Ooma Dialog

I wonder whether their technology can detect the following scenario as well: Ooma is connected to an ATA with an FXO port that is connected to PSTN, with ATA configured to route all calls to PSTN. The Ooma donor taps the call beyond the ATA. In this case, Ooma hub will consider the ATA to be Class 5 switch and it is equivalent to CALEA tapping. Certainly Ooma can not claim that they have a technology to deter CALEA tapping.

I CLAIM that I have a technology that allows me to travel faster than the speed of light. If you say "it can't be done" that may simply mean *you* don't know how to do it.

Rich, Let's say that someone has already done it. What happens to a patent filing saying it's impossible then? This company has shown themselves to be very litigious, so if one had actually already shown the ability to tap a call made by the ooma box to the PSTN at the customer's house, that person might be reluctant to come forward. Is there someone perhaps outside the US, or that feels otherwise comfortable, that would be willing to demonstrate the capability, hypothetically, if a step-by-step description of the technique were provided anonymously?

Aswath – great point. And your CALEA comments are well-made. Regarding traveling at the speed of light – I am sure one day this will be possible. I just can’t stand the thought that Star Trek has been lying to me all these years.

And to E LAI – also great point. I wonder too if ooma is just too early in its life for anyone to try tapping it. And if they are successful ooma may not be big enough for them bothering to report it.

Mr. Peng's comments are the kind that can sometimes be taken as a challenge. Shutting him up once and for all on this subject may be enough motivation. But it's a good point that perhaps ooma is just too small potatoes and not worth going to the trouble to actually report the results. Maybe, at least not until they put their money where their mouth is and put up an RSA style contest/bounty (along with assurances that they won't sue the person that demonstrates successful results).

Aswath, The ATA idea is a way. It has been proposed here: http://oomahacks.blogspot.com/2007/10/ooma-pranks-or-how-to-punk-ashton.html Engineers have proposed many other ways, such as Inductive tap: http://www.unterzuber.com/tap.html

The problem is, until it has actually been completed, and demonstrated, Mr. Peng can simply continue to say it won't work. I think that if the company has not made a major point on this, and instead said something like this is a risk users have to do to get free calls, then no one would really care. Do average users really care? It would stop them buying the product? Some people, perhaps, but probably technical users and "privacy nuts" only, who already know that most are at risk and therefore would not buy the product no matter what Mr. Peng says *cannot* be done.

Any amateur electronics hobbyist can make a circuit to eavesdrop on a telephone line in a way that can not be detected. All it takes is a high impedance circuit made of a couple capacitors and a matching transformer to serve as an input to an amplifier. I made one in the 1960's (for legal purposes).

I showed the circuit on a web site until Ooma threatened legal astion if I did not take it down.

And you certainly don't need an "ATA". This can be done on the wire right at the back of the Hub. If someone plugs a Calling Line ID box on this line, the above is essentially what the circuit in the box does to listen to the audio signals that pass the ID from the Central Office.

I'd love to accept a challenge from Ooma to demonstrate this. Or any Ooma subscriber with a phone line who would like to cooperate.