extention in use...

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Sep 08, 2005 Posts: 10

i followed all the directions for hardwiring my Voip modem.
however, now when I plug my modem into one of the jacks and then plug my cordless phone into any of the other jacks in the house, I get a message on the phone saying "extention in use" and I cannot place any calls.

is there any whay around this? I have an AT&T e5965c phone.

Posts: 164 · Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2005 10:10 am Post subject:

EDIT- By modem I hope you do mean the ATA device and not the cable dsl modem .

You did not provide much on your wiring and configuration so I will make a couple of assumptions.

-You previously had a POTS line on this wiring setup that worked.
-Before connecting the ATA to your wiring you disconnected the POTS line - usually at the demarcation jack.
-The ATA works when you plug a phone directly into it.
-The AT&T phone works when plugged directly the ATA.

Beyond this you are going to have to trobleshoot your wiring. There is a short somewhere that is making the ATA believe an extension is in use. Are all jacks in all rooms unplugged?

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Sep 08, 2005 Posts: 10

Thanks for the respone... see my comments below Smile

bg4 wrote:

EDIT- By modem I hope you do mean the ATA device and not the cable dsl modem .
yes I do mean the ATA (VoIP modem)

You did not provide much on your wiring and configuration so I will make a couple of assumptions.

-You previously had a POTS line on this wiring setup that worked.
yes and no. I have never had standard phone service hooked up in this location. the previous resident DID have 2 phone lines coming into the house (one was a DSL line that had an RF filter on it). I have to assume that they worked.

-Before connecting the ATA to your wiring you disconnected the POTS line - usually at the demarcation jack.
Correct, I followed the guide on this forum to disconnect the POTS lines at the NIU outside.

-The ATA works when you plug a phone directly into it.
not sure what you mean here.... the ATA does connect successfully to the internet.

-The AT&T phone works when plugged directly the ATA.
This is correct. If I connect the AT&T phone to line 1 of the ATA, it does work correctly.
If i connect the ATA to a phone jack and then plug the AT&T phone into ANY other jack in the house, it shows that an extension is in use. I am assuming that the ATA is somehow acting like an extention and putting current thru the lines so that the AT&T phone sees it as in use.

Beyond this you are going to have to trobleshoot your wiring. There is a short somewhere that is making the ATA believe an extension is in use. Are all jacks in all rooms unplugged?
there are NO other phones in the house. I only have my one AT&T cordless phone. the idea was to plug the ATA into a jack downstairs where my network room is and keep the AT&T phone mounted upstairs