Hooking up multiple lines

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 10, 2006 Posts: 5

Hi,

I have a linksys cable modem, a linksys wireless router and a linksys Vonage phone adapter (RTP300). I have 4 phones I want to hook up with Vonage. I have the internet plug on the RTP300 into the wireless router. I have disconnected the hone company at my phone box. I then plugged the telephone cord into the Vonage adapter, then the wall jack. The phones won't work??? What am I doing wrong?

Charter is my ISP. I did the test you suggested in other messages and my download speed is 2.90Mb/s. My upload speed is 292.57Kb/s.

Can anyone offer a solution?

Thanks

Posts: 350 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Dec 04, 2005 Posts: 350

If you connect one phone directly (straight into the Vonage device, not through the house wiring), can you make and receive calls?

Posts: 81 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Jan 02, 2006 Posts: 81

Let me start by saying: ouch.

You first need to disconnect the phone company line from coming into your house before you plug you Vonage phone into an existing wall jack. The two lines sharing the same line can cause a load imbalance on the line and potentialy mess up your wall jacks and/or your phones.

There is a great section in these forums about hard wiring that has a great setup on how to unplug the phone companies line.

Good luck! hopefully it didn't cause too much damage.

Posts: 400 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: May 05, 2005 Posts: 400

roiegat wrote:

Let me start by saying: ouch.

You first need to disconnect the phone company line from coming into your house before you plug you Vonage phone into an existing wall jack. The two lines sharing the same line can cause a load imbalance on the line and potentialy mess up your wall jacks and/or your phones.

There is a great section in these forums about hard wiring that has a great setup on how to unplug the phone companies line.

Good luck! hopefully it didn't cause too much damage.

Uh...did you read their post ?????

Posts: 81 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Jan 02, 2006 Posts: 81

Yes...but from the end of her post...it sounds like the disconnect wasnt' done 100%. Hence my recommendation.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 10, 2006 Posts: 5

I have the line from the phone company uphooked completely. I know that because the first time, I unhooked all the wires and had to call out the repair man. He said all I had to do is unplug the jack.

I understand that I now have to hook up Vonage with a splitter at the box? I'm not sure which wires I hook to the splitter though?

Thanks,

jane

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 1:43 pm Post subject: Re: RE:Hooking Up multiple lines

janesplace wrote:

I have the line from the phone company uphooked completely. I know that because the first time, I unhooked all the wires and had to call out the repair man. He said all I had to do is unplug the jack.

I understand that I now have to hook up Vonage with a splitter at the box? I'm not sure which wires I hook to the splitter though?

Thanks,

jane

Here's what I did:

1. Unplugged (actually, since my outside house jack was made LONG before RJ-11, I cut) the telco lines so my house wiring was isolated. Hooked up a phone and verified that there was no signal of any kind. Hooked multimeter to the wires and measured voltage = 0.
2. Hooked up a speakerphone direct to the Vonage adapter and tested the line.
2. Took a standard telephone cable, plugged one end into the "passthru" port on my speakerphone (you could also use a splitter - most phones don't have passthru ports any more), and the other end into an unused wall jack in my house.
3. Plugged phones into other unused wall jacks in the house.

Note if you don't need a phone in the room where the Vonage router is, you can just put a wire from the Vonage router to any unused phone jack, and your whole house is Vonage.

Be sure you don't exceed 5.0 on the sum of all of the REN (Ringer Equivalent Number) ratings for each phone. The REN is, by FCC rule, printed on the phone somewhere. Take all the RENs for all the phones you want to add, sum them up, and if it's very close to 5.0, consider removing that phone and/or replacing it with a newer one with a lower REN.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 10, 2006 Posts: 5

I tried that. It didn't work. I do have a phone in the room with the Vonage router. All my equipment is in the office. I used a splitter with my phone and a phone cord from the Vonage router to the same wall jack. That phone worked great, but none of the other phones worked? I guess I'm just going to have to send it back and use the local telephone company??? I just can't get it to work. I went into the local radio shack tonight and they don't even know how to do it. They are telling me to buy more Vonage routers. I don't want to go to a lot of expense connecting this. That defeats the purpose of using it for the savings.

jane

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

Don't give up. This can be made to work; we just need to talk through it. I assume that all the phones plugged into all the jacks worked before you discontinued and disconnected the old telephone service, and that we're talking single line service. Is that correct?

Assuming that's correct:

1. If you just plug a phone directly into the Vonage adapter, does that work all right?

2. Assuming it does, if you then plug the Vonage adapter into a wall plug without using a splitter, do phones plugged into other jacks in the house work?

We'll go on from there.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 10, 2006 Posts: 5

Hi,

Yes, I only have one line. Yes, the jacks work before I unplug from the phone company. I still have my local phone service, just in case I can't get this to work.

Yes, if I plug the one phone into the adapter, it works but the other jacks in the house don't work.

No, the other jacks don't work by plugging the adapter into the wall without the splitter. Vonage told me to do this, but doesn't the phone have to be plugged in also?

I was told that I have to bring Vonage into the house? I don't understand how to do this. I thought it would work through my wiring in the house. The phone wires are in the wall with CAT 5 wiring.

jane