ooma Scout (to use with VoIP Phone Device with No Monthly Phone Service Bills)

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Product Details

User Guide [PDF]

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Quick Start Guide [PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 3.2 x 4 x 1.5 inches ; 8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0010W84A0
• Item model number: DVA-SCT101
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: November 20, 2007

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Smart and stylish, ooma devices partner with your high-speed Internet and your home phones to free your phone service. Your one-time purchase eliminates monthly bills for US calling. Once you own an award-winning ooma Hub device, you can extend the full benefits of the ooma system throughout your home by connecting an ooma Scout device to a standard phone jack and your home phones. Acclaimed by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Business Week and featured as one of the year's hottest gadgets in Parade and In Style magazines, ooma offers the premiere home phone experience. Simply connect the ooma system to your broadband and your home phones to enjoy:

• Unlimited calling to any number in the US
• All the features you've come to depend on, like caller-ID, call-waiting, and voicemail
• The reliability and crisp acoustic performance of a landline
• Access to your voicemail from any phone
• The freedom to hear your voicemail and manage account preferences in the Lounge
• The option to create voicemail notifications to email and mobile phone
• Low-cost international rates starting at a penny per minute
• Easy setup to get you up and dialing in no time
• A 30-day money-back guarantee and an extendable one-year warranty
• The flexibility to keep your phone number or choose a new one anywhere in the US
• A 60-day free trial of ooma Premier!

*Please note: An ooma Hub is required to enjoy the ooma Scout's functionality. Click here to learn more about the ooma Hub.

Winner of the Hardware Innovator of the Year Award, 2007 Digital Life conference

Benefits

The Instant Second Line gives you a second phone line at the same convenient number without the hassle or cost of physically installing a second line. In order to take advantage of this feature, you will need to install at least one ooma Scout device in a standard phone jack.

Placing calls using the Instant Second Line
To make a call when somebody else in your house is on the phone, simply pick up a phone connected to a different ooma device and you will hear the signature ooma dialtone. If you are on the first line and want to make a second call, simply press the other line button (the light should be off) or press the flash key on your phone. You should hear the signature dialtone on the new line, indicating that the Instant Second Line is available.

Answering calls on the Instant Second Line
If a second call comes in when somebody else in your house is on the phone, you will hear the call-waiting signal and all the other phones in the house will ring. If you are already on the phone, you can press the other line button (it should be blinking rapidly) or press the flash key on your phone. If someone else in the house wants to answer the call, they simply need to pick up a ringing phone connected to a different ooma device.

Alternating between phone lines
To alternate between two lines, simply press down on the line button of the call you wish to join (it should be blinking red) and the current call will automatically be placed on hold. Alternatively, press the flash key on your phone to alternate between phone lines.

Placing calls on hold
To place a call on hold, simply press the button for the line you are on (the light should be solid red). Please note that if both lines are in use, you cannot place both calls on hold.

Three-way conferencing
You can initiate a three-way conference call in a number of ways. Once you have two parties on the line, simply press down both lines at once on any ooma device, and voila! You’ve got yourself a three-way! Please note that if you hang up the phone during a conference call, both lines will be disconnected. Alternatively, you can break the three-way into two separate calls by pressing on either line button on an ooma device. This will automatically place the other call on hold.

Using the Instant Second Line using a cordless phone
If you wish to make or take a second call when someone else is on the phone, simply pick up a phone connected to a different ooma device and you will automatically get a new ooma dialtone . You can also join the call in progress by pressing the flash key on your phone.

Product Description

Try out ooma's enhanced calling features with a free trial of ooma Premier, which includes a free second phone line, real-time message screening, one-touch Do Not Disturb and Send to Voicemail, a second personal number with private voicemail, and more

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GET A SCOUT, May 3, 2008

By	John D. Kelner - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Extension!, January 28, 2008

By	Martin A Hogan "Marty From SF" (San Francisco, CA. (Hercules)) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The OOMA "Scout" is simply for use with an additional phone in another room. However, there are no additional hook-ups to your Internet service. Just install your phone jack, wall jack and power plug and you have a new OOMA "Scout" in another room - same features as the OOMA Hub. Well worth the initial costs!

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Almost Too Good to be True, But it is. , May 25, 2008

By	Bob Feeser "MillCrafters.com" (Springfield, PA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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.