topic Re: Do I really need to keep my house phone under my stairs? :-o in Talk

Do I really need to keep my house phone under my stairs? :-o

Bunty1976 — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 15:04:12 GMT

Hi,

I have been using Virgin Media for about 18 years and am so sick of them that I have decided to sign up for Sky's Broadband and phone. We live in a new build so we have an Optical Network Terminal installed under out stairs. Our Sky Broadband goes live on Wednesday and we received the Sky Hub today. I have plugged the power cable to the OPT and the ethernet to the OPT ready to go. However, on the leaflet it says that the house phone has to be plugged directly into the OPT as you can't use a normal phone line. Does this mean that I have now have to keep my phone in my cupboard under the stairs? 🤔

Re: Do I really need to keep my house phone under my stairs? :-o

Highlinder — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 15:06:54 GMT

@Bunty1976Is the phone corded or is this a base station for a set of wireless phones?

Re: Do I really need to keep my house phone under my stairs? :-o

Bunty1976 — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 15:09:45 GMT

It's the base station for the phone. I think the set was 2 phones but we only use one of them.

Re: Do I really need to keep my house phone under my stairs? :-o

Mark39 — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 15:24:20 GMT

@Bunty1976 wrote:

It's the base station for the phone. I think the set was 2 phones but we only use one of them.

You can place the base station where you wish, but it needs to be plugged into the Sky Hub (not the ONT).

Re: Do I really need to keep my house phone under my stairs? :-o

Bunty1976 — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 15:27:43 GMT

Thanks and sorry I am being thick...

The base unit will have to be under the stairs to be able to be plugged into the OPT...which is under the stairs?

I don't see how the base unit can be anywhere but under the stairs..because that is where the OPT is?

Re: Do I really need to keep my house phone under my stairs? :-o

Bunty1976 — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 15:29:27 GMT

Sorry, I confused myself there.

The Hub has to be under the stairs because this is where the OPT is. The booklet then says that the phone base has to be plugged in the HUB...which is under the stairs as it has to plug into the OPT?

Re: Do I really need to keep my house phone under my stairs? :-o

GD1 — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 15:32:29 GMT

@Bunty1976 You could run a longer ethernet cable from the ONT to the Hub allowing it to be placed in the Lounge for example.

Re: Do I really need to keep my house phone under my stairs? :-o

Highlinder — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 15:30:07 GMT

@Bunty1976The router that Sky sends you has a plug at the back that a normal phone plugs into that is where the phone goes.The only thing that is in the ONT is the fibre, power and the ethernet cable running to the router.

Re: Do I really need to keep my house phone under my stairs? :-o

Bunty1976 — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 15:31:08 GMT

Please ignore my previous two messages theyare not clear.

The OPT is under the stairs.

The Hub has to be plugged into the OPT so this has to be under the stairs

The booklet says my phone case has to be plugged into the hub...which means it has to be under the stairs because that is where the hub has to be.

Re: Do I really need to keep my house phone under my stairs? :-o

TimmyBGood — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 15:33:06 GMT

@Bunty1976 wrote:

I don't see how the base unit can be anywhere but under the stairs..because that is where the OPT is?

ONT (Optical Network Terminal) rather than OPT.

Your choices are to use a long ethernet cable to move the Sky Hub away from the ONT, or a long phone cable (typically RJ11 to BT-jack) to move the DECT base station away from the Hub. There are no wireless solutions to this problem.

Re: Do I really need to keep my house phone under my stairs? :-o

Mark39 — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 15:32:41 GMT

@GD1 wrote:

@Bunty1976 You could run a longer ethernet cable from the ONT to the Hub allowing it to be placesdin the Lounge for example.

Re: Do I really need to keep my house phone under my stairs? :-o

Bunty1976 — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 15:32:43 GMT

That would mean trailing ethernet cables several metres which I don't want to do. So I guess under the stairs it is?

Re: Do I really need to keep my house phone under my stairs? :-o

Mark39 — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 15:35:15 GMT

@Bunty1976 wrote:

That would mean trailing ethernet cables several metres which I don't want to do. So I guess under the stairs it is?

In that case, yes.

Re: Do I really need to keep my house phone under my stairs? :-o

GD1 — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 15:35:24 GMT

@Bunty1976 You don't need to trail cables, you can get long lengths of flat ethernet cable to run along skirting boards & door frame to the relevant location, secured correctly you wouldn't know it was there.

Re: Do I really need to keep my house phone under my stairs? :-o

TimmyBGood — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 15:37:06 GMT

@Bunty1976 wrote:

So I guess under the stairs it is?

Probably, yes: it's unfortunate that FTTP infrastructure is going into such locations.

I've speculated in the past about using Powerline network adapters between ONT and Hub, but have never seen confirmation from anyone who has tried it: my suspicion is that it wouldn't work for a WAN connection.

Re: Do I really need to keep my house phone under my stairs? :-o

Bunty1976 — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 16:56:30 GMT

Thanks for everyone's help, I really appreciate it. I anticipated that the only option would be running ethernet from the Hub to the location where I want the phone which I don't really want to do. You would think there would be an easy non-wired solution for this, wouldn't you? Landline phones are looking less and less appealing; not worth moving with wires for the few landline calls we receive. Thanks again, at least I understand the options now.