OBiTALK Community

General Support => Day-to-Day Use => Topic started by: ajm258 on December 03, 2011, 12:46:06 PM

Title: What's the best way to wire the Obi110 into a home's existing phone lines?
Post by: ajm258 on December 03, 2011, 12:46:06 PM
What's the best way to wire the Obi110 into a home's existing phone lines? So that it provides phone service to any phone connected to the home's phone jacks?
Title: Re: What's the best way to wire the Obi110 into a home's existing phone lines?
Post by: RevKev on December 04, 2011, 03:21:59 PM
It's really quite simple. The line coming in to your house from your telco plugs into the "Line" port of the OBi110. Your internal phone wiring plugs into the "Phone" port. If you do nothing else you should be able to make calls just as you always have.

Given that you currently have:

line if from telco --->|splitter|---> in-house wiring

You want the OBi110 between the telco and the splitter.

line from telco --->|Line In -Obi110- Phone|--->|splitter|---> in-house wiring
Title: Re: What's the best way to wire the Obi110 into a home's existing phone lines?
Post by: ajm258 on December 13, 2011, 05:58:27 PM
Where can I find the 'The line coming in to your house from your telco' ?
Title: Re: What's the best way to wire the Obi110 into a home's existing phone lines?
Post by: Ostracus on December 13, 2011, 06:10:17 PM
Quote from: ajm258 on December 13, 2011, 05:58:27 PM
Where can I find the 'The line coming in to your house from your telco' ?

For houses in the US it's usually a gray box mounted on the outside.

(http://thisishowweparty.com/img/outside.jpg)
Title: Re: What's the best way to wire the Obi110 into a home's existing phone lines?
Post by: ajm258 on December 14, 2011, 01:26:26 PM
awesome, thanks for the pic!
Title: Re: What's the best way to wire the Obi110 into a home's existing phone lines?
Post by: bitstopjoe on December 14, 2011, 02:30:09 PM
 What if his siding is a different color? :) hehehehe

Joe Sica
Title: Re: What's the best way to wire the Obi110 into a home's existing phone lines?
Post by: kf7kip on December 14, 2011, 02:45:17 PM
Then he is out of luck. JK
With mine I have a gang block inside my house (But it is a custom job I Rewired my whole house about 2 years ago I needed to use 10 phone lines for about 6 months)
also if you are in a apartment you might be jest out of luck. but you can check to see if a unused pair is powered if it is not then you should check to see if it is connected at the main junction box. if it is you might be able to use that un used pair to wire you apartment. 
If not you are out of luck agen NO LOVE FOR YOU.
Title: Re: What's the best way to wire the Obi110 into a home's existing phone lines?
Post by: s.port on December 21, 2011, 08:38:35 AM
Quote from: RevKev on December 04, 2011, 03:21:59 PM
It's really quite simple. The line coming in to your house from your telco plugs into the "Line" port of the OBi110. Your internal phone wiring plugs into the "Phone" port. If you do nothing else you should be able to make calls just as you always have.

I'm unable to find where the line coming into my house goes to. But lets suppose I do find the line coming into my house if it's not near my PC, it wouldn't be practical for me to run 50 feet of cord to reach my router, therefore I wouldn't be able to use all the phone jacks in my house? I supose the part that has me confused is finding the line coming into my house. I do have a grey box as I just canceled my home phone service through Comcast.
Title: Re: What's the best way to wire the Obi110 into a home's existing phone lines?
Post by: RevKev on December 21, 2011, 03:59:13 PM
If you've cancelled your home phone service, don't worry about the line coming in, it's dead. You should be able to plug the PHONE port of your OBi into any phone jack and the rest of the jacks in the house will be connected to it.
Title: Re: What's the best way to wire the Obi110 into a home's existing phone lines?
Post by: RonR on December 21, 2011, 04:58:19 PM
Quote from: RevKev on December 21, 2011, 03:59:13 PM
If you've cancelled your home phone service, don't worry about the line coming in, it's dead. You should be able to plug the PHONE port of your OBi into any phone jack and the rest of the jacks in the house will be connected to it.

That's very bad advice.  Many states have laws that dictate PSTN lines remaining hot with 911 service available.  Connecting a hot PSTN line to the OBi PHONE Port can potentially damage it.

Title: Re: What's the best way to wire the Obi110 into a home's existing phone lines?
Post by: Ostracus on December 21, 2011, 06:30:44 PM
http://mi-telecom.org/distribute.html (http://mi-telecom.org/distribute.html) aka "The Original How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home"
Title: Re: What's the best way to wire the Obi110 into a home's existing phone lines?
Post by: kf7kip on December 21, 2011, 11:11:27 PM
Quote from: RonR on December 21, 2011, 04:58:19 PM
Quote from: RevKev on December 21, 2011, 03:59:13 PM
If you've cancelled your home phone service, don't worry about the line coming in, it's dead. You should be able to plug the PHONE port of your OBi into any phone jack and the rest of the jacks in the house will be connected to it.

That's very bad advice.  Many states have laws that dictate PSTN lines remaining hot with 911 service available.  Connecting a hot PSTN line to the OBi PHONE Port can potentially damage it.


Ok yes that is tru it is bad advice for most people.  I would say before you do it check to see if it is hot or not. my house with all the custom stuff done to it. I know myne are cold.  I had a TREE take out the main feed to the house The only line to my house now is the power feed.  (My internet is microwave connection not sattlelight ) the other thing you could do is re wire the jack to use line 2 as the primery line and do the same for the rooms you would like to use the OBI on
Title: Re: What's the best way to wire the Obi110 into a home's existing phone lines?
Post by: s.port on December 22, 2011, 11:24:29 AM

Ok yes that is tru it is bad advice for most people.  I would say before you do it check to see if it is hot or not. my house with all the custom stuff done to it. I know myne are cold.  I had a TREE take out the main feed to the house The only line to my house now is the power feed.  (My internet is microwave connection not sattlelight ) the other thing you could do is re wire the jack to use line 2 as the primery line and do the same for the rooms you would like to use the OBI on
[/quote]

How could I test it to see if it's hot? My previous home phone was through Comcast which was VOIP. They canceled it over the phone. nobody actually cam out to disconect anything. I just unplugged and returned their VOIP modem.

With the Comcast VOIP modem, It had a spot on the Modem for "line" and when I plugged that into the phone jack it worked throughout the house. But when I plug the phone jack to the obi spot for "line" it doesn't have the same effect.
Title: Re: What's the best way to wire the Obi110 into a home's existing phone lines?
Post by: RevKev on December 23, 2011, 06:38:50 AM
The Comcast "voip modem" is the ATA - which is the line in to your house, in this case. If it has been disconnected from your internal wiring, then the line is dead. For Comcast to continue to provide 911 service, the ATA would have to remain in place.

The Comcast ATA most likely had a cable line coming into it and a phone line coming out. That phone line would go to the rest of your house. What was the phone line coming out of the Comcast ATA plugged into (or possible hard-wired to)? You want to replace the Comcast ATA with the OBi so that the line coming out of the OBI PHONE port plugs into the same thing the line coming out of the Comcast ATA did.
Title: Re: What's the best way to wire the Obi110 into a home's existing phone lines?
Post by: dvbhardware on December 23, 2011, 02:59:53 PM
I tied my 100 directly into my 66 blocks on the 2nd line and can tie in on any phone jack in the house
Title: Re: What's the best way to wire the Obi110 into a home's existing phone lines?
Post by: Ostracus on December 23, 2011, 03:37:13 PM
Quote from: dvbhardware on December 23, 2011, 02:59:53 PM
I tied my 100 directly into my 66 blocks on the 2nd line and can tie in on any phone jack in the house

Throw in a UPS then you'll have something. ;D
Title: Re: What's the best way to wire the Obi110 into a home's existing phone lines?
Post by: s.port on December 26, 2011, 08:49:59 PM

Ok yes that is tru it is bad advice for most people.  I would say before you do it check to see if it is hot or not. my house with all the custom stuff done to it. I know myne are cold.  I had a TREE take out the main feed to the house The only line to my house now is the power feed.  (My internet is microwave connection not sattlelight ) the other thing you could do is re wire the jack to use line 2 as the primery line and do the same for the rooms you would like to use the OBI on
[/quote]

Doesn't work at all if I plug the cord from the jack directly to "phone" on the Obi. It works fine plugging the phone into "phone" on the Obi. I guess the only solution is to run cord from the grey box on the side of my house? Comcast never did anything with my box (as it was VOIP) and I bought the house new so I figured mine were cold, but that idea didn't work.
Title: Re: What's the best way to wire the Obi110 into a home's existing phone lines?
Post by: kf7kip on January 01, 2012, 02:00:25 AM
Well there are 2 way one is FREE (but is a little pain full)
Free way plug in a phone cord and lick it (3 volts ) it will sting a little but you will know.  The other way would be to probe the line with a multi meter to check for voltage.  I have done both methods.  I kida like the tung thing but then agen I'm a little strang
Title: Re: What's the best way to wire the Obi110 into a home's existing phone lines?
Post by: Ostracus on January 01, 2012, 01:04:01 PM
Or use something like (http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/public/0IWs3mv9oF_sJGlnU3n3K-lIbd5rQKl7vWhUrJISiByrgF7EBKQl1OnZbaWFcHfcnErB-JSfLs0oJ4TT2NYuggHzukWoJM_W_DMAqgNHPPbPWttYsF2TaGU0yUP5Ri_r4seQ8V5J2AwlAdp4Dn6pHUUOnvcUk_8QnWYOPY6kg-9koaCjB-1GQVxL1_HDnebPA38A61VmZx4hmJztC8bMOeW-2ilqwPBJOBRX3FZBuFhRmJaHVhWyQdJIKDBiBJsbaAXQQ6F3Y6jir2E5-MOPTx40t8KC57wnsCDpNZ1W4TTKkQO019M0XephfZP96xfX-fe2yfTag86CGcr5imJQRbo) this.
Title: Re: What's the best way to wire the Obi110 into a home's existing phone lines?
Post by: kf7kip on January 01, 2012, 11:05:27 PM
tru that works too. I jest do not like single use items and I still prefer using my tung.
Title: Re: What's the best way to wire the Obi110 into a home's existing phone lines?
Post by: hvengel on January 06, 2012, 09:48:22 AM
The gray box outside has two sides.  One is for the phone company only the other side belongs to your house wiring.   You have every right (under law) to open and modify the wiring on your side of the box. Your house wiring side will have a regular screw to hold the box shut and the phone company side will need a special driver to open.   Sometimes it will only have a regular screw and inside there will be a special screw to prevent you from getting into the phone company part of the box. 

From your house wiring side there will be a line going into the house that in most systems will have a regular phone plug that is plugged into a phone jack that connects it to the phone company POTs system.  To disconnect your internal house wiring from the phone company POTs system simply unplug this connection.  At that point you can simply plug the Obi into one of your internal phone jacks.

If you want to run a dedicated line from the phone company system to the Obi's phone line port you can pull a new line up to the gray box and plug it into the port in the box.