vonage and direct tv?

Posts: 63 · Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2006 2:12 pm Post subject:

neastguy wrote:

not sure how that will help, the only line I will have is the Vonage line coming out of the router which will go straight into my phone

The way I have mine set up, my router is in a completely different room, and instead of running a wire from the router to the DirecTV box, I have a wireless jack instead. What you do is you plug the Vonage line from the router into the main part of the wireless jack, then plug another line from that jack into your phone. In the room with DirecTV, you take the second wireless jack (the reciever of the signal) and plug it into the wall and connect a phone line from that to the DirecTV box.

That's how I do it, but if you can use a splitter that works just as well.

Posts: 16 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 17, 2006 Posts: 16

i know this is off topic , but since I plan on cancelling my current phone line.. isnt there a way to go outside your house and terminate the line and then all your inside phone lines will kind act as a LAN for your phones... does that make sense?

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2006 2:28 pm Post subject:

neastguy wrote:

i know this is off topic , but since I plan on cancelling my current phone line.. isnt there a way to go outside your house and terminate the line and then all your inside phone lines will kind act as a LAN for your phones... does that make sense?

Absolutely.

Once your phone line is canceled, you want to unplug the wires from the Telco, then go inside and make sure the line is stone cold dead (a multimeter might not be a bad idea.

Then, take a standard bit of phone wire and plug one end into your Vonage phone adapter and the other into a wall jack in your house.

Presto - instant housewide Vonage. I did this as soon as I moved into my current home (that hadn't had Telco service for a LONG time, but I cut the wires anyway). Less fiddling, works great!

Disclaimers:

Be DARNED SURE that telco line is disconnected and stays that way. Introducing 48V from the phone company along with the 48V on the Vonage adapter could let the smoke out of the Vonage adapter.

Depending on the quality of your house wiring, it is possible (though unlikely) that you could introduce problems like non-functional caller ID, etc.

Just because your house is equipped with 75 phone jacks doesn't mean you can use 'em all. The Vonage units have a REN of 5.0. Look at the REN printed on each of your phones and make sure the sum of all of them doesn't get near 5.0. If it does, your phones could stop ringing or clowns could make off with your ear wax or something else nasty like that.

Posts: 16 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 17, 2006 Posts: 16

cool, I'll have to look into that.... I have one phone with one base that controls 4 phones... so I dont think it will be a problem... I'll just have to dig around for the telco box.....

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2006 2:41 pm Post subject:

neastguy wrote:

cool, I'll have to look into that.... I have one phone with one base that controls 4 phones... so I dont think it will be a problem... I'll just have to dig around for the telco box.....

If you have a punchbox inside, it might be better to disconnect the external telco wires there, if it's easy to do without destroying the wires in the process. That way, if an overzealous telco agent comes by for some kind of maintenance, he doesn't "helpfully" plug the wire back in (ZAP!). If you disconnect it on the outside, be sure it's completely disconnected (I don't advocate destroying the box, though, or hard-cutting wires) and maybe make up a little laminated sign saying "TELCO: DO NOT RECONNECT" or something.

Posts: 16 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 17, 2006 Posts: 16

mine is definately outside.... so I just rip the wires from it leading into the house and stick a big orange sticky on it that say " Dont Touch Telco Person" ? thanks...

just kidding but it is outside.... were going to keep our old phone line for a couple weeks to see if we like the Vonage and then decided.... if its a keeper, I'll rip those freakin wires.....lol...

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2006 3:10 pm Post subject:

neastguy wrote:

mine is definately outside.... so I just rip the wires from it leading into the house and stick a big orange sticky on it that say " Dont Touch Telco Person" ? thanks...

just kidding but it is outside.... were going to keep our old phone line for a couple weeks to see if we like the Vonage and then decided.... if its a keeper, I'll rip those freakin wires.....lol...

Be Nice!!! Don't Rip!!! Smile

Someone might need those wires someday.

But, yes, "carefully disconnecting" the wires is the thing to do. In my case, mine is one of the old 4-post screw connectors. I think the last time it was used, touch tone was a newfangled thing, and a few phone lines around these parts still used a human operator (I'm kidding. The last human operator in Maine was replaced less than 5 years ago, and the box hasn't been used for longer than THAT, but the line has been unused for at least 6-7 years).

So I just snipped off the leads from the Telco side, so if I ever need to reconnect them there's lots of wire left. Given that New England Telephone has been bought out by Nynex and finally by Verizon up here, and the line was disconnected under Nynex, I doubt the telco even knows this house exists. They stopped feeding limited dial tone to the house a long, long time ago.

If you have one of them newfangled modular telco blocks, it should be a matter of unplugging the modular side, then maybe wrapping it in a plastic bag and taping the bag to prevent corrosion, and putting a laminated sign inside the box (taped over the modular socket, maybe) saying DO NOT RECONNECT

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: May 29, 2006 Posts: 1

themew wrote:

No problem here -- I have my DirecTV Sony box plugged (using a line splitter) into my Vonage box.

Dials out every month, works every time.

This is the best advice. Use a splitter for one line from Direct TV and the other line to pone jack. The splitter is too large to fit into the back of the Vonage box. Just get a phone line extender, a female on each end, and connect one end to a short phone line, and then plug this into the Vonage box. The other end goes to the splitter. Other tips as follows:
Set Vonage speed to 90, using the features pull down menu on the Vonage web site. Use this number as a prefix dialer,2122773895. To override call waiting, use the set up screen on Direct TV to enter the following: *99,,*79,,#034. finally no to the last 2 options. I use an easy jack for the second DVR in another part of the house. This works every time. Thanks again to The Mew for telling me to use the splitter to get into the Vonage box. This was the missing link.