Customer Reviews
GET A SCOUT 
2008-05-03
You obviously have or are buying a hub. Should you buy a scout too? I didn't initially... and they were on a different price plan (less expensive) then. I should have. But they recently extended the functionality of these little boxes and I bought 2. Bottom line - for an additional $60, you get a second IN and OUT line and separate phone number (if you subscribe to premier or are grandfathered in with their old - expensive) price point. I am an 'old' one. I didn't get one initially. With the scouts you can play voice mail from the scout. Handy because I have the hub, buried in a cabinet. you can assign a separate phone number ring to that device. It provides, potentially another place to plug another cordless set of handsets.
Configuration is very easy and very difficult at the same time. They provide an 'idiot proof' guide in their documents. And all works as they say it will. Here's the problems... (and they are not really OOMA's problems).
1. I have a large home. I don't want to buy a scout for each room. Most cordless devices provide only 4 and sometimes 5 handsets. That may be enough. You can use the scout to extend that and plug in another set of cordless handsets into it... but that is ONLY if you don't use the separate phone line with the scout.
2. Their functionality as of the writing of this does not allow you to move your second phone number to the scout alone. If you set it up as a shared device (which I, unfortunately did), you can't move it. So for now, all the scouts ring as does the hub for either number. They say 2-3 weeks for software deployment for moving numbers to a specific device. If you do that, the second cordless for the first line is out. the handsets applicable to this will ring only on that second line.
3. To avoid the handset issue, I 'backwired' my home. I plugged the OUTPUT of the HUB into LINE 1 of my home. (on any phone plug, called an RJ-11 jack there is a maximum of 6 wires. Most jacks and most wires are wired with 2 or 4 wires. Look at the plug on your cord. How many copper tips are there? The center 2 are for line 1. The next two are for line 2 and so on. Thus for wires 1,2,3,4,5,6 - 34 are for line 1, 25 are for line 2 and 16 are for line 3. Most newer homes have at LEAST what they call THREE PAIR wires. (that's three pairs of wires) run through the house. Most have 5 pair. The standard convention are blue/white for line 1, orange/white for line 2 and green white for line 3.
Here's where the fun comes in. By backwiring your home, you can distribute the ooma hub to every jack in the house. But that's not in their manual and it would conflict with how they recommend you hook up the scout. In my situation, the OUT of the hub goes to line 1 wiring in the house. In their directions, the hub IN (wall) jack is plugged into line 1 and the scouts pick up the hub signal from any jack.
You can get around this this way:
a. get several line splitter jacks from radio shack. They usually have three plugs labled (1+2, 1 and 2). Thus, the 1+2 acts like a normal jack. The 1 is line 1 only and the 2 is line 2. Plug one of these jacks into a house wiring jack. Plug the IN of the hub (wall) into the LINE 2 of the adapter. Now, the scout signal will be distributed through the house on the line 2 wiring.
For each scout you will need a similar jack converter and just plug it in to the line 2 jack as noted above. Use the line 1 part of the jack for your regular phone (where you will find the OOMA dial tone).
= = = a caveat. Many homes do not have the wires RUNNING THROUGH each wall jack. That is they may not be connected at the jack. If they are not, everything 'downstream' of the disconnection will not work. Most of the newer homes I have seen have all three line wires connected all the way through. But you may have to look at each jack to make sure that the IN wire to the jack is connected as well as the OUT wires (which feed the next jack in the house).
More than you wanted to know, maybe.
BUY a scout. Maybe 2 or three!
If you go OOMA.. you need a SCOUT 2008-04-24
See my review of ooma if you like, I am a fan. If you are going to go with the OOMA system, be sure to get one of these scouts. It enables the virtual two lines. Only one scout is needed, and you have two lines. They can be both incoming, both outgoing, or one incoming and one outgoing at the same time. I am not affiliated with the company, but I am a huge fan. My monthly bills for phone calls is now.. um.. 0.00 a month! I quickly pay for the ooma system by the lack of phone bills.
Get a scout if you have the OOMA hub. 2008-04-04
An Excellent Addition to the OOMA HUB!
What does it do??
Simple....OOMA overs a sort of 2 line service on one phone number. So here you are with one phone number and a teen that is on the phone for hours. Sure you have call waiting, but your teen ignores it.... With OOMA and a scout...simply attach a 2nd phone to the scout and when you get a 2nd call it will ring on that 2nd phone. The teen cant ignore it and two people can be on two calls simultaneously on one phone number.
Simple, effective, and FREE CaLLS!
Instant second line for FREE! 2008-03-31
We've had Ooma for a month now and have forgotten it's there. It does everything our regular phone service did...only for free! Easy to install, good sound quality, all the features. We didn't have a huge long distance bill before but we'll save enough in a year to pay for it. Get this!
Beautiful and Saves Money 2008-02-29
This is the Ooma scout. It's basically another extension you use along with the Ooma Hub.
Using the Ooma Hub results in no telephone bill, unless you call internationally.
This just pays for itself, especially when you make a lot of calls.
Another great feature is that you can have multiple scouts attached to your phones and each phone operates independently.I can use one phone with the scout while my girl can pick up another phone and make her own calls,without interruption of my own calls.
I am absolutely thrilled with mine and I strongly recommend it.
I love the ooma! 2008-07-04
I was skeptical. But this VOIP device simplifies my life. (I had Vonage before...) Setting it up was easy and it works like a charm! Not having to pay a dime more for phone service each month is the clincher for me. The only complaint I would have is that the Caller ID doesn't show the caller's 1 before their number so you can't just hit "call back" with my phone set but must key in the access 1 and then the caller's number. But this is no biggie at all. I hope Ooma stays in business and keeps their free phone service with all its bells and whistles (free as in free beer)!
ooma Scout - Great Way to Extend Your Ooma 
2008-06-29
So there are a few ways to use the ooma system throughout your house. The first is to have a cordless phone with a good range connected to your ooma Hub. The second way is to use an ooma Scout device in your bedrooms or another location. And you can combine both methods to meet a variety of needs.
With the new switching to a tiered pricing model, the uses for the scout seem to be expanding. If you sign up for the premium service you can add additional phone numbers to your ooma account and have the scout be used for a seperate "virtual" line. That's a cool feature for families or apartment sharers. Or, even a business that operates multiple storefronts could take advantage of seperate lines.
Either way, using the scout will let you pick up and make ooma calls from the phone hooked up to your scout. And the ability to make calls from both your main hub and the scout at the SAME TIME make this very useful.
The only challenge with the scout is that you have to use your home phone wiring to connect it. It's probably not a problem for most people, but those with older wiring or shared wiring may be limited by this. Still, the instructions ooma provides does make it easy to install as long as you have home phone wiring that is in good condition.
The price for the scout is well worth it. For only $60 you can extend your system to multiple floors or jacks as long as they share the same wiring. That's a great feature.
Alternatively, if you only want to hook up a cordless phone to your ooma hub, newer DECT systems like the GE 28821FE2 Dect 6.0 Digital Cordless Phone and Digital Answering System offer wider range that may be enough for a single family home.
You may have to test your options, but for many people the scout will be an almost necessary add-on to their ooma system.
Enjoy.
Voice over internet without a monthly fee- super easy 2008-06-28
every time I see a commercial for these voice over the internet services that charge you a monthly fee, I think why not get this Ooma box? it is the same thing but it your DSL line is the only charge you will have. I spent 250 dollars for the box and "scout" the only problems I have had have been with the Phone company and my internet service. They don't know what I am talking about when we are troubleshooting their problems. I had the Ooma set up and working in less than an hour. I suggest you don't stack the DSL box under the Ooma server box because of the heat.
Great product 2008-06-11
I have been using the ooma for a month now. The product works great. Setup was easy. The call quality has been flawless. It is great not having a monthly phone bill.
Almost Too Good to be True, But it is. 2008-05-26
People have a hard time believing that they can have first rate totally free phone service, but they can. This Scout device is an add on, or part of the Ooma package that enables that. To use this Scout device you need to already have the ooma Hub - VoIP Phone Device with No Monthly Phone Service Bills
This scout provides the ability to have use of a second phone line, all integrated into the same phone number you use with the hub.
For those who are new to the Ooma phone, get it. The voice quality is superior to the other types of VOIP service I have used. I even had a problem with automated phone systems asking for "Press one" for example. I would press one, but occassionally, with certain places, it would not register. with Ooma, those places that I had problems with all work perfectly.
You can actually disconnect your regular phone with the Ooma system, and transfer your existing phone number over. You will need to maintain a broadband connection though, since that is what your phone operates through. If you have DSL, you can request a dry line, with DSL only, and still be able to disconnect your regular phone service. If you have Verizon FIOS, or cable you can use your phone through there, and not have any committments for a regular phone line as well.
Hey with the new TV converter boxes, and the government coupon offer, you can spend 20 dolars once for the converter, and discontinue satellite, or cable tv, and still get digital quality picture and video, with nothing more then a set of rabbit ears. So much for 80 dollars per month to watch TV. Then forget having to pay a phone bill, because Ooma is free unlimited phone use. All that is left is your internet connection. If you want to use Verizon's basic DSL at 756k for 20 bucks roughly, you now have all three for the least expensive price. That way you have more money for more toys.
You can see that the Ooma hub makes it possible to greatly reduce your overall overhead. It works without a glitch. Highly recommended.
