using home phone line?
Rick:
Quote from: DougL on November 20, 2012, 11:04:29 am
Well, there is no "current phone".
Yes, there is a current PHONE. It's the one you talk on :). That's what I meant, how is it plugged in today?
Quote from: DougL on November 20, 2012, 11:04:29 am
Ah, that's important about not plugging an Obi phone connector into a powered DSL line. That is, the Obi phone connector has to just go to a phone. Not entirely clear how I'm supposed to establish what's safe to plug the Obi phone line into. I mean, how do I tell who is using what wires in what I'm assuming is a 4-wire phone cable?
My understand of Uverse is that they pull the phone off a Uverse modem to give you the VoIP. Therefore, somewhere you should be able to find a device in the house which is powering your phone outlets. Remember, the outside wiring existed BEFORE your POTS went away, so it in all likelihood includes POTS wiring that is now dead.
If you don't know how your phone outlets are wired, you may need to open each one up and verify what is hooked up (red and green)? as well as where the AT&T modem(s) are plugged into to ultimately figure this out. Your only issue is making sure that IF you use wall outlets to power all your phones with the OBi, you have removed the AT&T VoIP power first. So if you find where the AT&T modem is powering the outlets (phone cord coming out that goes into wall outlet), and disconnect that, you MAY be all set. Proof of course would be in then seeing if all your phone jacks are dead. But you also need to ensure that the DSL/Uverse is coming off DIFFERENT WIRES.
DougL:
What I meant is that I have no current phone. POTS is disconnected. I use my cell phone, and Google Voice. There was a brief period when POTS was still connected, and I was able to use that alongside UVerse.
That's a good point. In principle, UVerse is capable of VoIP, and AT&T would be delighted to sell it to me. But I have no idea what would be "powering" my phone outlets. I figured the phone lines come into the house with their own power. Isn't that why the POTS doesn't go away during a power failure?
Yes, I probably have to look at what wires are hooked up in my outlets, but I suspect it's all four. What determines what wires are used and what are not used is up in the box on the side of the house.
Rick:
Now I get it. Thought OBi was replacing Uverse VoIP.
You need to determine how the Uverse modem gets its signal. You cannot plug the OBi into a wall jack without doing that. Hopefully it us on the other two wires wandered green is for the phone. Ideally you would disconnect outside phone line before plugging OBi into wall.
DougL:
Quote from: Rick on November 20, 2012, 04:39:44 pm
Hopefully it us on the other two wires wandered green is for the phone. Ideally you would disconnect outside phone line before plugging OBi into wall.
Not sure what you meant here. Are you saying that red/green is standard for phone? If that's the case, then I need to establish if black/yellow is being used for my UVerse *and* that nothing else is hooked up to red/green. Not completely sure how to establish the former, except by pulling off connections and seeing when UVerse goes away. If UVerse is black/yellow, I have to assume that nothing is on red/green anymore, because my POTS is gone and I have no dial tone. Should I be looking for a DC voltage on red/green? If none, are those two "clean", and available for Obi?
DougL:
P.S. After doing some Google searches, I gather that what I'm trying to do is called "backfeeding UVerse". That is, putting a phone line back in the cable that UVerse came out of.
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