Help! VoIP switchover and extensions

[szymon]

Virgin moved me over to a “fibre phone line” a couple of days ago.  My hub4 router is on a shelf in the corner of the library, next to the old master socket which is now disabled.  From the master socket we have a number of extensions that go to various locations in the house where we have telephones connected.  We also have a home alarm which is plugged into the master socket, and a fax machine (yes really) which is also plugged in to the master (dual adapter).  The old system worked very well.

I plugged the dog tail adapter in to the back of the router but I cannot work out how to connect in the extensions which come off the master.  I telephoned Virgin and their tech geniuses told me that I can now only have one telephone plugged in and it has to be plugged in directly to the router — they do not support anything else.  I am really hoping that this is not true!  I am in a wheelchair, and racing across the house to the corner of the library to answer the phone is just not an option.

I tried to get 150 to explain how I should connect this up, or to get an engineer out to take a look, but they were unable to do either of these.  Does anyone have any suggestions for how I can proceed?

[Zach_R]

Hi @szymon,

Thank you for your post and welcome back to our community forums. We're here to help.

I am really sorry to hear that you're having the complications with the switchover to our VOIP landline service. We have some further information here about the switchover that's being rolled out, and there's also some details here about what you need to know with the set up.

Let us know if this helps at all or if you need any further assistance.

Thanks,
 

[szymon]

Thank you Zach!

From the links you provided I see that extensions are supported:

”If you have multiple handsets that aren’t portable and connect to extension sockets in your home then you may need a technician visit to make some in-home wiring changes”

and

“I have several phones connected to extensions – will these work?  Yep, when our technician pops around to install your new Hub (if you need one ) they’ll make sure all your phones work too. Please make sure you respond to our calls to schedule a technician visit.”

So it clearly should work.  Thankfully after just under an hour on the phone I managed to get through to someone who organised an engineer visit!  So hopefully they will be able to connect things up — if not I may come back and ask for help 🙂

 

[goslow]

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@szymon wrote:

Virgin moved me over to a “fibre phone line” a couple of days ago.  <snip>

---

Did you have a technician to do the switchover (am assuming this was part of VM's planned phone migration programme)? The extensions should have been reconnected as part of that switchover process if VM's published material on the subject is to be believed and if requested by yourself.

Unfortunately, this topic keeps coming up on here and it seems to be a lottery as to whether the extensions are connected or not first time around (partly poor organisation on VM's part, partly whether the task was factored into the job to begin with and partly how difficult it is to link the hub to the phone sockets, if they are not nearby each other).

As you are a user of a wheelchair, I would expect VM would be keen to get this resolved for you ASAP and return things to how they worked for you previously.

Edit: Post crossed with #3. Hope the technician visit resolves it for you.

[Zach_R]

Hi @szymon,

Thank you for the update on this. I'm glad to hear you've got an engineer visit scheduled and booked - I'm confident that they'll be able to get this investigated and resolved for you ASAP.

Be sure to let us know how the visit goes for you either way.

Thanks,
 

[szymon]

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@goslow wrote:

Did you have a technician to do the switchover (am assuming this was part of VM's planned phone migration programme)? The extensions should have been reconnected as part of that switchover process if VM's published material on the subject is to be believed and if requested by yourself. <snip>

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No technician, no nothing apart from emails and SMS messages and the dog tail being sent through the post.  I did phone once to ask about it and they said “plug it in to the hub on the day and everything will keep working”.  They lied.

Unfortunately I was in hospital last week having a procedure under GA, and it’s only today that I’ve felt up to looking at the phones — meaning that my landlines haven’t been working at all for the past two days.  Not good if the doc or someone from the church or the kids schools want to call me!  (But on the plus side less scammers pretending to be Microsoft Technical Support too, there is a silver lining in every cloud).

Hopefully the engineer on Monday will be able to connect everything up.  It seems like they should just need a cable to connect the old extensions from the master socket to the new dog tail somehow, but I’m not a phone specialist…

[goslow]

If the hub and the old master socket are next to each other, then it should be easy enough for the VM tech to link them.

VM's expectation is that customers will use a cordless phone base into the hub and then use cordless extensions as required. They don't seem to have given too much consideration to anything else and how the needs of some customer groups will vary from this. Customers posting on here in the past have had to argue their individual cases on their merits to get extension sockets reconnected.

If your alarm is connected to the phone line, you should also read the linked info at #2 (if you have not done so already) regarding how the 21CV phone connection may not function depending on the operating status of the VM hub (if the resilience of the alarm's phone connection is an important factor for you).

[szymon]

Just to follow up, the engineer visited and connected a simple modem cable (RJ11 to telephone standard 6312) from the hub to the master socket, then cut the wires in the box outside (the telephone pair that comes in to the master) and everything works again.  So much for the support on the phone saying and insisting that it’s impossible 🙂

Frankly if support had just told me that, I would have just done it and there would be no need for an engineer callout.  Some education needed perhaps?

[Zak_M]

Good morning @szymon

Thank you for coming back to us and letting us know how you got on. 

I will pass your feedback on to our team in the hope we can provide a better service. 

Kind regards,

Zak_M

[Gc687]

I am trying to help the mother in law who has just had her phone connected to the hub.

she’s nearly deaf so needs her old extensions in various rooms.

VM left her with one phone connected to the hub using a short adapter straight into port 1 of the hub.

This works.

from reading here I bought an RJ crossover lead to run from the hub to what I think is the master socket.

so taking out the short adapter. 
this doesn’t work - the phone no longer rings

maybe it’s not the master socket?

Also a phone in another room does now have dial tone but you can’t dial out, just sticks with dial tone.

The mother in law assures me that the old BT landline connection was disconnected by VM.

incompatible phone? I intend to go back with another phone to try it but any ideas appreciated