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[General] OOMA over DSL using existing phone lines

When was your house built, and do you know if it is wired using home run type structured wiring. Meaning does each jack get wired to a central location such that there are no splices or splits in the lines?

If so, your incoming DSL line could terminate directly to the modem and be removed from the rest of the house wiring.

The house was built in the 60's.
The phone lines are spliced together at various points in the house so they don't all go to a central point.
Originally it was wired with two pairs of wires, but the only solid set of wires are being used to bring in the DSL to the modem which until recently also carried POTS. The DSL is currently dry looped.

Dave

If possible, the best thing would be a new cable run from the NID to the modem location. Disconnect the house wiring from the NID, and use it to carry the line provided through the ATA device.

reply to davec_75234
Is the 2nd yellow/black wire pair from your NID (demarc box) also spliced and connected to your phone jacks in the house? In particular, is it connected from the NID all the way to the phone jack where your DSL modem resides? If necessary, remove the phone wall plate and verify that the yellow/black wires are hooked up. If so, then this wire pair can be used as the "home run" as they like to say....proceed as follows:

At the NID, disconnect the red/green wire pair and hook up the yellow/black wire pair instead. You will need to make sure no filters are used at the NID, bypass or remove as necessary. The DSL modem needs a clean run from the NID to phone jack. Close up the NID, you're finished here.

Now purchase a Line 1/Line 2 phone line jack adapter for your wall jack where your DSL modem resides for about $2-$4. Do not get just a simple phone jack splitter, it must be line 1/line 2 splitter. The adapter will be clearly marked with L1, L2 and L1+L2 on it. It looks like this:
»www.ebay.com/itm/2-Line-Phone-Ja···bdb18450

Plug in the adapter at the wall jack. Now hook up the phone cord from your DSL modem to the L2 port on the wall adapter. Power up your modem and verify it's working. If it's not, then you will have to find and repair the open circuit on the yellow/black wire pair somewhere between the wall jack and the NID. If everything is working good, then hook up a phone cord from the OOMA device to the L1 port on the wall adapter. This will back feed the phone signal to all the phone jacks in the house which is the red/green wire pair that you disconnected at the NID. If you need to plug in a phone near the OOMA device, then plug this cord into the L1+L2 port on the wall adapter. BTW, you should remove all the DSL phone filters in your house. They are not needed anymore because the DSL line signal is now completely isolated from the phone line. Hope this works for you....

Edit:
I probably should have pointed out another alternative if you feel uncomfortable with connecting/disconnecting wires at the NID.

Purchase the same 2 line splitter adapter above for all the wall jacks in the house and install them. At the wall jack where the DSL modem resides, make sure the phone line going to the modem is connected to the L1 port on the wall adapter. Connect the phone cord from the OOMA device to the L2 port on the wall adapter. This will send the the phone signal down the yellow/black wire pair around your house. At all the other wall adapters, make sure you connect all the phones to the L2 port on the wall adapters. Do not connect anything to the L1 port at these adapters, otherwise you may potientally introduce signal interference into the DSL line. In this scenario, I'm assuming the yellow/black wire pair is connected to all the wall jacks in the house and is disconnected at the NID. If you need to hook up a phone near the OOMA device, buy a regular phone line splitter and plug this into the L2 port of the wall adapter, then plug the phone and the OOMA device into this 2-way splitter.