Solved: Increase Rings before Voicemail (OBI200+Freephoneline)

[LearnKid]

I am using FPL (freephoneline) with OBI200.  I have changed the VoiceMail Settings in my FPL's account by increasing the "Rings before voicemail" to 8, but it didn't work. After 4 unanswered rings, the call always goes to FPL's voice message. Is there a way to increase the rings to 6 or 8?  

[drgeoff]

Ask FPL. This is nothing to do with your OBi.

[LearnKid]

I think I found the solution. Here are what I did:

1. Changed the voicemail setting in FPL to 8 and;
2. Changed the CallForwarding setting in OBI200 under Physical Interfaces-Phone1-ForwardOnNoAnswerRingCount to 7 (I had it as 4 previously)

Now, after unanswered call rings 7 times, the call goes to FPL's voice message.

[Webslinger]

The problem is that you have X_Use302ToCallForward enabled and FPL doesn't allow 302 SIP responses (redirect invite with temporarily moved) to Invite for call forwarding.

You'll need the ATA to bridge calls if you want to use the ATA for call forwarding.

ITSP Profile-->SIP-->Disable X_Use302ToCallForward

Otherwise, when the ATA attempts to forward the call, it will be dropped automatically to Freephoneline's voicemail system.

The PDF guide located on FPL's forum explains this situation on page 5 and also at the top of page 22.

[LearnKid]

First of all, I would like to THANK you, Webslinger for your detailed OBI202/200 setup guide ver 1.60.  It's very helpful and I learn a lot from it. You're my hero!

To clarify, my issue is not that I couldn't forward or wanted to forward an unanswered call after 4 rings.  My issue is I would like to increase # of rings before going to voicemail. I found 4 rings are too fast before I can pickup the handset. I just checked my OBI200. I didn't have the setting enabled. The  X_Use302ToCallForward has always been disabled (the box in value column was unchecked with a red exclamation point besides it) since day 1 last year, as I followed your guide to the dot.  The 4 rings issue had been bugging me for a while. Then, this week I decided to look at any setting that has number 4 on it. I found and suspected it's from the ForwardOnNoAnswerRingCount. So, I tried and changed it from 4 to 7 and that seems did the trick.  I now have more chance to pickup the phone as the call will ring 7 times before going to FPL's voice message.  I understand my explanation is non-technical and just discovered the solution of my problem by fluke only. I hope what I did makes sense to you.

[Webslinger]

First of all, I would like to THANK you, Webslinger for your detailed OBI202/200 setup guide ver 1.60.  It's very helpful and I learn a lot from it. You're my hero!

I shouldn't be considered anyone's hero. I'm nothing special, and I've learned a lot from others. Thank you, though.

To clarify, my issue is not that I couldn't forward or wanted to forward an unanswered call after 4 rings.  My issue is I would like to increase # of rings before going to voicemail.

I understand that.

I found 4 rings are too fast before I can pickup the handset. I just checked my OBI200. I didn't have the setting enabled. The  X_Use302ToCallForward has always been disabled (the box in value column was unchecked with a red exclamation point besides it) since day 1 last year, as I followed your guide to the dot.

X_Use302ToCallForward is enabled by default. Are you checking this setting at Obitalk, or by logging into your ATA? Please log into your ATA and check.

With X_Use302ToCallForward enabled, if the ATA attempts to forward the call on the 4th ring, the call will drop directly to FPL's voicemail system.

The 4 rings issue had been bugging me for a while. Then, this week I decided to look at any setting that has number 4 on it. I found and suspected it's from the ForwardOnNoAnswerRingCount.

The guide does not instruct anyone to turn on CallForwardOnNoAnswerEnable.

The only way CallForwardOnNoAnswerRingCount affects anything is if CallForwardOnNoAnswerEnable is also turned on. By default, it's not enabled. My CallForwardOnNoAnswerRingCount is set to 2 and CallForwardOnNoAnswerEnable is off (default). If I change FPL's "Rings Before Voicemail" setting to 12, my phone rings 12 times. It doesn't matter what CallForwardOnNoAnswerRingCount is set to with CallForwardOnNoAnswerEnable off. If CallForwardOnNoAnswerEnable was off the entire time, then changing CallForwardOnNoAnswerRingCount is not what resolved your issue.

It is possible that clicking "update" at FPL's website didn't force changes to take effect immediately after changing "Rings Before Voicemail". There were some issues with FPL's voicemail system immediately following FPL's server migration.

[LearnKid]

I checked by login through the Obitalk.com web portal as usual. I did my setup last year following your guide from the portal as well. It's possible that I missed or changed something but I really don't remember I departed from your guide. As per your request, I just checked by login to the IP address of my OBI200 and can confirm the Value and Default boxes are unchecked. See the two screenshots as attached. The first screenshot is the one that you asked me to checked. The second screenshot is what I did to increase the # of rings to 7.

Edit: I reread your posting again. I notice that my ForwardOnNoAnswer setting is on (the box is checeked as per my screenshot). Is this setting the same as what you said "CallForwardOnNoAnswerEnable".  I guess I somehow departed this from your guide by turning it on. I guess the mystery is solved.

I think whatever happened to my setup, it actually allows to have 7, 9. 10 and 11 rings, in addition to what FPL's voice setting allows for 1,2,3,4,5,6,8,12 rings.  

[Webslinger]

Okay, you're using forwarding on the phone port (for all calls) instead of forwarding FPL's incoming calls (Voice Services-->SP-->Calling Features). My fault for not paying more attention to your second post.

What's happening is this: if your ATA rings for the number of rings specified by ForwardOnNoAnswerRingCount, your ATA attempts to forward the call to some OBihai device number via the Obitalk Network (pp). If the forwarded portion of the call fails, the incoming call is going to drop to FPL's voicemail system.

You originally had rings before voicemail set to 8. Your ATA rang 4 times, and it tried to forward the call. The forwarded portion of the call failed, and the incoming call, consequently, dropped to FPL's voicemail system. You might ((I've never tried forwarding from FPL to Obitalk Network) be able to observe what's happening during a live call, by logging into your ATA and navigating to Status-->Call Status (and refreshing the browser page). You can also check your call history.

Increasing ForwardOnNoAnswerRingCount above rings before voicemail (as defined by your FPL account) allows FPL's voicemail system to answer the call before your ATA tries to forward the call.

If you're not trying to forward unanswered calls, simply disable ForwardOnNoAnswer.

I won't be troubleshooting forwarded portions of calls failing from FPL's service to pp (Obitalk network). I keep Obitalk service disabled. However, forwarding calls with FPL using spx(1234567890), where x is the corresponding sp# you want to use, to dial a regular number works fine when X_Use302ToCallForward is disabled. The forwarded portion of the call is bridged, and the call won't automatically drop to FPL's voicemail system.

[LearnKid]

Make sense now.  Thanks for the detailed explanation.