Comments on Banana Stew: Using Vonage for Every Phone in Your House

Scott,Found the problem. Evidently the previous o...

2008-12-17T16:28:00.000-05:00

Scott,
Found the problem. Evidently the previous owner had a second line to the room with Vonage. I opened the wall connection and noticed the odd colored wires were connected. When I disconnected the wires in the outside box, the jumpered connection with the rest of the house was broken. I changed the connection on the inside terminal block and now everything works. Thanks for your help.<

Dick,I'm out of ideas without actually entering yo...

2008-12-16T20:36:00.000-05:00

Dick,

I'm out of ideas without actually entering your house and poking around - something that neither of us would enjoy.

My best guess is that your house wiring is messed up some way. Since I assume that everything worked before you installed the Vonage box, I'd suggest looking at anything that's changed - the NID where you disconnected the outside wires, the jack that you're

Scott,The splitter works with two phones. I've un...

2008-12-16T09:27:00.000-05:00

Scott,
The splitter works with two phones. I've unplugged all but one remote phone and still get nothing? Any suggestions??
Dick

Anonymous,The first thing that I'd check is that t...

2008-12-15T21:17:00.000-05:00

Anonymous,

The first thing that I'd check is that the splitter is working and is the right type of splitter. Some splitters are used to split out 2 phone lines (e.g. phone and fax), not to split one phone line into 2 phones. Plug the splitter directly into the Vonage box and connect a phone directly to both sides of the splitter (no connection to your home wiring). See if you get a dial

I think I've followed the suggestions but still no...

2008-12-15T16:47:00.000-05:00

I think I've followed the suggestions but still no dial tone. I disconnected the outside box and the wire from it to the inside terminal. I removed the now unused DSL filter. The directly connected phone works with the splitter but no other phone works. What should I try next??

Anonymous,If you're in an apartment, you probably ...

2008-09-24T07:59:00.000-04:00

Anonymous,

If you're in an apartment, you probably won't be able to get to the wires to disconnect them. In most apartment complexes, the wires are run back to a central location where all of the connections are made. You don't have access to that location as a resident.

Your best bet is to get one of the multi-station phones that have a base station that plugs into one jack and

What if you live in an apartment, how do you disco...

2008-09-19T02:24:00.000-04:00

What if you live in an apartment, how do you disconnect the line?

Thank you very much for posting this. It cost me $...

2007-02-16T19:26:00.000-05:00

Thank you very much for posting this. It cost me $4.50 (for the splitter) to solve the problem that I thought was going to cost a bundle. (The problem was hooking up all my phones to the vonage line -- I thought I'd have to buy vonage adapters and wire my house with ethernet!) This is good stuff! Thanks again.

Ron_Man,Yes, you can do that through the NID, but ...

2006-05-29T21:45:00.000-04:00

Ron_Man,

Yes, you can do that through the NID, but the better way to do it is at the phone jack.

In every phone jack in most homes, two sets of wires are available. That means that any phone jack can be used for one of two (or more) lines by just connecting the correct wires.

What you'll need to do in your downstairs phone jacks is disconnect the second phone line wires

Laura,It depends on what "cut your line" means. If...

2006-05-24T06:56:00.000-04:00

Laura,

It depends on what "cut your line" means. If it's physically cut - like wiht a backhoe - you're ok. However, when the phone company just "disconnects your service", it's not really physically disconnected and you can (usually will) still have a problem.

What they've done is left you attached to the switch, just with the software told that you don't have phone service.

I know this blog was way back in 2005 but first of...

2006-05-21T00:21:00.000-04:00

I know this blog was way back in 2005 but first off thanks for the info! All this time I kept wondering why the phone was acting up, but blog has been VERY useful!

Ok my question is this. When I moved into my house the original owners had a seperate phone line in the basement. What I want to do is use those 3 jacks in the basement as part of my exising lines upstairs. Could I do this

Hi we do not have a phone box outside of our house...

2006-05-20T23:25:00.000-04:00

Hi we do not have a phone box outside of our house or inside. Is it the same thing if our local phone company has cut our line? Thanks. Laura

Flounder,Yes, in many cases that should be true - ...

2006-02-13T17:30:00.000-05:00

Flounder,

Yes, in many cases that should be true - but not in all cases. For example, in mine (see above), the RJ-11 is inside the "network" enclosure and I can't legally get to it.

Still, a good suggestion and something that folks should try.

Scott

PS. I loved the scene with you and the horse in Dean Wermer's office.

One suggestion that may make it eaiser for people....

2006-02-10T17:17:00.000-05:00

One suggestion that may make it eaiser for people. Instead of disconnecting the red and green wires there should be a short lead with an RJ-11 jack coming from the customer side of the box plugged into a receptacle wired into the phone company side of the box. If you just disconnect this it is the same as lifting the leads and there is less chance of them shorting out.

Scott, I just wanted to say thank you for doing th...

2005-10-04T17:22:00.000-04:00

Scott,

I just wanted to say thank you for doing this. Every problem i have encountered in getting my Vonage to work, was at some point discussed in this Q & A. Thank you for taking the time to help those of us less technically inclined. Cheers.

Nick, Two phone lines in your house or two phone ...

2005-09-28T19:42:00.000-04:00

Nick,

Two phone lines in your house or two phone lines coming off of the Vonage box? I'll assume the latter since the former is pretty simple to solve.

I apologize that I'm not very familiar with how Vonage does a second phone line. Let's assume that there are two physical ports off of the Vonage box (because if Vonage does it with one physical line and two different ring

Scott -Thanks. This is great. One question. How...

2005-09-28T17:42:00.000-04:00

Scott -

Thanks. This is great. One question. How does this work if you have two phone lines?

Thanks,
Nick

Anonymous,While it is difficult to argue with such...

2005-09-15T09:07:00.000-04:00

Anonymous,

While it is difficult to argue with such a careful and reasoned comment as yours, and while I would hate to disagree with someone who has the technical expertise required to know what an RJ-11 jack is, allow me to attempt to respond.

Both technical reasoning and emprical data have shown that if you make a call on a Vonage phone plugged into your home wiring while

Dude...I have Vonage and the easiest freaking thin...

2005-09-15T04:03:00.000-04:00

Dude...I have Vonage and the easiest freaking thing to do is plug an rj11(Standard phone line) to the router and the other end goes into a not-being-used wall jack. Presto, activates the whole house...why screw with telco boxes...DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Common sense!

Thanks, I was having issues and couldn't fiugre it...

2005-08-26T08:58:00.000-04:00

Thanks, I was having issues and couldn't fiugre it out, till you showed me how to disonnect the wires to the teleco.

Thanks

Anonymous,Actually, I have a very good idea of wha...

2005-06-24T10:12:00.000-04:00

Anonymous,

Actually, I have a very good idea of what's happening in your case. You probably have a relatively newer home. In some newer homes, the telephone wires from the different telephone jacks are all brought back to the outside box.

In most houses - like mine - the connections between the telephone jacks are all made inside the walls. There is only one connection to the

Ok, I'm more confused than others it seems. Befor...

2005-06-23T19:45:00.000-04:00

Ok, I'm more confused than others it seems. Before I started I checked to make sure there was no dialtone. (There was not) I omitted the splitter and instead plugged from the router to the wall. It worked fine except the ring sequence is very short or does not ring. But the caller ID always works. Conversation is clear and hans up fine. I then disconnected the red and green wires in hope to

Anonymous,Sorry, I'm a little confused by your des...

2005-06-01T16:31:00.000-04:00

Anonymous,

Sorry, I'm a little confused by your description. Is your cable modem also your wireless router? I haven't seen a combined unit before, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

First, if your cable modem is also a wireless router, you're probably going to run into trouble. The Vonage box expects to always be the only direct connection to your broadband service. All of

hello. I have a "smart house" where I have a hub f...

2005-05-24T22:15:00.000-04:00

hello. I have a "smart house" where I have a hub for my direct tv and where my broadband is coming into. I have the broadbadn running into the wireless cable router/modem then inot my vonage box and them from the vonage box into the main hub for all the phones. I disconnected al the wires from the outside. It worked without error for the past five weekes and then all of a sudden stopped. When I

Joseph,It's tough to diagnose without more informa...

2005-04-19T16:38:00.000-04:00

Joseph,

It's tough to diagnose without more information, but here's some suggestions. First, it is indeed best to disconnect both the red and the green wires. Plus, be sure that they aren't touching eack other or anything metal after you disconnect them. If they touch metal, it could short out your phones.

If you are getting a good signal direcly into the phone from the splitter