OBI100 Unable to get Wall Jacks to Work

[cdog999]

I just recently purchases an OBI100 and I have no issues with connecting a phone directly to the OBI100.  I get dialtone and I have set up VOIP that works properly.  But, when I connect the same phone line from the OBI100 to the wall jack (I've tested connecting to multiple jacks in the house),  none of the other jacks receive a dialtone.  Anyone have any ideas?  I was hoping to use some of my existing phones throughout my house.

Note: I have disconnected the line in from the telephone company.  House was built in early 90s.

[Ostracus]

Did all those other jacks work in the past? Could this be a "Line 1", "Line 2" pair problem? Audience?

[MichiganTelephone]

Have you read How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home?

My guess is that the pairs to the different jacks got disconnected from each other somehow.  If you read that page, you should know what to look for and how to reconnect them properly (and safely).  Be aware that if any of the jacks are still connected to the phone company's line coming from the street, even if the line appears "dead" there is a high likelihood that you will damage your Obihai device if you connect it to one of those jacks.  The #1 rule is to make sure your inside wiring is totally disconnected from the phone company's drop wire, THEN you can worry about reconnecting the pairs of the inside wiring.

[cdog999]

Have you read How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home?

My guess is that the pairs to the different jacks got disconnected from each other somehow.  If you read that page, you should know what to look for and how to reconnect them properly (and safely).  Be aware that if any of the jacks are still connected to the phone company's line coming from the street, even if the line appears "dead" there is a high likelihood that you will damage your Obihai device if you connect it to one of those jacks.  The #1 rule is to make sure your inside wiring is totally disconnected from the phone company's drop wire, THEN you can worry about reconnecting the pairs of the inside wiring.

I read through portions of that page (and I just went back and read the section called The "dead jack" problem).  Outside my house I did have to disconnect two phone lines into the house.  In one of the rooms there are 2 seperate jacks so, I'm guessing its likely the previous owner used one for phone and one for fax (he was a real estate agent). 

I've never had a landline in the 6 years I've lived there.  Is there a way I can check and see if I can get a dialtone from the phone company? Can I just re-hook the phone cords back up outside and then do something on my phone to get a dialtone?  I'm assuming there must be some sort of emergency service if the wiring is correct in the house?

[RonR]

Outside my house I did have to disconnect two phone lines into the house.

If you simply connect all the phone line pairs together where they come into the house without connecting them to the iincoming pair from the phone company, all the jacks in your house will likely be connected to each other.

[RonR]

Is there a way I can check and see if I can get a dialtone from the phone company? Can I just re-hook the phone cords back up outside and then do something on my phone to get a dialtone?  I'm assuming there must be some sort of emergency service if the wiring is correct in the house?

You can connect a telephone to the incoming pair from the phone company to see if it has dialtone and emergency service.  Depending on where you live, the line may or may not be active.  If it is active and you wish to use it, you could isolate one of the pairs coming into the house to one set of your jacks and connect it to the telephone company line.  Just don't allow your OBi to be connected to this line as it could potentially damage the OBi.

[cdog999]

Outside my house I did have to disconnect two phone lines into the house.

If you simply connect all the phone line pairs together where they come into the house without connecting them to the iincoming pair from the phone company, all the jacks in your house will likely be connected to each other.

I read this page when doing the initial disconnect outside: http://www.voipmyhouse.com/

Per Section 8. Whole House VoIP - the solution, I just disconnected both of the phone cords in the customer access area.  Was this not correct?


Also, I have no intention to ever set up local phone service.

[MichiganTelephone]

I've never had a landline in the 6 years I've lived there.  Is there a way I can check and see if I can get a dialtone from the phone company? Can I just re-hook the phone cords back up outside and then do something on my phone to get a dialtone?  I'm assuming there must be some sort of emergency service if the wiring is correct in the house?

Not necessarily.  Some phone companies do that and some don't.  It largely depends on where you live, your phone company's policies, and whether they needed to use the line formerly going to your home for another customer in your area.

Here's the thing, at least make sure that on the wiring coming from your jacks, all the blue wires are connected together, and all the white with blue stripe wires are connected together (if you have any old "quad" wiring, substitute "red" for "blue" and substitute "green" for "white with blue stripe").  Then open up the jacks and make sure they are wired correctly (if one line was used for fax, they may have reversed the pairs in the jack itself).  Again, if the color code shwn in the jack is the old RGBY, the correct hookup is this:

Blue wire to Red
White/Blue wire to Green
Orange wire to Yellow  (pair 2)
White/Orange wire to Black  (pair 2)

Normally you'll only be concerned about the primary pair (Blue and White/Blue) and making sure those are all connected together, and wired properly inside the jacks (and NOT connected to the phone company's lines!)

[MichiganTelephone]

I read this page when doing the initial disconnect outside: http://www.voipmyhouse.com/

Per Section 8. Whole House VoIP - the solution, I just disconnected both of the phone cords in the customer access area.  Was this not correct?

That particular part was correct, but that's the guy that appears to have ripped off most of his page from mine (which if he did, he was careful to mostly use different pictures and change his text just enough that it's probably not a copyright infringement, but you can see the similarities if you read both) and then had the unmitigated gall to criticize one of the pictures on my page, just because he could not see that the wires actually were twisted (if you look on my page you'll see my response).  The way I look at it, if you're going to use someone else's work as "inspiration" (or the way I look at it, about as close as you can get to a blatant ripoff without actually copying the text verbatim), you shouldn't incorrectly criticize their work just because you can't actually see what's happening in the photo, particularly when the picture was meant to illustrate something else entirely (the use of a particular type of connection block) and is not even a picture of anything in my home or anyplace under my control.

My page has been around longer and has more complete information.  His page sure appears to be mostly a condensation of mine (leaving out some essential points, in my opinion, for the sake of brevity, and maybe adding a few things), but it just seems like he has a lot of nerve with his unwarranted criticism (especially when he did rip off my photo and then cropped it to make his point).  Apparently he's never seen the wiring inside an older telephone central office, because that's exactly the type of wiring that was used in old Michigan Bell central offices.  And anyway, voice circuits are not nearly as picky as data circuits about the pairs being twisted except when they are in close proximity, and then the only problem you can have if the pairs are close together and not properly twisted is crosstalk from one line to another.

[cdog999]

I've never had a landline in the 6 years I've lived there.  Is there a way I can check and see if I can get a dialtone from the phone company? Can I just re-hook the phone cords back up outside and then do something on my phone to get a dialtone?  I'm assuming there must be some sort of emergency service if the wiring is correct in the house?

Not necessarily.  Some phone companies do that and some don't.  It largely depends on where you live, your phone company's policies, and whether they needed to use the line formerly going to your home for another customer in your area.

Here's the thing, at least make sure that on the wiring coming from your jacks, all the blue wires are connected together, and all the white with blue stripe wires are connected together (if you have any old "quad" wiring, substitute "red" for "blue" and substitute "green" for "white with blue stripe").  Then open up the jacks and make sure they are wired correctly (if one line was used for fax, they may have reversed the pairs in the jack itself).  Again, if the color code shwn in the jack is the old RGBY, the correct hookup is this:

Blue wire to Red
White/Blue wire to Green
Orange wire to Yellow  (pair 2)
White/Orange wire to Black  (pair 2)

Normally you'll only be concerned about the primary pair (Blue and White/Blue) and making sure those are all connected together, and wired properly inside the jacks (and NOT connected to the phone company's lines!)

I'll take a look tonight and report back.  Hopefully with a few pictures.

[cdog999]

I've never had a landline in the 6 years I've lived there.  Is there a way I can check and see if I can get a dialtone from the phone company? Can I just re-hook the phone cords back up outside and then do something on my phone to get a dialtone?  I'm assuming there must be some sort of emergency service if the wiring is correct in the house?

Not necessarily.  Some phone companies do that and some don't.  It largely depends on where you live, your phone company's policies, and whether they needed to use the line formerly going to your home for another customer in your area.

Here's the thing, at least make sure that on the wiring coming from your jacks, all the blue wires are connected together, and all the white with blue stripe wires are connected together (if you have any old "quad" wiring, substitute "red" for "blue" and substitute "green" for "white with blue stripe").  Then open up the jacks and make sure they are wired correctly (if one line was used for fax, they may have reversed the pairs in the jack itself).  Again, if the color code shwn in the jack is the old RGBY, the correct hookup is this:

Blue wire to Red
White/Blue wire to Green
Orange wire to Yellow  (pair 2)
White/Orange wire to Black  (pair 2)

Normally you'll only be concerned about the primary pair (Blue and White/Blue) and making sure those are all connected together, and wired properly inside the jacks (and NOT connected to the phone company's lines!)

I have the old "quad" wiring.  

I took a picture as an attachment.  Does this look correct?

[jimates]

That looks ok.

Make sure you are connecting the PHONE port of the Obi to the phone jack, not the LINE port.

[cdog999]

That looks ok.

Make sure you are connecting the PHONE port of the Obi to the phone jack, not the LINE port.

Its an OBI100 so it doesn't have the LINE port, just the phone port.

[MichiganTelephone]

I have the old "quad" wiring.  

I took a picture as an attachment.  Does this look correct?

That one looks fine.  But did you check the other jack(s)?  Are they all wired the same way?

If so, take a look at the connection point where the wires are spliced together (could be outside in the Network Interface box).  Maybe take a picture of that, with the cover open and the wiring exposed, of course.  The thing you want to see is all the reds connected together and all the greens connected together (assuming you don't have any newer non-quad wiring present), but none of them connected to the telephone company's wiring.

The splice point could be somewhere in a basement or crawl space as well (probably is if you only see one set of wires coming into the Network Interface).  Hopefully it didn't get covered with wallboard during a remodeling job or something!

Note:  If all else fails and you only see ONE quad cable coming into the Network Interface, temporarily try this:  Connect the red and yellow wires together, and connect the green and black wires together.  The reason is may work is that if one jack was fed from "pair 1" and the other jack was fed from "pair 2", bridging the pairs may make the connection for you.  This is NOT the way it should be done, but if it turns out that you just can't find the splice point and this works, you can get some decent telephone connectors and make the connection permanent.