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| ooma Scout (to use with VoIP Phone Device with No Monthly Phone Service Bills) - Click Here For More Info! |
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Product Description |
| Try out ooma's enhanced calling features with a free trial of ooma Premier, which includes a free second phone line, real-time message screening, one-touch Do Not Disturb and Send to Voicemail, a second personal number with private voicemail, and more |
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Product Details |
- Please note: An Ooma Hub is required to enjoy the Ooma Scout's functionality. Visit the Ooma Hub page to learn more. The Ooma Scout is not compatible with the Ooma Telo.
- Enjoy unlimited US calling, exceptional voice quality, and must-have features with no monthly fees or contracts
- Receive caller-ID, call-waiting, and voicemail at no extra charge; pay as you go for low-cost international calls
- Extend the power of the Ooma system anywhere you have a phone jack by connecting an Ooma Scout device
- Try out Ooma's enhanced calling features with a free trial of Ooma Premier, which includes a free second phone line, real-time message screening, one-touch Do Not Disturb and Send to Voicemail, a second personal number with private voicemail, and more
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Video Reviews |
Ooma Phone Review & Information
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Customer Reviews |
 GET A SCOUT |
| Review Date: May 3, 2008 |
| Reviewer: John D. Kelner, |
You obviously have or are buying a hub. Should you buy a scout too? I didn't initially... and they were on a different price plan (less expensive) then. I should have. But they recently extended the functionality of these little boxes and I bought 2. Bottom line - for an additional $60, you get a second IN and OUT line and separate phone number (if you subscribe to premier or are grandfathered in with their old - expensive) price point. I am an 'old' one. I didn't get one initially. With the scouts you can play voice mail from the scout. Handy because I have the hub, buried in a cabinet. you can assign a separate phone number ring to that device. It provides, potentially another place to plug another cordless set of handsets.
Configuration is very easy and very difficult at the same time. They provide an 'idiot proof' guide in their documents. And all works as they say it will. Here's the problems... (and they are not really OOMA's problems).
1. I have a large home. I don't want to buy a scout for each room. Most cordless devices provide only 4 and sometimes 5 handsets. That may be enough. You can use the scout to extend that and plug in another set of cordless handsets into it... but that is ONLY if you don't use the separate phone line with the scout.
2. Their functionality as of the writing of this does not allow you to move your second phone number to the scout alone. If you set it up as a shared device (which I, unfortunately did), you can't move it. So for now, all the scouts ring as does the hub for either number. They say 2-3 weeks for software deployment for moving numbers to a specific device. If you do that, the second cordless for the first line is out. the handsets applicable to this will ring only on that second line.
3. To avoid the handset issue, I 'backwired' my home. I plugged the OUTPUT of the HUB into LINE 1 of my home. (on any phone plug, called an RJ-11 jack there is a maximum of 6 wires. Most jacks and most wires are wired with 2 or 4 wires. Look at the plug on your cord. How many copper tips are there? The center 2 are for line 1. The next two are for line 2 and so on. Thus for wires 1,2,3,4,5,6 - 34 are for line 1, 25 are for line 2 and 16 are for line 3. Most newer homes have at LEAST what they call THREE PAIR wires. (that's three pairs of wires) run through the house. Most have 5 pair. The standard convention are blue/white for line 1, orange/white for line 2 and green white for line 3.
Here's where the fun comes in. By backwiring your home, you can distribute the ooma hub to every jack in the house. But that's not in their manual and it would conflict with how they recommend you hook up the scout. In my situation, the OUT of the hub goes to line 1 wiring in the house. In their directions, the hub IN (wall) jack is plugged into line 1 and the scouts pick up the hub signal from any jack.
You can get around this this way:
a. get several line splitter jacks from radio shack. They usually have three plugs labled (1+2, 1 and 2). Thus, the 1+2 acts like a normal jack. The 1 is line 1 only and the 2 is line 2. Plug one of these jacks into a house wiring jack. Plug the IN of the hub (wall) into the LINE 2 of the adapter. Now, the scout signal will be distributed through the house on the line 2 wiring.
For each scout you will need a similar jack converter and just plug it in to the line 2 jack as noted above. Use the line 1 part of the jack for your regular phone (where you will find the OOMA dial tone).
= = = a caveat. Many homes do not have the wires RUNNING THROUGH each wall jack. That is they may not be connected at the jack. If they are not, everything 'downstream' of the disconnection will not work. Most of the newer homes I have seen have all three line wires connected all the way through. But you may have to look at each jack to make sure that the IN wire to the jack is connected as well as the OUT wires (which feed the next jack in the house).
More than you wanted to know, maybe.
BUY a scout. Maybe 2 or three! |
A no brainer
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| Review Date: February 13, 2009 |
| Reviewer: A. LANE, West Palm Beach, FL |
I am writing this review to let people know that first I am not affiliated nor a sponsor of ooma. I bought this device on a whim, I had just spent 45 minutes on hold with my local phone company. I did break away from ma bell years ago when the phone co.s were deregulated and smaller telecom companies sprouted up selling the same service cheaper.I bought into this and had this phone system for years. All was ok as long as I did'nt have to deal with their customer service which totally sucks. They made life easy by allowing online paying of your bill, a nice feature except their site was down 99% of the time, and if you wanted to pay by phone they charged a convenience fee of 5.00.
My lastdealing with them put me over the edge, It was time for this company to go away for good.I had purchased and set up a Vonage phone system about a year prior and used the lowest price system whichwas 14.99 for 500 minutes. I was calling to have them changemy account to the 24.99 a monthplan. I started to figure a cheap alternative way to have Vonage throughout the house, we have a two story townhouse so going up and down stairs for the phone was not an option,but on their website they gave instructions on how youcan go to the outsidephone box, disconnectthe phone lines comming in to your house and then set up the Vonage into one of the phone jacks and use all the other jacks as extensions. This was a great solution, but one minor problem, my home security system was not compatible with Vonage and what if I lost internet service while away from home,the security system would be worthless.
I proceeded to price out moving the existing phone service to the one jack that the security system uses and use Vonage throughout the house. The phone co.wanted 150.00 to move the jack and set up the line,my answer was get lost.
Later that night I was browsing on Amazon for a new cell phone, when all of a sudden up popped on the screen the ooma device, I started to read about it and it really got my attention. I went and ordered it on a whim and even had it delivered two day express shipping.
I received in two boxes,one had the ooma hub and one scout and the other had an additional scout(for upstairs) I opened them and the first thing they tell you to do is register before hooking up anything, so I went to the site registered the unit with my current phone number and proceeded to hook it up.
The one thing that surprised me aboutthe ooma was that there was no need to disconnect the outside phone lines into the house, the unit's signal overlays on top of the regular phone line signal, this was great because I did not have the need to move any phone jacks forthe security system. I finished hooking up and all the units lights went blue, which means that they are working and that they are all synchronized together. One thing that is unique to the system is the dial tome you get, its like a sort of jingle that flows into a dial tone (strange).
I havehad this unit in my home since December, and it has not failed or performed poorly since,The features that come with it are better than the phone company's and better priced. When you buy the unit you get 60 days free trial of the premier service, I enjoyed having two lines going at the same time, with no degradation in the signalon either line, the voicemail is better than anything I have seen. Log in to ooma lounge to retrieve messages or set up your phone, have a wav file sent to your e mail account and listen to your messages, I have mine come to my pda phone and I amable to return an important call in little to no turnaround time.
Of course there are all the nice features that you get from the phone co. but with the ooma hub and scouts using the features is easier than the phone co. system.I recently did have a hiccup inthe system with the call waiting feature, and the ooma people told me to expect this at times until your number is ported over.
One other thing I forgot to mention, since this system has a signal that overlays the phone co. signal, you can keep a cheap line for local service and for the security system in case the internet goes down, this phone line is good to have as a redundancy for 911 calls which the ooma unit will use if need be.
There is really more than I can say about the ooma other than try it, goto their website and readthe info and watch the videos, and you too will see like I did that this is a no brainer.
o |
Almost Too Good to be True, But it is.
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| Review Date: May 26, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Bob Feeser, Springfield, PA USA |
People have a hard time believing that they can have first rate totally free phone service, but they can. This Scout device is an add on, or part of the Ooma package that enables that. To use this Scout device you need to already have the ooma Hub - VoIP Phone Device with No Monthly Phone Service Bills
This scout provides the ability to have use of a second phone line, all integrated into the same phone number you use with the hub.
For those who are new to the Ooma phone, get it. The voice quality is superior to the other types of VOIP service I have used. I even had a problem with automated phone systems asking for "Press one" for example. I would press one, but occassionally, with certain places, it would not register. with Ooma, those places that I had problems with all work perfectly.
You can actually disconnect your regular phone with the Ooma system, and transfer your existing phone number over. You will need to maintain a broadband connection though, since that is what your phone operates through. If you have DSL, you can request a dry line, with DSL only, and still be able to disconnect your regular phone service. If you have Verizon FIOS, or cable you can use your phone through there, and not have any committments for a regular phone line as well.
Hey with the new TV converter boxes, and the government coupon offer, you can spend 20 dolars once for the converter, and discontinue satellite, or cable tv, and still get digital quality picture and video, with nothing more then a set of rabbit ears. So much for 80 dollars per month to watch TV. Then forget having to pay a phone bill, because Ooma is free unlimited phone use. All that is left is your internet connection. If you want to use Verizon's basic DSL at 756k for 20 bucks roughly, you now have all three for the least expensive price. That way you have more money for more toys.
You can see that the Ooma hub makes it possible to greatly reduce your overall overhead. It works without a glitch. Highly recommended. |
A Great Extension!
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| Review Date: January 28, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Martin A Hogan, San Francisco, CA. (Hercules) |
| The OOMA "Scout" is simply for use with an additional phone in another room. However, there are no additional hook-ups to your Internet service. Just install your phone jack, wall jack and power plug and you have a new OOMA "Scout" in another room - same features as the OOMA Hub. Well worth the initial costs! |
Beautiful and Saves Money
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| Review Date: February 29, 2008 |
| Reviewer: ' Groovin' guy, |
This is the Ooma scout. It's basically another extension you use along with the Ooma Hub.
Using the Ooma Hub results in no telephone bill, unless you call internationally.
This just pays for itself, especially when you make a lot of calls.
Another great feature is that you can have multiple scouts attached to your phones and each phone operates independently.I can use one phone with the scout while my girl can pick up another phone and make her own calls,without interruption of my own calls.
I am absolutely thrilled with mine and I strongly recommend it. |
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This entry was posted on Monday, July 20th, 2009 at 6:25 pm and is filed under ooma Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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