a better home phone adapter

[dani85]

I am going buy a home phone adapter. FPL offers one with $99.99 one-time fee. Is it a good deal? Any suggestion?

[bridonca]

You could probably get another adapter for $10 cheaper, but the FPL adapter is a pretty good one, and it is already set up.

[FONGO_mike]

Hi dani,

the adapter is only $49.99. The adapter plus a configuration file is $99.99. If you already have purchased the configuration file, you do not need to buy it a second time.

[46jimbo]

The advantage of buying the FFL adapter is that they set it all up for you. All you have to do is plug it in. If you buy from another source, you are on your own if you have setup difficulties.

[dani85]

Many thanks for all responses. I have another question here. There are 4 phones sharing a phone number in my house. We can call out from any one of 4 phones and 4 phones will ring when there is an incoming call. I am wondering if my home phones work in the same way after my installing FPL adapter?

[callopsitte_himself]

dani85,

If you want to use FPL/Fongo like your regular Bell phone it is possible.

You will need a phone line splitter and an adapter with Line 1 and Line 2.

You will connect your ATA to a phone box (small outlet on the wall where you plug in a telephone) and that will make all your phone outlets work through your ATA. BUT you must be in dry loop (Bell line disconnected) or you will fry your ATA.

So how to do it is:
1- Your ATA has a line connection (where you plug in your phone). plug a phone cable from it to the wall socket (see #2) (if you also want to plug a telephone to your ATA that's where you'll need the phone splitter).

2- In the wall socket plug in the adapter Line 1 Line 2 and plug the cable from your ATA to Line 2.

That should be it.

[Bloodsong]

Adendum, I have seen some strange things on Bell-lines, disconnect all phones and use a multi-meter to test for voltage.

Don't forget power-spikes CAN occur over the phone line network as well, you're best to simply disconnect the Bell feed to the house before plugging your ATA into the wall.

Where this causes an issue is if you use DSL on a Dry-Loop, you would then need to terminate the Bell-line to your modem still while having it free of the rest of the house.

There are a few ways to do this, and unfortunately I've seen dozens of different set-ups by the Bell techs. If you have a plug&play NID you're pretty much good to go, if you have an ADSL splitter, you're good to go. (These are really neat devices that separate the ADSL signal from the Voice Lines in the home so you do not require a micro-filter on each device.)

Bell does have some very helpful walk-throughs on home telephony wiring, but as I said they may or may not apply directly to your installation. If you review them, commit the ideas to thought, you should be able to figure out what works best in your situation.