ATA device hooked directly to phone, no house wiring?

[ScoFF]

I notice my Linksys SPA-2102 manual says only hook a phone directly to the phone port of the ATA, not wall outlet wiring. In my basement I have a patch panel where one main phone wire goes and spits to direct runs to each wall phone outlet upstairs. I'd like to hook that one wire to my ATA and then I can keep my ATA, internet modem and home router in the basement and just put the phone to the wall plates upstairs. Do I really have to take my ATA upstairs to where the phone will be? That seems weird. What if I have two phones?
I don't see what the difference is between behind the wall wiring to wall plates and your phone wire. I could be running an extention line between my ATA and my phone, what's the difference? Are they worried about voltage being passed behind your wall? What's the difference between doing that and what's happening now with my real non-voip phone?

Right now I have a Rogers cable modem in my basement that feeds into that one line that goes into the splitter to each direct run to every wall plate in my house. The Rogers guy didn't have any problems with that. Is there not voltage being passed from the Rogers cable phone modem through the wires behind my walls whenever someone calls?

Is it a problem with fire hazard, wall plates not being able to handle it or something unique with my ATA? Right now my phone is beside my ATA in me basement, not great.

[FONGO_steve]

I believe one of the biggest reasons that manufacturers advertise not to wire your house into it is warranty. They don't want to risk you injuring yourself, or damaging their equipment in the process. This could cause unnecessary expenses on both ends. Also, if not done properly, I'm sure it could lead to a lot of unnecessary support calls at the ATA companies. It's easier for them to not support it and thus not have to try and assist if people call in because something isn't working, is broken, someone got hurt doing DIY wiring work, etc.

Lots of users here do do this, and could likely offer some input. Just note that if done with our hardware, which I see you don't have, it will void all warranty and that we don't endorse nor support DIY wiring work not done by qualified individuals.

[OverDrive]

They say not to plug it into the wall outlets due to the voltage on the line from the WIRED telco provider (ie bell). Even when you don't have a bell phone line, the connection to the house/apartment is still carrying voltage that can damage the voip box. If you truely disconnect the hard line coming in (by either unplugging it or disconnecting the wires from the demarcation point) then your house is now a closed circut with no voltage running on the line. This is now SAFE to the voip box, and you can hook it up directly to the wall to spread the voip to all phones in the house.

I don't know about the spa2102, but the spa3102 has an FXS and an FXO port. When bell was active, and I had the FXO port plugged into the wall, the voltage on the line was 51v when not on a call and 7-8v when on a call. Those voltages could hurt the VOIP Box, but now there's 0 voltage on my line as I disconnected the hard wires.

Same idea with cable phones - the voltage runs through the cable provider. I think (not positive cause I've never tested it) the modem passes the voltage to the line.