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Does anyone know of an ATA that explicitly supports multiple devices
on existing home wiring?

I have 5 phones, 1 answering machine, 1 computer modem and one caller
ID box on my telco quad "backbone." I'm looking for an ATA that I can
just connect to a jack on the backbone after disconnecting from the
POTS.

None of the vendor lit I've seen supports this. They all want you to
connect your phone(s) directly to the adapter with RJ-11 patch cables!
Some of the VoIP carriers seem to wink at existing wiring setups as
long as you don't have more than 3 - 5 phones connected. But they
make it clear there are no guarantees, so I guess the risk is on the
customer.

Thanks.

Start by finding out what the Ringer Equivalency Number (REN) is of all
the devices you're wanting to connect and add 'em up. Each phone + modem +
answering machine. Once you have that total then look for an ATA that
supports that high of a REN. Good luck in finding such a device.

As for "guarantees" I found there are really only two you can count on;
Death and Taxes.

In article <> Jim Gross
<jgross14~at+nyc-dot*rr^dot|com> writes:

>Does anyone know of an ATA that explicitly supports multiple devices
>on existing home wiring?

>I have 5 phones, 1 answering machine, 1 computer modem and one caller
>ID box on my telco quad "backbone." I'm looking for an ATA that I can
>just connect to a jack on the backbone after disconnecting from the
>POTS.

>None of the vendor lit I've seen supports this. They all want you to
>connect your phone(s) directly to the adapter with RJ-11 patch cables!
>Some of the VoIP carriers seem to wink at existing wiring setups as
>long as you don't have more than 3 - 5 phones connected. But they
>make it clear there are no guarantees, so I guess the risk is on the
>customer.

Jim Gross wrote:
> Does anyone know of an ATA that explicitly supports multiple devices
> on existing home wiring?

No vendors explicitly support this for liability reasons. If you don't
know what you're doing and you connect the ATA to a live phone line
you'll probably fry it. That said though, you can do what you want with
just about any ATA. Most have a REN of 5 (same as POTS) but some are
only 3, so you may have issues with ringing if you connect too many
phones to them. I have a Vonage Motorola VT1005 feeding 8 phones in my
house and everything works just fine.

nz

Nick Zivanovic wrote:
> Jim Gross wrote:
>> Does anyone know of an ATA that explicitly supports multiple
>> devices on existing home wiring?
>
> No vendors explicitly support this for liability reasons. If you
> don't know what you're doing and you connect the ATA to a live
> phone line you'll probably fry it. That said though, you can do
> what you want with just about any ATA. Most have a REN of 5 (same
> as POTS) but some are only 3, so you may have issues with ringing
> if you connect too many phones to them. I have a Vonage Motorola
> VT1005 feeding 8 phones in my house and everything works just fine.

You can get REN extenders that allow more phones, up to 8 or so I think.
Maplins sell them but they require mains power and aren't cheap from
memory. Might do what you need though.

Ivor

On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 12:29:33 -0600, Nick Zivanovic
<> wrote:

>Jim Gross wrote:
>> Does anyone know of an ATA that explicitly supports multiple devices
>> on existing home wiring?
>
>No vendors explicitly support this for liability reasons. If you don't
>know what you're doing and you connect the ATA to a live phone line
>you'll probably fry it. That said though, you can do what you want with
>just about any ATA. Most have a REN of 5 (same as POTS) but some are
>only 3, so you may have issues with ringing if you connect too many
>phones to them. I have a Vonage Motorola VT1005 feeding 8 phones in my
>house and everything works just fine.
>
>nz

Thanks Nick, and also Ivor and wdg, especially for reminding me about
RENs.

The sum of the RENs of my current devices is 3.7 so I expect a REN 5
phone adapter will meet my existing needs. I'm leaning toward Vonage
and a Linksys PAP2 ATA right now rather than a router/ATA combination
device since I already have a wired and wireless home network
installed with an SMC Barricade router and a Linksys WAP.

Otherwise, I have done my own phone wiring for years, I know where my
demarc is and have phone line test equipment and know how to use it,
so I feel comfortable about effectively disconnecting the POTS line.

Given the above and your experience with VoIP, are there any other
installation issues I need to consider, besides selecting a VoIP
carrier and plan?

Thanks again.

>Otherwise, I have done my own phone wiring for years, I know where my
>demarc is and have phone line test equipment and know how to use it,
>so I feel comfortable about effectively disconnecting the POTS line.
>
>Given the above and your experience with VoIP, are there any other
>installation issues I need to consider, besides selecting a VoIP
>carrier and plan?

That should work. When you unhook the line at the demarc, be sure to
do something to give passing phone guys a hint that it would not be
helpful to plug the line back in. I put black tape over the jack.

Jim Gross wrote:


> Does anyone know of an ATA that explicitly supports multiple devices
> on existing home wiring?

> I have 5 phones, 1 answering machine, 1 computer modem and one caller
> ID box on my telco quad "backbone." I'm looking for an ATA
> that I can
> just connect to a jack on the backbone after disconnecting from the
> POTS.

> None of the vendor lit I've seen supports this. They all want you to
> connect your phone(s) directly to the adapter with RJ-11 patch cables!
> Some of the VoIP carriers seem to wink at existing wiring setups as
> long as you don't have more than 3 - 5 phones connected. But they
> make it clear there are no guarantees, so I guess the risk is on the
> customer.

> Thanks.

REN number (number of phones connected in parallel) cannot be guaranteed
simply because there is no reasonable way to calculate it! One unit was an
equivalent of one electro mechanical ringer. Nowadays the phones became
electronic, and their impedances are hundreds (thousands?) times higher
than that of the old-time ringer's coil, so the REN number makes almost no
sense anymore. It does not mean that you can connect thousand of the
phones in parallel because they'll draw power during ring and the call, so
the reasonable number is still within 10.

By saying "multiple devices" you don't mean multiple separate extensions,
do you? I have heard of a system that supports multiple extensions over
the same pair of wires, but this is a rather esoteric setup. Will be
really hard to find and very non-standard.

--
Dmitri Abaimov, RCDD
http://www.cabling-design.com
Cabling Forum, color codes, pinouts and other useful resources for
premises cabling users and pros
http://www.cabling-design.com/homecabling
Residential Cabling Guide
-------------------------------------



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"Jim Gross" <jgross14~at+nyc-dot*rr^dot|com> wrote in message
news:...
> Does anyone know of an ATA that explicitly supports multiple devices
> on existing home wiring?
>
> I have 5 phones, 1 answering machine, 1 computer modem and one caller
> ID box on my telco quad "backbone." I'm looking for an ATA that I can
> just connect to a jack on the backbone after disconnecting from the
> POTS.
>
> None of the vendor lit I've seen supports this. They all want you to
> connect your phone(s) directly to the adapter with RJ-11 patch cables!
> Some of the VoIP carriers seem to wink at existing wiring setups as
> long as you don't have more than 3 - 5 phones connected. But they
> make it clear there are no guarantees, so I guess the risk is on the
> customer.
>
> Thanks.


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