News:

On Tuesday September 6th the forum will be down for maintenance from 9:30 PM to 11:59 PM PDT

Main Menu

ObiHai 212, Google Voice bridging to POTS, can't get it to work

Started by bufbills83, November 08, 2018, 05:49:45 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

bufbills83

Please excuse my misuse of some terminology as I am new to all of this...

I work at a business and my phone extension cannot receive an outside line as I can only call other extensions within my place of work. I would like to have phone calls that are made to my extension to be forwarded to my cell phone. Also, I would like to be able to have my cell phone make phone calls from my work extension. Is this possible? I was told I could get an obihai 212, a google voice account, and this could work.  I do not have access to the phone server, just the phone jack on my office wall.  So far, I am having trouble getting it set up.

Maybe to clarify (or confuse more lol) I bought an Invoxia Voice Bridge to do exactly this.  It worked perfect using it with my home phone number at my house.  However, with my office phone, it would not work.  Calls came in fine (caller id did not work however), but I could not dial out because the voice bridge app on my phone automatically puts a country code on the number and it cannot be removed (even after checking with Invoxia).

I am open to getting another VOiP service other than Google Voice if that is the issue.  However, I am lost  Can someone help?  Thanks.



drgeoff

Yes an OBi212 can do what you want.  I assume you either do not need or already have permission to do it.

The two directions (in from the cellphone and out to the cellphone) need to be configured separately.  But first you need the OBi added to your Obitalk dashboard and configured with a GV number.  Have you done that?  If you plug your deskphone into the PHONE jack of the OBi212 can you make calls to and receive calls from your cellphone?

drgeoff

Forking internal calls to your cellphone.

Insert the OBi212 between phone jack on office wall and your deskphone.  Wall jack to LINE jack on 212.  PHONE jack on 212 to deskphone.

On the portal click the gearwheel* containing a red E to enter Expert Mode.  Click on 'Physical Interfaces'.  Click on 'LINE'.  Find the line that has 'InboundCallRoute'.  At the right hand end of that line clear both boxes by clicking as necessary.  Then change what is in the Value box to {ph,sp1(number)} where number is your cellphone number. Scroll to the bottom and click 'Submit'.  Shortly afterwards the OBi will reboot.

Click on 'Physical Interfaces', then on 'PHONE'.  Find the line 'PrimaryLine'.  See if the Value box shows 'PSTN Line'.  If not, clear the boxes at the end of the line, select it from the drop down and click 'Submit' at the bottom of the page.

Check that you can make calls from the deskphone as usual.  Check that calls to your deskphone ring as usual and also ring your cellphone.  Check that you can answer those calls using either the deskphone or your cellphone.

(* if only the one gearwheel without red E is visible, click 'Edit Profile', scroll to the bottom and tick the box 'Enable OBi Expert Entry from Dashboard')

Please delete all the other copies of your initial post.

azrobert

drgeoff,

How does your instructions give the OP the ability to call extensions on the business phone system from his mobile?

bufbills83,

What happened to the Invoxia? Do you have an iPhone or Android?

There are a few ways you can call extensions from your mobile.

You can call the GV number and get connected to the OBi212 Auto Attendant then follow instructions to call an extension. You have to add OBi212 code to route the call to the AA. You will use cell minutes.

If you are just using your mobile at work, you can install a softphone on your cell. This also requires OBi212 changes.

If you have an Android, you would be able to call from outside work. This is a complex setup and requires access to the work router.

drgeoff

Quote from: azrobert on November 09, 2018, 02:47:01 PM
drgeoff,

How does your instructions give the OP the ability to call extensions on the business phone system from his mobile?

I was working on the one step at a time principle.  My post beginning "Forking .." was not intended to cover the mobile to extension direction.

The easiest to configure way of calling extensions from the mobile is, like azrobert wrote, to use the 212's AutoAttendant. Change the SP1 X_InboundCallRoute to aa.  Set a PIN. Set the AA's PrimaryLine to Li.

drgeoff

I looked at the Voice Bridge web pages a year ago in response to a question on another forum.

1. Their app must include a softphone.  Both it and the Voice Bridge hardware unit are hardcoded to register with a server run by (or for) Invoxia.  If they go out of business the system is dead.

2.  Having a VoIP app running on the cellphone does add to its battery drain.

3.  https://www.zoiper.com/en/support/home/article/205/Zoiper%20mobile%20PUSH#android is also worth a read.  AIUI the issue discussed is applicable to any VoIP client running on a recent Android or iOS phone.

bufbills83

Thank you both for your responses.  In regards to the Invoxia, I would rather not use it in conjunction with the OBI if I don't have to. Their softphone app does not work with Android 9.0 (as confirmed with Invoxia) and only works with older versions of Android.  I have older phones the app worked on, but I would rather not carry two phones around for this purpose.  Still, even on the working app, the issue is still with the country code.

I set up the Obi like drgeoff stated in post "Forking..." and it worked once.  The delay on ringing of the phones was a little off (phone calling in rang two or three times before the receiving phone and cell phone rang).  I tried playing around with the ring delay without much luck.  Not sure what exactly the issue is, but I think I am going to try that setup at home first before I bring it into work just to take any complications with the PBX out of the equation.

In regards to the Auto Attendant feature, I setup as stated "Change the SP1 X_InboundCallRoute to aa.  Set a PIN. Set the AA's PrimaryLine to Li."  However, I change the SP1 X_InboundCallRoute to aa and set a PIN.  I cannot see where the to set the PrimaryLine to Li.  I see the PrimaryLine option, but in the drop-down menu, no Li.  Any Ideas?  Again thank you for all the help.


azrobert

There should a Primary Line option "PSTN Line"

Edit:

There is another rule you can use to route calls to the AA. Change SP1 inbound route to:
{+1xxxxxxxxxx:aa},{ph}

Replace xxxxxxxxxx with your cell callerid. Now only you are routed to the AA, so you don't need a PIN. All other callers will bypass the AA and ring the OBi212 attached phone. You can test for more than 1 phone number. Are you OK with this 2 step process to make a call?

There is another method to route calls to your cell. It requires an app (softphone) on your cell and a free VOIP service. Don't know if this will improve the delay. Using GV you see the GV callerid, not the original callerid. You will see the original callerid with the softphone.

bufbills83

OK, thank you.  Still getting a pretty good delay and it does not work all the time.  What is the softphone setup?  Thank you again.

ccarr

Can this setup (PSTN to Google Voice) also be configured using a Obi202 plus a Obi110? (I have both and would rather not have to purchase an additional Obi212). I would route PSTN calls from the 110 to the 202 and then to GV? Can you provide tips on what additional fields to modify in ObiExpert? thanks.