Cingular Go Phone: Ooma Scout (to use with Ooma Hub VoIP Phone Device) Review

You obviously have or are buying a hub.Should you buy a scout too?I didn't initially... and they were on a different price plan (less expensive) then.I should have.But they recently extended the functionality of these little boxes and I bought 2.Bottom line - for an additional $60, you get a second IN and OUT line and separate phone number (if you subscribe to premier or are grandfathered in with their old - expensive) price point.I am an 'old' one.I didn't get one initially.With the scouts you can play voice mail from the scout.Handy because I have the hub, buried in a cabinet.you can assign a separate phone number ring to that device.It provides, potentially another place to plug another cordless set of handsets.

Configuration is very easy and very difficult at the same time.They provide an 'idiot proof' guide in their documents.And all works as they say it will. Here's the problems... (and they are not really OOMA's problems).

1.I have a large home.I don't want to buy a scout for each room.Most cordless devices provide only 4 and sometimes 5 handsets.That may be enough.You can use the scout to extend that and plug in another set of cordless handsets into it... but that is ONLY if you don't use the separate phone line with the scout.

2.Their functionality as of the writing of this does not allow you to move your second phone number to the scout alone.If you set it up as a shared device (which I, unfortunately did), you can't move it.So for now, all the scouts ring as does the hub for either number.They say 2-3 weeks for software deployment for moving numbers to a specific device.If you do that, the second cordless for the first line is out.the handsets applicable to this will ring only on that second line.

3.To avoid the handset issue, I 'backwired' my home.I plugged the OUTPUT of the HUB into LINE 1 of my home.(on any phone plug, called an RJ-11 jack there is a maximum of 6 wires.Most jacks and most wires are wired with 2 or 4 wires.Look at the plug on your cord.How many copper tips are there?The center 2 are for line 1.The next two are for line 2 and so on.Thus for wires 1,2,3,4,5,6 - 34 are for line 1, 25 are for line 2 and 16 are for line 3.Most newer homes have at LEAST what they call THREE PAIR wires.(that's three pairs of wires) run through the house.Most have 5 pair.The standard convention are blue/white for line 1, orange/white for line 2 and green white for line 3.

Here's where the fun comes in.By backwiring your home, you can distribute the ooma hub to every jack in the house.But that's not in their manual and it would conflict with how they recommend you hook up the scout.In my situation, the OUT of the hub goes to line 1 wiring in the house.In their directions, the hub IN (wall) jack is plugged into line 1 and the scouts pick up the hub signal from any jack.

You can get around this this way:

a.get several line splitter jacks from radio shack.They usually have three plugs labled (1+2, 1 and 2).Thus, the 1+2 acts like a normal jack.The 1 is line 1 only and the 2 is line 2.Plug one of these jacks into a house wiring jack.Plug the IN of the hub (wall) into the LINE 2 of the adapter.Now, the scout signal will be distributed through the house on the line 2 wiring.

For each scout you will need a similar jack converter and just plug it in to the line 2 jack as noted above.Use the line 1 part of the jack for your regular phone (where you will find the OOMA dial tone).

= = = a caveat.Many homes do not have the wires RUNNING THROUGH each wall jack.That is they may not be connected at the jack.If they are not, everything 'downstream' of the disconnection will not work.Most of the newer homes I have seen have all three line wires connected all the way through.But you may have to look at each jack to make sure that the IN wire to the jack is connected as well as the OUT wires (which feed the next jack in the house).

More than you wanted to know, maybe.

BUY a scout.Maybe 2 or three!

Click Here to see more reviews about: Ooma Scout (to use with Ooma Hub VoIP Phone Device)

Product Description:
Try out ooma's enhanced calling features with a free trial of ooma Premier, which includes a free second phone line, real-time message screening, one-touch Do Not Disturb and Send to Voicemail, a second personal number with private voicemail, and more