Mediocrates
join:2008-05-27
Raleigh, NC
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
 ·Vonage
·AT&T CallVantage
| Silly question re telephone patch cords My V-Portal appears to REQUIRE a 2 pin phone cord to successfully connect to either my GE cordless phone OR my HP640 Fax machine.
What's up with that? where do you even get another 2-pin (2 wire) phone cord? I have one, but neither Best Buy nor RadioShack has one? | |
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snolsen
join:2004-01-10
Hanford, CA
1 edit | Re: Silly question re telephone patch cords The connector is only 2 pins wide or is it just using 2 pins? 2 pins are all that are required. | |
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 | Mediocrates
join:2008-05-27
Raleigh, NC
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
·Vonage
·AT&T CallVantage
| Re: Silly question re telephone patch cords Two center pins only on the patch cords. The RJ-11 socket on the V-portal appears to have 4-pins but it's clearly using only the middle two and a 4-pin 4 wire patch cord screws things up. At first I thought this was a requirement of my fax machine but now I understand it's a requirement of the V-portal itself. I can use any 2-pin patch cord for any phone or phone device but I can not use any 4-pin patch cords for those same devices.
I understand this is not a common peg card retail item so I just ordered one online.
Also - let me point out that no common RJ splitters can function with the V-Portal. The faceplate has a slight overhang in back which blocks any splitters from being fully inserted. If you want to split from the V-Portal you'd have to get a short 2-wire patch cord and plug that into an RJ splitter that's F on both sides. I do not know if the splitter has to be 2-pin all around as well. If yes then the whole thing is a moot point. What I will do is run another patch cord from the fax machine's EXT to the cordless phone that's there now. Hopefully this will not screw with things further. | |
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LBDSL
Lightning Bolt
VIP
join:2002-01-07
Auburn Hills, MI
| Re: Silly question re telephone patch cords said by Mediocrates  :The faceplate has a slight overhang in back which blocks any splitters from being fully inserted. A DSL filter is perfect for things like this. Short 3-4 inch wire.
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Lightning Bolt Technologies | |
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trekologer
join:2005-10-20
Old Bridge, NJ
| said by Mediocrates :What's up with that? The V-Portal puts the second line onto the outer pair of the "Line 1" jack (and the first line onto the outer pair of the "Line 2" jack). This is so that one could connect a 2-line phone to the V-Portal using only one 2-line phone cord.
Some phones and other equipment (such as HP fax machines) tend to either connect the inner pair to the outer pair or the outer pair to ground. So using a 2-line phone cord in those cases can have undesired results. | |
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| Mediocrates
join:2008-05-27
Raleigh, NC
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
·Vonage
·AT&T CallVantage
| Re: Silly question re telephone patch cords I do know that oddly a 4-wire line worked 100% between my HP640 Fax and my AT&T Callvantage Centillium MTA-1 while that 4-wire line between my HP640 Fax and the Vonage V-Portal did not work. It has nothing to do with house wiring as house wiring does not enter into this connection. As a test I tool that 4-wire line and used to replace the 2-wire line between my V-Portal and my otherwise 100% functioning GE 2 station one line cordless phone and it does not work.
When I used the 4-wire line between the V-Portal and the HP640 Fax using the 'line' port not the 'ext' port - I DO get that odd - "You have plugged your device into the wrong port warning message.
So, to make a long story boring, there is a new 2-wire line in shipment to me. when It gets here I will most likely plug the HP640 Fax into the V-Portal and plug the GE phone into the ext port of the fax machine.
Unless someone call verify whether a 4-pin splitter placed on the port-1 of the V-Portal and running both the fax and phone on separate 2-wire lines will actually work, or if it definitely will not. | |
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| | tanline
join:2009-06-25
Atlanta, GA
| Re: Silly question re telephone patch cords I had the same Problem with my HP All-In-One DeskJet Fax. When I connected the HP FAX to the Vonage Adapter with a 4 wire RJ11 - the fax would not work and actually the Vonage Adapter also failed. I found on the Internet that others with the same problem either used a DSL Filter reversed or a 2 wire RJ11. So I cut the 2 outside wires of the 4 wire RJ11 I had and it worked. No one has explained why the 4 wire RJ11 causes problems with the FAX Machine. Not sure why the DSL filter reversed would work either as I don't have any of those to look at. | |
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snolsen
join:2004-01-10
Hanford, CA
| Standard phone lines use the center 2 for one line and the other 2 for a second line. If your house is not new, then it is wired for 2 lines already. New houses usually use CAT-3/5 cabling for 4 lines. If it doesn't work with a regular line, then there is something wrong. | |
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