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Phone doesn't connect to ObiTalk200 and no dial tone

Started by Mikeali786, February 08, 2018, 02:18:23 PM

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Mikeali786

I really need help with this. I plugged my internet and phone cable into ObiTalk then powered it on. When I did that the power light was solid and internet light flickered a little bit but the phone light did nothing. I then made an account on Google Voice and ObiTalk to see if that would do anything but nothing still. I tried a different phone and cables but nothing seems to work. I bought it from Amazon a while back but gave up when setting it up then. I also tried resetting it but that didn't do anything as well.

drgeoff

A powered up non-faulty OBi will give dial tone to a plugged in phone.  Doesn't need any configuration.  Doesn't even need a cable plugged in to its ethernet socket.

If you are 110% certain that the phone is OK and the phone cord is OK and the cable is plugged in properly at both ends and directly into the OBi, not via house wiring, then you have a faulty OBi.

Mikeali786

Quote from: drgeoff on February 08, 2018, 02:53:20 PM
A powered up non-faulty OBi will give dial tone to a plugged in phone.  Doesn't need any configuration.  Doesn't even need a cable plugged in to its ethernet socket.

If you are 110% certain that the phone is OK and the phone cord is OK and the cable is plugged in properly at both ends and directly into the OBi, not via house wiring, then you have a faulty OBi.

My light for the phone on the ObiTalk flashes couple of times then stops. If I have a faulty ObiTalk device what should I do?

drgeoff

Quote from: Mikeali786 on February 08, 2018, 03:04:26 PM
Quote from: drgeoff on February 08, 2018, 02:53:20 PM
A powered up non-faulty OBi will give dial tone to a plugged in phone.  Doesn't need any configuration.  Doesn't even need a cable plugged in to its ethernet socket.

If you are 110% certain that the phone is OK and the phone cord is OK and the cable is plugged in properly at both ends and directly into the OBi, not via house wiring, then you have a faulty OBi.

My light for the phone on the ObiTalk flashes couple of times then stops. If I have a faulty ObiTalk device what should I do?
1.  You do not have an Obitalk.

2.  If it is less than 1 year since you purchased, avail yourself of tech support from Obihai.

3.  If you have a solid green Power LED on your OBi200 that means that it has obtained an IP address from your router.  If you have the technical nous to find out what that address is, put it in a browser, log in using admin and admin and see how the PHONE port status compares with the attached screenshot.

Mikeali786

Quote from: drgeoff on February 08, 2018, 04:02:56 PM
Quote from: Mikeali786 on February 08, 2018, 03:04:26 PM
Quote from: drgeoff on February 08, 2018, 02:53:20 PM
A powered up non-faulty OBi will give dial tone to a plugged in phone.  Doesn't need any configuration.  Doesn't even need a cable plugged in to its ethernet socket.

If you are 110% certain that the phone is OK and the phone cord is OK and the cable is plugged in properly at both ends and directly into the OBi, not via house wiring, then you have a faulty OBi.

My light for the phone on the ObiTalk flashes couple of times then stops. If I have a faulty ObiTalk device what should I do?
1.  You do not have an Obitalk.

2.  If it is less than 1 year since you purchased, avail yourself of tech support from Obihai.

3.  If you have a solid green Power LED on your OBi200 that means that it has obtained an IP address from your router.  If you have the technical nous to find out what that address is, put it in a browser, log in using admin and admin and see how the PHONE port status compares with the attached screenshot.

1. I do have an ObiTalk

2. It's been over a year since I tried setting it up before but it wasn't working so I gave up.

3. Everything comes out blank

SteveInWA

Quote from: Mikeali786 on February 08, 2018, 07:23:54 PM
Quote from: drgeoff on February 08, 2018, 04:02:56 PM
Quote from: Mikeali786 on February 08, 2018, 03:04:26 PM
Quote from: drgeoff on February 08, 2018, 02:53:20 PM
A powered up non-faulty OBi will give dial tone to a plugged in phone.  Doesn't need any configuration.  Doesn't even need a cable plugged in to its ethernet socket.

If you are 110% certain that the phone is OK and the phone cord is OK and the cable is plugged in properly at both ends and directly into the OBi, not via house wiring, then you have a faulty OBi.

My light for the phone on the ObiTalk flashes couple of times then stops. If I have a faulty ObiTalk device what should I do?
1.  You do not have an Obitalk.

2.  If it is less than 1 year since you purchased, avail yourself of tech support from Obihai.

3.  If you have a solid green Power LED on your OBi200 that means that it has obtained an IP address from your router.  If you have the technical nous to find out what that address is, put it in a browser, log in using admin and admin and see how the PHONE port status compares with the attached screenshot.

1. I do have an ObiTalk

2. It's been over a year since I tried setting it up before but it wasn't working so I gave up.

3. Everything comes out blank

You've basically not understood, or ignored, everything that Geoff said.

It's beside the point, but at least get your terminology straight, and understand how things work:

Obihai is the name of the company.  They sell hardware products.  Their brand name for their products is OBi.  You have an OBi Analog Telephone Adapter; either a OBi 200 or OBi 202.  OBiTALK is the name Obihai uses to include three things:  Their proprietary network telephony protocol (VoIP service) that allows OBi products to communicate directly with each other, with no telephone service needed, and also the name of Obihai's web-based device configuration and management portal/dashboard, and, finally, the name they gave this help forum.

You buy an OBi hardware device.  To use it, you must have some sort of VoIP telephone service, from a VoIP telephone service provider.  Google Voice happens to be one of them.  There are many others.  An OBi device is a brick, unless it has a working internet connection, and it has VoIP service from a service provider or, you only use it for point-to-point calls using the OBiTALK protocol.

So:  you buy an OBi.  You create an OBiTALK online portal account.  You sign into that account.  You follow the **5 procedure shown in the little pamphlet that came with the OBi, to add it to your OBiTALK account.  Once you do that, you still need to add VoIP service.  To add Google Voice, you must have a Google account (a Gmail address and password), and you must sign up for a Google Voice telephone number.

Now:  before you even add the OBi to the OBiTALK portal, which I suspect you didn't do, since the telephone doesn't work, and, as Geoff said, even if you only plug the OBi into the electric power cable and let it boot up, without an Ethernet connection, you should be able to plug in a working telephone via an RJ-11 modular cord, pick up the handset on that phone, and get a dial tone.  If you aren't, the first thing to do is to try a different telephone and a different telephone cord.  We have seen countless examples here of people who swear they have a bad OBi, only to find that they have a bad phone or bad phone cord.

If you are unwilling to try that test, then we cannot help you.

If you cannot get a dial tone, no matter which phone and which phone cord you try, then you have a dead OBi.


Mikeali786

Quote from: tuna on February 08, 2018, 08:14:28 PM
Big noob here, but I'm curious what your Dashboard data says (Obitalk HomePage, "My Dashboard" link).  At the very top, mine says: Device —>OBi Phone, OBi Number is shown (number that is on the label on the bottom of the device), Speed Dial—>2 (I have no idea about this), * and what I think would be very telling, * Status—>"green" "light" i.e. the unit is itself working and connected to the OBitalk network.

Next line, Google Voice...... connected

I'd think that if your device is broken, you probably would not see the OBi number and, esp., the green indicator light.  Well, you might want to double-check....

My Obi Number is different from what is on there for some reason.

SteveInWA

It is different, because you are not following any instructions whatsoever.  The OBi number that is on the OBiTALK dashboard, is an automatically-assigned OBi number that can be used with a software application.  It is not the OBi number of your device.

You must follow the instructions to add your OBi device to your account, which you cannot do, unless the OBi has a dial tone on an attached telephone.

drgeoff

Quote from: tuna on February 09, 2018, 07:25:20 AM
...my OBi numbers--device and Dashboard--are identical, as implied in the Quick Start Guide,  Step 3....
Every account on the portal gets allocated a 9 digit OBi number for a softphone.  So the Dashboard can always show a number that is not on any OBi device you have.  There is a setting on the Dashboard to choose whether or not to display it.

drgeoff

#9
Quote from: tuna on February 09, 2018, 11:31:41 AMBut first, just to cover all bets, I'd exchange the Ethernet cable connections with your computer.  If, then, the computer fails to work, you probably would have a problem with the Ethernet cable.  Knowing that your computer worked with its Ethernet cable you can be confident that as you test your OBi, that your internet connection is good and you can rule out a direct failure to connect with the Internet.
@tuna
You are not paying attention and thus posting unhelpful advice.

The OP has no dial tone on his phone. As I already stated above an Obi does NOT need a network connection to give dial tone.

Also it is my understanding that the OP has never had his OBi working.  Never registered on the portal.  In which case the number on the bottom of his OBi can not appear on his dashboard.  Nor can the dashboard contain any information whatsoever about his OBi200.

SteveInWA

So:

We have a discussion thread.  The original poster had a problem related to his/her telephone.  Geoff and I tried to help.  Then, a second user chimes in with unrelated help for an unrelated problem, and now this thread is a hopeless mess.

The original problem and the original answers, apply, and not any of the posts by the other user.