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How to turn your OBi20x device into an mini-ITSP for Google Voice trunks

Started by restamp, June 11, 2018, 08:17:51 PM

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restamp

I wanted to get this out before June 18th and have finally gotten it into reasonable shape:

https://cboh.org/voip/obi/OBi_As_ITSP.html

The document describes how to configure a FreePBX Asterisk server and an OBi20x device to allow the latter to serve as a SIP-to-GVSIP bridge for the Asterisk server.  It provides another option for continued Asterisk support for GV in the (presumed) post-XMPP era.  It is my hope that these instructions prove useful to those running Asterisk with GV lines as trunks.

GPz1100

Thanks for the how to.  I've skimmed it briefly and will read in detail tomorrow.

To clarify one point, with this arrangement, a total of 3 gv accounts can be used by the pbx, correct? 

SteveInWA

...and, "just to clarify..."

Read my linked post here, explaining many of the circumstances whereby you may lose your Google Voice number and all your access to the service.

https://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=14006.0

Google doesn't care how you access the service, as long as it is using the official OAUTH 2.0 authentication method, and you're not doing so from a prohibited country over a VPN.

Google does care about what you do with that access; its automation can, and will, shut down the service for a given Google account, if it detects calling patterns that indicate abuse, or for any of the other reasons I documented in the linked post.

Bottom line:  use your PBX for your personal/hobby use, at your own risk, and NOT for commercial use.  Every single week, on the Google Voice forum, we have to explain this to people who whine about how they got a box of business cards printed, and flyers sent out, and now their number doesn't work.  I'm always tempted to send them a link to Vistaprint, to get another box of business cards, but I just let them wallow in their despair.

GPz1100

Steve, try to stay on topic.  You post has nothing to do with what is being discussed in this thread.

SteveInWA

Sure it does.  The title of the thread exactly describes the purpose of the exercise.  Google Voice never has been a provider of unlimited free SIP trunks, like a "free" ITSP.  I am simply pointing out the things that will get your service suspended.  Follow the rules, and you're welcome to do whatever you want.  I'd consider that useful information that is directly related to the topic, and in response to all the misplaced hostility from people who accuse Google of some sort of evil-doing.  Information is power.

restamp

Quote from: GPz1100 on June 12, 2018, 07:05:12 PM
To clarify one point, with this arrangement, a total of 3 gv accounts can be used by the pbx, correct? 
Three should be viable, and in some cases even four, although I have not tested either setup.

Azrobert describes several ways to configure an OBi to do this in the following post:

https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r31956002-

That said, I've always been a bit paranoid about servicing too many GV accounts from one IP address, for the reasons Steve mentions.  I have never had a problem with two GV lines terminating on a server, nor would I expect three to be a problem, but I would be hesitant to stack multiple OBis in this configuration behind a single IP address.

billsimon


RFC3261

Quote from: billsimon on June 13, 2018, 08:26:52 AM
Quote from: restamp on June 13, 2018, 08:17:05 AM
I've always been a bit paranoid about servicing too many GV accounts from one IP address
heh!
I have zero knowledge regarding how GV does this(*)(**) but historically various heuristics to detect interesting usage could miss the frog boil (i.e. smallish (percentage wise?) increases in usage or accounts may fly under the alert threshold, but huge spikes will get one noticed).  Perhaps if one's goal is to avoid being noticed one should boil the frog very slowly and not open a call center of thousands of employees tomorrow using GV as a free calling platform (it is unlikely to end well, which is, I think, what SteveInWA is warning *can* happen).

(*) Although Google has published some interesting papers on approaches that they may, or may not, be using for anomaly detection.
(**) And I am highly confident they continually refine their approaches, so the past may no longer be relevant.

restamp

Bill, if they actually do look at stats such as how many GV lines are serviced by a given IP, I'm sure they make an exception for your GVGW servers.  But they know and understand what you're doing.  It's just a shame no one will give you a straight answer up-front as to whether it meets their TOS.

billsimon

Consider a large apartment complex sharing a single public IP with a NAT. It would have tens, maybe even hundreds of connections to Google from the same IP. Google is probably not shutting them down, and they are not shutting down someone for making three connections from the same Obi device, either.

Quote from: restamp on June 13, 2018, 09:40:03 AM
But they know and understand what you're doing.  It's just a shame no one will give you a straight answer up-front as to whether it meets their TOS.

SteveInWA has apparently read from the Gospel of Google (only available to a select few!) and has given us some information from it here. Not that Google couldn't easily disavow it, but it's a helpful hint.