Some of you have written in after reading our post about plugging your VoIP service into your home phone lines to reminds us there are easier ways to do it than the way we pointed out. So first of all, shut up. Nobody likes a know-it-all. Second of all, you’re right. Sean Captain (my Captain) writes a much easier way to make the magic after the jump.
http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/software/voip/index.php#voip-over-phone-wiring-032265
I saw the article on VoIP over Phone Wiring you ref’ed recently. There is a far easier (thought not as elegant) way to do it. It’s working fine in my apartment, and doesn’t require any tools.
1) Buy a modular duplex adapter for about $3 at a local hardware store or
drugstore.
2) Plug the adapter into your VOIP box. (I use a Linksys box from Vonage.)
You now have two phone jacks for the same line.
3) Plug your phone into one of the duplexer jacks. Now that one is on the
system.
4) Plug one end of a phone line into the remaining jack on the duplexer and
the other end of the line right into the wall-mounted phone jack. You have
now tied your entire home phone wiring network into the Vonage box.
I’m doing this in a house that is about a hundred years old, with pretty old
wiring, and it works fine. Plus, it didn’t require me to run any wires or
drill holes or mess with the phone company wiring – all undesirable, since
my place is a rental.
Daryl writes:
1) DISCONNECT THE PHONE LINE FROM THE NID PRIOR TO DOING THIS!!!!
If you don’t disconnect your phone line from the NID before connecting
it up this way, you’ll like fry your ATA the first time a call comes in.
Even if you aren’t using the line, the phone company is known to reuse
lines in other houses and sometimes your line is enabled even when you
don’t expect it. (My second phone line in my house was connected to a
local business when I moved in.)
It’s also a good idea to cover the NID port with tape and attach a note
in the NID saying that the port is used for an internal private network.
Otherwise you run the risk of a phone installer stopping by for some
other work and “doing you the favor” of reconnecting it for you.
2) The telephone interface (known as an FXS) has to drive a fairly high
voltage to signal a ring in the house. The more devices you have
attached the harder that is to do. Since the ATA only expects one device
to be connected it’s not designed to ring multiple phones. It’ll work
for a few, but if you add to many you may find your phones don’t ring.
