Connecting to house wiring

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f28pilot
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Joined:Tue Nov 01, 2011 4:57 pm
Connecting to house wiring

Post by f28pilot » Tue Nov 01, 2011 5:05 pm

Hi,

I'm still searching the forums but haven't found an answer yet so I'll post in case someone can save me more hours of looking...

I have a Telo connected and working correctly in that I can connect a phone and get dial tone and dial out. My house wiring is disconnected from the outside world and works correctly with a device that connects to Verizon mobile service (similar to ooma except using a cellular connection).

I have disconnected the Verizon device and have plugged the Telo phone jack into a house jack but cannot get dial tone or dial out from phones connected to other jacks. Any suggestions or is there a setting I'm missing?

Thanks!
Steve

thunderbird
Posts:6388
Joined:Mon Nov 08, 2010 4:41 pm

Re: Connecting to house wiring

Post by thunderbird » Tue Nov 01, 2011 5:23 pm

f28pilot wrote:Hi,

I'm still searching the forums but haven't found an answer yet so I'll post in case someone can save me more hours of looking...

I have a Telo connected and working correctly in that I can connect a phone and get dial tone and dial out. My house wiring is disconnected from the outside world and works correctly with a device that connects to Verizon mobile service (similar to ooma except using a cellular connection).

I have disconnected the Verizon device and have plugged the Telo phone jack into a house jack but cannot get dial tone or dial out from phones connected to other jacks. Any suggestions or is there a setting I'm missing?

Thanks!
Steve
Make sure that you have disconnected the old phone provider phone lines that come in from the street to the box at the side of your house. Check and double check. If not done correctly, damage to the Ooma device could occur. If you are unsure, take a photo of the wiring on the inside of the house phone box, and post it in this thread. Some one will advise you.
Connect a phone cord from the Ooma device Phone port, to a house wall phone receptacle. If your Ooma device has a Wall phone port, don't use it. If you want to use a phone near the Ooma device, and feed the house wall receptacle at the same time, use a phone line splitter.

f28pilot
Posts:5
Joined:Tue Nov 01, 2011 4:57 pm

Re: Connecting to house wiring

Post by f28pilot » Tue Nov 01, 2011 5:52 pm

Thanks for the quick response!

Yes, we're disconnected from the outside lines, we haven't had landline service for over a year at this house and for several years at our last one so no mysteries there. I have a phone cord from the "phone" port on the Telo to the house wall jack, no "wall" jack on this Telo. So far everything seems like a standard VOIP setup (we had Vonage before) but no dial tone at other wall jacks. Is there a limit on the number of jacks connected? I would guess we have about 6-8 in this house but it worked fine with our Verizon Home Phone Connect service which is very similar to VOIP.

Puzzled,
Steve

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

Re: Connecting to house wiring

Post by murphy » Tue Nov 01, 2011 5:58 pm

Make sure that you don't have a phone elsewhere in the house that is "off hook".
That would prevent the distribution of a dial tone.
The Telo can feed up to 5 REN. The REN value is on the label of a phone.
Customer since January 2009
Telo with 2 Handsets, a Linx, and a Safety Phone
Telo2 with 2 Handsets and a Linx

thunderbird
Posts:6388
Joined:Mon Nov 08, 2010 4:41 pm

Re: Connecting to house wiring

Post by thunderbird » Tue Nov 01, 2011 6:22 pm

f28pilot wrote:Thanks for the quick response!

Yes, we're disconnected from the outside lines, we haven't had landline service for over a year at this house and for several years at our last one so no mysteries there. I have a phone cord from the "phone" port on the Telo to the house wall jack, no "wall" jack on this Telo. So far everything seems like a standard VOIP setup (we had Vonage before) but no dial tone at other wall jacks. Is there a limit on the number of jacks connected? I would guess we have about 6-8 in this house but it worked fine with our Verizon Home Phone Connect service which is very similar to VOIP.

Puzzled,
Steve
Go around the house and disconnect all of the phones where they connect to the house wall jacks. Then plug just one phone in, to the jack that is nearest to the Ooma house wall jack, and see if you get Ooma Dial tone. If you get dial tone, add another phone, etc.

One person had a loose or corroded wire(s) connection(s) at the House wall jack were he plugged in the Ooma phone line cord. All he had to do was to access the jack wire terminals and tighten the terminal screws where the wires connected to the jack, and everything then worked fine.

If that doesn't work, with all phones disconnected from the house phone jacks, using a multi-meter, check for any kind of voltage. There should be no voltage. Check for continuity from phone jack to phone jack. Also check for a path from the house phone wires to ground. If you find a path (short) to ground, you will have to find out what is causing it.

f28pilot
Posts:5
Joined:Tue Nov 01, 2011 4:57 pm

Re: Connecting to house wiring

Post by f28pilot » Tue Nov 01, 2011 6:25 pm

Hmm, checked phones and found nothing out of the normal. Only 1 fax machine and 1 phone hooked up to wall jacks right now (fax is used as phone only at this point). Any other suggestions? Will have to resume testing tomorrow.

Thanks again,
Steve

f28pilot
Posts:5
Joined:Tue Nov 01, 2011 4:57 pm

Re: Connecting to house wiring

Post by f28pilot » Wed Nov 02, 2011 1:18 pm

murphy, thunderbird, thanks for the good ideas. I'm a bit overtasked here at the moment but I'm going to do some troubleshooting with your suggestions and will try to report back in the next day or so.

Thanks,
Steve

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lbmofo
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Re: Connecting to house wiring

Post by lbmofo » Wed Nov 02, 2011 1:47 pm

Try a different phone cord first.

f28pilot
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Joined:Tue Nov 01, 2011 4:57 pm

Re: Connecting to house wiring

Post by f28pilot » Thu Nov 03, 2011 5:17 pm

lbmofo - probably a good idea, I was using an el cheapo patch cord. Didn't work in this case.

Finally figured out it was bad house wiring. Narrowed it down to a zone but not a particular jack yet but the other zones are up and running. I don't know how our previous service was working at all. Connecting one (or in our goofy house, a couple jacks in a zone) was the key to troubleshooting this one.

Thanks to all who replied!
Steve

thunderbird
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Joined:Mon Nov 08, 2010 4:41 pm

Re: Connecting to house wiring

Post by thunderbird » Thu Nov 03, 2011 11:17 pm

f28pilot wrote:lbmofo - probably a good idea, I was using an el cheapo patch cord. Didn't work in this case.

Finally figured out it was bad house wiring. Narrowed it down to a zone but not a particular jack yet but the other zones are up and running. I don't know how our previous service was working at all. Connecting one (or in our goofy house, a couple jacks in a zone) was the key to troubleshooting this one.

Thanks to all who replied!
Steve
Great! finally almost under control. :)

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