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Do I need to disable incoming GV to take advantage of voip.ms CNAM?

Started by AlexW, August 21, 2015, 01:05:49 AM

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AlexW

Howdy,

So, I just set up my brand new OBi 202 with both my Google Voice account and voip.ms and Anveo E911, and it was a total breeze. Took me less than 15 minutes and it's exciting to have a working dial tone in all my phones again.

I've used GV for years, so I started by making GV my primary for outgoing. I placed a call with Google Voice, but the person I called had some trouble with the audio. But when I tried using voip.ms, it sounded great for both of us. So, I've decided to make voip.ms my primary calling out choice (with my GV phone number for Caller ID). And I've set up my GV to ring both Google Chat and my voip.ms DID.

My question is about what to do for receiving calls. One of the reasons I signed up with voip.ms is because GV doesn't give names with Caller ID and I want that. Right now, my OBi is set up so calls from all three of my providers will ring through. ("Phone Rings on Incoming Calls from") The appeal of that is if someone calls my GV number directly, I won't have to pay for voip.ms incoming minutes (and maybe the call quality will be a little better since it doesn't have to bridge through another service?).

But I suspect that doing this is going to mess with my plan to get the CNAM from voip.ms for all incoming calls, including the ones from the GV number.

Am I right? Do I need to turn off GV for "Phone Rings on Incoming Calls from" (and just have GV forward to my voip.ms DID) for CNAM to work for my GV calls?

Also, one more question. I notice that there's a little bit of static in the background that I hear when I listen to the dial tone. Once I make a call, I'm not really hearing any static, though. Anything I need to worry about?

Thank you very much for your help. I'm very excited with my new OBi! :D

drgeoff

I think you should not be ticking both boxes on GV's control panel but SteveInWA will probably be along later to give you a definitive answer.

Unlike POTS, the dial tone you hear on lifting the handset is generated within your OBi202. If the audio on calls is OK, I wouldn't worry about slight noise on dial tone.

AlexW

Cool. I'll wait for the final word from SteveInWA, but thank you for your reply. :)

I'm thinking that I should disable GV ringing on my Obi and not in the GV control panel, because I still want to make calls with GV and doesn't that checkbox need to be checked in the GV control panel for outgoing calls? Or is that just for inbound calls?

Also, I'm learning about all the star codes with Obi, and I'm just so happy with it. All the special features that were costing me $50 a month on AT&T are just included. And it's even better than AT&T since they recently forced me to start adding 1+Area Code for local calls -- but thanks to Obi, I don't need to do that any more. :D

A couple other questions and they are about the star codes: What's the difference between *07 Redial and *66 Repeat Dial? Are *66 Repeat Dial and *05 Redial Last Called Number the same thing? And is there a star code to block that last number that called me? (That's the one feature I had on AT&T that I'm not seeing here.)

Very happy new Obi user. And very happy to be part of this very helpful community.

Thanks again!

Alex


BigJim_McD

Quote from: AlexW on August 21, 2015, 01:25:46 PM
Cool. I'll wait for the final word from SteveInWA, but thank you for your reply. :)

I'm thinking that I should disable GV ringing on my Obi and not in the GV control panel, because I still want to make calls with GV and doesn't that checkbox need to be checked in the GV control panel for outgoing calls? Or is that just for inbound calls?
... ....
Alex

Alex, I use Google Voice along with voip.ms for our "Home" phone calls on an OBi202 with a two line phone.  We use Google Voice for all outgoing calls, all incoming calls connect via voip.ms in order to receive "CNAM".

1)  On Google Voice Settings, I only have the "voip.ms DID" checked, "Google Chat" is NOT checked.
2)  On my OBi202, I have SP2 {Google Voice} selected for:
    "Primary Line for Outgoing Calls Route to"    SP2
3)  On voip.ms, I built a rather extensive "Phone Book" with the Names and phone numbers that we call and receive calls from in order to enhance the CNAM results.  The voip.ms "Phone Book" entries reflect my "Google Contact" List.  This arrangement yields better CNAM results and I also have Google Voice "Call History".

We have found this configuration to work very well and are happy with the price and quality of calls.
I have tried several different services and configurations and we find the current setup to work the best for us.
BigJimMcD

SteveInWA

What BigJim said so well.   ;)

Background:

Google Voice is an inbound call forwarding system.  It can forward calls to up to six PSTN telephone numbers, and/or to the old Google Chat/XMPP system.  Your OBi is acting as one forwarding destination, either configured to use Chat, or to use a PSTN number (voip.ms in your case).  Having both services configured on the OBi and check-marked on GV Settings to receive calls, would result in both services redundantly ringing on the inbound calls.  So, just use the one service as your forwarding target (voip.ms in your case).  Enjoy!

AlexW

Thank you everyone for your excellent (and super-speedy!) help :) I've now disabled Chat in the GV interface so I should be good to go!

Thanks, again!

(And I'm having more fun with this than anyone has any right to... ;) )

Taoman

Quote from: AlexW on August 21, 2015, 08:30:05 PM
(And I'm having more fun with this than anyone has any right to... ;) )

Well, if that's the case and since you're using GV and VoIP.ms I'll give you a couple more options to think about. I believe SteveInWA refers to this as "male answer syndrome." Unfortunately, I'm afflicted.

IMHO, there is a better way to route incoming GV calls to VoIP.ms and/or get CNAM with Google Voice. If you are willing to pay a one-time fee of $6 you can sign up for the Simonics GV gateway which connects to your GV account (via OAuth 2.0) and converts XMPP to straight SIP. The Simonics gateway allows you to register directly with your OBi and/or forward to a SIP URI address and supports CNAM for all incoming GV calls.

By forwarding your incoming GV calls to VoIP.ms via PSTN (as recommended above) you are paying VoIP.ms per minute for all incoming calls and getting charged a CNAM lookup fee for every call (unless the number is in your VoIP.ms phonebook). In my view, that kind of defeats a primary purpose for having a Google Voice account/OBi device in the first place.........not that VoIP.ms rates are excessive by any means.
If using the Simonics gateway, you can register directly and get CNAM for all incoming calls. You can also call out via the Simonics gateway. I have experienced great sound quality, reliability, and no detectable lag on both incoming and outgoing calls via the gateway.

But let's say you want to forward your incoming GV calls to VoIP.ms (I do). You can forward your GV calls from the Simonics gateway to your VoIP.ms number via SIP URI as opposed to PSTN. There is no charge for calls forwarded to your VoIP.ms account via SIP URI. You could also turn off CNAM charges at VoIP.ms since your incoming GV calls from the Simonics gateway would include CNAM. And you can still use the CNAM override function VoIP.ms supports with their phone book that BigJim_McD was alluding to above.

And if you want even more fun it's pretty easy to set up Nomorobo with a VoIP.ms account. Create a ring group and have one of the numbers called be a toll-free Nomorobo number. Then just route your VoIP.ms DID to the ring group. This way all incoming calls (both GV and VoIP.ms DIDs) will be checked by Nomorobo.


AlexW

Thank you, Taoman. That's another very cool solution. I checked out some reviews that indicated that quality might be affected a little bit compared to Obi

http://voxilla.com/2012/05/04/bill-simons-free-sip-to-xmpp-gateway-easily-puts-google-voice-on-your-voip-phone/

and it seems to be just one guy and his server making this happen, but that's definitely a cool option for me to think about. And it's exactly cool solutions like this that put a big smile on my face. :)

Thanks again!

flinchlock

I know this is an old post, but please bear with a newbie.

You said,
QuoteWe use Google Voice for all outgoing calls, all incoming calls connect via voip.ms in order to receive "CNAM".

So when you call someone, they see your GV phone number, but some how know to call you on your voips.ms DID?

Mike

drgeoff

Quote from: flinchlock on January 12, 2016, 03:43:38 PM
I know this is an old post, but please bear with a newbie.

You said,
QuoteWe use Google Voice for all outgoing calls, all incoming calls connect via voip.ms in order to receive "CNAM".

So when you call someone, they see your GV phone number, but some how know to call you on your voips.ms DID?

Mike

No, they call your GV number, GV forwards (with CID but without CNAM) to voip.ms, voip.ms send (with CID and CNAM) to your OBi.

flinchlock

QuoteNo, they call your GV number, GV forwards (with CID but without CNAM) to voip.ms, voip.ms send (with CID and CNAM) to your OBi.

OK

I was missing understanding... I thought there were two phone numbers, one for incoming that was known/public and a separate phone number used to save outgoing costs.

Mike  :-[