phones aren't ringing

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 06, 2005 Posts: 2

I have completed the hardwiring process and do receive phone calls, but if I am not looking at my caller id I am not notified,the phones do not ring. I have troubleshooted down to having only 1 phone hooked up with no luck on the ringers.I have also limited it to a corded phone only as well. Is there any step that i am missing here?

Posts: 26 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Jul 25, 2005 Posts: 26

If you have plugged a single phone into the adapter using a factory made (not homemade or spliced to all hell) and your ringer still doesn't work then you have a bad ATA. If it works with a single phone and not with your infrastructure wiring then you have a short or just too many phones and the ATA can't product the voltage required to ring all the phones. It's something like 400volts at extremely low amperage. There is a rule to how many phones you can have on one ATA and I "Believe" its 4 before you need to boost the power with a transformer. I don't know for sure if a ATA will handle having a transformer on it like a POTS line from verizon would have though. Vonage could tell you that if you get that far.

Posts: 1424 · Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2005 4:05 pm Post subject: Re: ringer out

Cozzman wrote:

There is a rule to how many phones you can have on one ATA and I "Believe" its 4 before you need to boost the power with a transformer.

Actually there is not a rule as to the number of phones per se. It is dependent on the REN of the phones involved and the losses incurred by the wiring.

Most phone companies set the REN at 5 or less while BT in the UK sets the equivalent metric at 4. However most modern phones require significantly less than 1 REN to ring. The link above has more information.

chloe wrote:

I have troubleshooted down to having only 1 phone hooked up with no luck on the ringers.I have also limited it to a corded phone only as well. Is there any step that i am missing here?

After testing with a phone directly connected to the adapter, further testing involves disconnecting sections of the house wiring to locate the short. Additionally you should make triple sure that you are disconnected from the telephone company.

Finally, and on a humerous note, my phone wasn't ringing yesterday. It turns out my 3 year old had turned off the ringer. Thankfully my wife noticed the phone wasn't ringing and checked the ringer before I started tearing open the walls.

Posts: 26 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Jul 25, 2005 Posts: 26

I have a antiqe (Several actually) phone (model 302 or the I Love Lucy phone) and there is not getting it to ring on the Cisco ATA. I hooked up an old AT&T transformer used to beef up the ringer for just long enough to test the ring and it worked but quickly removed it as I didn't want to have to buy a new ATA if it surged.