tristan530 wrote:What if you already have your Internet line connected to a wireless router?

It's recommended that you plug your internet line into your OOMA and then from the OOMA into your router to give your calls priority. As mine is more of a back-up phone, I just plugged the OOMA into one of the ports on the router. It seems to be fine that way and probably is unless you're a constant torrenter.

ckeilah wrote:
Does anyone know if Ooma will dual-ring to another line? And can you have more than one number on the Ooma?

Yes, both of these features are part of ooma's $10/month premier service.

tristan530 wrote:What if you already have your Internet line connected to a wireless router?

You can connect the ooma between the modem and router OR just plug the ooma into one of the router's LAN ports. I went with the latter in my setup.

For many of us in the "sticks", land lines work. VOIP is a dream if we want reliable communications. DSL sucks here so all I can choose from is cable. To ditch a landline, go VOIP, or get a Bluetooth cordless phone converter, sometimes called convergence. I can add a cell. phone to my family plan for about $13.00 a month and have a cordless phone in nearly every room.
If I were in a major metro area, I'd be all over this!

I should mention, you can cut the wires from your house to the phone company, plug OOMA into a jack somewhere and it lights up all the jacks in the house. I have three phones plugged into jacks in various places in the house.

Thanks for pointing that out, but in order to use the "two line" feature, you have to have two of these devices, I believe.

ckeilah wrote:PS: will Ooma email voicemail to you?

Yes, as part of the premier service.

Google Voice WARNING:

It looks like any number you port over to Google Voice *becomes Google property*!!

From their TOS:
"Google's Proprietary Rights

As between the parties, Google shall retain all right, title and interest to the telephone numbers used in connection with or provided as part of the Services."

I'd like to see the Ooma TOS, to be sure they don't have any such egregious theft clauses.

ckeilah wrote:Thanks for pointing that out, but in order to use the "two line" feature, you have to have two of these devices, I believe.

I don't think you need two Telos, but you might need two Telo handsets to use both lines at once. (Right now my parents have two numbers (because I ported their old number over and the temp number is still active) that can be used to call their ooma telo and rings all the phones in their house.) If you just want to have two numbers that ring all of the phones when either number is called, I think that is possible with just this hardware, premier service, and some extra line fees.

Remember, VoIP is okay for long distance calls or a house line for the kids, but if you lose power - or there is an emergency and you have to call 911 - you'll want a traditional hard line phone that gets its' dial tone from the central office.

Good luck with this - but I'll never trust VoIP in my house after our neighbors house caught fire!

bfhollis wrote:Purchased this Ooma during a recent Woot and we love it. Works great with voice and fax. The blacklist feature works excellent! Highly recommend this Woot deal!

While the Blacklist feature is nice, you don't need the Premier service to block callers. Many Panasonic and Uniden DECT 6.0 phone systems have a similar feature. Panasonic's CallBlock™, for example, keeps a list of numbers you don't want to answer. If that number calls, they'll hear a busy signal.

From what I understand, a difference between Panasonic and Uniden is that Panasonic rings once while Uniden won't ring at all while blocking. Some people don't want to be disturbed at all while others want to know that a Blocked caller was calling. I prefer the latter simply because I may have forgotten to take someone off the Block list. The Panasonics also have talking CallerID which reads the caller's name. It does amazingly well in English but struggles with some Spanish names, and completely mangles many Asian names.

JRuegg wrote:I should mention, you can cut the wires from your house to the phone company, plug OOMA into a jack somewhere and it lights up all the jacks in the house. I have three phones plugged into jacks in various places in the house.

NEVER CUT YOUR WIRES! Inside your test box is a test jack - open the test port and that breaks the connection to the telephone companies wires. They can bill you up to $134 to reconnect them. It may work for you, until you have to reconnect the wires when you get your line hooked back up or you move and the landlord sends you a bill for the work.

As a Verizon shareholder it pains me to say that after seeing these here on woot for 25 or 30 years now, I have finally pulled the trigger and bought an Ooma. Is the wireless dongle that SDC100 mentions called an "Oprah"?

My apologies to David Letterman, Uma, Oprah, and SDC100.

ckeilah wrote:Google Voice WARNING:

It looks like any number you port over to Google Voice *becomes Google property*!!

From their TOS:
"Google's Proprietary Rights

As between the parties, Google shall retain all right, title and interest to the telephone numbers used in connection with or provided as part of the Services."

I'd like to see the Ooma TOS, to be sure they don't have any such egregious theft clauses.

If that's true, I can see how Google may make money in the future by selling numbers to users who want to quit GoogleVoice and port it to another service.

"If the product is 'free' then YOU are the product!"


Read for yourselves:
http://www.ooma.com/legal/privacy-policy

They use advertising to fund the service, and they use tracking cookies and other technology to "sell" YOU to advertisers. Paying for the "Premium" services does not seem to relieve you from these burdens.

This may worry some people. e.g. "Some Ooma Products and Services are offered to Customers and Visitors in conjunction with a third-party vendor To provide these products and services, the vendor may need to collect and maintain your Personal Information."

I have mine hooked up to a router sharing with a PS3 and another computer, and have a Acer Revo kitchen nettop hooked up to the Ooma, with no problems. It might be best to hook the Ooma to the cable modem first and then feed the router from the Ooma, but like I said it works fine the way I have it.
I've had an Ooma for a few years and happy with it, and save $30/month not having a land line.

Some clarification, this isn't a land line, it's an internet phone service that hooks up to your cable modem (or router as in my case) and lets you hook up standard telephones to it (I use a Panasonic wireless with 2 stations )

People comparing it to Magic Jack- Ooma doesn't require a always on computer like Magic Jack does. It's a stand alone device.

calebmitchell wrote:It's 2012. Do people still use landlines? This seems like a waste of money (maybe that's why Woot keeps selling them? Nobody buys them?)

I do. As far as I know, no cellular service allows you to screen calls, which I find invaluable. CallerID alone doesn't tell me how urgent a call is. For example, I've had emergency calls from payphones and the cellphones of strangers. I would not have answered looking at CallerID, but picked up because I heard the message being left.

Also, living in NYC, I remember how helpless cellular users were after 9/11. Many of us couldn't get through for days because of tower failure as well as congestion. On the other hand, my landlind worked just fine. At that time, I had an old fashion non-VoIP landline and jack-powered phone so I could have even survived a citywide power failure.

ckeilah wrote:"If the product is 'free' then YOU are the product!"


Read for yourselves:
http://www.ooma.com/legal/privacy-policy

They use advertising to fund the service, and they use tracking cookies and other technology to "sell" YOU to advertisers. Paying for the "Premium" services does not seem to relieve you from these burdens.

This may worry some people. e.g. "Some Ooma Products and Services are offered to Customers and Visitors in conjunction with a third-party vendor To provide these products and services, the vendor may need to collect and maintain your Personal Information."

Ha, do you think this is any different than any other phone service? What you quote can be found in essentially any business's privacy policy.

For example, here's America's largest bank's privacy policy: https://www.bankofamerica.com/privacy/Control.do?body=privacysecur_cnsmr

That looks far worse than ooma, and they have far more information about their customers as well.

This does not bode well for keeping ownership of our phone numbers:

"The number assigned will be unique to the Equipment and will transfer with any sale of the Equipment. If, at any time, you cease to use the Equipment, please notify us immediately so that we can re-use your phone number. If, for whatever reason, you cease to use the Equipment for six months, we reserve the right to reassign your phone number to someone else's equipment. In the event you wish to re-activate your Equipment, we will re-issue you a new phone number, and you may incur re-activation charges."

ckeilah wrote:This does not bode well for keeping ownership of our phone numbers:

"The number assigned will be unique to the Equipment and will transfer with any sale of the Equipment. If, at any time, you cease to use the Equipment, please notify us immediately so that we can re-use your phone number. If, for whatever reason, you cease to use the Equipment for six months, we reserve the right to reassign your phone number to someone else's equipment. In the event you wish to re-activate your Equipment, we will re-issue you a new phone number, and you may incur re-activation charges."

You can port your number away from ooma should you no longer wish to use it.

ckeilah wrote:"If the product is 'free' then YOU are the product!"


Read for yourselves:
http://www.ooma.com/legal/privacy-policy

They use advertising to fund the service, and they use tracking cookies and other technology to "sell" YOU to advertisers. Paying for the "Premium" services does not seem to relieve you from these burdens.

This may worry some people. e.g. "Some Ooma Products and Services are offered to Customers and Visitors in conjunction with a third-party vendor To provide these products and services, the vendor may need to collect and maintain your Personal Information."

I don't see how this is a major concern since you never need to use your computer or their website again after setup. Yes, there are features that are only accessible online but I've never used them. If you don't want email from them, simply use a spare account or even a fake account, i.e. 10 Min Email.

As far as I know, your landline and cellular providers can also send you promotional offers as well as sell your address. That means Ooma s no different than the paid services.

sedlie wrote:Ha, do you think this is any different than any other phone service? What you quote can be found in essentially any business's privacy policy.

For example, here's America's largest bank's privacy policy: https://www.bankofamerica.com/privacy/Control.do?body=privacysecur_cnsmr

That looks far worse than ooma, and they have far more information about their customers as well.

You picked the absolute worst example if you're trying to make the point that "Ooma isn't so bad because Bunk of Duhmerika does it" Those thieving rat bastards at BofA lied, cheated, and stole from me at every turn, even after I ran screaming; they bought up my new banks and continued screwing me over!!

I'm not saying that Ooma is bad. I'm trying to suss it out *before* I hand over my 20+ year phone number, or any other commitment that I'll be pained to extract myself from.

I'd be much happier if Ooma had in it's TOS "porting your phone number from Ooma is permitted under all typical porting scenarios," or something like that. But they don't.

sedlie wrote:You can port your number away from ooma should you no longer wish to use it.

Please cite your sources.

sdc100 wrote:While the Blacklist feature is nice, you don't need the Premier service to block callers. Many Panasonic and Uniden DECT 6.0 phone systems have a similar feature. Panasonic's CallBlock™, for example, keeps a list of numbers you don't want to answer. --snip--.

I already have TWO of those Panasonic phones, and BOTH of their limited block-list memories are full. It seems that as soon as I delete some old numbers to make room for the new solicitors, the old ones start calling again. I really want a *whitelist* of numbers that can ring through, a *blacklist* of numbers that get hung up on, and *greylist* (everyone else) who gets put through to voicemail. The black and white lists should be hundreds, or thousands, of entries long. I think Ooma does this.

ckeilah wrote:Please cite your sources.

http://www.ooma.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2106

I actually have both an OBi100 (with Google Voice, 2 months)and an Ooma Core (original style, 3 years). I think both are very good and easily replace POTS lines.

The OBi is nice in that it is service agnostic even though I am currently using GV. This is free through 2012 for US and Canada calls but nobody knows what will happen after. So there is a lot of uncertainty there. Plus you have to have a "real" phone (cell or landline) attached to your GV account which makes it difficult to call between that line and the OBi (it assumes you are just checking messages). But it's cheap with zero additional costs...at least through 2012.

Now the Ooma has been serving me very well for just over 3 years now. My OG Ooma has the benefit of ZERO monthly fees so I have made back my investment many times over and continue to do so. Also, I have been using this from overseas for the last two years and it works GREAT! It is truly a "set and forget" device and is easy even for the Noobs we all know. Note that the original cost was much higher and free calls only go to the US.

Really tough call between them. I guess the lowest risk is the OBi unit as the upfront cost is so low and there are currently no monthly fees. But I don't regret getting my Ooma either. Right now it's kind of a toss up between them. I guess I would recommend Ooma for people who don't want to "fiddle" and the OBi units if you don't mind some uncertainty.

But definitely get rid of POTS!

investr wrote:If you haven't heard of the Obi100 by Obihai technology then you haven't been following the trends in VoIP. No fee's, one time price of $45 on Amazon, grab a FREE Google Voice number - voila, a truly free home phone.

I'm running mine now.

Send a unit overseas, call the per-determined number, voila - free int'l calls.

Google it or look on Amazon, then come back and thank me later

Purchased new at Newegg with bluetooth adapter for $179 on special a few weeks ago. Clarity is great and has been reliable so far. Still waiting for number to port. Ooma says can take up to 4 weeks. Setup was easy and instructions recommend trying to connect directly to your router first. If you have issues, then put it infront of your router.

I have several GV numbers, but I don't want to hand over my home phone # to Google like Obi. The Telo is a VERY nice looking device. Its only flaw is it is not wall mountable - Wakko Talks Faboo!!!

I read all about the Obi, and while I am a Systems Admin, it sounds like something I don't want to mess with - mostly for my wife. If anything goes wrong while I am away she won't want to trouble shoot it. If that happens with the Ooma, and least we have support.

As far as power outages, get a good battery backup and run just your modem, router, Ooma, and one phone off of it. They last a long time. If you are way out in the boonies and have multiday outages, you probably have a generator anyways, or like someone else mentioned, you can't get a decent enough internet connection to use this.

sdc100 wrote:I don't see how this is a major concern since you never need to use your computer or their website again after setup. Yes, there are features that are only accessible online but I've never used them. If you don't want email from them, simply use a spare account or even a fake account, i.e. 10 Min Email.

As far as I know, your landline and cellular providers can also send you promotional offers as well as sell your address. That means Ooma s no different than the paid services.

I don't think you comprehend the potential for abuse. Ooma clearly states that they will share your PERSONAL INFORMATION with advertisers. They also note that they will track your calls, and that they will insert invisible tracking devices in the email they send to you. Personally, I WANT my voicemail emailed to me, but I DON'T want my telephone company, or their advertisers, tagging along for a free ride.

This MAY not be as onerous as it could be, but the fact that Ooma leaves the door open give me pause. If *I* were offering these services, I would clearly state that under no circumstances would I violate my customers' privacy (barring jack booted thugs with warrants banging down my door). But that is why I'm struggling to pay my phone bills, and the kids that I taught about the Internet commercialized it and made mints.

I guess I'll sleep on this one.

ckeilah wrote:You picked the absolute worst example if you're trying to make the point that "Ooma isn't so bad because Bunk of Duhmerika does it" Those thieving rat bastards at BofA lied, cheated, and stole from me at every turn, even after I ran screaming; they bought up my new banks and continued screwing me over!!

I'm not saying that Ooma is bad. I'm trying to suss it out *before* I hand over my 20+ year phone number, or any other commitment that I'll be pained to extract myself from.

I'd be much happier if Ooma had in it's TOS "porting your phone number from Ooma is permitted under all typical porting scenarios," or something like that. But they don't.

Not trying to say, just pointing out an example of an American Institution that plenty of people put their privacy in the hands of. (I don't.)

Here's comcast's: http://xfinity.comcast.net/privacy/2011-10/

You'll find similar language. Look up your current phone company's privacy policy. It's not any better.

raygun300 wrote:
Some clarification, this isn't a land line, it's an internet phone service that hooks up to your cable modem (or router as in my case) and lets you hook up standard telephones to it (I use a Panasonic wireless with 2 stations )

People comparing it to Magic Jack- Ooma doesn't require a always on computer like Magic Jack does. It's a stand alone device.

It's often considered a landline because most home Internet service is hardwired and terrestrial. In other words, it's a "line" going through the "land," as opposed to the air (yes, I'm aware that some Internet data are routed through satellites).

Also, the new MagicJack Plus can operate as a standalone device as well as use the computer.

Not again. I'm personally tired of this item. Buy them up and get it over with so they don't have any left.

It must be a high profit item for Woot to have this up that many times.

Bring it down to $99.99 shipped and you might get more buyers Woot. I bet they don't pay more than $40 to $50 each, maximum.

I'm annoyed, it could go on Woot deals or home and they could have other new items up here instead.

Anyone want to explain this one from woot deals? Regular price is $300,nwout;s 14 http://www.bensoutlet.com/products/mobile-hotspot-2200

ckeilah wrote:Oh, yeah... now I remember why I didn't buy this at Costco. It either said, or implied, that it had to be the first device (replacing your router) for your entire LAN! Does anyone know if that's truly the case, or is there a way to configure this to live happily on the LAN, behind a real router/gateway?

No. You can set it up either in front of or behind your router, but it does not replace your router. I put mine in-line between the cable modem and the router because I am out of router ports, but it works fine either way.

ckeilah wrote:I don't think you comprehend the potential for abuse. Ooma clearly states that they will share your PERSONAL INFORMATION with advertisers. They also note that they will track your calls, and that they will insert invisible tracking devices in the email they send to you. Personally, I WANT my voicemail emailed to me, but I DON'T want my telephone company, or their advertisers, tagging along for a free ride.

This MAY not be as onerous as it could be, but the fact that Ooma leaves the door open give me pause. If *I* were offering these services, I would clearly state that under no circumstances would I violate my customers' privacy (barring jack booted thugs with warrants banging down my door). But that is why I'm struggling to pay my phone bills, and the kids that I taught about the Internet commercialized it and made mints.

I guess I'll sleep on this one.

What personal information? The only info they have is my address and phone number, which again is no different than any other phone service. They don't have my DOB, gender, physical characteristics, SS#, etc.

As for tracking my calls, that again is no different from any other cellular or landline phone service. They all keep a list of my incoming and outgoing calls, which can be accessed with proper authorization. We've all seen it in high profile court cases.

I'm not sure what "invisible tracking devices" are -- and how they circumvent malware scanners that all computers should have anyway. Don't trust the voicemail file? Just run it through s converter to strip off any embedded malware, i.e. convert the WAV or MP3 file to WMA, or listen to it on your MP3 player instead of your computer.

If you're okay with any free email provider, i.e. Gmail or Hotmail, then you should be okay with this. They all mine your usage for commercial purposes. Even paid providers probably do the same.

I have a refurbed Ooma hub I get here on woot and love it. I had MagicJack before and the call quality on the Ooma is much better.

I keep my MagicJack number because I work nights and give that number out to the dentist, doctor etc. so when they call it won't wake me and it is nice to get the email with the voice message. But I haven't actually plugged in the MagicJack in a long time--the voice mail is on their servers--no computer needed for that. I think I paid up for 5 or 6 years with MagicJack when they had a half-off sale a couple of years ago.

Got it for over a year ow, like it a lot, especially the personal blacklist feature.

Haven't been able to fax with it, even though it is documented as *possible*, the 99 dialing and lack of any support from Ooma staff for faxing has left me using pamfax instead for faxing.

If your Internet goes down, you can have Ooma automatically route your calls to a land or cell line.

Also like that it will forward your voice messages to an email address. I can be away from home and get the email on my cell, open the attachment and listen to the voice message.

I have needed to use the 911 and can vouch for the fact it works and they have your address when you call for help.

I guess my biggest complaint is not able to fax, but very minor for me. If you have a home office and you MUST have fax-out capabilities, you might want to keep a line line for faxing only, the Ooma Telo will work along with the land line just fine.

MichXelle wrote:Not again. I'm personally tired of this item. Buy them up and get it over with so they don't have any left.

It must be a high profit item for Woot to have this up that many times.

Bring it down to $99.99 shipped and you might get more buyers Woot. I bet they don't pay more than $40 to $50 each, maximum.

I'm annoyed, it could go on Woot deals or home and they could have other new items up here instead.

Anyone want to explain this one from woot deals? Regular price is $300,nwout;s 14 http://www.bensoutlet.com/products/mobile-hotspot-2200

They keep featuring the Ooma Telo because there's a lot of interest in it. Consumer Reports gave it their top spot just 6 months ago so it's an active product, not discontinued like some other Woots. In fact, Ooma just came out with a cordless dongle for it.

As for the Verizon Wireless Mobile Hotspot, there's nothing much to say. First, Ben always greatly inflates the retail proce so ignore the $300. The device is just a 3G router that does something similar to your home router. If you subscribe to Verizon's 3G service, then your WiFi devices can use this just as they can use your home router. The two major differences are: 1) This is wireless and can be used most places you can use your cellphone, i.e outdoors; 2) It's slower than most home Internet services.

Check out the HD2 handset just announced at CES. I'll be ordering one of those as soon as they're available.

http://ces.cnet.com/8301-33373_1-57356101/oomas-free-voip-calling-system-gets-sexy-new-handset-option-the-hd2/

NavyStore wrote:NEVER CUT YOUR WIRES! Inside your test box is a test jack - open the test port and that breaks the connection to the telephone companies wires. They can bill you up to $134 to reconnect them. It may work for you, until you have to reconnect the wires when you get your line hooked back up or you move and the landlord sends you a bill for the work.

If you know what you're doing (even a little bit) this isn't a big deal. I did a loopback on my house 5 years ago while I was still using Vonage. It's very easy to do and if you ever decide to go back to landline all you have to do is put them back to normal.
My only thing is remembering to put it back before we move so the next owner isn't left trying to figure out why they can't get tone.

NavyStore wrote:Remember, VoIP is okay for long distance calls or a house line for the kids, but if you lose power - or there is an emergency and you have to call 911 - you'll want a traditional hard line phone that gets its' dial tone from the central office.

Good luck with this - but I'll never trust VoIP in my house after our neighbors house caught fire!

If you have an UPS you can supply power to a VOIP set and router for a long time. We've gone hours without power during storms and still had phone service in my place using this very system.
Also, Ooma works perfectly with 911. I've had to call them twice in the couple of years since we got ours. When you set up your device you can even set it up to text or email you if someone dials 911 now.
To top it off, home security systems dont have a problem with it if you do the loopback on your house. We had ours set up that way before going wireless with our security system.

This is the cheapest you'll find these units. Got my refurbed Ooma via Woot at this price over 6 months ago and am very happy. It took about 3 days to port my existing AT&T number which I've had for about 20 years. Didn't have to tell anyone about the change. FYI, if you don't sign up for the premium service it costs extra to port your number.

First used this on AT&T DSL with no problems. Got cable and used that. Dropped AT&T DSL, dropped AT&T landline, happily lifted middle finger to salute AT&T farewell.

Cool thing was being able to hook up to internal phone wiring. We were using VOIP over old rotary dial phones (couldn't dial OUT but could receive). Now using DECT 6.0 wireless phones, however (no caller ID display for the rotary phones).

ckeilah wrote:Oh, yeah... now I remember why I didn't buy this at Costco. It either said, or implied, that it had to be the first device (replacing your router) for your entire LAN! Does anyone know if that's truly the case, or is there a way to configure this to live happily on the LAN, behind a real router/gateway?

Also, I re-read the info, and sure enough, you can have another line (for what appears to be an extra, undisclosed, cost)

PS: will Ooma email voicemail to you?

I have mine behind my FIOS router. I never saw any implication that it could not be set up that way but never had a problem with it in the 2 years since purchasing one.

The "instant second line" feature requires a Telo handset to enable, but, not to use. What happens is if you're on the phone and someone else picks up a handset, they automatically get a second line so you can essentially use the same phone number on two calls at once. They also give you the ability to choose another phone number in your account without paying extra. So, you can have an actual second phone number that rings into your home for no additonal cost.