Voip and multiple phones

[captroosh]

I have some questions and through my own investigation cannot find an answer. Here is what I want to find Out. I have VoiP service through Optimum cable. I can dial out with my Rotary phones and receive calls with no issues through my cable modem. I have connected one of those wireless adapters that work through the wall outlets. Unfortunately they must be on the same electrical circuit to work. The actual phone lines in my Apartment are dead So I can't use that. I have seen a number of ATAs for sale. From what I could gather they would just duplicate what I already have. 1 Phone in 1 room. What I want to know is if I connected these not to the internet but to the LAN port of my computers, could I use them like extensions in other rooms like the old landlines. You know, you can pick up incoming or dial out from any of the phones.  Primarily I use the current set up for testing phones I purchase for my collection. I probably could get one of those boxes from Viking for less than I spend on this Voip line. But if I could do what I'm suggesting I might just keep the service. You folks have always been a Font of knowledge, I thank you in advance for any light you can shed on this.  While I used to be quite the tech guy I find a lot of this stuff confusing.

[Stormcrash]

The ATA's can't talk directly to each other, they need a server or service provider. I doubt your cable company will support registering more ATA's to your service, so you would need to set up something like an Asterisk server and register the ATAs to it. If you did that you could plug 1 ATA into your cable modem and configure it as the outgoing line

[dsk]

This may be a challenge, and are definitly depending on your service provider's policy.  Most providers here in Norway sends you a locked ATA, and the you have no options. I did not find any lokaly here, but Zadarma did could port my number, and I am alowed to use my own equipment.  Now I use a 3CX free version on a Raspberry pi (Zadarma does also have a pabx service).  If I were in North America I would probably have choosen Callcentric who has a fantastic service and lots of free possibilities. It is so easy to set up.  The only drawback is the lack of porting Norwegian numbers.
dsk

[Stan S]

Hello
You say the phone lines in your apartment are dead. If by dead you mean disconnected from the phone company but still connected to one another why not just take the output of your ATA and hook it to the old wiring in the apartment. I did that in my house. Works fine.
Stan S.

[Stan S]

Capt
Not to confuse the issue. I mean connect the phone output from the cable box to the old wiring in the house.
Stan S.

[Jim Stettler]

If by dead you mean disconnected from the phone company but still connected to one another why not just take the output of your ATA and hook it to the old wiring in the apartment.
Stan S.

You can also isolate your phone circuit by disconnecting your pair from the home run to the incoming service.

Caution regarding the other pairs of the cable, they may be feeding other units depending on how the building was wired.

[captroosh]

No confusion Stan. As to the internal wiring. All except one phone jack has been completely painted over to the degree that you cannot plug a phone line in never mind make an actual connection. I thought about trying to pull a wall jack but didn't want to risk damage to the wall. THe one jack that can be connected to is a wall phone jack. I have connected to it but as I said it was dead so I am sure it was disconnected by the phone company. Even if that is possible I would have to run phone line across open flooring as the phone jack is on the other side of the room. @ Stormcrash I am assuming that the cable modem is an ATA because that is where I connected my phone. I own the modem which is separate from my Router. I have heard of Asterisk but I thought I read something about Linux. Will it work with Windows 7. Have an old Dell PC I picked up that I imagine could be used as a server. If I had to change OS to Linux that's no worry but I don't know very much about Linux. If I did this how do I configure the other Phones? Would it be an additional ATA per computer? Just trying to wrap my head around it. attached are pictures of my modem. Phone 2 on the back is not active.

[Payphone installer]

What am I missing here you said the phone jacks in your apartment are dead. So go find the jack that has the home run that enters your apartment from the basement. Disconnect the feed to the basement  and connect the ATA to the home run jack. This is very basic telephony if you can't figure out that part ask more questions, the apartment is wired use it. If you are going to mess with this stuff learn it.

[Stormcrash]

For a basic setup you would need one ATA to attach to your cable modem to be your outgoing line, and then one ATA per extension you would like to set up. You would only need one PC to run asterisk, and the PC and each ATA would need connection to your ethernet network. If you have two phones close by and want them to have the same extention/number you can plug them both into one ATA. I've never actually set up asterisk myself so I couldn't tell you about that process.

Your right that your modem is an ATA, but since the cable co controls it and it talks to their server to give you the outgoing line you would need to attach another internal ATA to it that the cable modem will just think is a plain old telephone

[Babybearjs]

I had the arris VOIP Cable modem... worked great with both lines... wound up switching back to centurylink though.... the modem was not adjustable and would not drop the line on a KSU. has to do manual resets... found out there is a setting to allow for automatic line resets. but it was non adjustable... so I had to switch back to a regular landline because the phone company allows for abandoned calls.... where as VOIP does not with vintage KSU equipment...

[dsk]

Sometimes I am to slow..    
You were open for using ATA's around in you house. They will need internet via cable, and the network cables are made of 4 pair, only 2 of these are used for data, the pair in center and the brown/white on one of the sides are not in use (except for some power over ethernet solutions)  and you have al the wiring you need :-)

dsk

[captroosh]

Well I tried to use the inside wiring. I managed to get the jack covers off and did some direct wiring without jacks. Sadly nothing went through no dial tone no static nothing. Someone mentioned going into the basement. These are garden Apts. and they're really is no basement access.

[Key2871]

Well I hear your problem, can you get some even two pair wire and make your own runs. Going along the base board, and jacks are cheap at something like a dollar store. Just go that route using some self stick putty stuff to hold against the base boards, then you can have your service and it should be fine.

I've run into situations were I think I could just disconnect the incoming from the demark and then go from there. I couldn't understand why I got mega noise and static on the line. It must have been double fed or something. But I ended up just running my own wire and added my own jacks. Fairly quick and easy.

[HarrySmith]

I live in a condo also. No access to incoming lines. I found a blank cover plate in the kitchen wall below the wall jack near the floor. Inside was the incoming phone line wire. I disconnected that and the rest of the inside wiring was fine.