, you will want a splitter.

The thing that a lot of people don't understand (that ooma could explain better in their documentation) is this:

The signal from the PHONE port from the hub is specifically used for phones. This is the analog signal required to make phone devices work, get dial tone, etc.

The signal from the WALL port on the hub is specifically for connecting scouts. The signal generated by the wall port is called "HPNA" (I believe), and is actually a DATA signal.

The cool thing? You can mix both analog/voice signals and data signals on the same wire - your house's phone wiring. (often referred to as "data over voice" technology).

With a splitter, you can send the signals from both the PHONE and WALL ports to your in-home wiring. A scout plugged in anywhere will pick up the signal and work fine. A phone plugged in anywhere will likewise pick up ITS signal, and also work fine.

[caseybea]

PS: I have to post my obligatory "scouts don't work very well for voice quality" info here. Search the forums, you will find that the call quality, when you're using a scout, is crappy. The call will sound FINE on your end--- but on the remote end, the caller will often hear scratchy noises - and often it gets bad.

[lbmofo]

This is a good read: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6853#p49029

I've posted a particular post where southsound talks about combining HPNA (wall port) with dialtone (phone port).

[vector1701]

Thank you very much for those who replied, and so quickly may I add...very impressive. I will add the splitter tonight and I am sure it will work fine.

I think it is a little odd that this scenario is not fully explained in Ooma's documentation as I would think this setup (whole house distribution with a Scout in another part of the house) would be pretty typical. Unless, Ooma just wants people to buy Scouts to put around their house.

Caseybea, I saw your response referring to scouts and voice quality. Do you mean that if you have a Scout hooked up anywhere in the house outgoing voice quality has been known to suffer? Or if you have a Scout with a phone hooked up to it then outgoing voice quality is known to suffer?

Is this an issue that is very prevalent? I would be surprised as Ooma touts their voice quality....

PS: I have to post my obligatory "scouts don't work very well for voice quality" info here. Search the forums, you will find that the call quality, when you're using a scout, is crappy. The call will sound FINE on your end--- but on the remote end, the caller will often hear scratchy noises - and often it gets bad.

lbmofo, I appreciate the post. I did find the post before in my research and the comments from Southsound did get me as far as I did. Since i did not come from a DSL setup I wanted to be sure I was going down the right path.

This is a good read: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6853#p49029

I've posted a particular post where southsound talks about combining HPNA (wall port) with dialtone (phone port).

[lbmofo]

Do you mean that if you have a Scout hooked up anywhere in the house outgoing voice quality has been known to suffer? Or if you have a Scout with a phone hooked up to it then outgoing voice quality is known to suffer?

Refering to the phone that's connected to the Scout's "phone" port. I suppose, it is because the phone is communicating through HPNA with the Hub.

[vector1701]

Do you mean that if you have a Scout hooked up anywhere in the house outgoing voice quality has been known to suffer? Or if you have a Scout with a phone hooked up to it then outgoing voice quality is known to suffer?

Refering to the phone that's connected to the Scout's "phone" port. I suppose, it is because the phone is communicating through HPNA with the Hub.

lbmofo,
I can see if a phone is directly connected to a Scout how it can lead to the potential of voice issues. I wonder how a test would work if you used a splitter on that line and 1 went to the Scout and 1 went to the phone, just to prevent any voice quality issues. I would like to see what Caseybea has any thoughts on that. By the way, I love the anti-Verizon pic....

Let me go 1 step further. So assuming the splitter fixes the issue and the Scout and Hub HPNA signal is on the whole house distribution wiring and everything is working well after a month of testing. I have Ooma port my number and I cancel evil Verizon service. However, I would still like to have Emergency 911 service from the old hard line only (just for extra security having young kids and all). How would this be done? How would this be wired?

Thanks!!!

[lbmofo]

lbmofo,
I can see if a phone is directly connected to a Scout how it can lead to the potential of voice issues. I wonder how a test would work if you used a splitter on that line and 1 went to the Scout and 1 went to the phone, just to prevent any voice quality issues. I would like to see what Caseybea has any thoughts on that. By the way, I love the anti-Verizon pic....

You probably already guessed that that I don't like Verizon...

Scout and phone sharing a wall jack with a splitter should work fine. I have some Scouts setup this way with wall jacks near my Dishnetwork receivers; to make receiver to mothership handshakes more reliable, I put DSL filter on the receiver side to filter out HPNA signals; you don't need to worry about this on reqular phones however.

Going back to the Scout's phone voice quality topic, I've done some testing myself (leaving myself VMs somewhere else) and couldn't tell the difference between a phone directly connected to the wall jack and the one connected to the scout; something might be wrong with my ear Maybe my test sample duration is too short but what others are saying makes sense because I can see how conversation quality could suffer because the phone is connected to the Hub via HPNA protocol vs direct wire (if you connect directly to the wall jack).

Let me go 1 step further. So assuming the splitter fixes the issue and the Scout and Hub HPNA signal is on the whole house distribution wiring and everything is working well after a month of testing. I have Ooma port my number and I cancel evil Verizon service. However, I would still like to have Emergency 911 service from the old hard line only (just for extra security having young kids and all). How would this be done? How would this be wired?

Unless you want to use a private second number assigned to the Scout or need the instant 2nd line feature, the splitter at the wall jack is the answer. For your "security blanket" landline question, if you end up wanting to do that, after the number port (or at the same time), get a new bare bones landline started. Keep ooma dialtone+HPNA separate from the landline by using different wire pairs; example: bare bones landline on orange pair and ooma on blue pair.

tip/ring
L1 white-blue/blue-white
L2 white-orange/orange-white
L3 white-green/green-white
L4 white-brown/brown-white

I don't recommend landline integration (this route would not require a number port however) because a few folks have had different issues with that setup. Incoming callerid not working, voicemail greeting not playing, landline noise amplified etc.

[rajeshh]

Hello, I have further questions along the lines of the previous post about keeping bare-bones landline for 911. I got a new Ooma 3 weeks back, have already ported my landline number to OOma, and have not yet called Qwest to discontinue service. I dont have DSL, or alarms hooked up.

Here are some posts I found when I googled "landline just for 911":
http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-products-te ... nes-2.html

which claim that phone companies have to provide 911 even when I discontinue service? I have disconnected the plug from the jack at the NIB to test ooma whole house distribution and it works fine.

If I have a pair of blue/white wires in my NIB wired up, and the orange and brown pair are un-used, what can I do to keep the landline bare enough for 911. When I call Qwest to discontinue service, what do I tell them?

Thanks