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Feeling a bit duped

Started by BillDoe, February 26, 2018, 02:35:18 PM

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BillDoe

I just replaced two 110's with a 202. Could not get it to work correctly. Spoke at length with one of the "premium" service providers tech support guys who seemed VERY familiar with Obi (he helped me fix my connection problem quickly!!). He tells me that the whole case to switch to a newer device (in my case a 202) is unnecessary because the only thing that's changing is.... Obi just won't support the 110 anymore, BUT THE DEVICE WILL STILL WORK FINE INDEFINITELY AS LONG AS YOU'RE OK WITH NO OBI SUPPORT. Now since Obi has NEVER been known to crack the top 100 when it comes to support, that doesn't seem like any sacrifice to me. So feeling stupid I shelled out $75 for a 202 and have two perfectly capable 110's sitting idle. Anyone else feeling this way?

Lavarock7

Decades ago in my I.T. years I tried to tell people... "Not Supported" just means that the company is not spending time or effort to update the product. It may keep working indefinitely. Also although the company may not support it, there may be fixes by others that may or may not work.

In the case of the 110, it will work for things like SIP providers, just not GV. Well, it will work until it doesn't.

Case in point, I have multiple free telephone numbers overseas with UKDDI. They closed down and suggested porting these numbers quickly. A year or more later, they still work. That is until they don't.
My websites: Kona Coffee: http://itskona.com and Web Hosting: http://planetaloha.info<br />A simplified Voip explanation: http://voip.planet-aloha.com

BillDoe

Would you go so far as to return the 202 and just keep using the 110's?

Almighty1

What Lavarock7 mentioned is correct since just like the Obi1xx and Obi2xx, there is 3rd party firmware available that allows Google Voice to still work even if it no longer works officially.

https://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=13385.0

vtsnaab

BillDoe there's been controversy aplenty about what you've mentioned both here & elsewhere.
The way I see it is that what most folks need is to know just a little about VOIP as users of it.
That way folks would find out that Obi boxes are just really ATAs with a little extra functionality - but that they can also be used as regular ATAs - even after the dreaded EOL.
Our POV is that we no longer really care about the (non)support and if/when I happen to stumble across a good, working Obi110 for sale at a good price, I'll grab it as a spare very happily.
Aside of that maybe happening, it is easy enough to use GVGW with a standard, cheap ATA, thereby avoiding the controversies of EOL, support, etc. .

BillDoe

I see....so if I'm OK with living with no Obi support for the 110, and I already use one of them with Phonepower (so that one is OK anyway), there's no reason to buy a 202. I can do the firmware update on the unit I use with GV and should be good, would that be a correct assessment?

BillDoe

I saw the firmware update on you tube but uncertain how the "bs patch" file fits into it...can someone explain?

azrobert

The developer supplied a patch file and can be downloaded here:
https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r31779486-

You need to use program bspatch to apply the patch to the stock build 2886 fw to create the updated firmware. If you don't want to go through this process, the already updated firmware is available here:
http://www.obifirmware.com/

GV on my OBi110 stopped working last November, but around December 18th GV started working again and it's still working. Several other people have reported the same. I would appreciate if you would try GV on the stock 2886 firmware and post the results. Thanks

vtsnaab

This about sums it up:
Quote from: BillDoe on March 01, 2018, 08:56:04 AM
I see....so if I'm OK with living with no Obi support for the 110, and I already use one of them with Phonepower (so that one is OK anyway), there's no reason to buy a 202. I can do the firmware update on the unit I use with GV and should be good, would that be a correct assessment?
Our nice, old Obi110 is still chugging along...after how many months since the EOL thing ??

Taoman

Quote from: azrobert on March 03, 2018, 07:48:01 AM
I would appreciate if you would try GV on the stock 2886 firmware and post the results. Thanks

I had a spare 110 with stock 2886 firmware that I just wiped and configured with my secondary GV number (primary is thru Simonics). Easy peasy. Took me 2 minutes and I was up and running with no issues.

Have you tried any of Naf's firmware? Being able to configure GV without having to use the Obitalk web portal sounds intriguing........especially considering we don't know what will happen with Polycom acquiring Obihai.

azrobert

Quote from: Taoman on March 03, 2018, 11:47:45 AM
Have you tried any of Naf's firmware?

I also have a spare OBi110 and defined GV on it after a factory reset without OBiTalk.
I manually defined GV with SignallingProtocol and an AuthUserName.
The trunk still shows as undefined on the Status page.
You now need to update 2 hidden parms with an XML file

The XML file to update SP1 is found here:
https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r31790819-

Copy and paste into Notepad then save as file name "file.xml" and file type "All Files".
You need to use ITSP Provisioning under Auto Provisioning to update the config.
Use ConfigURL to point to an HTTP server hosting the XML file.
This is how I did it:
https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r31793011-

For some unknown reason you can't use the Config Restore option to update the parms with the XML file.

The status for GV shows Backing Off after the update..

Somewhere in that thread someone hosted the XML file, so you can just point to their HTTP server.

Now you need to acquire your GV credentials.
I used RonR's instructions to acquire an OAuth 2.0 Client ID, Client Secret, and Refresh Token here:
https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r30983990-Asterisk-OAuth-2-0-Support-for-Asterisk-13-or-Asterisk-14

You need to update the AuthPassword with the credentials in this format:
https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r31779486-

BillDoe

Thanks for all the recent advice, but sadly I'm still missing something. Specific, non-technical step-by-step instructions for how to do this. I'm not unable to go this route (I've rooted at least a few Android phones in my time, but again, I had specific instructions to follow). Everything I'm reading here or via the links supplied seem to assume a working knowledge of how this all works, jargon, etc. So can anyone point me to a noob guide?

azrobert

Quote from: BillDoe on March 03, 2018, 01:16:01 PM
Thanks for all the recent advice, but sadly I'm still missing something. Specific, non-technical step-by-step instructions for how to do this. I'm not unable to go this route (I've rooted at least a few Android phones in my time, but again, I had specific instructions to follow). Everything I'm reading here or via the links supplied seem to assume a working knowledge of how this all works, jargon, etc. So can anyone point me to a noob guide?

Download the 3rd party firmware here:
http://fw.obifirmware.com/OBi1-1-3-0-2886-naf7.fw

Update your OBi with this firmware.

If you already have GV defined on your OBi1xx, you're done.

If you don't have GV defined, define it the same as with the stock firmware.

GPz1100

@Taoman

I've been running the modded firmware on a 202 model for about a month now.  No issues as far as gv is concerned.  It's easy to change gv account just updating a few entries. 

Probably the most challenging part of implementing this type of set up was generating the oauth credentials.  RonR's guide simplifies things, but novices may still have issues.  For the 1xx units, can one still do gv provision using obitalk?  If so, then the whole credential generation doesn't really apply [yet].


azrobert

The 3rd party firmware will work exactly like the stock firmware. It has the new certificates, so fixes the problem when connecting to a server requiring the new certificates.

In addition it has the option to accept your own GV credentials. The procedure I posted in my Reply#10 above is only used when you want to define GV without the OBiTalk portal after a factory reset.

If you already have GV defined by the OBiTalk portal and want to use your own credentials, you can skip updating your OBi with the XML file. Those parms have already been defined from OBiTalk. The reason you might want to do this is to change GV accounts without the portal.

The developer only supplied a patch file and you needed to apply the patch to the stock firmware. The owner of the obifirmware site updated the stock firmware and made it available for download, so users don't have to patch the firmware themselves.

BillDoe

AZRobert (and others) Thanks for the straight-up guidance. I was able to do this in a matter of 1-2 minutes!! I think what happens is that there is so much that has been written in the past that if you jump into the conversation in the beginning or the end you can get very intimidated very quickly, when a very simple solution has subsequently been found.

One more question. I notice the 110 has both SP1 and SP2 configuration options. Does this also mean I coud configure SP2 to my existing Phone power account and wouldn't even need the second 110?


azrobert

Quote from: BillDoe on March 03, 2018, 02:26:03 PM
ne more question. I notice the 110 has both SP1 and SP2 configuration options. Does this also mean I coud configure SP2 to my existing Phone power account and wouldn't even need the second 110?

Yes, you can define PP on SP2. You can then use the 2nd OBi110 as a 2nd line. You would be able to make simultaneous GV calls on both devices. I'm not familiar with PP.

BillDoe

Since there is only one PHONE out on the device, does this configuration assume a two-line phone?

azrobert

No, the OBi110 only supports 1 line. You can make or receive calls from either provider, but only one call at a time. If you have Call Waiting defined and receive a 2nd call while on an active call, you will get the Call Waiting tone.

The default for routing calls to SP2 is an **2 prefix, so you would dial **218005551212. You can basically change this to any prefix you want.  If you can identify a number, you can route calls without a prefix. Like international to one provider and everything else to the 2nd provider or route calls by area code.

You can use a softphone on a cell or computer for a 2nd line on an OBi110.

BillDoe

and does this setup then require dialing **1 for using SP1 or is that not necessary?