Jerry,
ooma seems expensive up front but would easily recover the cost of an at&t
land line in one year, or two years from my local cable landline offering.
Correct. But I have *way* more than recouped my investment. Not only that,
but I actually like my ooma way better than my at&t landline. I subscribe
to the "premier" level which enables extra features, among them the ability
to "multiring" my cell phone simultaneously with my office phone. I can
answer a call to my office number immediately at any time without having to
remember to use call forwarding as I did with a POTS line. And yes, I know
about Google Voice but I was able to port my POTS number to ooma. Actually,
ooma integrates with google voice nicely; I actually have that as well.
But I couldn't find (on the ooma website) anything that indicated whether
the device needs to run between my cable modem and router or if it should
be behind the router (ie can it run from a port off the router)? And it
didn't indicate that a power supply was needed - should I assume there is
a wall wart somewhere in the mix?
There is a wall wart. I think it pulls 15 watts or less, so if you
dedicated a computer to MJ which would not otherwise need to be on, the
electricity savings add up even if the PC is headless. The original ooma
model (white, and called a hub) internally ran a customized version of
Asterik. The next model model (black, and called a telo) internally runs
Freeswitch. The telo gets pretty frequent firmware updates (done
automatically) to add features. For example, since I got mine they added
bluetooth support (both for a headset to take calls or to pair with your
cell phone and allow you to take cell phone calls via phones in your home),
an iPhone app (in my case I use SipDroid instead), Google Voice integration,
etc.
It can go ahead or behind the router. When placed ahead of the router, it
automatically handles QOS. This is the drop dead simple way to set it up,
especially for folks who understand nothing about networking. I placed mine
behind my router. Even without QOS setup in the router, call quality is
almost always excellent.
If you disconnect your home wiring from the LEC at the demarc outside your
home (to avoid any backfeed), you can run a phone wire from the ooma base
unit to the wall and all your phone jacks in the house will be connected to
ooma instead.
The Telo also supports DECT handsets, but IMHO they are over-priced and
under-whelming. However, I love the base units and service.
Doug
midrange.com
