aggiemary04 wrote:My husband and I got this the last time it was up on Woot. We switched over from Vonage. First off, the bill is the right price .. a few bucks vs $35 is hard to beat. Even with a lower price, the quality is the same. We were even able to port our number over. This has been awesome for us since we live in South Korea. It is so easy to stay in touch with family and friends back home.

If you're hesitating, just buy it!

so if I wanted to call my daughter in South Korea it would be the same?

agemineye wrote:Thanks sdc100. Actually Obi is pretty easy to setup as well. You could do it on their website. Just enter your Google id and password and there you go. My concern is with the existence of Ooma and the tariff that Google will come up with in 2012.

Question?

Why are some of you people (not you necessarily!) on the OOMA thread trying to "sell" obi? If you have something to say about OOMA...then say it, otherwise stop trying to "sell" another product!!

With that said, We are an original ooma user and got in before any monthly fee's. We were hesitant at first, but there hasn't been a day gone by that we didn't love our ooma. The call quality is better than our landline, we have the cordless phones with more than one handset so we keep those all over the place, and we use google on top of it.

We fax regularly and it works like a charm (*99 please!). I was concerned about setup which turned out to be easy, even though we have a wireless fax machine, a router hard drive, and multiple other connections all going through ooma.

I would suggest if you are on the fence, go for it.....you will NOT be disappointed!!

KarenMarie wrote:
No, you were quite helpful... I never tried SKYPE paid service. That was my next choice before seeing this. I have their free service which is ok thru the computer... I even hooked up a bluetooth so I could clean house while talking. But the husband... he is an analogue guy in a digital world and can barely find the ON button on a computer, never mind log on to SKYPE and figure out bluetooth. I am not sure if I can hook a normal cordless phone into the router with SKYPE or with this?... that is important. The husband needs to be able to pick up and dial a 'normal' phone. SKYPE thru the Verizon cell phone is the worst thing I have ever tried. Alexander Graham would turn over for the awfulness!!

No promises about Skype's quality, but the fact that you can do video chatting might be an advantage. It's a great way to see the granddaughter grow up.

I love the role reversal in your family. Husbands are usually the techies while wives are often technophobes. You're clearly the techie in the family while he's a Luddite. Kinda reminds me of me and my ex. She was a sports fanatic while I loved chickflicks. And I won't even get into the fact that she loved guy-on-guy erotica while I blushed at a stripshow... Anyway...

Ooma is PERFECT for your husband because it operates transparently. You wouldn't even know that you're not on a landline. You can plug in any standard phone system, including cordless phones. In fact, you can plug in anything you'd plug into your landline, including fax machines and answering machines (some alarm systems may have problems though). The Ooma sits there like an answering machine. I don't know about this Telo, but the older Hub model even looks like an answering machine. It blinks when there are recorded messages, and there is a volume switch to screen calls. The buttons are large and easy to push.

Set up only took a few minutes. Account management can is accessed on the computer, which would naturally be done by you and not hubby.

KarenMarie wrote:---If you think that is cool.. You would be tickled pink to know.. Erm, better not say. My daughter is always telling me to act my age. ---

With all due respect to your husband I can definitely see a cougar thing going on where you'll prey on your granddaughter's boyfriends. That being the case maybe it's best that you don't get video chatting!

villainsmitty wrote:Okay, here's a big question from a newbie. I have to have AT&T to get DSL so I guess i have to at least keep my basic service or pay for the dry DSL version. Assuming I keep my basic service, let's say I attach this to my router and phone, when I make a call, how does the phone differentiate between whether I'm calling long distance using Ooma or AT&T, or is everything through Ooma at that point?
Also, if I call a family member, will it show a new # I picked when setting up Ooma or my landline #? Will calls placed to me at both numbers still get answered through my Uniden answering machine?
I'm just wondering how both phone numbers work at the same time and when you call long distance, it knows to go through Ooma and not ripoff AT&T.
Thanks for any info.

You do not have to have a phone with AT&T to have DSL. You can just have DSL and NOT a phone (landline). It's really a mute point. I would suggest cancelling your landline with AT&T, keeping your INTERNET....and using ooma. You can also port your landline phone # to ooma and not even have to change your #.

You would need to ask AT&T for "naked" or "dry" DSL....that is DSL only, with no phone!!

tracydr wrote:Question?

Why are some of you people (not you necessarily!) on the OOMA thread trying to "sell" obi? If you have something to say about OOMA...then say it, otherwise stop trying to "sell" another product!!

Haha. I'd normally agree that's its rude but one of the best things about Woot culture is that they allow (and maybe even encourage) criticism about their products. And that criticism includes offering alternatives. In fact, I'd say that 30-40% of my Quality Posts are criticisms, with many of those containing links to competing products. You'll also see people linking to vendors which have lower prices. This is one reason Woot is my favorite shopping website. I know that I'll be getting uncensored honest information. It's even less restrictive than its parent company, Amazon. They censor prices in postings while Woot doesn't.

sdc100 wrote:Haha. I'd normally agree that's its rude but one of the best things about Woot culture is that they allow (and maybe even encourage) criticism about their products. And that criticism includes offering alternatives. In fact, I'd say that 30-40% of my 207 Quality Posts are criticisms, with many of those containing links to competing products. You'll also see people linking to vendors which have lower prices. This is one reason Woot is my favorite shopping website. I know that I'll be getting uncensored honest information. It's even less restrictive than its parent company, Amazon. They censor prices in postings while Woot doesn't.

Yes, I agree with you...but it seems that some people are completely "confused" about how ooma/obi/google voice etc. actually works. Just hoping we can try not to confuse some of them even more...ya know what I'm saying?!?!

bibbly76 wrote:so if I wanted to call my daughter in South Korea it would be the same?

If she has a regular Korean phone, you'd call like you would call any S Korean phone number. If she has an Ooma, then she'd have an American phone number, and you'd call like you would call any American number. Either way, you'll be calling like you would normally call. The only difference is whether you'd be dialing a S Korean number or an American number.

In terms of cost, if she has an Ooma, you;d be calling a US number so the call is free. If she has a Korean landline or cellphone, then you'd be charge Ooma's long distance rates, which depend on which of the 3 plans you choose. Click here to see the international rates. Select S. Korea.

sdc100 wrote:
I love the role reversal in your family. Husbands are usually the techies while wives are often technophobes. You're clearly the techie in the family while he's a Luddite. Kinda reminds me of me and my ex. She was a sports fanatic while I loved chickflicks. And I won't even get into the fact that she loved guy-on-guy erotica while I blushed at a stripshow... Anyway...

I had to teach the hubby football, baseball and hockey. On tv of course, I don't have the stamina to actually play anymore. He did not know how to use cell phone voicemail until I got pissed off about his phone ringing and ringing when he could not answer it - so I just set up voicemail on his account and when he came home and bi!*ched about his not knowing why his cell would not stop beeping at him, I gave him an index card on how to use his voicemail. I am just teaching him the joys of texting!!

I build computers. I hooked up the stereo and DTV equipment. I built the network. He doesn't know how to work the DVR and barely the remote control.

He's an analogue guy in a digital world... and he is romantic and adorable and hard working and honest and a good provider and loyal and dedicated and a great father/grandfather and a wonderful husband ... all of it. and he kicks a** at mopping floors. :p

Anyway, you sold me on this. I am in for one!
thanks.

tracydr wrote:Yes, I agree with you...but it seems that some people are completely "confused" about how ooma/obi/google voice etc. actually works. Just hoping we can try not to confuse some of them even more...ya know what I'm saying?!?!

Confused .... that's me. Although I'm a techie and am posting a lot about Ooma, I'm completely ignorant about Internet voice technologies. Obi scares me and I still don;t know what Google Voice is. Nor have I ever used Skype, and I've never Chatted. So yeah, I can definitely see how all the extra info can confuse and scare people. That said, Ooma seems like easiest choice for non-teletechies like me.

sdc100 wrote:With all due respect to your husband I can definitely see a cougar thing going on where you'll prey on your granddaughter's boyfriends. That being the case maybe it's best that you don't get video chatting!

oh and it's funny you should say that...

you should have seen what my poor son in law went thru when he started dating my daughter. If he would have done her wrong, he would *wish* my husband got to him first!!! :D

oopsz wrote:I have the older Ooma model (the Hub). It's an outstanding piece of kit. I basically just had to plug it in, activate online, and approve the port request from AT&T. Monthly cost is less than paying for call waiting from the phone company.

Extremely high wife-acceptance-factor, to boot. She loves the voice quality and that she can easily check voicemails from her iphone.

Faxing is a little flaky (it's hit or miss, and I can't figure out why). Other than that, no complaints.

I had some faxing issues, too. I tweaked the QOS settings a bit and it seems to be reliable now. Go to setup.ooma.com in your browser and check out the advanced settings.

I hate this thing, bought it at the last woot off. It calls their support dept fine but wont make or receive any other calls. I've googled it, made multiple emails and calls to support. My 1st vacation day is Monday and guess what I'll be doing? YEP, calling customer service AGAIN. Plus I'm paying $3.50 a month for NOTHING.

Bought this and spent 8-10 hours trying to get it work with our AT&T DSL ubiquitous 2Wire combination modem router (2wire model 2701HG-B). 2Wire tech support was of no help. Upon further internet research found that this device does not like many of the combination modem routers. Had to return the Ooma after a wasted day of trying to get it to work. Suggest you Google you modem/router + Ooma before purchasing.

villainsmitty wrote:Okay, here's a big question from a newbie. I have to have AT&T to get DSL so I guess i have to at least keep my basic service or pay for the dry DSL version. Assuming I keep my basic service, let's say I attach this to my router and phone, when I make a call, how does the phone differentiate between whether I'm calling long distance using Ooma or AT&T, or is everything through Ooma at that point?
Also, if I call a family member, will it show a new # I picked when setting up Ooma or my landline #? Will calls placed to me at both numbers still get answered through my Uniden answering machine?
I'm just wondering how both phone numbers work at the same time and when you call long distance, it knows to go through Ooma and not ripoff AT&T.
Thanks for any info.

1) You don't need to keep your full AT&T service if you no longer plan on using their telephone features. Call AT&T and ask for "Naked DSL." That's where you're leasing their lines just for DSL data. The voice line will be dead, i.e. there'll be no dial tone. If the AT&T rep doesn't know what you're talking about, ask for a supervisor. Naked DSL is not something most phone companies advertise because they end up losing voice subscribers. Also threaten to change services if they don't offer you Naked DSL. You should also search for "Naked DSL AT&T" on the Internet.

2) If you go though AT&T's landline, your voice is transmitted as an analog signal. If you go through the Internet, your voice is converted to a bunch of digital blips first (sounding like a fax machine), and then converted back to voice at some central location before it reaches the other person. If you look at your RJ11 phone jack, you'll see 4 (or 6) colored wires. Only 2 are used for voice. The other two are normally unused -- unless you have DSL. The DSL digital signals travel through these unused wires. And that's how AT&T will know if you're calling through a normal landline or through the Internet (i.e. Ooma). Actually, the only thing it'll know is whether it's a landline call, in which case it'll charge you. A call through the Internet isn't really differentiated by AT&T from any other digital data. For example, it couldn't care less whether the data is carrying a YouTube video or iTunes music or an Ooma call.

So the short answer to your question is that a normal landline call is detected through the two analog voice wires. Internet calls, like all Internet data, travels through two different wires.

3) If you use an Ooma, you'll be given a new number based on some criteria you choose, i.e. area code. Or you can port over your landline number, just as you can bring your landline number over to a cellphone. I believe the fee is $40.

Your Uniden answering machine will answer whatever line it's connected to. The back of the Ooma has a regular RJ11 phone jack where you plug in your telephone equipment. Anything that you had plugged into your wall jack can now be plugged into the Ooma. So if your Uniden is plugged into the Ooma, it will answer all calls made to the Ooma.

Keep in mind that there is no connection between your landline and Ooma except that they sort of share the same wiring infrastructure. You can keep your landline with Ooma (in which case, you'll have two numbers), or close your landline account (but make sure not to do so until you've transferred your number over, if you want to keep it).

Bottomline: Close your landline account and all your calls will be made through the Internet.

sdc100 wrote:You're a grandma and you say, "pissed off"?!?!

Cool!

Sometimes a woman can get pissed off because she's a grandma ... like, if she's only 35.

Or, due to her pregnancy, her kids, their pregnancies, and their kids, she hasn't had the opportunity to get high since the Ramone's first performance.

-- Ed

I got this the last time it was on WOOT and have been very happy with it. Pay $3.16 in taxes a month and have the premium service. Voice quality is even better than Vonage which I had before and was getting as expensive as the land line I replaced with Vonage.

I have a prepaid cell which cost me $1 every day it is used and 10 cents a minute so I turn it off when I'm at home. Cost me nothing if I don't use it.

This also replaced my answering machine and works better. My only ocmplaint is it doesn't do 10 digit dialing which we've had to dial the area code in Phoenix for years as there are three in the city. On the Omma it beeps a busy signal if you dial the area code which usually drives me nuts until I remember why. I also bought the handset, the battery life sucks on it, has to be charged every few days. You don't need the handset.

Buy this and get rid of your land line, you won't regret it.

Oh, I've moved and will be moving again, one nice feature of VOIP is you don't have to hassle with the phone compnay, just move the box to your new place and tell them where you live for the 911, you keep the same number and your all done. No fees to move your service. Unlike the water company who is charging me a small fortune to turn on the water at the new place... I think the electric company said $20, the water company said something like $80..

ivanivanovich wrote:Sometimes a woman can get pissed off because she's a grandma ... like, if she's only 35.

Or, due to her pregnancy, her kids, their pregnancies, and their kids, she hasn't had the opportunity to get high since the Ramone's first performance.

-- Ed

Considering I saw one of the first Ramone's performances, I really laughed at that.

You post was very much appreciated. Very funny.

Ooma is awesome. I pay $3.50 per month for my service and I have converted 2 family members already. Consumer Reports recently rated Ooma as the #1 home phone service provider over the big names like AT&T and Verizon. At $140 this is a steal, savings of about $60 from other online retailers and my refurb unit has worked as new. Do it!

PDubs wrote:Any other comments regarding the faxing capabilities? Would love to be able to hook up our all-in-one and be able to fax.

Got one on last Woot and love it - was not able to get fax to work with the service so kept a minimal service land-line for faxing (and emergency phone use if power / internet is down)

I've been using Ooma at home for about a year and a half now with my Comcast/Xfinity cable modem and have no regrets making the switch. I paid $299 for mine. At this price it'll pay for itself in no time.

I do have dropped calls every once in a while but that is rare. For roughly $1 a month (you still have to pay the phone taxes annually), I'll take a dropped call every once in a while. Also, every couple months I usually need to reboot the Ooma system (simple power cycle).

I was also able to port my old home number (I think that's about a $40 fee to do that though).

Also, you'll need an available router port.

But I'm very happy I made the switch and highly recommend it.

I switched from Vonage to Ooma on a past Woot sale. I actually have Ooma installed at two different locations. The voice quality improved dramatically. My only regret is that Ooma's basic service (free calls plus $3.50/month in taxes) does NOT include the feature that sends you audio recordings of voicemail messages by e-mail. You get e-mail notifications when someone leaves voicemail, but you have to log in to actually listen to the message. (you can log in via your phone or via a web browser)

That feature was included by default on Vonage. I can get that with Ooma Premier, but that adds $10/month, and obviously I'm too much of a cheapskate.

There, I said it: I'm a cheapskate. Which is why I love Ooma. And Woot. And maybe you, if you're a cheapskate too.

I bought the hub model over a year ago when sellout.woot had it advertised form Radio Shack with a 15% off coupon.
My setup:
Cable Modem runs consistently at 6MB down/2MB up.
Router plugged into cable modem, ooma hub, PC, office VoIP phone plugged into router, at last count, 11 wireless devices connected of which, 3 or 4 are used at a time max.

With all of this going on, the only time I have had a call quality issue, is when I was uploading a huge (10 MB) file while on a call. Call clarity for me was still crystal clear, but the caller said my voice was choppy and unclear.

You have a couple of choices to counter this. First, plug the ooma box in in front of your router. You can then set up voice prioritization in the device. That did not work for me because my second voice device would not work when set up that way. Second, just monitor your other data usage as you talk. (obviously) If you don't go over your bandwidth limits, you should be good.

I was able to port my existing Frontier number to ooma with no problem. I think it cost me $30 to get the number moved. Just keep in mind, that with many VoIP companies (not sure about ooma) porting your out is usually not as easy as getting it ported in.

The call clarity has been great for me and I am on the grandfathered plan where I pay $0. Assunig ooma stays in business, I will stay with them for sure.

edit: Adding info about number porting.

I am no expert in this field. But it looks like the Obihai OBi110 does a similar thing for less
http://bit.ly/h28NiH

It's selling for about $50 at amazon.

I purchased this a few weeks ago and can't notice any difference from vonage, which it replaced. I even ported the number over with no issues. The ONLY difference is much much lower monthly bill and Ooma's musical dial tone.

anyone know why when I try to order it says I've been banned?

Does anyone use this with DirecTV/DVR service where your DVR has to be connected to a phone line to work? That is my concern with switching to VOIP, I don't want to screw up my Sunday Ticket or DVR service.

We also have a daughter who lives in the UK. We purchased a magic jack, registered it here in our town with a local number. We then took it over to her, she plugs it in to her computer in the UK, and has a local US number. All calls, incoming and outgoing to the US and Canada are free. If the Magic jack is not plugged in when someone calls it goes to voice mail. Magic jack then sends an e-mail to the selected e-mail account, where you can listen to the voice mail via M wave, or plug in the Magic jack and listen as usual
We also took a small corded phone to her with the magic jack.

I work from home and had a Vonage unit for some time, to use as my work number. I was disappointed by the poor audio quality, including a really annoying half-duplex effect.

Replaced it with an Ooma unit, and haven't looked back. At first I was having some troubles with the unit going into its "seeking Internet" mode or whatever it is; the Ooma logo on top of the unit would flash and I wouldn't get a dial tone. After following all the various troubleshooting methods I could find, I decided to move the Ooma behind my router, instead of between my router and my modem. No more problems with disconnection, and the audio quality got even better, to the point where it's indistinguishable from a land line.

I ditched my home landline and now have two Ooma units working beautifully behind my router. They paid for themselves a long time ago. For my home Ooma, I chose a number that is local to my family's town so they wouldn't have to pay long distance when they call me. :-)

The only issue I have with the Ooma units is that after a power hit, they stay in that flashing red, no-dial-tone mode. I have to reboot my modem in order to get them to come back online, not sure why. No biggie.

I use a Verizon broadband aircard for my internet, will Ooma work okay with this???

Forgive the novice questions:
I'm thinking about this mainly so I can drop my current international plan. I think I would likely keep my land line. Can I have the same number attached to the Ooma? And does anyone have thoughts on Ooma's international service and options? Also, my current phone/cable system is Verizon FIOS Digital, is that going to be more complicated?

We replaced our less-used Vonage line with a refurbed Oooma Telo from a previous Woot. When that worked perfectly, we did the same for our primary home number (splurged for Premier Service on the primary because of a few features, like the second line).

We now pay $17 a month for all our home phone service -- versus the $70+ we were forking over to Vonage.

The best thing I can say is that it's so transparent -- and high quality -- that I never even stop to think about whether our service is coming from Ooma, Vonage, or the Telco.

I was a beta tester of the original ooma hub and have been using it for 4 years. It has operated almost flawlessly and I have been incredibly satisified. My savings for this period is beyond belief. Moving over to the ooma hub is a no brainer................

Has anyone had any experience using it with home security systems?

Everytime this shows up, I am tempted. The reason I always pass is my cable goes out with amazing regularity. Thus, no phone service if we drop the land line since cell phones are also weak.

Since we need the phone for many reasons, dropping the land line is not an option. If we made a ton of overseas calls, I would get one in a heartbeat but barring that, I pass until cable gets more reliable. Hope Ooma is still around by then.

Cheers

KarenMarie wrote:Please be patient with me...

I had verizon for $40 per month +tax and etc.
I had IDT for long distance $7 +tax and etc.

My phone never rang - except for telemarketers occasionally. So, I canceled it.

My daughter and grandchildren live in the UK, we in the USA. We tried Skype and it was awful. *AWFUL* We looked at Vonage and it would have cost us almost as much as having the land line.

My husband is pissed off bcuz he cannot call our kids or grandkids in the UK...

Will someone please tell me how this will work for me and why I want this one?

I would really appreciate it.

thank you!!

Well, for starters, after purchasing the Telo, you will pay $3.50 a month, not $40. Ooma will assign you a new telephone number and if you're careful about whom you let have it, telemarketing calls won't be a problem. I know this from personal experience: I was plagued by them in both English and Spanish. I switched to Ooma, got a Google Voice number, which I hand out to non-friends and family, and the problem was gone.

As someone mentioned earlier, you can buy 1000 international minutes from Ooms for $10, so your total bill will be less than $14 a month. The sound quality will be Skype to a pulp and your husband will no longer be cranky. Win-win-win.

They sure seem to have a lot of refurbished base units to sell. How do they fail?

dakeasy wrote:Fellow Wooters: I bought this Ooma Telo refurbished back in January 2011 from Woot. It lasted 5 or 6 months and died. BUYER be warned!

Same here.. Dead..

Support was atrocious to say the least.. After a MONTH going back and forth with them they finally replaced it.

If you want this thing to work with your land line though, be prepared for disappointment. The only reason I still have it hooked up is because I paid for a year of premier. It'll be chucked after that's up.. If the hardware makes it that long.

This is an unnecessary piece of equipment if you have a PC. I have a Magic Jack and it is as clear as can be, $20 a year, free LD, VM, 411 etc. It still works when the PC is in power-save.

If you tried MJ and it was "choppy", "dropping calls" etc - that is your PCs issue, you've got an old PC or too much running in the back ground.

PDubs wrote:Any other comments regarding the faxing capabilities? Would love to be able to hook up our all-in-one and be able to fax.

I got this on the last Woot and have it hooked up to my all in one with no problems faxing at all. Also, just switched routers to Apple Time Capsule, works fine with Mac for those that may want to know.

I have bought this version and the older version. Although promising, not nearly as hassle free as Vonage. Call quality was excellent and it worked fine most all the time. But I wanted it to work fine ALL the time. Customer service is not 24/7 and often offered to call you back. Great device, great price, just not worry free with 100% up time.