Extending dialtone throughout the house

[podil63]

Hello. I am having a problem with extending the ooma dial tone throughout the house on all the phone jacks. Currently I have all cordless handsets in the house and one corded phone. All the cordless handsets work just fine. But I can't seem to get the dial tone extended to the phone jack in the master bedroom where we have both a cordless and a corded phone in use. Both of these phones are currently unusable because of no dial tone. They are both plugged into the wall jack. In the adjacent room is where the Telo unit is and the integrated router. In trying to get the dial tone extended throughout the house I consulted ooma's web site on how to accomplish this. They stated that I first must make sure that the landline is physically disconnected from the house wiring ( which it is ) before I attempt to try the steps given. They then state that in order to extend the dial tone I must connect a cable from the phone port of the Telo unit to a wall jack. Upon doing this the dial tone should be extended throughout the house. But here is my problem. In order to first hook up the ooma system it states that you need to connect your phone base to the phone port of the Telo unit. So the question I have is this: If the phone base is connected to the phone port of the Telo, in order for the system to work, how are you supposed to also connect a cable to this same port in order to extend the dial tone throughout the house as is stated in the support section of this web site? I have tried to use a splitter to accomplish both tasks but when I connect it up with the splitter ( one line coming from the phone base into the phone port of the Telo unit and the other line going to the wall jack from the splitter ) I get no dial tone on any phone in the house including the corded phone. All handsets have the following message on their screens: Check telephone line or line in use. Now if I disconnect the line coming from the splitter that goes to the wall jack my dial tone is restored to all cordless handsets but not the corded phone. If anyone has any ideas on how to solve this problem so I can have both use of the Telo system as well as having the dial tone extended throughout the house I sure would appreciate it. Thanks.

[thunderbird]

podil63:
You say the Ooma Telo phone port will feed dial tone through house phone wiring correctly by itself.
You say the Ooma Telo phone port will feed dial tone to phone base correctly by itself.

But nothing (no dial tone) when the splitter is connected to the Ooma Telo phone port, the phone base and the house phone wiring.

So probably the phone wire splitter is defective?

Or you are trying to use the Wall phone port on the Ooma Telo. Don't use the Ooma Telo Wall phone port.

[podil63]

Thanks for the response. I thought about that same possibility and so I tried using a different splitter with the same result.

[podil63]

I have not used the wall port. I heeded the bold print in the support section.

[thunderbird]

Thanks for the response. I thought about that same possibility and so I tried using a different splitter with the same result.

The only thing left is the phone wires themselves. Maybe if you have extra phone wires you could try substituting them for the phone wire from the Ooma Telo phone port, to the splitter; the phone wire from the splitter to the house wiring jack; and the splitter to the phone base.

There are differnces between two wire phone wires and four wire phone wiring that may also cause the problem?

Of coarse it's remote, but the second splitter could be defective also?

I just remembered that that one time another person had a similar problem. In his case at the house wall jack, the phone wires connected to the wall jack terminals were loose or corroded. All he had to do was access the terminal screws and tighten them, and everything was fine.

The next thing you could do is isolate the house phone wiring by removing all of the phones throughout the house. Connect only one phone to the house wiring and test, using the splitter and connected to the phone base and the house wiring. If it works, add phones back until you find the phone that is loading down the phone system.

Another thing that you could do is while the house wiring has all of the phones disconnected, use a millimeter and ring all of the wiring, especially looking for high resistive paths to ground.

In other words, the Ooma Telo might feed the whole house, but not the whole house and the phone base, if the load on the Ooma Telo becomes to high? This has happened before.

Last make sure, and double check to make sure that the old phone company wiring coming in from the street to the the house, is disconnected. The Ooma will some times still work with the old phone company wiring still connected, but there will be problems at some point.

A little thing like this will drive a person cazy!

[podil63]

It sure has been driving me crazy for the last 2 weeks. Thanks for the help.

[tommies]

If possible, you could take a pic inside of your Telco box outside the house and post it here, someone will be able to help with your problem.

Many of wiring problems involves this box, assuming that all the wires and wall plates are good.

[podil63]

Thanks T-Bird for the fast response. You were right on the money once again. Turns out the wall jack was not wired up right. Got into it and rewired the jack properly. Now everything is working great including extending the dial tone throughout the house. Thanks. again!!

[thunderbird]

Thanks T-Bird for the fast response. You were right on the money once again. Turns out the wall jack was not wired up right. Got into it and rewired the jack properly. Now everything is working great including extending the dial tone throughout the house. Thanks. again!!

You're welcome!