Need Advice for Phone Purchase - 2 Story House

**rmwlaw** · 07-07-2010 07:18 AM

Not sure if this is the correct forum, but....

We have purchased VOIPO for telephone service, and have a 2-story house with pre-poured concrete flooring between the 2 stories of the house. Consequently, I cannot run ethernet cable from where router is on teh second floor of the house to another location down on the first floor.

Can anyone share their experience with multiphone systems for home usage. Has to have HIGH WAF! Would like to use at least 4 phones and be able to all listen in to same telephone call if possible. Have looked at systems available at OfficeMax, Office Depot, Staples, etc., but none of the boxes reflect that you can hook up to a voip system, nor that you can have more than 2 units in on one telephone call.

Thanks for guidance, and as stated above, not sure if this is appropriate forum, but if not, sorry in advance.

Richard

**MisterEd** · 07-07-2010 07:59 AM

The phones (hardware) don't care what kind of system they are hooked to ... be it voip or pots.

**rmwlaw** · 07-07-2010 08:03 AM

MisterEd:

That's great news!

So, based on this, any suggestions for multi-unit telephone that more than 2 (preferably up to 4) users can simultaneously be on the same telephone call?

Richard

**usa2k** · 07-07-2010 08:33 AM

This is exactly the forum to post in.

As long as your old phone house wiring is disconnected at the NID where PSTN could attach, you should be able to connect the ATA to any phone jack and use the phones like you did with PSTN. If there is power from the old phone company on the line it could damage the ATA.

Personally, I prefer wireless phones. If I were buying new wireless phones I would look at DECT 6.0 phones. That may not work well with the cement construction.

**rmwlaw** · 07-07-2010 09:03 AM

usa2k had stated: "As long as your old phone house wiring is disconnected at the NID where PSTN could attach, you should be able to connect the ATA to any phone jack and use the phones like you did with PSTN. If there is power from the old phone company on the line it could damage the ATA."

I am not sure how to accomplish the disconnection of the wiring, nor as to whether that would be (a) possible, and (b) beneficial. Could you elaborate either here in this thread or via PM? How do I connect the Adapter to the phone jack so that I can use other jacks throughout house for other phones?

Based upon my lack of knowledge as to how to accomplish the preceding, I was thinking wireless, and the phones that I saw at the various office supply stores were DECT 6.0 type. I was curious if anyone had any experience with any of the readily available sets (AT&T, Gigaset, etc.) and knew of any that allowed multiple handsets to participate in the same telephone call.

I suspect that if the wiring issue is simple, that this would be the best solution. I would be able to just use existing telephones with existing telephone jacks.

Richard

**usa2k** · 07-07-2010 09:44 AM

One quick thing (I'm heading out)

Some phones with answering machine (Like Uniden) don't have the Visual Message Waiting Light feature. (It only works if a message is on the built-in answering machine) I know Uniden without answering machine work for Visual MWI. Both types will have a stutter tone when picked up and a message is waiting.

I will find a great link to the answer about Nid later, or someone will beat me to it!

**rmwlaw** · 07-07-2010 09:55 AM

Originally Posted by usa2k

One quick thing (I'm heading out)

Some phones with answering machine (Like Uniden) don't have the Visual Message Waiting Light feature. (It only works if a message is on the built-in answering machine) I know Uniden without answering machine work for Visual MWI. Both types will have a stutter tone when picked up and a message is waiting.

I will find a great link to the answer about Nid later, or someone will beat me to it!

Thank you for information and willingness to get back to me on the technical info on Nid.

**burris** · 07-07-2010 10:19 AM

I have 6 Uniden Satellite Dect 6 phones wirelessly hooked up to the base. Have no problem with reception anywhere even with 2-3 people on the call.
Also on my phone system, I can utilize the answer machine from any phone as if I were at the base station.
For me this is handy, as I don't use VOIPo VM, but use the VM in the base.

**usa2k** · 07-07-2010 01:59 PM

Originally Posted by rmwlaw

Thank you for information and willingness to get back to me on the technical info on Nid.

Got back a while ago from my CompTIA Network+ exam.
(A successful test of course)
I am now CompTIA A+ certified and CompTIA Network+ certified.
I have a bunch more to take as I am prepared.

This link is pretty good: http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/20/h...r-phone-jacks/

DSLReports has many forums including the VoIP Chat Forum. I have been a DSLR member since 2003. Its free with basic membership, or $10 lifetime. You can post anonymously too, but sometimes people are more helpful if you join. The VoIP forum and search utility can find plenty of related subjects like: wiring whole house Voip using DSL?

With VoIP there is a whole gamut of easy to technical things to play with. I hope to experiment with a $25 PBX soon!

**rmwlaw** · 07-07-2010 02:18 PM

I have looked at the links you had provided, and although I can see that there are a myriad of threads to tear through, there is 1 very important factor that you need to know. My internet connection is cable based (Broadband from Comcast), not telephone (DSL from AT&T).

Is this still possible since I am using cable for internet, and not DSL from AT&T?

Thanks for guidance.