Vonage to alarm panel connection help !

Posts: 12 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 26, 2009 Posts: 12

New Vonage customer and a new forum member...

I recently switched to Verizon dry loop DSL and subscribed to Vonage.

I have a wireless network managed by the DLINK DIR-615 router.

I have read all of the posts about how to distribute the dial tone to all jacks by modifying the wiring at the NIC. Have not tried that.

I also have an alarm system that was connected to the phone line in the basement.. My installer tells me that the system works with Vonage. Here are his instructions:

Quote:

There should be a phone block next to your alarm panel. If you take the cover off you will see where the phone line from outside hooks to the block. it will probably be a blue/white pair. Take a phone cord from the Vonage unit that is labeled phone 1 and tie the green and red to the phone block where the outside phone line tied to. You will have to cut the plug off one side of the phone cord to do that. Thats it.

Does this mean that I take the DSL modem, Vonage adapter and my wireless router to the basement ? How will I then connect to my desktop computer? Will this setup distribute dial tone to all the jacks, since the alarm panel used to distribute it before?

Thanks for your help,

Posts: 12 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 26, 2009 Posts: 12

Any of you gurus ???

Posts: 293 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Jan 22, 2006 Posts: 293

Quote:

There should be a phone block next to your alarm panel. If you take the cover off you will see where the phone line from outside hooks to the block. it will probably be a blue/white pair. Take a phone cord from the Vonage unit that is labeled phone 1 and tie the green and red to the phone block where the outside phone line tied to. You will have to cut the plug off one side of the phone cord to do that. Thats it.

He's telling you to do what you read about. That would be the modification at a NIC.

Basically you are disconnecting the POTS connection after it comes into the house before at the home's distribution block. By replacing it with a line from the Vonage line you will have the jacks in the rest of the house running on Vonage. Your best bet is to plug the Vonage router in at this point. However, you could plug it into any jack in the house and still have full house distribution.

***YOU MUST DISCONNECT THE WIRING FROM THE CLEC BEFORE HOOKING THE Vonage LINE INTO YOUR HOME WIRING.***

edit: Wanted to add more emphasis

Posts: 227

shankar wrote:

Quote:

There should be a phone block next to your alarm panel. If you take the cover off you will see where the phone line from outside hooks to the block. it will probably be a blue/white pair. Take a phone cord from the Vonage unit that is labeled phone 1 and tie the green and red to the phone block where the outside phone line tied to. You will have to cut the plug off one side of the phone cord to do that. Thats it.

Does this mean that I take the DSL modem, Vonage adapter and my wireless router to the basement ? How will I then connect to my desktop computer? Will this setup distribute dial tone to all the jacks, since the alarm panel used to distribute it before?

Yes, that will distribute the Vonage dial tone to all of your phone jacks, but... The instructions are correct, as far as they go, but they ignore the fact that the blue/white pair from outside is delivering the dry loop DSL signal to your DSL modem. If you disconnect it, you will lose your Internet connection.

If your house is wired for two lines, you could disconnect the blue/white pair from the outside line at the NID, and connect the orange/white pair in its place. Then, plug your DSL modem into the second line by using the L2 jack on a triplex adapter plugged into one of your existing jacks. Or, rewire one of your jacks, connecting the orange/white pair to the red/green terminals.

Then, use another wire pair (perhaps the green/white pair, if your house has one) to route the signal from the phone 1 jack of the Vonage device to the blue/white pair at the block by your alarm panel. The alarm system will then be in series with the rest of your phone jacks, the alarm will work through Vonage, and the rest of your house jacks will have access to Vonage through the alarm panel.

Posts: 293 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Jan 22, 2006 Posts: 293

DLevenson wrote:

but... The instructions are correct, as far as they go, but they ignore the fact that the blue/white pair from outside is delivering the dry loop DSL signal to your DSL modem. If you disconnect it, you will lose your Internet connection.

Man,

I must learn to read the whole post as I basically stopped after his quote the quote. Oh I caught the part ... basement.

Glad someone's awake tonight.

Yeah don't disconnect the lines as that will disturb the DSL. This really isn't a FAX/Alarm/Tivo issue as it is a hard wiring issue. There's more info in that forum. But your gonna have to do as the previous post suggested.

DLevenson, thanks for covering and correcting my misinfo.

Posts: 12 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 26, 2009 Posts: 12

DLevenson wrote:

Yes, that will distribute the Vonage dial tone to all of your phone jacks, but... The instructions are correct, as far as they go, but they ignore the fact that the blue/white pair from outside is delivering the dry loop DSL signal to your DSL modem. If you disconnect it, you will lose your Internet connection.

If your house is wired for two lines, you could disconnect the blue/white pair from the outside line at the NID, and connect the orange/white pair in its place. .

Thanks! !!! The Interface box outside has CAT3 (5?) wires with 4 sets of twisted pairs. The one connected to the terminal is the blue-white pair coming from inside the house. I saw a orange/white green/white & brown/white. I don't believe my house was wired for 2 lines. How can I tell?

Also, the NIB does not have a plug where a telephone cable is plugged in.. It seems like a plug less interface?

When I got DSL first, I was given a 2wire splitter and Verizon asked me connect the DSL modem on one port and connect a phone with a filter on the other. Does this mean I can still do this as below???

Posts: 227

shankar wrote:

When I got DSL first, I was given a 2wire splitter and Verizon asked me connect the DSL modem on one port and connect a phone with a filter on the other. Does this mean I can still do this as below???

The DSL modem will end up being the only device connected to your Verizon line. No filter will be needed, and no splitter will be needed.

The drawing does not show your DSL modem. The Voip adapter has two sides: an ethernet side, and a voice side. The voice side may be wired to the alarm panel as shown, and thence to the rest of the house using your existing wiring. The ethernet side of the Voip adapter is connected to your DSL modem (either directly, or through your router).

The DSL modem also has two sides: an ethernet side and an analog side. The ethernet side is delivering broadband Internet service to your router, your PC, and your Voip adapter as described above. The analog side needs to be connected to the incoming telephone line, which you will be disconnecting from the alarm panel. I suggest that you custom-wire the jack where the DSL modem is plugged in so that you can use one of the extra cable pairs for this purpose.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 03, 2009 Posts: 2

Hello Guys,

I am new to Vonage and new to the forum. I have a problem also with my alarm system. I use brinks and when I had it install it was done with an ATT line. I changed to Vonage and now have the trouble light on and the beeping from the panel. I am Back feeding the Vonage line to the house using a wall jack that I do not need. i disconnected only one of the ATT cables from the outside of the house so i wouldn't have their dialtone kill the Vonage dialtone. The problem is that when I try to do the test it fails to do it. Brinks tells me that I have to pay $90 for a tech to come out and reprogram the system and install some hardware to work with Vonage which is more $$$. Does anyone knows if I really have to do that??? Because I hardly use the phone in my house and if i have to pay for Brinks to come out I preffer to pay ATT $13 a month to have a land line and cancel the Vonage service all together. I would love to keep Vonage but not if I have to give more money to Brinks. They let me down with their customer service and support.

Posts: 227 · Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 7:05 pm Post subject:

ccameselle wrote:

I changed to Vonage and now have the trouble light on and the beeping from the panel. I am Back feeding the Vonage line to the house using a wall jack that I do not need. i disconnected only one of the ATT cables from the outside of the house so i wouldn't have their dialtone kill the Vonage dialtone.

You don't have to pay to have a technician rewire your house unless you are unable or unwilling to do it yourself. Your alarm panel has two telephone line connections (one wire-pair on each of these two connections). It has one side which is intended to be connected to your outside line. The other side is intended to be connected to your house wiring. It normally connects the two together, allowing the devices connected to your house wiring to use the outside line. When it wants to send an alarm (or a test) it opens this connection, thereby preempting your telephones and other devices on the house wiring, and taking over the outside line. By backfeeding your house wiring from your Vonage device, you are feeding dial tone to the alarm panel on its inside rather than its outside telephone connection. When it opens its internal connection to send an alarm or a test, it loses the dial tone.

You can solve the immediate problem by connecting the other side of the alarm panel (which was connected to your outside line) to the inside wiring. This will enable the alarm panel to send alarms (and tests) but will not allow it to preempt other telephone devices.

To restore the preemption functionality of the alarm system, you should feed your Vonage dial tone to the outside connection of the alarm panel, rather than backfeeding it through the house jacks.

If you understand this and can follow these directions, then you do not need to pay an outside technician to do it for you.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 03, 2009 Posts: 2

Thank you, DLevenson I understand what you are saying and I will try it this week. Thank you again for your answer