How to Set Up an to dial 911
A_Friend:
Quote from: SteveInWA on July 06, 2018, 09:46:29 pm
There is a culture of "anti-evil-business, DIY, keep your hands off my stuff" ...
Well, that's not where I'm coming from. I come out of a financial-company systems background, and all I expect/want is stability. I don't want upgrades or changes unless they fix a problem that I'm actually having. And, especially with a utility device like an ATA, I just want it to behave like an appliance. It's not that I'm allergic to change, it just has to fit my cost/benefit analysis.
We've just had a good example of what can go wrong when your appliance gets unnecessarily "blown out of the water" by an external system.
OTOH, I agree that for most people, the portal is the best way for them to configure/manage their device. As a systems guy, though, especially one who started early on with an Obi100 and had to struggle learning how to administer it, I have enough experience now, and print copies of the 141-page September 2011 and 202-page August 2012 Device Administrator's Guide on my shelf. It's a shame they've made it impossible to configure your own device to work with Google Voice with the stock firmware. I don't understand why they did this. When I use the portal to configure Google Voice, I do so grudgingly. Yes, it makes it easy to do, but we should have the option, and we don't. What would it take to configure your own? A few more steps and another 5 minutes?
One very valid gripe I have with the portal is that just by connecting to it, it wipes out all your settings. Why? My 202 has a bunch of non-trivial settings, including two other carriers and some international least-cost routing decisions, which I need to update now and again. Until I discovered XML Notepad (http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=14342.msg91709#msg91709),
wiping out my settings looked like it was going to cost me hours of restoration work.
So, until the portal actually works the way I want it to, I'll continue to avoid it whenever I can. It has nothing to do with conspiracy theories or system philosophies. It's just about seeking device stability and trying to avoid unnecessary work at inconvenient times.
GPz1100:
^^Well said. Unfortunately, it seems cloud managed hardware is here and more on the way. Consider Tesla's vehicles which are capable of receiving OTA software updates.
Perhaps I'm old school but I too firmly believe, if it's not broke, don't fix it! I have a windows 8 pc that was built/configured in late 2012, receiving the then available updates. To date no further updates (windows or bios) have been applied. It can go for months without a reboot and is fully stable.
I think the goal of obitalk portal was to appeal to the masses. As you've discovered, setting this thing up manually is no easy task. That's good and bad. The masses want a turnkey solution, the DIY want full control. I say give the customer the _OPTION_ of which method to use. Don't force one particular one down their throats.
SteveInWA:
It's not obvious to hobby/personal consumer users, but Obihai (now Polycom's) primary customer base is medium to very large enterprise business users and customers of ITSPs and carriers. That market cannot be managed by locally changing settings. It needs a comprehensive remote deployment and management platform, to provision, upgrade and manage hundreds to thousands of devices. It is one of the primary reasons that Polycom bought Obihai, to leverage their deployment and management technology.
This is no different than organizations that support hundreds to hundreds of thousands of Microsoft product users, via remote deployment and management.
The current and future direction for IT is cloud-based. The days of the harried IT technician replacing parts in a rack of servers or telecom gear is over. IBM, Microsoft, Google and Amazon have all moved to cloud computing. I started my 30+ year career in IT and networking, installing and fixing mainframe, midrange and PC hardware. With today's high labor costs and shortages of skilled workers, I fully understand and embrace this transition.
Google Voice is a cloud-based service. If you want a fully DIY solution, then use a "barebones" SIP ITSP.
A_Friend:
Quote from: GPz1100 on July 07, 2018, 08:34:55 am
^^Well said. Unfortunately, it seems cloud managed hardware is here and more on the way. ... The masses want a turnkey solution, the DIY want full control. I say give the customer the _OPTION_ of which method to use. Don't force one particular one down their throats.
You know what? I would have a whole lot less objection to using the portal IF IT ACTUALLY WORKED!
Instead, it wipes out all your settings when you attach, won't accept backup files without jumping through hoops, doesn't show SPs added via Restore and Obi Expert on the Dashboard, nukes all your speed dials unless you add them back individually by hand on the portal's website. Edited backup files, with GV removed from the file, used to load in earlier firmware without hurting GV, but now wreck GV anyway, and there's no way to reload credentials or even delete SP1 and re-do it without GV ending up on SP2. Well, unless you do a factory reset, delete your device and re-add it to the portal.
It's not even a question of "choice." It's a question of "why doesn't this work right?"
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