"Off Hook"! My 4th OBi device to die. Need robustness!

[Brutusfly]

   We live where lightning strikes nearby hundreds of times each summer, but not everything in the house dies every 18-months—just my Obihai stuff.

The latest OBi200 won't hang up. Did the 2-hours of troubleshooting, testing resetting, testing more... I'm an I.T. guy, so having to do this stuff at home after doing it all day at work really burns.

My OBi200 still works great for some seconds after reboot, but once the line stays open it's "off hook" and can't be hung up. No way to terminate a call, no way to get a dial tone back once it times out.

Anyway, I'm thinking I could throw more money to this feeble stuff and buy my fifth one, and this time get the wifi adapter too. Maybe surges from the stormy weather will stop frying them? One less copper connection... or maybe it's not the lightning...

[azrobert]

Do you have your OBi200 connected to your home wiring and did you remove the telco connection? They won't disconnect power after you cancel your plan.

[SteveInWA]

...and, after disconnecting the cause of the damage, per Robert's post above, I hope you have a high quality surge protector or UPS.  Surge protectors do die after repeated surges. 

Also, get one of these:  https://www.amazon.com/APC-PNET1GB-ProtectNet-Standalone-Protector/dp/B000BKUSS8

[Brutusfly]

I like your suggestion azRobert, so I checked the POTS connection outside, and I apparently disconnected it back in 2013 when I hooked up the OBi, so telco voltage could not have been applied to the house wiring at all. I'm curious if any other SW-Floridians have as rotten luck with these OBi100/20x units.

Do you have your OBi200 connected to your home wiring and did you remove the telco connection? They won't disconnect power after you cancel your plan.

[SteveInWA]

I like your suggestion azRobert, so I checked the POTS connection outside, and I apparently disconnected it back in 2013 when I hooked up the OBi, so telco voltage could not have been applied to the house wiring at all. I'm curious if any other SW-Floridians have as rotten luck with these OBi100/20x units.

Do you have your OBi200 connected to your home wiring and did you remove the telco connection? They won't disconnect power after you cancel your plan.

There have never been any reports of repeated device failures in one location that were caused by the OBi products themselves.  This has to be surge-related.  Buy a new surge protector with built-in telephone line surge protection and a high joule rating.  For example:  https://www.amazon.com/Belkin-BE112230-08-12-Outlet-Power-Protector/dp/B000J2EN4S

Also buy the APC network surge protector I mentioned above.

Plug the OBi's AC adapter into the surge protector.  Route the telephone cord through the surge protector's phone line protector.  Route the Ethernet cable through the network surge protector.  Ground the network surge protector.

If any of the attached telephones are also connected to a AC adapter, then that adapter also needs to be plugged into a surge protector.

No more failures.