OK, it is now seriously time to change ITSP...suggestions please ??

[vtsnaab]

Some queries, please=>

1. A friend's POTS line was ported over to Circlenet around a year back - with that service not being reliable anymore (as well as it also ending soon), porting that DID to Google Voice is now desired, but cannot be done directly according to the info provided by GV, so:

Is there any particularly good/easy/cheap way to get this done please ??
(It is known that some folks just use a cheap 'burner' phone for free porting & then move on to GV from there & that remains an option, if needed.)

2. Given that Circlenet's retail services will soon vanish, has anyone looked into which alternative ITSPs will be both reliable & affordable to replace it with ??

In reply to the announcement post made by Sam, it was said that F9 will match whatever Sam's clients had been paying - which is a very generous offer.
It would be very good to know if any others come close in case one may be needed in accomodating what is asked in query #1, above.

3. Has anyone here ported a DID away from Circlenet with success ??
If so, would you please share the details of that process & what provider took it in ??

Our home phone needs here are very well met by our Obi boxes, but we do also have a single DID used via smartphone that needs to be ported out of Circlenet - ASAP.

I seek suggestions mainly for the best & most affordable possible solution for the old friend whom I help with tech problems mentioned in #1 though.

Are there perhaps some very good but little-known ITSPs around which would make really good replacements for Circlenet ??

Thanks for any helpful replies.

[MurrayB]

Many of us have had good experience with Voip.ms

Good Luck!

[Taoman]

I would take a look at Localphone as a possible Circlenet replacement.

Nitzan (F9) only said he would match Circlenet's DID rates. I strongly doubt he'll match Sam's outgoing rates also.

I would follow Obihai's port tutorial to make sure the DID can even be ported into Google Voice. You appear to live in a somewhat rural area. If that's where your friend lives also there's a possibility the DID can't be ported into Google Voice. Bandwidth.com may not have a presence in the rate center covering your geographical area.

http://www.obihai.com/porttutorial

[vtsnaab]

Something very cool just happened !!

I re-checked my friend's CN DID using the GV tool & now it says:

Congratulations.Your mobile number can be ported.
Things to understand before porting your number to Google Voice:
   The cost of porting is $20.00 (payable through Google Payments).

That is really good news which may simplify things for him hugely as he really wants to keep that number very much.
(I also re-checked my CN DID there as well, but that one did not pass for GV porting, sadly.)

Alternative-wise...
I do have existing accounts at both LP & VOIP.ms but not a DID with either...yet ??

As to F9, after Sam made his announcement at DSLR, Nitzan replied that he would match whatever folks had been paying for CN.
I contacted him via email to clarify & he confirmed that is offering a flat rate based upon whatever the user was paying for CN in an average month - both in & out.
Being that there's very low use via the Android it's under $2/month for service + DID there.

I only hesitate in going with F9 because - well, I don't want to get with another service that might just get tired of it & pull the plug anytime soon...!

[Taoman]

I re-checked my friend's CN DID using the GV tool & now it says:

Congratulations.Your mobile number can be ported.
Things to understand before porting your number to Google Voice:
   The cost of porting is $20.00 (payable through Google Payments).

That is really good news which may simplify things for him hugely as he really wants to keep that number very much.

I don't see how that's possible. GV only allows porting from a mobile carrier. You did say your friend's DID is still a CircleNet DID? One of us is confused.

Alternative-wise...
I do have existing accounts at both LP & VOIP.ms but not a DID with either...yet ??

I have no experience with LP so I was thinking about setting up a DID with them. I think they're super cheap......something like .99/month with no per minute charge? But don't quote me on that. I also "think" they allow forwarding via SIP URI. If so, it might be worth forwarding an LP DID to a VoIP.ms DID or free iNum or Virtual Number to get all the features that VoIP.ms provides. I can't figure out if LP allows porting in numbers or not.

I only hesitate in going with F9 because - well, I don't want to get with another service that might just get tired of it & pull the plug anytime soon...!

That's great if Nitzan is willing to match CN's rates for both incoming and outgoing. Future9 has been around for years.
My concern would be the number of outages that F9 has experienced this year. You can go to DSLR and click on the Future9 link to the right of "Group:" to see what I mean.

[vtsnaab]

Hi Taoman & thanks for replying.

I don't see how that's possible. GV only allows porting from a mobile carrier. You did say your friend's DID is still a CircleNet DID? One of us is confused.

It does say=>"Check that your mobile number can be ported."
But I entered the number and it passed - just tried it a 3rd time and...nope ?!?
(Ooops! We currently don't support porting from your carrier. We apologize and are working on adding support for more carriers.)

So it looks like it either caught the error or t'was a fluke before, boohoohoo.

No biggie as it may still be possible - but just for yuks I've already tried moving the CN DID to tracfone & it fails there - so maybe it needs to be done thusly after all:

I suggest using either T-Mobile prepaid or AT&T GoPhone as the intermediate carrier.  Do NOT use one of the cheapo MVNOs like Lycamobile or H20.

All the above is why I've asked if & how anyone has gotten their DID out of CN - maybe it requires some extra step being done by Sam that I've not heard of - or maybe it is even a total loss - at this point things have gone poorly enough with CN that it is at the point of=> 'I'll believe it when I see it'.

That's great if Nitzan is willing to match CN's rates for both incoming and outgoing. Future9 has been around for years.
My concern would be the number of outages that F9 has experienced this year. You can go to DSLR and click on the Future9 link to the right of "Group:" to see what I mean.

I have seen some of those reports - but since the usage will be very tiny it doesn't worry me much (I just like to keep a fall-back 100% VOIP/Wifi option ready to use is all...).

99% of our total phone usage is via Obi & GV and Ringplus at this time - and those are all usually so dependable that things are actually close to 100% fine for us, phone-wise.

Since I already have an account at F9 just sitting there this may be the perfect use for it now.

Thanks.

[Taoman]

It does say=>"Check that your mobile number can be ported."
But I entered the number and it passed - just tried it a 3rd time and...nope ?!?
(Ooops! We currently don't support porting from your carrier. We apologize and are working on adding support for more carriers.)

So it looks like it either caught the error or t'was a fluke before, boohoohoo.

The above error message is the message you want to see. That means the number can be ported to Google Voice. You just need to use a cell carrier as an intermediate step.

[vtsnaab]

Thanks Again Taoman.
Yes, I'm aware of that process & actually, just for yuks, tried starting a port with an un-activated tracfone that I have on hand, but their site barfed on the CN number - after that failed I also tried it using a 100% new tracfone BYOP SIM & it barfed on the CN number again - hence my doubts about porting from CN altogether...?

[vtsnaab]

Now that I've ported my DID to F9 & it is working, I am all set as I only use it via softphone on the PC & Android, but...

I need to help my friend set his up and it is a rather long drive to his house, so I ask, please:
He has a year old Obi100 with a GV number/account functioning fine on SP1 and his former Circlenet DID set up on SP2.

I did not do the original setting up for SP2 & as I recall, he did it with help directly from Sam.

In trying to remember what to do, I got the IP address for mine & tried logging in - Uh oh.

It asks for credentials & those I have stored don't do the trick anymore, though I can still log in through the site/portal instantly.

2 questions, please:
1 - How does one get or easily change the PW on an Obi100 or 110 without having to totally reset it to defaults ??
2 - Since the EOL thing - do we both need to be concerned to somehow stop auto provisioning & stop using the portal ??

Thanks for any helpful replies !!

[drgeoff]

Doesn't the portal show you the admin password for the device's local web-server?

[vtsnaab]

Thanks Drgeoff.
The portal does have a space with it - hidden in asterisks.

I could change it there - as long as it is possible for an Obi1xx to use the portal, which is really the basis of my latest query here...as it seems there will come a time after the LAST f/w update when those of us with such 'expired' ATAs will have to use ONLY the local log-in for any needed changes.

As it happens, I was able to find another stored PW for mine & that one allowed me to access the local setup page via IP, but what remains unanswered is whether we'll need to remove the auto provisioning to avoid 'pushed' obsolescence...?

And lastly, knowing what the default log in via IP for an Obi100 might be very helpful in all cases...perhaps I need to have a look in the manual...?

Thanks.

[drgeoff]

1. I think you are being paranoid about the forced death of OBi1x0s.  My belief is that they will be left to die off naturally.  The portal will continue to support them for quite some time

2. It is no secret that the default admin password is admin. 

[vtsnaab]

Thanks Again Drgeoff.
Please pardon me for not being quite so trusting of internet resources...too many have done unpredictable things just in my past experiences, so I prefer to be overly careful of them.

Thanks for the PW too !!