Ooma

[ChadTower]

http://www.ooma.com/

Anyone here use this?  I'm in the process of getting it set up this week.  Easy setup, was able to make calls in the first 20 mins.  So far I have a nasty buzz on the line I can't seem to get rid of no matter where in the network I put the Ooma device. 

[Hoopz]

New to me.  Is it like the blackjack thing or whatever Radio Shack had?  Didn't Ark have that or was it Protokatie?  One of us loons(TM) has it and posted in EE about it a while ago.

[Vigo]

Uma? 

[ChadTower]

No, this is true VOIP, no PC required.  And you can call any phone with it.  The device is $200 but the basic service is nationwide calling for free.  You do pay federally mandated 911 fees and local taxes which add up to about 3.50/month.

[HaRuMaN]

I have Vonage currently, but had never heard of Ooma.  I'll have to take a look at that.

[JMB]

Looks interesting. $40 to port your existing number unless you are paying $10/mo for their Premier service. I'll be curious to hear your thoughts after living with it for a bit. My bundled cable contract is ending soon and I have been debating ditching the TV part and just keeping internet and phone. this could allow me to ditch the phone too.

[ChadTower]

Yeah.  I'm going to port the old number if I can get rid of the buzz I'm hearing now.  In the mean time they give you a free new number that you can use.  I assume if I call that it would ring on the phone attached to the Ooma device.  The house wiring is still feeding into the Verizon standard line for the time being.

[Samstag]

I just got mine last night, actually.  So I can't help much but I didn't have any problems with it in the limited testing I did.  I heard they have a good return policy so you might consider getting a replacement.

I got a refurb for $140 from Woot.

I worked out that it starts paying for itself after 4 months, or 5 months if I decide to port my old number.  In 2 years of use it'll save me about $600.  That's based on the $35/month I'm paying for my current landline, so if you're paying more than that the deal just gets better.

[ChadTower]

I'm paying something like $50/month, I think, for the normal landline.  I paid the full $200 for it from Amazon, though.  Didn't make much sense to wait a month to save $50-60 at Woot.

Tonight I got what passes these days for a simple corded landline phone.  Why a simple phone needs 4 AA batteries is a separate discussion, but anyway... nice clear sound.  So it was the other phone.  We'll do some toying around with it but so far so good with this service.

Caveats are, of course, that some data devices may not work with it (fax, DVR) and the 911 calling is slightly different.  It also only works with both electricity and high speed internet in place.  I'm going to pull the house wiring and connect it to this but attach another simple corded phone to the street line so we still have 911 access if nothing else is available.  IIRC the phone utilities are required by law to provide 911 to anyone who can attach a phone whether they have service or not.

EDIT:  clarified grammar

[drventure]

IIRC the phone utilities are required by law to provide 911 to anyone who can attach a phone whether they have service or not.

I hadn't heard this. It'll work without a dialtone even? I have a second line that I had for a while, but turned off when I left that job.

I wonder if I hook up an old phone and dial 911, will I get anything?

On second thought, maybe I shouldn't test that.....

[ChadTower]

I could be wrong.  I guess we'll find out.   

[Necro]

I have the original one that has no fees - love it.  Service is good, I pay nothing, and have a 'landline'.  Given, power goes out my phone dies (or internet) but since I have Verizon FIOS, it basically did that when I had a landline (FIOS requires power).  So...worth it in my book.

[Samstag]

I've been using u-verse voip as my landline for almost 2 years and power loss hasn't been a problem.  It came with a small UPS (350 VA or less) that keeps the router/voip running for hours.  The last big loss we had lasted almost 12 hours and although I didn't check the phone, I still had internet access about an hour before power came back.

[ahofle]

I've had Ooma for a little over a year with no problems.  I disconnected my landline from the telco box outside and plugged the Ooma into an outlet and all my old style phones work with it.  They don't really advertise that, but that was a huge plus.  Maybe once every two or three months it fails to register that a line was hung up (when I pick up the phone to make a call it is beeping), but other than that it has been a huge payoff for me.  The box paid for itself in a few months I think.  

The fax machine works, but you have to disable QoS in the Ooma and check something in your MyOoma settings web page.

[SavannahLion]

IIRC the phone utilities are required by law to provide 911 to anyone who can attach a phone whether they have service or not.

I hadn't heard this. It'll work without a dialtone even? I have a second line that I had for a while, but turned off when I left that job.

I wonder if I hook up an old phone and dial 911, will I get anything?

On second thought, maybe I shouldn't test that.....

No, you need the dial tone so if the telephone company is a major ---tallywhacker--- and physically "cut" the line, you're not going to dial jack.

I'm not 100% certain but I believe you can dial 911 and 0 for the purposes of calling emergency services (obviously) and reactivating the phone line. Collect calls might be doable but I'm not certain of that either.

[ark_ader]

I have this setup at home in the UK, but it involves a series of systems that pretty much covers any telephone (and most external internet) facilities, including voicemail, fax, and dial up.  My system uses Skype for long distance calling (our family is Skyped) and reduces telephone charges around £10 a quarter.  Before we had calling cards, but our telephone provider is sneaky and started to charge us for 0800.  I have a mobile and I do not use the minutes up properly (like 400 minutes a month goes to waste) so we looked at only getting a mobile only scenario.

I have a Skype to BT adapter and with works on a Win 9X legacy system with Super Voice.  Its an old IBM 240 laptop with built-in modem and works a treat. Its super quiet and if the power fails we have a limited UPS.  Because of the driver issues I have it running on a Nlited 9X box with a but I am about to revise the system with Puppy Linux and Asterisk.  I was looking at the Raspberry Pi to migrate into.

Its all transparent, no more sales calls at dinner-time (yes they are now doing that crap in the UK), cold calling, and wrong numbers.  Most of my calls gets diverted to email notification so I can call them back on my mobile.  Nobody really knows if they are calling a land line or via the internet.  Our phone bills have gone down 30% and with the parts I had around, it has saved me a bunch of cash.  No it doesn't play Mame...yet.

It is a real pain in the butt to get working originally, and finding the drivers for the interfaces was a real challenge, but I wish we had a system like ooma in the UK that I could just get working without recreating mission control.

Also I voice record all incoming and outgoing 0845 numbers to service centers, and I have managed to snag a few dishonest call center staff, so in all a very handy system. I also have non geographical numbers stored for banks and the utility companies so I do not get smacked with additional charges as they keep you on hold for 20 minutes plus.  I proxy all my home internet via wifi and with Netlimiter, so SKY+ doesn't hog all the bandwidth.

The best thing about the 9x box, is the speed.  It flies in 256mb.  

My next project is to move away from TCP/IP and back toa 4.1 Novell Box with IPX for the home wireless network, the fun part is trying to make the SKY router into a bridge.  

[ChadTower]

No, you need the dial tone so if the telephone company is a major ---tallywhacker--- and physically "cut" the line, you're not going to dial jack.

That's a good point.  I doubt they will, though, given how hard it is to get them to come out to your house to do anything at all.

[Ed_McCarron]

No, you need the dial tone so if the telephone company is a major ---tallywhacker--- and physically "cut" the line, you're not going to dial jack.

It's not a matter of being ---punks---.  Once you're off their books, the CO will kill your line at the switch -- why waste the port on a non-existent customer?  And the copper pair that runs to your house?  No longer in their records, it'll get reassigned to someone who's paying for it.

Tread lightly, for now.  If you value 911, keep the cheapest landline option they have and don't use it for anything else.

Having worked in the telco industry, I'll try a lot of things -- but knowing how the system works, I'll stick with copper for now.  I won't even switch to FIOS or cable for telco until they work the bugs out.

Read the fine print.  Even Comcast recommends (well, they did...) keeping a land line for emergency use.

[Ed_McCarron]

I've always thought about stealing free electricity off those phone jacks but it'd probably take like a week to charge a AA battery.

On hook, you'll get 48-ish volts.  Pull more than 12ma and it'll go off-hook and they'll be on to you.  Metal squids will attack.

Oh, wait, wrong movie.

[Ed_McCarron]

I've always thought about stealing free electricity off those phone jacks but it'd probably take like a week to charge a AA battery.

On hook, you'll get 48-ish volts.  Pull more than 12ma and it'll go off-hook and they'll be on to you.  Metal squids will attack.

Oh yeah, totally.  And did you know that if you put an extension cable on your neighbor's jack, the cable company will know!  They've got a special truck and can drive around and tell who's stealing cable!!!

 

Roll all you want.  Pull enough current to take the phone off hook (>12 ma, give or take) and the phone company will know.  Because, well, the phones off the hook.  That's how the system works.  You pick up a phone.  Current increases.  Voltage drops to talk battery levels (7-ish volts.)  The CO's switch supplies dial tone and listens for dialing instructions.

It's got nothing to do with urban legends and white, unmarked vans.

Will they do anything about it?  Probably not.  They'll just think theres a short somewhere and shut that port off, or lift some bridging clips somewhere in the CO to open the circuit.  If it's a paid circuit, they'll just ignore it and wait for your "My phones not working" phone call.

Squids, well, YMMV.

Cable, not so much.  Tough for them to tell what you're doing since there's not individual cables running back to the cable company. 

[SavannahLion]

I've always thought about stealing free electricity off those phone jacks but it'd probably take like a week to charge a AA battery.

On hook, you'll get 48-ish volts.  Pull more than 12ma and it'll go off-hook and they'll be on to you.  Metal squids will attack.

Oh yeah, totally.  And did you know that if you put an extension cable on your neighbor's jack, the cable company will know!  They've got a special truck and can drive around and tell who's stealing cable!!!

 

UK

[ChadTower]

I also imagine you wouldn't get all that much current out of the thin ass wires in a phone jack.

[CheffoJeffo]

Having watched posts from Jim for many years now, I find myself asking why what the ---fudgesicle--- does Jim actually do ... or know ?

Is Jim the new Chad ?

Ed knows stuff ... he's funny ... and he knows that Bones is short.  

[ChadTower]

Is Jim the new Chad ?

There is no way Jim is that awesome.

[Mikezilla]

Having watched posts from Jim for many years now, I find myself asking why what the ---fudgesicle--- does Jim actually do ... or know ?

I have only been on these boards for over a year and I wonder that every time I read a post from him.

[Mikezilla]

I'm a recluse that collects government disability checks and lives a vivid fantasy life care of Google and message boards.

 

I actually laughed out loud at that one, and I got some funny looks cause of it. 

[Ed_McCarron]

I also imagine you wouldn't get all that much current out of the thin ass wires in a phone jack.

22ga is listed at around 5A, but the telco won't supply nearly that much.

Oh, and if the line rings?  90 or so VAC, 20-ish Hz.  Say goodbye to your (whatever) unless it's designed to handle ring voltage.

[ChadTower]

Update.  The number port to Ooma took about 5 days.  Ooma says it will take up to a month but 5 days is better.    After some hiccups due to the massive storm we just had, and a power/net outage, I am now fully up and running with my old home phone number with Ooma.  Next step is to reroute the in wall wiring at the source to the Ooma device instead of the Verizon network device.

FYI, when I spoke with Verizon the other day, they said they are not obligated to provide 911 or anything else to a nonsubscribed line.  I have no dial tone or anything at the Verizon network interface.

[ChadTower]

Nice!  I just got an email from Ooma saying I had a new voicemail.  I went to the website and heard the voicemail in mp3.   

[Samstag]

Nice!  I just got an email from Ooma saying I had a new voicemail.  I went to the website and heard the voicemail in mp3.   

Is that one of the premium features?  They have so many little features that would be nice to have but I don't think I want to pay $120/year for.

I haven't ported my number yet mainly because I'm not sure if I want to pay for the premium service and get the port for free.  But it's been sitting there for over a week without a single call from a telemarketer or collection agency so I'm really tempted to drop the old number and have everyone switch to my temporary ooma number.

[ChadTower]

Is that one of the premium features?  They have so many little features that would be nice to have but I don't think I want to pay $120/year for.

I'm actually not sure.  I'm still in the "premiere trial" period.  It's nice but not really necessary. 

[gonzo90017]

I've had Ooma for over 2 years. The .mp3 voice mail is not a premium feature.

[ChadTower]

Update after a couple weeks on the service.

Local calls are great.  Barely any audible change.  Voicemail features are sweet although all I really care about is basic inbox functionality.

800-866 type calls often have a lot of clipping and inteference.

The unit seems to need to be rebooted every couple of days.  That's annoying.  Voicemail seems to work if the unit is not online.

[Samstag]

800-866 type calls often have a lot of clipping and inteference.

The unit seems to need to be rebooted every couple of days.  That's annoying.  Voicemail seems to work if the unit is not online.

I haven't had a problem with the 800 numbers and haven't rebooted mine since I got it.  What problem do you have that needs a reboot?

If you haven't opted out of the premier service, do that soon or you'll be charged when the trial ends.  Hit "account" at the top of your my ooma page and the opt out link is right there on the first page.