VOIP and 7 month old fibre install

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gedc

355 posts

Ultimate Geek

#201613 26-Aug-2016 15:33

So..A bit of background. Been with actrix for 10 years. Changed to fibre with them in january and my home phone was meant to run from the back of their router by plugging into it. Turned out their VOIP solution wasn't stable i.e spent more time off than on and kept dropping out. Also turned out their free router ( previous posts on geekzone) was as much use as a pack of weetbix and kept crashing and hanging. So did the second model they sent. I didn't want a third. After many many discussion, some good, some bad and advice from fellow geekzoners I purchased an ASUS router which I think has fallen over twice in the 7 or so months I've been running it - it's been spot on. I've been speaking with actrix on a fairly regular basis including their GM as they had something in the wings re home phone lines, i didn't realise in the wings meant half a year+ and many failed dates to land it but let's not go there as I'm now in my happy place. Worst experience I've ever had with them which is a pity as they are normally spot on.

Today, 7 months or so later I now have a home phone. Spoke to Enable today by phone for roughly 40 minutes explaining to them what was meant to be setup by my ISP etc ?!? nobody really seemed to have a clue. Then they twigged ( i think ) and opened up the TEL 1 port on the ONT and I can plug my home phone into that. Yahoo. I now have a home phone 3 feet from the ONT ( length of cable i have ).

I have some options from here.

Use a wireless set and get a much longer cable so the base unit can sit on my PC desk . Use the wireless handsets around the rest of the house

Can I bring my old copper network back online ? It has a number of sockets around the home.

I'm thinking wireless is probably easier but would it be possible to connect the copper lines into my system?

Thanks for your help

Ged

speed

292 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1617946 26-Aug-2016 15:40

Absolutely you can back-feed from the ONT into your house phone wiring and utilise that. It's standard practise for the Chorus technician to make this link when they install a product with the ONT ATA service included at time of installation. Since yours wasn't, you'll have to make the link yourself. As long as your house cabling is disconnected from the exchange then it's OK to proceed. If you're unsure if that's the case then connect an analog phone to your house cabling and see if you get "NU tone" (a series of tones repeating) or just nothing at all. If you get nothing at all then you're likely disconnected from the exchange.

Hope this helps :)

Quic Broadband

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speed

292 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1617947 26-Aug-2016 15:44

Whoops, sorry, I just clicked it was Enable not Chorus.

That means there is a considerably higher chance your house phone wiring is still connected to the exchange. Again, check for NU tone. If it's still connected you can always disconnect it yourself; just open up the master jack and cut the wires coming in from the road (it's usually obvious which pair it is as they'll often come out of an external-rated gell filled black cable).

gedc

355 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1618310 27-Aug-2016 13:48

Thanks Speed. I'm happy to snip the external copper cables at the junction box to ensure the line is indeed dead. . How do I backfeed from Tel 1 on the ONT to my copper network ? I'm comfortable wiring stuff up, did the whole house and patch panel with Cat6 and have had numerous telecom sockets on and off walls in the past so have the tools and desire. Cheers for any pointers

DarkShadow

1647 posts

Uber Geek

#1618327 27-Aug-2016 14:37

gedc:

Thanks Speed. I'm happy to snip the external copper cables at the junction box to ensure the line is indeed dead. . How do I backfeed from Tel 1 on the ONT to my copper network ? I'm comfortable wiring stuff up, did the whole house and patch panel with Cat6 and have had numerous telecom sockets on and off walls in the past so have the tools and desire. Cheers for any pointers

Once you cut the external cable, you can just plug the ONT tel port into any one of the phone sockets in the house. This would then connect all the phone sockets to the ONT.

speed

292 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1618334 27-Aug-2016 15:31

Just make up (or buy) an RJ-11 to BT cable and plug them together (ie plug the ONT/TEL-1 into any of the BT sockets in the house).

gedc

355 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1618361 27-Aug-2016 16:31

Outstanding. They had disconnected the old telecom cable at the outside box and put terminal clips on the ends. Got a 5m cable. Plugged into the old phone point behind the PC that ran ADSL and voila. Points appear live around the home.

Thanks heaps. This is what I love about geekzone.

Cheers