Unable to add OBi202 to my account

[QuintCom]

I'm new to OBi devices. I've been trying to add my newly purchased (and brand-new) OBi202 device to my OBi account so I can configure it for Google Voice service. Unfortunately, their system seemingly refuses to allow me to do so.

My situation is as follows (i.e., device/connection status and what I've tried)...

The power LED is solid green. DHCP is enabled. The ***1 command reports the device's assigned LAN IP as 192.168.1.5 and I can ping that IP from the other computers on my LAN. I've tried port forwarding for UDP port 10000 to 192.168.1.5:10000 and also placing IP 192.168.1.5 in my broadband router's DMZ area. But neither of those efforts made a bit of difference. I consistently always get a timeout with a "Failed to connect to your device" message after a displayed 120 second countdown. I have probably tried 30 or more times to add this OBi202 device to my account without success. I as well tried issuing the ***8 1 reset command. The OBi device rebooted... but it made no difference, either, as far as allowing me to add the device to my account.

After doing some research, I've discovered that this problem has plagued many users since at least 2017. Some of them who requested support from OBi said that OBi manually added their devices to their accounts which worked to activate their devices. I did fill out and submit the OBi/Polycom support form and I sent a separate email to support@obihai.com ... but since it's the weekend I'll have to wait a day of two to see if they reply. It will be nice if they are able to manually add my device so it can become enabled. In my communications with them I included the ID number of my OBi202.

Other than the steps I've already taken, does any one have any suggestions (or thoughts) concerning my situation?

Thank you in advance.

[drgeoff]

Does dialling **9 222 222 222 successfully reach the echo test number?

[QuintCom]

Does dialling **9 222 222 222 successfully reach the echo test number?

I'm unsure whether the voice message I receive when I dial **9 222 222 222 is locally generated by the OBi202 device or whether it originates from the OBiHai network server. That voice message is: "There is no service available to complete your call."

BTW, thanks for your reply. Any assistance will certainly be appreciated.

[drgeoff]

Does dialling **9 222 222 222 successfully reach the echo test number?

I'm unsure whether the voice message I receive when I dial **9 222 222 222 is locally generated by the OBi202 device or whether it originates from the OBiHai network server. That voice message is: "There is no service available to complete your call."

BTW, thanks for your reply. Any assistance will certainly be appreciated.

That message is locally generated. The call should be answered with a man's voice saying "Welcome to Obitalk ...". Until that works you are wasteing your time trying to add the device to the portal. Even if Obihai support manually add the device you will not be able to make calls.

It is very rarely necessary for a user with an ordinary home router and residential internet service to implement port forwarding, DMZ etc. Is there anything atypical about your internet service and LAN?

I would first suggest that you reset your router, wait a few minutes then reset the OBi and if possible try a different phone. Whatever phone, plug it directly into the OBi, not via any house wiring.

[QuintCom]

That message is locally generated. The call should be answered with a man's voice saying "Welcome to Obitalk ...". Until that works you are wasteing your time trying to add the device to the portal. Even if Obihai support manually add the device you will not be able to make calls.

Understood. But... in that case, why doesn't my local OBi device produce a message indicating that a server handshake failed to occur? I believe OBi should have been able to achieve that functionality through an implementation of SYN/ACK packet flagging interpretation. But the device reports nothing about server connection/acknowledgement being awry. The response message I am consistently receiving is simply, "The number you have dialed, **5 ####, has been sent to the server." On its face, that message suggests that the server received the code I've sent to it without issue. If what you're saying is correct, clearly no ACK packets are able to be returned to my OBi device, OR it simply doesn't report the handshake failure. I don't quite understand why they might omit such an important indicator function.

The following thread from late 2018 seems consistent with my issue and, as you'll see, appears to have affected a significant number of users... http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=14947.0

You will notice in the thread that some of the users claim OBi/Polycom manually adding their device resolved the issue for them.

It is very rarely necessary for a user with an ordinary home router and residential internet service to implement port forwarding, DMZ etc. Is there anything atypical about your internet service and LAN?

The router is a Comtrend VR-3031u. I've had no issues with it in any regard as far as Internet connectivity or service access. In fact, I continue to use it for establishing and maintaining SSH terminal sessions with a number of remote dedicated servers that I manage. Moreover, other service devices requiring interaction with remote networks (e.g., Roku streaming sticks, VPN tunnels, etc.) continue connecting with their servers and continue rendering their respective services without issue through this router. And to be clear, I have not configured it for universal VPN connectivity - any VPN adapters/tunnels that I implement are configured on individual computing devices connected to the Internet through the router. My point being that the router facilitates those tunnel connections just fine. I've been using this same router since 2017 and have encountered no issues with it other than, perhaps, this OBi server connection problem.

I would first suggest that you reset your router, wait a few minutes then reset the OBi and if possible try a different phone. Whatever phone, plug it directly into the OBi, not via any house wiring.

Done. But it made no difference. One difference about my router that I failed to mention above is that it has a static IP address. And the PTR record (rDNS) for the static IP is one of my own domains. Both the PTR host name and the numerical IP resolve correctly to one another and the host name has never created an issue with any other connections or with DNS interaction.

By the way, I've enabled LAN access to my OBi202 device and I'm now receiving a login dialog when entering 192.168.5 into my browser address bar. Since I know of know login credentials that will work to access the device, I can't get beyond that login dialog? Is there a way around this without first adding the device to the server? 

[drgeoff]

Log in locally with admin and admin.

Once there, on the left side click "Status", then "System Status".  Scroll down to Obitalk Service Status.  What is shown in the status line?

There is a wealth of info inthe Admin Guide. http://www.obitalk.com/info/documents/admin_guide/OBiDeviceAdminGuide.pdf

[QuintCom]

Log in locally with admin and admin.

Once there, on the left side click "Status", then "System Status".  Scroll down to Obitalk Service Status.  What is shown in the status line?

There is a wealth of info inthe Admin Guide. http://www.obitalk.com/info/documents/admin_guide/OBiDeviceAdminGuide.pdf

Thanks for that information. The status information you've requested is as follows:

Status   Acquiring Service (0);ex-addr=192.168.1.5:10073(10073)
CallState   0 Active Calls

[drgeoff]

That "acquiring service" means your Obi is not suceeding to contact Obihai's server.

At the top of that Status page what IP addresses are shown against Default Gateway, DNSServer1 and DNSServer2?

[QuintCom]

That "acquiring service" means your Obi is not suceeding to contact Obihai's server.

At the top of that Status page what IP addresses are shown against Default Gateway, DNSServer1 and DNSServer2?

As follows:

AddressingType   DHCP
IPAddress   192.168.1.5
SubnetMask   255.255.255.0
DefaultGateway   192.168.1.1
DNSServer1   192.168.1.1
DNSServer2
MACAddress   ************
LLDP-MEDStatus   Disabled

Edit:
I've redacted the MAC address with asterisks.

[drgeoff]

Try adding 8.8.8.8 as DNSServer2.  To do that, on the left click on System Management, then on Network Settings. Untick the box in the Default column for DNSServer2.  Enter 8.8.8.8.  Click Submit at the bottom of the page. Click Reboot at top right.

[QuintCom]

Try adding 8.8.8.8 as DNSServer2.  To do that, on the left click on System Management, then on Network Settings. Untick the box in the Default column for DNSServer2.  Enter 8.8.8.8.  Click Submit at the bottom of the page. Click Reboot at top right.

That's actually a good thought. But once I expand System Management, there doesn't seem to be a Network Settings option. The only 3 options I see are: Auto Provisioning, Device Admin, and Device update. Why might that be? I think I saw a way to change the DNS IP via the phone codes though. I'll see if I can locate the instructions.

[drgeoff]

Try adding 8.8.8.8 as DNSServer2.  To do that, on the left click on System Management, then on Network Settings. Untick the box in the Default column for DNSServer2.  Enter 8.8.8.8.  Click Submit at the bottom of the page. Click Reboot at top right.

That's actually a good thought. But once I expand System Management, there doesn't seem to be a Network Settings option. The only 3 options I see are: Auto Provisioning, Device Admin, and Device update. Why might that be? I think I saw a way to change the DNS IP via the phone codes though. I'll see if I can locate the instructions.

Yes, apologies. I was looking at the menus of my Obi110.  The 202 is slightly different.

Click on Router Configuration, then on WAN settings.  Look in the Internet Settings section.

[QuintCom]

Try adding 8.8.8.8 as DNSServer2.  To do that, on the left click on System Management, then on Network Settings. Untick the box in the Default column for DNSServer2.  Enter 8.8.8.8.  Click Submit at the bottom of the page. Click Reboot at top right.

That's actually a good thought. But once I expand System Management, there doesn't seem to be a Network Settings option. The only 3 options I see are: Auto Provisioning, Device Admin, and Device update. Why might that be? I think I saw a way to change the DNS IP via the phone codes though. I'll see if I can locate the instructions.

Yes, apologies. I was looking at the menus of my Obi110.  The 202 is slightly different.

Click on Router Configuration, then on WAN settings.  Look in the Internet Settings section.

Yep, that's exactly what I did. And guess what? Your recommendation about changing the dns servers fixed my issue. I actually added both of Google's dns server IPs (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 (as a secondary)). It then allowed me access to add my device and thus to register with GV. So I'm up and running now  Thanks kindly for the help!

What I don't quite understand is why they have the default configuration populate the DNS server field with your LAN gateway IP ... at least they could add a note to test it and change it if necessary.

Again, I truly appreciate your assistance.

[drgeoff]

What I don't quite understand is why they have the default configuration populate the DNS server field with your LAN gateway IP

That happens because the LAN-side DHCP server in your router tells the DHCP client in the OBi to use that address for DNS queries.  It is very common for routers to do that.  The router will forward DNS queries which it cannot itself answer to the IP address that the router has been given as a DNS server by your Internet Service Provider.  (Either DHCP client on the router's WAN side and DHCP server at the ISP or static parameters manually entered in to the router.)

You cannot pin any blame on Obihai in this case.

[QuintCom]

What I don't quite understand is why they have the default configuration populate the DNS server field with your LAN gateway IP

That happens because the LAN-side DHCP server in your router tells the DHCP client in the OBi to use that address for DNS queries.  It is very common for routers to do that.  The router will forward DNS queries which it cannot itself answer to the IP address that the router has been given as a DNS server by your Internet Service Provider.  (Either DHCP client on the router's WAN side and DHCP server at the ISP or static parameters manually entered in to the router.)

You cannot pin any blame on Obihai in this case.

I'm not trying to do that... I'm just happy that it's working now. Actually, my router didn't forward any of the multitude of requests from the OBi202 device to the external DNS server addresses in its config (which are in fact Google's primary and secondary DNS IPs). I'm guessing that's attributable to an incorrect setting somewhere in the router's management variables. No worries though... that's a minor thing 

[jkuson]

I had this issue but with a different solution. I would turn your computer firewall off and in IE turn your pop up blocker off. This happened to me regardless of using Chrome and even the browser on my cell phone.

I even had obitalk.com added to safe sites. After turning Internet Explorers pop up blocker off - bam it all started working. Still use chrome for google voice activation though.

[eraserhed]

I was unable to add my OBi202 to my dashboard even though I could successfully connect to the OBiTALK test number **9 222 222 222.  I tried all of the solutions here but still the **5 process would time out every time.  What finally worked for me was to change the 'OperationMode' parameter from 'Router' to 'Bridge' under 'Router Configuration > LAN Settings'.  Hopes this helps someone else and saves them some time.

[drgeoff]

I was unable to add my OBi202 to my dashboard even though I could successfully connect to the OBiTALK test number **9 222 222 222.  I tried all of the solutions here but still the **5 process would time out every time.  What finally worked for me was to change the 'OperationMode' parameter from 'Router' to 'Bridge' under 'Router Configuration > LAN Settings'.  Hopes this helps someone else and saves them some time.

Fake news!  See my post at http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=17243.msg106587#msg106587