Any easy way to get telephone in garden office?

Casati

I have recently signed up to Vodafone gigabit fibre which includes telephone via the fibre cable. Basically the Gigabit router is in the comms room in the house and the telephone is plugged into the back of the router, but I want to use the telephone in the garden office going forward.

I have a CAT5e cable going from the router to the office so using a small router I now have wifi in the garden office, but no phone. Any ideas on how I can get phone in the office without moving the gigabit router out there? Do I need to rent another box from Vodafone?

Johnboy1951

You could run another cable from the phone socket out to the office.
Would dect phones reach the office? .. that might be a good alternative.

If you did not need high speed (1Gb/s) in the office you could split out two wires of the ethernet cable and use them for phone.

ednwireland

dect phone

how many cat 5 cables have you run ? you can plug a standard rj11 into an rj45 socket and plug the phone in the other end as long as its not being used for anything else

Casati

ednwireland wrote: »

dect phone

how many cat 5 cables have you run ? you can plug a standard rj11 into an rj45 socket and plug the phone in the other end as long as its not being used for anything else

I have two cat 5 cables going to the office. Don’t really follow how this helps me though? Ie I can plug one of these into the router and then have a live cat 5 cable in the office but this won’t be carrying phone signal will it?

Casati

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

You could run another cable from the phone socket out to the office.
Would dect phones reach the office? .. that might be a good alternative.

If you did not need high speed (1Gb/s) in the office you could split out two wires of the ethernet cable and use them for phone.

Running a phone cable from the comms room in the house to the office is sadly not feasible now.

Any idea how far will Dect phones work? Will the signal carry through the walls of the houses/ office? It’s separated from the house by 30 metres approx

Sleeper12

Couldn't you put a telephone connection on each end of one of the cat cables? Cut the cat connectors off.

Johnboy1951

Casati wrote: »

I have two cat 5 cables going to the office. Don’t really follow how this helps me though? Ie I can plug one of these into the router and then have a live cat 5 cable in the office but this won’t be carrying phone signal will it?

Do both go back to the router?

If yes then one can be used for the phone instead of LAN - plugged in to the phone socket of the router.

Or, as said previously, you can separate out (split) a couple of wires of the Cat5 cable for use as phone line.

DECT phones are capable of reaching 30 metres, but it really depends on the physical environment.
I used DECT years back from house to workshop, but eventually put in a cable and used the DECT base station in the workshop for better overall coverage.

Personally I would encourage the use of 'wire' for the purpose.

Casati

Casati wrote: »

Running a phone cable from the comms room in the house to the office is sadly not feasible now.

Any idea how far will Dect phones work? Will the signal carry through the walls of the houses/ office? It’s separated from the house by 30 metres approx

So I worked out that my current phone - Siemens GigasetAS18H is a DECT phone. I just tested it in the office now test and although its getting a signal its v crackly. Spec says it has 50m indoors/ 300m outdoors.

I would need something better than this - I did a quick google and it seems most DECT phone has a similar spec but maybe I should try to get a longer range as it would be ideal to have the phone in the house and also in the garden office. Any idea on what phone would give a better range?

Casati

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Do both go back to the router?

If yes then one can be used for the phone instead of LAN - plugged in to the phone socket of the router.

Or, as said previously, you can separate out (split) a couple of wires of the Cat5 cable for use as phone line.

DECT phones are capable of reaching 30 metres, but it really depends on the physical environment.
I used DECT years back from house to workshop, but eventually put in a cable and used the DECT base station in the workshop for better overall coverage.

Personally I would encourage the use of 'wire' for the purpose.

I get you now, basically I'd be sending the telephone signal over the spare cat5 cable. The disadvantage I guess is that I would lose the phone in the house but maybe there is a workaround with that too

ednwireland

Casati wrote: »

I get you now, basically I'd be sending the telephone signal over the spare cat5 cable. The disadvantage I guess is that I would lose the phone in the house but maybe there is a workaround with that too

could you split the line out of the router, havent used the phone out of a router so dont know if this is a bad thing compared to a conventional phone line, both lines would ring at the same time, cant use the other phone if one i in use etc.

ie a y splitter

Casati

ednwireland wrote: »

could you split the line out of the router, havent used the phone out of a router so dont know if this is a bad thing compared to a conventional phone line, both lines would ring at the same time, cant use the other phone if one i in use etc.

ie a y splitter

Thanks - I remember having those to split copper wire phone in the past, I will check if that will work splitting a phone signal from the router

Johnboy1951

Casati wrote: »

I get you now, basically I'd be sending the telephone signal over the spare cat5 cable. The disadvantage I guess is that I would lose the phone in the house but maybe there is a workaround with that too

The router I use has two phone sockets.

You can always wire up for multiple phone points with the spare Cat5 cable being one of them.

Do not forget that the spare cable can be used both for phone and LAN by splitting out 2 wires for phone socket.
The remaining wires in the cable can be used for LAN, but this connection would connect at a slower speed than the unsplit cable. This would not even be noticed in lots of cases.

There is nothing to prevent you from adding a device in the Office to do your own VOIP using a different provider.
I use one on my desk for my private communications. Here is one manufacturer's products. The unit I use does only one telephone number and one telephone and is real old now.


http://www.grandstream.com/products/gateways-and-atas/analog-telephone-adaptors/product/ht801

You have a number of options so do not do something that is not easily reversed at this time.

loyatemu

considering it's VOIP it's a bit crap that they don't have a mobile app to allow you to take/make your landline number calls on your mobile, though I note neither do Virgin. I guess most people don't care enough about their landline at this stage (I don't even have a phone plugged into our router, we only ever got scam calls).

I'm assuming this is a business number - might be simpler to just transfer your number to a proper VOIP provider (e.g. Blueface) then you can use it over broadband on your mobile.

The Continental Op

Use the cable for the office phone and replace the office cable with a wireless link using a couple of outdoor Ubiquiti M5 nano stations (link speed 150 Mbps).

There is also no reason you can't split the phone cable in the house and have two cordless phone systems each with their own base station with one in the house and one in the garden shed.

I have done the above and know it works however there is a good bit of work in setting it up including drilling through walls for cables.

Johnboy1951

loyatemu wrote: »

considering it's VOIP it's a bit crap that they don't have a mobile app to allow you to take/make your landline number calls on your mobile, though I note neither do Virgin. I guess most people don't care enough about their landline at this stage (I don't even have a phone plugged into our router, we only ever got scam calls).

I'm assuming this is a business number - might be simpler to just transfer your number to a proper VOIP provider (e.g. Blueface) then you can use it over broadband on your mobile.

It is not that they (Vodafone) do not have a mobile app ....... it is that they do not provide the customer with the connection details (from what I have read - I am not a customer) to allow the use of one of the many available free apps for VOIP or indeed the details to use an ATA.

I have my personal phone number with Goldfish and my broadband supplied as normal without phone contract.

The J Stands for Jay

loyatemu wrote: »

considering it's VOIP it's a bit crap that they don't have a mobile app to allow you to take/make your landline number calls on your mobile, though I note neither do Virgin. I guess most people don't care enough about their landline at this stage (I don't even have a phone plugged into our router, we only ever got scam calls).

I could've sworn I had an app with Virgin for this about 6 years ago.

loyatemu

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

It is not that they (Vodafone) do not have a mobile app ....... it is that they do not provide the customer with the connection details (from what I have read - I am not a customer) to allow the use of one of the many available free apps for VOIP or indeed the details to use an ATA.

it is that they don't have a mobile app. They don't provide the SIP details because they don't want to have to support it, an app would require minimal support. I actually think Virgin used to have a phone app, but IIRC correctly it was garbage and they seem to have discontinued it.

I'd certainly consider getting a VOIP service before starting to drill holes through walls or buying external wifi repeaters, particularly if you can write it off as a business expense.

greasepalm

My cousin bought this as her own phone was iffy and reading up on it has very long battery life and long distance connection.

https://www.harveynorman.ie/phone-and-gps/home-phones/panasonic-320-desk-and-cordless-phone.html

Creamy Goodness

Silly suggestion perhaps, could you forward the landline number to your mobile? even buy a cheap "burner" type phone if you don't want the calls always coming to your personal mobile. It's a bit roundabout-y for getting a landline but then again landlines are a bit old hat anyways.

Johnboy1951

loyatemu wrote: »

it is that they don't have a mobile app. They don't provide the SIP details because they don't want to have to support it, an app would require minimal support. I actually think Virgin used to have a phone app, but IIRC correctly it was garbage and they seem to have discontinued it.

...

Any good VOIP app will be capable of using any VOIP account, provided the necessary account details are provided to the user.
There are many such applications freely (and at no cost) available.

Any provider that treats VOIP the same as Skype/Viber/others should be avoided at all costs.
Those other services are only capable of connecting to people within their 'walled garden' or to outside phone numbers at cost.

There is no technical reason for Vodafone to withhold the connection details from their customers.
Most other VOIP providers do not do this.

One of the beauties of VOIP is that there is no cost to call anyone on VOIP provided you have their 'number' ...... joe@sip.someservice.com
I mean NO cost ..... there is no need to be in a 'bundle'.
You can get a no cost VOIP account for yourself from many providers.
The cost is in the POTS number.

All apps I have used are capable of registering numbers with any provider.

Casati

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

Silly suggestion perhaps, could you forward the landline number to your mobile? even buy a cheap "burner" type phone if you don't want the calls always coming to your personal mobile. It's a bit roundabout-y for getting a landline but then again landlines are a bit old hat anyways.

I'd guess that would cost a fortune as each call received would be charged as a mobile call made by Vodafone. Also it wouldn't allow us to make call from the office

Casati

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Any good VOIP app will be capable of using any VOIP account, provided the necessary account details are provided to the user.
There are many such applications freely (and at no cost) available.

Any provider that treats VOIP the same as Skype/Viber/others should be avoided at all costs.
Those other services are only capable of connecting to people within their 'walled garden' or to outside phone numbers at cost.

There is no technical reason for Vodafone to withhold the connection details from their customers.
Most other VOIP providers do not do this.

One of the beauties of VOIP is that there is no cost to call anyone on VOIP provided you have their 'number' ...... joe@sip.someservice.com
I mean NO cost ..... there is no need to be in a 'bundle'.
You can get a no cost VOIP account for yourself from many providers.
The cost is in the POTS number.

All apps I have used are capable of registering numbers with any provider.

Interesting. Would this mean we would need a new phone number? If so that would likely rule it out as we would have a lot of calls to the well known old number

Casati

greasepalm wrote: »

My cousin bought this as her own phone was iffy and reading up on it has very long battery life and long distance connection.

https://www.harveynorman.ie/phone-and-gps/home-phones/panasonic-320-desk-and-cordless-phone.html

I wonder would something like this be the easiest option? I'd buy this in a second if I thought it gave better quality over the current basic DECT phone

The Continental Op

RTX 4022C DECT Repeater,Range Extender,Booster, Doubles the Effective Range of Dect Phones

Casati

The Continental Op wrote: »

RTX 4022C DECT Repeater,Range Extender,Booster, Doubles the Effective Range of Dect Phones

That might be worth trying before anything else, if that works I'll be happy out

The Continental Op

Casati wrote: »

That might be worth trying before anything else, if that works I'll be happy out

You could do a small test?

If you unplug your current base station and place it near where you would put the repeater you should be able to see the signal strength on your phone in the shed. I know the phone won't work but you should be able to see the signal strength on the display. If its good then the repeater should work OK if you don't get any bars showing for signal strength its back to the drawing board.

But if you chance with Amazon you can always send it back.

Johnboy1951

Casati wrote: »

Interesting. Would this mean we would need a new phone number? If so that would likely rule it out as we would have a lot of calls to the well known old number

The 'best' set up, IMO, is the one that gives the user full control over all aspects of the phone service.
For this, in the first place the phone number itself can be 'ported' to one of many services such as Blueface, Goldfish, IrishVOIP and many many others.
Being VOIP it matters little where the service provider is located, just cost Vs function.

Once the number is ported any incoming calls to the service will be routed to a VOIP account of your choice. That can be a free account should you decide that. The only cost for receiving calls to the number is then the monthly charge for this service ....... about €5 per month.

That covers receiving calls.

For making outgoing calls you can use a different service which provides that function.
You have a huge number of choices from around the world for this.

For instance one of these is a group called Betamax. Each individual provider in the group offers slightly different costs and functions, so it is a matter of selecting which one provides what you need at the right price. It takes a bit of time to find the most suitable provider, but you are not locked into a contract, instead paying in advance amounts as low as €15 or so.
So whether it is local, foreign, mobile and or landline calls you make there will be a 'plan' to suit your use.

Of course the user will have all the details needed to use an app or hardware or both, which gives great flexibility to the user. You decide what caller ID is sent (provided you have that number) and it can be your VOIP phone number you ported or it can be your mobile number etc..

Flexibility across all aspects of your services with you having control over it all, is the key, IMO.

For instance there is nothing to prevent you from having several outgoing services, as one might provide very cheap calls to Asia while another might provide cheap calls to Irish phones.
You just set things up to automatically use the service based on the called number.

One thing to remember is, that you can receive calls anywhere because it is VOIP, and in most cases you can have more than one device 'ringing' on an incoming call. Those device could be in two different countries!

Of course most people do not bother ..... they just accept what is given by their broadband provider without ever thinking their phone service can be separately supplied.

Apologies ...... I got to rambling too much

EDIT:

This is a comparison page for the Betamax group of providers ....

https://www.voipkredi.com/page.php?page=betamax-dellmont

.

Casati

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

The 'best' set up, IMO, is the one that gives the user full control over all aspects of the phone service.
For this, in the first place the phone number itself can be 'ported' to one of many services such as Blueface, Goldfish, IrishVOIP and many many others.
Being VOIP it matters little where the service provider is located, just cost Vs function.

Once the number is ported any incoming calls to the service will be routed to a VOIP account of your choice. That can be a free account should you decide that. The only cost for receiving calls to the number is then the monthly charge for this service ....... about €5 per month.

That covers receiving calls.

For making outgoing calls you can use a different service which provides that function.
You have a huge number of choices from around the world for this.

For instance one of these is a group called Betamax. Each individual provider in the group offers slightly different costs and functions, so it is a matter of selecting which one provides what you need at the right price. It takes a bit of time to find the most suitable provider, but you are not locked into a contract, instead paying in advance amounts as low as €15 or so.
So whether it is local, foreign, mobile and or landline calls you make there will be a 'plan' to suit your use.

Of course the user will have all the details needed to use an app or hardware or both, which gives great flexibility to the user. You decide what caller ID is sent (provided you have that number) and it can be your VOIP phone number you ported or it can be your mobile number etc..

Flexibility across all aspects of your services with you having control over it all, is the key, IMO.

For instance there is nothing to prevent you from having several outgoing services, as one might provide very cheap calls to Asia while another might provide cheap calls to Irish phones.
You just set things up to automatically use the service based on the called number.

One thing to remember is, that you can receive calls anywhere because it is VOIP, and in most cases you can have more than one device 'ringing' on an incoming call. Those device could be in two different countries!

Of course most people do not bother ..... they just accept what is given by their broadband provider without ever thinking their phone service can be separately supplied.

Apologies ...... I got to rambling too much

EDIT:

This is a comparison page for the Betamax group of providers ....

https://www.voipkredi.com/page.php?page=betamax-dellmont

.

Im going to bookmark this as its sounds great but seeing as we have just renewed the bundle with Vodafone, and also although we have a lot of calls, they are all free currently with the bundle so I can't see any benefit in changing. I would like the ability for my p.c. to ring when we get a call

Casati

The Continental Op wrote: »

You could do a small test?

If you unplug your current base station and place it near where you would put the repeater you should be able to see the signal strength on your phone in the shed. I know the phone won't work but you should be able to see the signal strength on the display. If its good then the repeater should work OK if you don't get any bars showing for signal strength its back to the drawing board.

But if you chance with Amazon you can always send it back.

Great idea thanks but my basic phone has no signal strength indicator. I think I'll chance buying that extender thing and fingers crossed it works for us.

Johnboy1951

Casati wrote: »

Im going to bookmark this as its sounds great but seeing as we have just renewed the bundle with Vodafone, and also although we have a lot of calls, they are all free currently with the bundle so I can't see any benefit in changing. I would like the ability for my p.c. to ring when we get a call

For that you need the registration details of the VOIP from Vodafone ...... which I am told they refuse to supply. I have never used Vodafone for this so have no personal experience so it might be worth asking Vodafone if you can port your number from them and what would be the effect on your contract.

niallb

I've had the same problems with getting SIP details from Eir to use my own device - though they did give me the encrypted string they have on their end.

I have my own router, but I've plugged in the Eir router behind it to give me that telephone number when I need it (which is rarely).
I plugged the telephone port on the Eir router into a small Grandstream pbx for testing and it worked reasonably well - I was then able to use ordinary IP phones with the credentials to connect to that PBX.
Any phones or apps connected to that could use the analog line for calls in and out.
Doing it that way would require spend up front but no ongoing cost besides what you're already contracted to with Vodafone.
It would allow you to use the existing network connection in the shed for your phone without further rewiring. It would also allow your PC to ring for an incoming call.

Do you have any existing telephone wiring in the house? You might be able to use it to get the telephone connection to a point closer to the garden office and add a DECT station there perhaps on a windowsill.

Are you using both RJ45 runs to the garden office for data?
If not, the absolutely easiest way to do this is to get two cables with RJ11 on one end and RJ45 on the other and just put a phone on the far end.
If you need to have data on it too, get a splitter cable made up rather than pull the wiring and removing a pair.
Solve it so that you can unsolve it easily later when the problem changes!