News:

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

Main Menu

Google Voice calls display wrong caller ID to callee

Started by Doc_Glenn, April 25, 2020, 01:13:54 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Doc_Glenn

A friend of mine has been using GV (Google Voice) on Obi 202 for a number of years (so have I, but she's the one with this problem). In the past week or two, all her callees have noticed a very wrong phone number. She is in the US, area code 831. The number that is displayed is 164-283-xxxx (I don't want to post the last 4 digits).

I tried calling this number with my own GV and Google told me it would cost 10 cents per minute. After about 30 seconds of silence I finally heard a rapid ring-like tone. No one ever answered.

What has happened? I can't begin to imagine how to debug this. Has she been hacked or is this just some weird bug? Is this funny number generated by GV or by Obi 202?

I wish I could manage it for her, but we setup her Obi using the convenient Google login option and right now no -in-home tech support visits!

SteveInWA

I strongly suspect that the number being displayed is part of a longer string, such that the "1" digit that appears to be part of the area code is actually the country code, followed by a valid phone number.  This obviously shouldn't be happening.

Perform a simple test to isolate the source of the problem:  instead of using the OBi-attached phone to make calls, open Firefox or Google Chrome Browser on a laptop/desktop computer, and make the call directly on the computer (Google Voice uses VoIP to make calls).  Find out what the called party sees.

https://voice.google.com/u/0/calls

Then, make the same call from the OBi, and compare the digits.  Is part of the digit string from the OBi call the same as the browser call?  If the browser call correctly displays the number, then there's a configuration error on the OBi.

Is this person's OBiTALK device installed in the USA?

Doc_Glenn

Yes, device is installed in the US.
I had her call from GV on computer and the caller ID is correct, so the problem is with Obi. It has been rebooted and that did not fix it.
The number displayed is evidently not country code 164, rather it is 64, New Zealand, and GV charges 10 cents per minute to NZ mobile phones - so that is a match to what I found.
Now I just have to dig into Obi settings and figure this out. I wish I could find a way to remote manage - will probably have to reset and not use the convenient GV config shortcut.

Lavarock7

My off the wall guess is that it is a number in the 643 area code (Kansas) used by Google when the caller-id is not correct. The 1 is the US long distance code and the number is truncated. My reason for suggesting this is I remember something about generic numbers being used by Google Voice if you didn't have a phone number in the account. They have used  (760) 705-8888 in the past, is it possible this is yet another number they use?
My websites: Kona Coffee: http://itskona.com and Web Hosting: http://planetaloha.info<br />A simplified Voip explanation: http://voip.planet-aloha.com

SteveInWA

Quote from: Doc_Glenn on April 26, 2020, 01:03:56 PM
Yes, device is installed in the US.
I had her call from GV on computer and the caller ID is correct, so the problem is with Obi. It has been rebooted and that did not fix it.
The number displayed is evidently not country code 164, rather it is 64, New Zealand, and GV charges 10 cents per minute to NZ mobile phones - so that is a match to what I found.
Now I just have to dig into Obi settings and figure this out. I wish I could find a way to remote manage - will probably have to reset and not use the convenient GV config shortcut.

This shouldn't happen, unless you customized digit maps or made some other user error.

I'd suggest biting the bullet and starting over.   Go to the OBiTALK dashboard (http://www.obitalk.com/obinet/pg/obhdev) and completely delete the OBi device off of the dashboard.  Wait several minutes until the device stops flashing the power LED.  Pick up the attached phone and key in ***8 then 1 to restore factory defaults.  Wait until that finishes.  Re-add the device to the dashboard, via the **5 xxxx procedure, then set up Google Voice again.  When authorizing the SP to Google, make sure that the Gmail address it tells you it is going to authorize is the correct Gmail account that holds your Google Voice phone number.

Make a test call.  Did that fix it?

SteveInWA

Quote from: Lavarock7 on April 26, 2020, 01:43:12 PM
My off the wall guess is that it is a number in the 643 area code (Kansas) used by Google when the caller-id is not correct. The 1 is the US long distance code and the number is truncated. My reason for suggesting this is I remember something about generic numbers being used by Google Voice if you didn't have a phone number in the account. They have used  (760) 705-8888 in the past, is it possible this is yet another number they use?

In the long past, you could make outbound calls via Google Voice without an inbound number.  In those cases, it would display that 705-8888 number.  There weren't any other numbers.  Perhaps you may be thinking of "shadow numbers", which are in several area codes, and are used when calling out via a bridged call to a Google telephony server (not VoIP calls).  So, good question, but not the answer here.

The fact that calling via the browse works as expected points to some bizarre configuration issue on the OBi device.

Doc_Glenn

Quote from: SteveInWA on April 26, 2020, 03:24:00 PM
This shouldn't happen, unless you customized digit maps or made some other user error.

I'd suggest biting the bullet and starting over.   Go to the OBiTALK dashboard (http://www.obitalk.com/obinet/pg/obhdev) and completely delete the OBi device off of the dashboard.  Wait several minutes until the device stops flashing the power LED.  Pick up the attached phone and key in ***8 then 1 to restore factory defaults.  Wait until that finishes.  Re-add the device to the dashboard, via the **5 xxxx procedure, then set up Google Voice again.  When authorizing the SP to Google, make sure that the Gmail address it tells you it is going to authorize is the correct Gmail account that holds your Google Voice phone number.

Make a test call.  Did that fix it?
Is there a way to setup Obi 202 so that I can remotely manage it, but we use her Gmail account so that it uses her GV number? I don't have her gmail account password and don't want it. So I guess I'm asking if there is any way to manually configure this.

SteveInWA

Quote from: Doc_Glenn on April 29, 2020, 01:56:23 PM
Quote from: SteveInWA on April 26, 2020, 03:24:00 PM
This shouldn't happen, unless you customized digit maps or made some other user error.

I'd suggest biting the bullet and starting over.   Go to the OBiTALK dashboard (http://www.obitalk.com/obinet/pg/obhdev) and completely delete the OBi device off of the dashboard.  Wait several minutes until the device stops flashing the power LED.  Pick up the attached phone and key in ***8 then 1 to restore factory defaults.  Wait until that finishes.  Re-add the device to the dashboard, via the **5 xxxx procedure, then set up Google Voice again.  When authorizing the SP to Google, make sure that the Gmail address it tells you it is going to authorize is the correct Gmail account that holds your Google Voice phone number.

Make a test call.  Did that fix it?
Is there a way to setup Obi 202 so that I can remotely manage it, but we use her Gmail account so that it uses her GV number? I don't have her gmail account password and don't want it. So I guess I'm asking if there is any way to manually configure this.

There is no concept of "manual" configuration.  Not to argue semantics, but everything you do with it is "manual", in that you are entering things by hand.

You need to be able to sign into her Gmail account once, during the Google Voice setup.  After that, no Gmail password is stored, either on the OBiTALK portal or on the device.  The setup procedure exchange secure tokens.  This grants the device access to the Google Voice service on that account -- nothing else.

She can temporarily change her password, tell you that password, then after you set it up, she can change her password again.

Doc_Glenn

Have not made progress on this problem. Here's what I'd like to do:

  • Her Obitalk account is Google login.
  • She also has Google Voice setup on the Obi 202.
I want her to change her Obitalk account to a username/password account instead of using Google login.
If she does that, I should be able to manage her device, correct?
So is that possible without deleting and resetting device?
Or if I know her Obi device number, can I manage it?

SteveInWA

OBiTALK accounts can, like many websites, either use their own username and password, or they can use Google's authentication procedure to sign in with one's Gmail address/password.  This has nothing at all to do with setting up Google Voice on a device that is assigned to that OBiTALK account.  For example, I have a dedicated username and password for my OBiTALK account (NOT my Gmail credentials), and I have added Google Voice as a SP, using the OAUTH token procedure I mentioned earlier.  I also have several non-Google Voice SPs set up on the device.

In order to do what you described, you would need to do this:

  • She needs to sign into HER OBiTALK account using her Gmail credentials and go to the OBiTALK dashboard:
    (http://www.obitalk.com/obinet/pg/obhdev).
    She then needs to completely delete her device off of that account.  After doing that, and waiting several minutes for the device to be remotely reset, then unplug the device from power.  Unplug the Ethernet cable.
    Plug in the power cord, leaving the Ethernet cable disconnected.  Pick up the attached phone and key in ***8 then 1 to restore the device to factory defaults.  Wait...this takes several minutes.  After the power LED stops flashing red/green, then plug in the Ethernet cable.
  • Now, the device can be added to a different OBiTALK account, using the **5 xxxx procedure.  It doesn't matter whose account it is.  That's up to you.  That account can have its own OBiTALK username and password.
  • Configure Google Voice and any other desired SPs on the device.  When adding Google Voice, the Gmail password for the Google account that holds the Google Voice number will need to be entered, once.

Doc_Glenn

I finally fixed the problem! And I can finally close this topic!

I went to friend's house and discovered that her ObiTalk account was in fact configured with username/password and NOT with Google login. So this was good news, because it meant she could give me those credentials and I will be able to remotely manage in the future.

So why do her outgoing calls display a weird caller ID, a number that looks like it might come from New Zealand and not 10 digits from USA? Answer: There was no SP selected for outgoing calls!
Two days ago she lost the ability to place outgoing calls - a robot told her she had insufficient funds. Suddenly I suspected that her outgoing calls were NOT going thru Google Voice, but instead were going thru her Anveo account that she has only for 911.
Sure enough, her ObiHai config showed that NO SP was selected for outgoing calls! SP1 is Google Voice, SP2 is Anveo. Apparently with no SP chosen for outgoing, ObiHai defaulted to the last SP in the list.
As soon as I enabled SP1 as primary for outgoing calls, all was well. No more messages about insufficient funds and caller ID is now correct.

So simple! I just don't know how the outgoing checkbox got turned off.

jccpa

Good catch.

About changing OBiTALK.com login from Google account to a username and password....

I had a similar question and couldn't find anything, BUT I found the answer.

1. Click on the 'Sign In' not just float over it. It will bring up a webpage based login

2. Enter the gmail address as login and type any password (it will fail)

3. Click on RESET PASSWORD, which will send a reset link to the gmail address

4. Whoever has the gmail account can check and click on the link to give you the password for OBiTALK.com

Viola! Now you are logging in with abc@gmail.com (whatever your email address) and a SEPARATE PASSWORD from the gmail.com account with google. Done.

I also need this for some accounts. Hope this helps.