PAP2T REN capability problem

[rajp]

After receiving my PAP2T, I discovered my home phones will not ring. I opened a case with VT but I haven't heard anything in a few days. I discovered I could unplug two phones and then the remainder would ring, but erratically. If I unplugged a third, ringing sounds normal. I totaled up the REN numbers of all the devices and it came to 4.4, which is well below the limit of 5.

Then I looked at the specs of the PAP2T and found it only supports a REN of 3, which sounds rather odd. I've looked around and found almost all other VoIP adapters and routers support a REN load of 5. Even SunRocket's gizmo handled the phone line load fine.

I did find some devices called voltage boosters, but they cost more than $100. Frankly it does not make sense to move to ViaTalk if I have to spend over $100 to get my phones to ring.

Does anyone know if ViaTalk has another device with a higher REN rating or any other suggestions to solve this problem (save removing phones, which will not make my wife happy)?

I did look at the PAP2T settings and they are already set to 90 volts and a trapezoid waveform.

Thanks for your thoughts,

Ray

[gsquare]

90 volts/Trap with a ring frequency raised to 30 htz did the trick for me, I had to change from the 70 volts/sine wave and 20 htz default setting. I ring 5 phones of various types. However, my lines are not daisey chained from jack to jack. All lines come back separetly to a single point and then hit my adapter. You might go to the horrible chore of opening all your jack plates and making sure the wiring is clean and nice and tight. Also are you sure that you have removed the old POTS line from your house wiring. It wouldnt be good to have a couple miles or more of external telephone line hooked up and swamping down the ring signal.

[rajp]

Thanks for the reply. 90 volts and trapezoid were already set, so I changed the frequency from 20 to 30 with no difference.

I realized I mis-stated what's happening. It's not that the phone doesn't ring at all. That's what was happening before I set up port forwarding.

What's happening now (and with a ring frequency of 20 or 30) is that the phone rings once and then disconnects. On my cell phone, it goes to "call ended" after it rings once. It's like the voltage drop during the ring is being seen as an off-hook condition and when the ring ends, the voltage rise is seen as an on-hook.

I am disconnected from the POTS. All I'm doing is switching the phone wire from the SunRocket gizmo to the PAP2t ands testing. Whether the gizmo is connected to the router or not has no effect on this problem.

Take care,

RAy

[chas3]

I updated my pap2t firmware then the default ring settings worked. I think linksys had a firmware bug that prevented the pap2t from going to the proper voltage. I have 6 devices hooked up throughout the house, 2 old bell ringing phones, 2 cordless, 1 fax, and 1 modem. They all ring normal with 70V and sinusoid.

[gsquare]

Gee that's great. I read your previous update and was scratching my head on the symptoms. You never know about the firmware, in many cases it fixes stuff and breaks stuff. The regression testing is $$$$ so they let the customers do it for them!!! Only the new age computer people would accept that. Would be a good idea if you posted the Rev level of that firmware for others. Those old bell ringers are normally what takes the energy, so your PAP is doing a good job. Nice to see a happy ending. Keeps the little wife happy.

[rajp]

I went to 5.1.3(LS) in the forlorn hope it would help before I posted here. <sigh>

Ray

[sbradshaw]

Does anyone know if ViaTalk has another device with a higher REN rating or any other suggestions to solve this problem (save removing phones, which will not make my wife happy)?

You could explain to VT what your REN requirements are. They may still have the PAP2 available for replacement.

[DracoFelis]

After receiving my PAP2T, I discovered my home phones will not ring. I opened a case with VT but I haven't heard anything in a few days. I discovered I could unplug two phones and then the remainder would ring, but erratically. If I unplugged a third, ringing sounds normal. I totaled up the REN numbers of all the devices and it came to 4.4, which is well below the limit of 5.

Then I looked at the specs of the PAP2T and found it only supports a REN of 3, which sounds rather odd. I've looked around and found almost all other VoIP adapters and routers support a REN load of 5. Even SunRocket's gizmo handled the phone line load fine.
Pretty much all the LinkSys/Sipura devices (while otherwise nice adapters) have a REN of 3. And a lot of people are using LinkSys/Sipura adapters for VoIP. So it clearly isn't just a ViaTalk thing. However, that fact also doesn't solve your particular problem...

Therefore, my suggestion is to see if there are any phones you could turn the ringer off on (but still leave the phone itself plugged in, just not "ringing"). In many (most?) cases, the REN for a phone is used only if/when the ringer is turned on. So a common "trick" is to leave all the phones plugged in, but only have a few phones (carefully scattered around the house) actually "ring".

BTW: If you really want a cheap "ring booster", you might consider use of your "fax machine" (assuming you already own a fax). Many fax machines have a "phone jack" (in addition to the phone line jack) that you can plug a real phone into. And on a lot of fax machines, that "Phone" jack is powered by the fax machine's power (from the wall). So, while it isn't usually advertised much, most fax machines are also "ring boosters". So if you have a fax machine around the house, give it a try...