OBI200 - Call forwarding on No Answer does not work

[Nhlobi]

Hi, I have been trying to get several solutions that I have seen posted to work. My preference is to have my OBI200/GV device ring and also have it forward the ring to 2 other phones but they say the best way to eat an elephant is one piece at a time, so I backed off my attempts to modify "x-Inbound_Call_Route" with 2 cell phone numbers (could not get it to work) to just trying to get Call Forwarding on No Answer to work to one number. I tried to do it through the Star Code 62 and also manually.
I reverted back to defaults now and just left it with the Star Code results just in case it is suspected that I may have screwed things up with the manual configuration attempts and yes, I rebooted the box with the latest change.
So, I have Google Voice serviced through the OBI200. I visually checked the settings on my device's webpage and everything looks like it should (it is different from what I saw on my dashboard) but when I call the GV number, it never tries to call my cell phone, it just keeps on ringing on the GV number until Voicemail.
The only guess I have that it may not be working (besides a bug), is that I am trying to call a Canadian cell phone number and GV will not allow a call forward to a non-US number. But this is the OBI doing the forwarding so??
Any assistance would be appreciated.

[drgeoff]

A couple of gotchas:

1.  As you have configured GV using the Obitalk portal you should use its Expert mode to change settings of your OBi200.  Changes you make by logging in to locally to the OBi200's IP address on your LAN would be soon overwritten by the portal.

2.  When you do any form of call forwarding via the OBi, each destination is an additional call in progress.  I think GV will support two calls, ie the call it is forwarding to your OBi and one that your OBi is making to forward the call.  The SP1 X_InboundCallRoute syntax to make the OBi ring the phone and forward to another number is

{ph,sp1(N)}

where N is the number you are also ringing.  (Assuming GV configured on SP1.)  Be aware that the CallerID will be your GV number, not that of the original caller to your GV number.

I'm not convinced that GV will not let you forward to a Canadian number.  If it will forward to one, that is simpler than getting the OBi to do it.  And the CallerID will be that of the original caller.

[Nhlobi]

Thanks Dr. Geoff.
In fact, GV will not forward to a Canadian number as I tried to change it in GV and it indicated it would not allow me to do that for that specific reason.
I did set up manually SP1 X_InboundCallRout just as you described, several times, using caps, non-caps to no avail. No success. As I said in my first email. I am just trying for now to get "forward on no answer" to work at this time, what should be a pretty easy matter and even though the webpage for my device indicates the correct settings it will not call forward. I realize the changes need to be done on the device itself, so when I said the OBI webpage, I mean I went through my browser and made the changes directly to the unit.
I have included a screen shot of my OBI settings for "call forward on no answer" (with a blacked out number). I canot see why this is not working. Should be easy, considering I went through the * menu on this occasion to implement it.

[SteveInWA]

The OBi isn't magically forwarding your calls itself.  It needs a carrier to use to make that call.  Since Google Voice will not forward to non-US numbers, you can't do that using Google Voice.

[Nhlobi]

Thanks Steve
Steve, I am not looking for magic, just logic.Just to be clear, GV does allow calls to Canada or to almost any other country. so I can dial my own number from GV. I just can't set it as the call forward number on the GV webpage. I suspect the issue is licensing or some such thing. The only type of call forward number acceptable on the Google Voice webpage is a US number.
So in my view, GV is a legitimate carrier that will call Canada or anywhere. Unless OBI somehow uses GV to implement the actual call forwarding (like GV's web page settings, which I doubt) instead of the OBI box itself doing the call forwarding using the carrier that is configured on the box, I can't see why this doesn't work.
I may not have explained this clearly in last posts. I hope I have done a better job this time.

[azrobert]

Did you read drgeoff's 1st point? You need to use OBi Expert to make configuration changes. If you want to use the local interface you need to disable OBiTalk Auto Provisioning, but then you won't be able to use the portal to make changes to your OBi200.

You are making the changes in the wrong place. The changes need to be in the SPx Service where GV is defined or the Phone1 Port found under Physical Interfaces.  Try the SPx Service first and if that doesn't work use the Phone Port.

Forwarding calls using the inbound route should work. The new SIP GV supports more than 2 simultaneous calls, but the OBi200 default only allows 2. You need to increase the MaxSessions found in the SPx Service.

[drgeoff]

Thank you to azrobert for reiterating my first point.

In addition, I question whether putting that '+' in the forwarding number will work with OBi's default digit maps.

[Nhlobi]

Thanks azrobert.

It is not that I am ignoring any advice. In fact, the first attempt I did was through the Obiexpert interface (may have not explained that earlier). I changed the settings under SP1 CALLFORWARDONNOANSWER ENABLE and I inserted a phone number in the phone number area under the same category. It did not work. I tried about 3 times. I did follow your advice and increased max sessions to 3. I also tried, the SP1 x-inbound-callroute entry with a number as per forum suggested format. It did not work.
I will try the phone port next.
Dr. Geoff, the plus sign was inserted by Obi when I did the star code.

[SteveInWA]

I did follow your advice and increased max sessions to 3.

Do this at your own major risk.  Google will suspend accounts for abuse if there are signs that the account is being used for <an undisclosed number of> multiple simultaneous channels.  If that happens, you might permanently lose your phone number, with no recourse to recover it, nor to ever use the service again on that account.

A different approach would be to manage your linked phone numbers correctly, in your Google Voice settings page.  Forward the Google Voice number to a number provisioned with a US SIP ITSP.  On that ITSP's service, do a subsequent forward to the Canadian number.

[Nhlobi]

Thanks Steve, I tried to find this policy somewhere but couldn't (yet). I will continue looking for it. The numbers I am forwarding the calls to are my own and my wife's. I can just whittle that down to 1 if there is a problem. If you know of the link, I would appreciate reading that policy.

On the other hand, I finally got call forwarding working using the x-inbound-callroute method in SP1 (thanks Drgeoff and azrobert). I could not get it to work by changing the SP1 setting or the phone port setting to "call forward on no answer". I am guessing caps are an issue as far as configuration entries go because x-inbound-callroute method did not work the first time I tried it. If not that, then I must have just screwed up the entry.

I am going to try to enter a second number in x-inbound-callroute and see if I can get 2 numbers to work.

Thanks to all that provided advice.

[SteveInWA]

Google does not publish its security and fraud-protection policies, metrics or thresholds.  Why make it that much easier for scammers to reverse engineer things?

[azrobert]

Another method is to forward the call using SIP. This is a more complex setup. You would install a softphone on your cell and register it to a free service like Callcentric's IP Freedom then route calls to this account via SIP URI. You can see the original callerid using this method. Let me know if you want to try it.

[Nhlobi]

Thanks azrobert but this will suffice. I was trying to save money by elmunating the need for a Virtual US number and stll forward calls to our cellphones. This should do the trick.