Hooking up all telephones

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 03, 2005 Posts: 7

I have six telephones in my house which I would like to continue to use with Vonage,. Upon signing up I was told it was no problem, "simply connect your adapter to your existing Bell jack where it comes into the house and all your phones will work". I just received my Vonage package and it warns that doing this may cause damage to my adapter and it will not be covered under warranty. What gives? I do not want to use wireless jacks nor do I want to run wires all through the house to plug in to a multi jack..

Can this be done safely or do I return My Vonage kit.

Posts: 110 · Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 5:11 pm Post subject:

The Reason why it would damage yer equipment is this... If you previously had landline telephone service and had that service disconnected for VOIP, Well although you no longer have service trhough those old jacks, you could still recieve voltage coming through those jacks. Hense if you are hooking up the VOIP adaptor into these jacks, the voltage could damager yer VOIP adaptor.

Now you can advoid this by doing 1 of the following:

1) There is some sort of box (terminal) outside your house that you must goto to disconnect the wire so that there is zero chance for voltage being send through your telephone jacks.. There are websites for instructions on how to do this ( http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html ).

2) If yer not comfortable with doing the above. You can goto an electronic store and buy a cordless telephone with dual headset (like I have done). This allows you to connect the main headset to the vonage adaptor and then the 2nd headset anywhere in your home that has a Power outlet (because the 2nd headset does not require a telephone jack, only a power outlet for power). For example, I bought this from The Source By Circut City (formally known as Radioshack) http://www.thesourcecc.com/estore/Product.aspx?language=en-CA&catalog=Online&category=2.4GHZ&product=4318634 (I bought it when it was on sale for $89 ... which comes with the 2 headsets. This allows you to use up to 4 headsets inwhich you can purcase additional headsets for $29 each.

I hope this helps Smile

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 03, 2005 Posts: 7

Thanks very much for your reply djino, it was very helpful. Unless I can disconnect the phone line myself internally, I will probably return the Vonage adapter and cancel the service. Disconnecting it outside is not an option since I'm in a condo townhome and all six units are connected to one box. Also, the option to purchase a cordless telephone with dual headset is another added expensive that I feel I should'nt pay since Vonage gave me the wrong info and the phones I own are quite expensive and relatively new. Very Happy

Posts: 493 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Apr 29, 2005 Posts: 493

Quote:

simply connect your adapter to your existing Bell jack where it comes into the house and all your phones will work

Quote:

I feel I should'nt pay since Vonage gave me the wrong info

If the first quote is correct then Vonage didn't give you the wrong information.
Merriam-Webster definition of house:
"a building that serves as living quarters for one or a few families"
That means that if your house's (building's) phone line is disconnected it will work. It doesn't say it will work if you unplug the line connected to your room(s).

Posts: 110 · Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 9:46 pm Post subject:

[quote="arcking"]

Quote:

If the first quote is correct then Vonage didn't give you the wrong information.
Merriam-Webster definition of house:
"a building that serves as living quarters for one or a few families"
That means that if your house's (building's) phone line is disconnected it will work. It doesn't say it will work if you unplug the line connected to your room(s).

So if he goes ahead and connects his vonage adaptor to his telephone jacks, and it gets damage, its vonage s fault. No, vonage would blame the consumer. So for them to tell him that he can go ahead and connect his adaptor to his parallel telephone outlets is not right.

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 03, 2005 Posts: 7

I spoke to Vonage again last night and was told to go ahead and disconnect the wiring ( live Feed ) and plug the adapter into any empty jack. I will wait until Bell releases my number to do it. I have a buddy with a line tester who will come over to check it before I plug in the adapter. Thanks again djino. Very Happy